While "The Die Is Cast" is a fantastic episode and, along with "Improbable Cause", among my favorite installments in all of DS9 (or Trek as a whole, for that matter), there is a fairly big plot hole at the end.
While the episode featured a spectacular space battle and was a huge turning point in modern Trek where the shows went from a few measly "pew pew" phaser blasts on TNG to the kinds of epic space battles that would become a hallmark of DS9, the space battle, where the Defiant literally swoops in at the last second to save Odo and Garak....doesn't really make much sense.
The Colonel Lovok Changeling facilitated Odo's escape from the doomed Romulan Warbird because "no Changeling has ever harmed another."
But apparently Faux Lovok's concern for his fellow Changelings did have limits. He literally helped Odo go from the frying pan to the fire, as Odo's runabout was fired upon by Jem'Hadar ships and very nearly destroyed until the timely arrival of Sisko & cavalry in the Defiant.
But surely Lovok, who beamed away to an unspecified Dominion ship, should have altered the rest of the Jem'Hadar fleet to just let Odo go freely on his way. Why didn't he tell the Jem'Hadar not to fire on a friggin' Founder, who was just trying to get home? Hell, why didn't Odo himself try contacting the Jem'Hadar to tell them he was onboard the runabout?
The only answer, of course, is that the writers wanted a cool, kickass space battle. And they certainly delivered on that front! But, truly, the battle shouldn't have happened at all.
But I guess Odo simply calling up the Defiant, telling them he was happily and safely on his way home would have been too much of an anticlimax.
While the episode featured a spectacular space battle and was a huge turning point in modern Trek where the shows went from a few measly "pew pew" phaser blasts on TNG to the kinds of epic space battles that would become a hallmark of DS9, the space battle, where the Defiant literally swoops in at the last second to save Odo and Garak....doesn't really make much sense.
The Colonel Lovok Changeling facilitated Odo's escape from the doomed Romulan Warbird because "no Changeling has ever harmed another."
But apparently Faux Lovok's concern for his fellow Changelings did have limits. He literally helped Odo go from the frying pan to the fire, as Odo's runabout was fired upon by Jem'Hadar ships and very nearly destroyed until the timely arrival of Sisko & cavalry in the Defiant.
But surely Lovok, who beamed away to an unspecified Dominion ship, should have altered the rest of the Jem'Hadar fleet to just let Odo go freely on his way. Why didn't he tell the Jem'Hadar not to fire on a friggin' Founder, who was just trying to get home? Hell, why didn't Odo himself try contacting the Jem'Hadar to tell them he was onboard the runabout?
The only answer, of course, is that the writers wanted a cool, kickass space battle. And they certainly delivered on that front! But, truly, the battle shouldn't have happened at all.
But I guess Odo simply calling up the Defiant, telling them he was happily and safely on his way home would have been too much of an anticlimax.
