In the Hands of the Prophets

DS9 Season 1 Episode 19
Air Date: June 20th, 1993

The season finale of DS9. Compared to the season finale of the first season of TNG, this one was worth watching. Vedek Winn arrives on the station and confronts Keiko about her curriculum, specifically how she is teaching the science around the wormhole which goes against the Bajoran religion. This starts to create controversy that results in Bajoran parents pulling their kids from the school and even results in the school being bombed, though no injuries.

We then learn that Vedek Winn had turned one of Chief O'Brien's Bajoran technicians and tried to use her to assassinate Vedek Bereil, her biggest adversary in becoming the next Kai. O'Brien figures out what is happening and Cmdr. Sisko stops the assassination. But the season ends with a lot of tention between the Bajoran people and the Federation.

Rules of Acquisition

Rule 7: Keep your ears open.

Red Shirts

One engineer was killed off screen in this episode. Engineers generally wear gold so I will mark this on the tally.

Quotes

"I'm a teacher. My responsibility is to expose my students to knowledge, not hide it from them." - Keiko

"Keep your ears open." - Const. Odo
"Are you kidding? That's the Seventh Rule of Acquisition." - Quark

"You live without a soul, Commander. You and your Federation exist in a universe of darkness, and you would drag us in there with you. But we will not go!" - Vedek Winn
"You have just made your first mistake, Vedek." - Cmdr. Sisko
"Have I?" - Vedek Winn
"The Bajorans who have lived with us on the station, who have worked with us for months, who helped us move this station to protect the wormhole, who joined us to explore the Gamma Quadrant, who have begun to build the future of Bajor with us, these people know that we are neither the enemy nor the devil. We don't always agree. We have some damn good fights in fact. But we always come away from them, with a little better understanding and appreciation of each other. You won't succeed here. The school will reopen, and when your rhetoric gets old, the Bajoran parents will bring their children back." - Cmdr. Sisko
"We'll see." - Vedek Winn

"Commander... I heard what you said to Vedek Winn at the school. I just wanted you to know, you were right what you said about the Bajorans, at least about me. I don't think that you're, the devil." - Makor Kira
"Maybe we have made some progress after all." - Cmdr. Sisko

"I'm sorry, Commander; the Vedek assembly will not see you." - Vedek Bareil
"Why not?" - Cmdr. Sisko
"Some fear you as the symbol of the Federation they view as godless. Some fear you as the Emissary who walked with the Prophets. And some fear you because Vedek Winn told them to. Oh, we're all very good at conjuring up enough fear to justify whatever we want to do." - Vedek Bareil