Why did Kai Winn stop the reckoning?

[K'Toska]

Perhaps this was covered but I missed it. I just rewatched the episode "The Reckoning" and I'm confused as to why she interfered. It doesn't seem like she gives much of a crap about Jake Sisko or Kira or DS9 really throughout the series. Was it fear of the prophets losing or what?

 

[Finn]

She's a wuss and a fake

That's why.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

She didn't want the reckoning to prove that Sisko was a better spiritual leader than her.

 

[MacLeod]

She didn't want the reckoning to prove that Sisko was a better spiritual leader than her.

Not that fact needed much proof. I don't think she really got over the fact that despite being head religious figure of her world she played second fidle to the Emissary.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Perhaps this was covered but I missed it. I just rewatched the episode "The Reckoning" and I'm confused as to why she interfered. It doesn't seem like she gives much of a crap about Jake Sisko or Kira or DS9 really throughout the series. Was it fear of the prophets losing or what?

I believe that we are supposed to believe she is jealous of the spiritual role being played by Sisko et al, but none of that comes through in the poorly written script. On the face of things, she is simply "concerned" for people's well-being.

 

[Jerikka Dawn]

She didn't want the reckoning to prove that Sisko was a better spiritual leader than her.

Kira pretty much stated something similar as she was walking the Kai to her shuttle -- that she stopped the Reckoning because she couldn't stand the fact that the Emissary's faith was stronger than hers and that he was willing to sacrifice his son.

 

[K'Toska]

Ah yeah, that makes more sense. I knew it couldn't be because she actually gave a shit about Kira or Jake. It had to be some more nefarious purpose. Still, I'd think she'd want the prophets to win out regardless of whether it made the Emissary look good or not. <insert expletives in regard to Kai Winn>

 

[RapidNadion]

I interpret it as a more damning take on her character. The way I see it, she stopped the reckoning out of a genuine concern that the Prophets would lose. In this way, her faith really is less potent than Sisko's, adding a spiritual component to her already-huge inferiority complex.

 

[Overgeeked]

She didn't want the reckoning to prove that Sisko was a better spiritual leader than her.

Kira pretty much stated something similar as she was walking the Kai to her shuttle -- that she stopped the Reckoning because she couldn't stand the fact that the Emissary's faith was stronger than hers and that he was willing to sacrifice his son.

This. I just watched that episode the other day. The tag scene basically covers it.

 

[The Wormhole]

Ah yeah, that makes more sense. I knew it couldn't be because she actually gave a shit about Kira or Jake. It had to be some more nefarious purpose. Still, I'd think she'd want the prophets to win out regardless of whether it made the Emissary look good or not. <insert expletives in regard to Kai Winn>

It's debateable throughout the series how much Kai Winn actually believes in the Bajoran religion. Indeed, her entire religious service is essentially a ploy for her to gain personal power.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

Ah yeah, that makes more sense. I knew it couldn't be because she actually gave a shit about Kira or Jake. It had to be some more nefarious purpose. Still, I'd think she'd want the prophets to win out regardless of whether it made the Emissary look good or not. <insert expletives in regard to Kai Winn>

It's debateable throughout the series how much Kai Winn actually believes in the Bajoran religion. Indeed, her entire religious service is essentially a ploy for her to gain personal power.

When the series originally ran, Rapture and In the Cards were seen as turning points for the character and her relationship with the crew. Indeed, her utterance about her suffering at the hands of the Cardassians was disarming, pointing to a character that did have many different, perhaps conflicting, motivations.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It's also something Kira said in a different episode, I forget which. Kai Winn attained the highest position of spiritual leadership on Bajor, but the accomplishment was soured because she had to share the position with an outsider.

Kai Winn is a politician, and politicians are all about controlling narratives. Can you imagine the narrative if Sisko let his own son die to help the profits win their final war? She would have lost all her remaining power as spiritual leader of Bajor to Sisko. Winn couldn't let that narrative happen.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

It's also something Kira said in a different episode, I forget which. Kai Winn attained the highest position of spiritual leadership on Bajor, but the accomplishment was soured because she had to share the position with an outsider.

Kai Winn is a politician, and politicians are all about controlling narratives. Can you imagine the narrative if Sisko let his own son die to help the profits win their final war? She would have lost all her remaining power as spiritual leader of Bajor to Sisko. Winn couldn't let that narrative happen.

Yes, it is something Kira says. If Kira is the ultimate arbiter of Kai Winn's intentions, then we also must put forward that Kira acknowledges all Winn's changes of heart.

No character on DS9 was particularly one dimensional or linear in development, Winn among them. Given that Winn entered the religious vocation at the time of the occupation, it is likely that it wasn't really a path to global domination. The Kai was more the embattled mouthpiece for an oppressed minority--influential, but hardly powerful. The opportunity to affect politics on a grand scale only emerged after the occupation, after Vedek Winn had already committed herself. The opportunity to be the "politician" came late.

Which isn't to say Winn had no ambitions. It's a bit simple to say that all she wanted was power. She had a strong vision of what a religious Bajoran society looked like, and she saw the Kaiship (among other things) as tools for realizing it. What the Kaiship might allow her to do changed over the course of the series: first based on the reputation of the office after Opaka, and second based on the growing popularity of the Emissary.

 

[MacLeod]

Perhaps this was covered but I missed it. I just rewatched the episode "The Reckoning" and I'm confused as to why she interfered. It doesn't seem like she gives much of a crap about Jake Sisko or Kira or DS9 really throughout the series. Was it fear of the prophets losing or what?

I believe that we are supposed to believe she is jealous of the spiritual role being played by Sisko et al, but none of that comes through in the poorly written script. On the face of things, she is simply "concerned" for people's well-being.

