Worf wins a furious sparring match with Dax, but she discombobulates his composure, first by accusing him of trying to flirt with her, and then by actually flirting with him.
A drunken Klingon arrives on the station, calling for Worf. It’s his brother Kurn, come to ask for a ritual death due to the dishonor Worf brought on the family by rejecting Gowron’s warmongering. After some resistance Worf complies, but Dax and Odo burst in and beam him to the infirmary, where he recovers.
A ticked-off Sisko orders Worf to “find another way to settle your family problems.”
A meek Kurn agrees to join the DS9 security team, and at first Odo says he’s adjusting well, but later when he doesn’t defend himself against a terrified smuggler’s unsteady attack, Odo says he can’t have “a man with a death wish” on his team.
In the B-plot, while returning from a jaunt on a runabout, O’Brien and Kira witness a strange explosion, and are warned away but a Klingon Bird of Prey. Sisko orders Kira to go back to the area in the Defiant, but under no circumstances is Worf to accompany her. A Klingon cruiser with a big hole in its hull requests medical assistance, and accepts Kira’s offer to tow it to DS9. After a technobabble infodump, Worf concludes the Klingons are laying cloaked mines, an act of war.
Worf talks Kurn into infiltrating the docked ship and stealing the activation codes for the mines, but Kurn wallows in dishonor after he was forced to kill a young officer to cover their tracks. Worf is for his own part disgusted that he misread the situation and needed his brother’s help, but there is obvious love and mutual respect between the two.
Dax comes up with a solution that she does not explain on camera. This leads to a talky scene in which Bashir describes a partial memory wipe. Worf calls in a favor from an old Klingon from a small but noble house, who accepts the now-amnesiac Kurn as his son Rodek.
The ending, showing Worf walking off all alone, is a bit hokey, and it’s a big adjustment to see Kurn seeking orders from his big brother (when in previous appearances he’s had no trouble giving Worf orders) but overall it’s a good episode, and a fitting send-off for a great recurring character.
