Yeah, that's something that always felt jarring about the end of the Dominion War. If past experiences are anything to go by, then Odo is not going to the Link and convince them of the Solids being nice people, it is Odo going to the Link and emerging as a brain-washed puppet. Remember, Odo was part of the Link once already and that didn't lead to the Link getting any nicer. Also, Odo's repeated mergers with Sanders didn't improve anything either, quite the contrary, it resulted in him being further and further detached from all the things and all the Solids he loved and he only just barely came around in the literal last second. Imagine what the collective influence of the Link would have on him, if they tried to get him around to their side. Yeah, Odo would lost in the vast sea of unified thought, that is the Link.Naldiin wrote:[...]
Moreover, we get no great epiphany after she links with Odo, and that's a real problem. Because, in order for the resolution of this arc to work, we have to buy that the knowledge Odo transmits is enough to fundamentally change her and change the link. Chuck mentioned Buffy - Buffy does this better: vampires that are ensouled (Spike and Angel) end up with *crushing* guilt. We never see that from Sanders. She remains arrogant and haughty - she won't even give Kira the time of day. And if there is no great change, then letting Odo return to the Link is just catastrophically stupid on the Federation's part.
I suppose it probably won't be popular - but I think the finale actually bungles all of these key story beats. If we had seen Sanders collapse into despair, or into guilt, then Odo's ability to change the Link would make sense. The audience would at least get the satisfaction of watching such a tremendous villain truly humbled. Instead, so far as we know, she survives the series and Sanders and the Link never truly pay for the tremendous magnitude of their crimes.
Honestly, what I had always wished was that Garak had taken the moment to parrot back at Sanders the line she gave him when they first met, only this time about the Founders: "They're dead. You're dead. The Link is dead. Your people were doomed the moment they attacked us." Have the savage truth and weight of that observation finally crush her.
Also, Sanders absolutely did not give off the impression, that she felt she had lost. On the contrary, the way she acts during the signing of the Treaty of Bajor is clearly showing her distain for being forced into signing the Treaty. I'd rather argue, that her compliance is a result of her finally having a way out. Before she got healed by Odo, she literally had nothing to loose and was going to die whether the Dominion won or lost the war. Only after she was healed, after she saw a chance of survival, did she order the Genocide to stop. Yeah. She's going to take the first chance she gets, to escape captivitiy (after all she can shapeshift with ease now again), get back to the Link and the collective will will break Odo, making him an agent for the Dominion, returning to the Alpha Quadrant and starting the long infiltration for the Second Dominion War.