Spoilers What about Jake Sisko?!

[Papermoon]

I've just watched all of DS9 for the first time so apologies if this has already been said, but poor Jake. We see the effect his father's death caused him once, this time 'The Sisko' didn't even say goodbye to him - but said goodbye to Kassidy.

I loved the bitter sweet endings that ds9 often delivered, so in some ways this was no different, but still. Poor Jake, he doesn't even have Nog for company.

 

[jmiller]

Oh, you just opened up a can of worms there...

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I'm fine with it. They were never going to compose dialogue for a goodbye scene that would have been half as moving as Jake gazing out at the wormhole. It was easily one of the most emotional scenes in the whole franchise, no schmaltz at all.

 

[Tosk]

Great ending.

And Jake is not in the same place he was in The Visitor. Jake has seen some shit now. The Return of Sisko or not, I believe he'll live his life without spending most of it to get his dad back.

 

[Sakonna]

I do agree that that last shot is so perfect that it pretty much saves it, but it's just so hard to explain Sisko not saying goodbye to Jake, from the perspective of Sisko's character. In my headcannon, I go with some sort of "he only gets one visitation before going to be with the Prophets, and Kassidy needs it more" (which doesn't really hold up, but it's the best I got). That, and the fumbling of the Winn/Dukat story, are the two big mistakes I'm always willfully ignoring in the finale in favor of focusing on how much else they get right.

But I also think it's strange that Jake is absent in "Badda-Bing, Badda-Bang" as well, where he really would have fit perfectly. I always wondered if some behind-the-scenes thing was going on to explain why they so completely lose interest in Jake in the final two seasons, but I've never once seen anyone connected with the show state or imply anything to that effect, so it's just me wondering. It's just hard to come up with plausible creative motivations to ignore Jake to the extent that they do in some of these eps.

 

[kkt]

I don't assume that Ben never said goodbye to Jake just because they didn't show it on the screen. A goodbye scene with Jake right before one with Kassidy would have gotten old and predictable. So Jake got the powerful, moving, last shot in the show.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Too bad no one ever asks why Sisko never says goodbye to his father, his sister, his lifelong mentor, and his unborn child. Of course, that would strengthen the dramatic reasoning shown in WYLB.

 

[Sybok Was Wrong]

It's like Leia walking past Chewbacca after the death of Han. It's an oversight and a missed opportunity for emotional resonance.

 

[Sophie74656]

Well, Sisko went off with the wormhole aliens. When he's done he can go back to any point in time. So I always just figured that when he was done doing what he did he went back to the point just after he left. So it was like he wasn't gone.

 

[Sakonna]

Too bad no one ever asks why Sisko never says goodbye to his father, his sister, his lifelong mentor, and his unborn child. Of course, that would strengthen the dramatic reasoning shown in WYLB.

For me it's "The Visitor" that makes Jake specifically the problem. Sisko has had direct, powerful experience of what happens to Jake when his father abruptly vanishes into a quasi-death sci-fi realm, and it was horrible. I just don't buy that the character as shown to us wouldn't feel an obligation to make sure his son would feel at peace with what had happened and be able to move on with his life. Everyone else you mention (except possibly Grandpa Sisko), Sisko understood they would be fine without him.

But I really like this:

I don't assume that Ben never said goodbye to Jake just because they didn't show it on the screen.

That is going into my headcanon. The second after that scene cuts away, where Kassidy is saying to Jake "I was just with your father", Jake was also zapped into a goodbye scene with Sisko.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

For me it's "The Visitor" that makes Jake specifically the problem. Sisko has had direct, powerful experience of what happens to Jake when his father abruptly vanishes into a quasi-death sci-fi realm, and it was horrible. I just don't buy that the character as shown to us wouldn't feel an obligation to make sure his son would feel at peace with what had happened and be able to move on with his life. Everyone else you mention (except possibly Grandpa Sisko), Sisko understood they would be fine without him.

I agree that what happens in WYLB should reflect the broader context of the relationship between Ben and Jake. However, when this critique comes up--and it comes up often--it is about bean counting: why doesn't Jake get his due? Why does Kassidy get a visitation and not Jake? In that sense, there should be numerous people to whom Sisko should bid farewell.

Nevertheless, I believe what I wrote above. Jake got the most emotional scene in the episode. Indeed, it may be the best scene in the episode. There's no need to imagine that he's been slighted by his father. What the audience deserves is something that shows the impact that the relationship had on a series as a whole. It delivered.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

The Visitor situation was different. Jake had confirmed reason to think his dad could be saved by his own intervention if he just figured out the right science.

Ben might have known that it would make it harder to let go if he appeared to Jake and wanted to make sure Jake lived his own life.

 

[Will M.]

The Visitor situation was different. Jake had confirmed reason to think his dad could be saved by his own intervention if he just figured out the right science.

Ben might have known that it would make it harder to let go if he appeared to Jake and wanted to make sure Jake lived his own life.

Jake's also older and more settled at the end of the series. He's got a career as a writer and is well settled.

I like the shot of him looking at towards the wormhole any dialogue would have been so much less powerful.

 

[CaptainNog]

Ben himself stated he'd be back. Also when the prophets took that one bajoran poet who was emissary, they returned him to corporeal form.

 

[Navaros]

Yes, Ben stated he'd be back, but he never actually came back, nor will he ever.

To answer the OP: Yes, WYLB screwed over Jake to an extreme degree. And it also rehashed what they had already done in The Visitor. Many parts of WYLB exemplify shoddy storytelling, including Sisko's abandonment and snubbing of Jake.

A goodbye scene with Jake right before one with Kassidy would have gotten old and predictable

So then, delete the Kassidy scene, problem solved. It makes no sense that the Sisko would snub his own son in favor of someone else who he has only known for a few years.

Or better yet: don't have Sisko abandon Jake at all.

 

[Tosk]

Ben stated he'd be back, but he never actually came back

Prove it.

 

[Nyotarules]

Ben came back and stays back in the DS9 relaunch novels....all is forgiven

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I've been adamant that because Behr intended Sisko to die, that he would not come back in the future, regardless of how they explained it. However, I noticed that in the short clip from the IndieGoGo campaign, the writers seem to discuss how Kira will retrieve Sisko. Presuming that interpretation is correct, Sisko comes back.

 

[marsh8472]

Couldn't Jake just fly into the wormhole with an Orb the way the Grand Nagus did and then talk to his dad that way?