I think it's quite clear that she is jealous, she seems more often or not to take the course of action that best suits her. And others have pointed out the last scene with Kira and Winn indicates her motivations.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

^According to Mr. Epsicokhan, who wrote his reviews at the time DS9 was originally airing, Winn's character was showing movement in different directions in Rapture:

Most notable is the change in Kai Winn's attitudes, which she voices to Kira in two separate, wonderful exchanges. Winn admits to having been wrong about doubting Sisko as the Emissary, for the one who found B'hala must be the one who was sent by the Prophets. This isn't so much a change in heart as it is something that challenges the direction of her beliefs. As she states near the end of the show, things are no longer simple. Her path is no longer clear, and she doesn't know who her enemies are. This is fascinating stuff because it's such a perfectly truthful example of cause and effect. It's completely warranted, credible, and follows from the past actions of Winn's character—which is wise writing. It's true character evolution, the type of thing that really works while simultaneously being the type of thing that is particularly challenging to pull off. It's something that's bound to be overlooked in this episode, but one of the best examples of faith and direction that the series has displayed.

More recently, a gang of people from the Ready Room podcast, in the episode "Visions from an alien god (#147)," say that for Winn, it is,

... a big character change. ... A different picture of Winn ... Real people have real contradictions. .... This is a step toward not treating Winn as a one dimensional, evil character.

On this website, Ms. Green, although she does not feel that the character change was well written, nonetheless acknowledges it:

It's not that I think she shouldn't grow and change, it's that I want to see it happen. Why does she put such stock in a man who keeps making major Bajoran archaeological discoveries without inviting her along with his family members? I'm not sure why she feels so close to Sisko. Ahhh, it was good to have Winn back, even the new, defanged version who is admittedly more complicated if less colorful than her old assassin self. I loved her revelation about being in a prison camp and her speech about courage and faith; that dovetailed nicely with Sisko's own experiences.

On The Orb podcast, "Refreshed and Mildly Entertained," concerning "In the Cards," both Rushing and Jones comment on the new, genuine respect that Winn shows for Sisko.

With regard to Recking, Epsicokhan writes:

Unfortunately, there's one glaring exception to this generality, and that is, strangely, Kai Winn, who was a major disappointment this time around. The story paints her as entirely too self-serving. Once Sisko brings the tablet back to the station, she arrives to protest, saying that he should've asked the vedek assembly before removing it from the dig site. He apologizes, but she can't leave well enough alone, so she contacts Starfleet to complain.
Some of Winn's reactions, admittedly, are believable; I can certainly understand that she would be upset about Sisko's decision not to contact her before taking the tablet, and given their uneasy past I can certainly see where she would feel threatened by "this outsider's" spiritual encounter with Bajoran deities.
Unfortunately, this is too much of a retread, especially when considering the groundbreaking changes in her character in "Rapture" last year (as well as dialog from "In the Cards"). Her actions this week strike me as character regression rather than character development. The beauty of "Rapture" was that it sent Winn's world spinning into the uncertain, and it seemed she would have to question all of her attitudes, the first and foremost being her long-standing conflict with Sisko. In "The Reckoning," however, it seems she has reverted back to her old sense of ever-doubt and skepticism wherever Sisko is concerned; she challenges him at every turn, logs complaints to his superiors. And then, at the end ... but we'll get to that in due time.

And Ms. Green, although approving enthusiastically with the episodes, notes the inconsistencies:

His motives are so much purer than the Kai's, whose lack of faith is rather extraordinary; for everything bad we've been able to say about Winn over the years, I've always assumed that she really did want to do the will of the Prophets even if she was misguided about what that will might be. Instead she circumvented an ancient prophecy, then tried to take credit for saving Bajor. She is turning quite literally into an antichrist.

When it comes to Winn being simply power hungry, the only thing that is clear is that it is clearly debatable, particularly when we don't simply treat the final episodes as the entire series. The character grew, Winn among them.

 

[JirinPanthosa]

It's tough though because Winn never turned down an opportunity to grab power. She colluded with the Circle to drive away the Federation and only backpedaled on that to escape culpability when it was obvious the Cardassians were funding them. She almost started a civil war in order to consolidate her power over both the legislative and spiritual bodies of Bajor. She took every opportunity presented to her to express religious outrage at Sisko's actions.

Every time she is cooperative with Sisko, it's in a situation where there's a greater external threat.

She may have done noble things during the Occupation. And she probably did want to act out the will of the Prophets: But she ALWAYS assumed the will of the Prophets aligned with her personal desires.

Winn did not show genuine respect for Sisko in In The Cards. She's just knew A) The Dominion is a greater threat to her than Sisko and B) It would be bad for her career to publicly oppose him without a reason.

That review seems to make the assumption that all 'Character development' is toward the goodwill center. Remove the character's quirks and imperfections and make them part of the team, most of the time on television that is what development means. Not all character development happens in the same direction, and frankly when all characters develop in that direction it makes the show boring.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^Took the words right off my keyboard. Her character developed and she developed into a dark person.

 

[Overgeeked]

Every time she is cooperative with Sisko, it's in a situation where there's a greater external threat...

I agree with basically everything you said, but I would add that Winn also cooperated with Sisko when she could use that cooperation to further her own ends.

^Took the words right off my keyboard. Her character developed and she developed into a dark person.

A minor quibble perhaps, but it's not like she started light and fluffy then became dark, she basically was a dark character from the get go. But she got darker.

 

[Peach Wookiee]

^Agreed, Overgeeked. We met her when she staged a bombing to disguise her true objective.