Much pew is pewing inside the bar, which is closed due to a vole infestation.
Quark is not in the mood for Rom cheerfully announcing his engagement to Leeta, but he does accept his suggestion to visit their mother on Ferenginar.
Trying to be supportive of Rom’s interest in pleasing Leeta with a traditional Bajoran wedding, O’Brien and Dax accidentally make him doubt his identity as a Ferengi. Soon Rom asks Leeta to sign a traditionally misogynistic Ferengi prenup.
On Ferenginar, Ishka is welcoming but distracted. Quark is surprised to find the Grand Nagus, ruler of the Ferengi Empire, hiding in his closet, and stunned as his mother and his emperor describe their meet-cute. They are repulsively adorable, and no, Zek will not reinstate the business license that the Ferengi Commerce Association yoinked, so Quark is miserable. (Remember, Wallace Shawn played one of the teachers that Alicia Silverstone paired up in Clueless a couple years before this episode aired.)
This is TV, so it’s not long before Brunt, the thuggish head of the FCA, shows up with a proposition for Quark: he must break up the scandalous romance in return for a new business license.
On the station, Rom and Leeta process their grief. The lovers’ quarrel is well written and well acted, and quite frankly I’d have welcomed more of it. The B plot wraps up fairly early — just in time for a plot twist that complicates the main story.
Quark is honored to accept employment as first clerk to the Grand Nagus, but it turns out the Nagus is befuddled and forgetful. After a disastrous day of financial crises, we learn that Zek had been completely dependent upon Ishka’s advice, and Brunt used Quark to scheme against the Nagus.
The resolution is pretty straightforward, though it’s pretty talky — we hear about a high-stakes grilling the Nagus underwent, aided somehow behind the scenes by Ishka. (I confess I was listening to this part of the episode instead of watching, so I dunno, maybe I missed something?) When it’s infodump time, Zek shows some surprising self-awareness and even humility.
As Zek, Wallace Shawn is great as always, and Jeffrey Coombs as Brunt is a delight in any role. Although Andrea Martin originated the character, in this episode Cecily Adams takes over as Ishka.
I confess I sighed when I checked Wikipedia just now and noticed that Moogie makes three more appearances. I have trouble getting into the Ferengi-focused episodes.
DS9 is so consistently good that even a weak episode like this one does productive world-building and usefully deveops the some of the many recurring supporting characters.
I suppose the character arcs of Rom and Nog wouldn’t be as effective if we didn’t know Ferengi culture. And reminding us that Brunt is an ongoing threat would be useful the next time the writers need to prompt Quark to get a plot going.
Still… This felt like budget-friendly filler, reusing existing sets and having characters talk about action that happens off-screen.
