DS9 - Rejoined

[clearspira]

I think the spirit of the law itself makes perfect sense. Jadzia is one of those trained super Trills and even she still fell prey to the urges of a previous host. How does Ezri fare? A woman who is so untrained and green that she sometimes stands on her head and gets her drink order wrong? Oh, yeah, she has sex with Worf. Something they both end up regretting. This is potentially open to major abuse if the previous partner was a controlling and abusive prick which Worf... arguably isn't. He certainly treats her like shit on several occasions which makes the hook-up contextually far more suspicious than it needed to be.

The law is however unjust because the writers decided to make what is a perfectly reasonable rule imo (I would go as far as to call it akin to date rape prevention) and made it absurdly draconian. I like to call it the ''Rule of Cheap Drama''.

I would also posit that this situation really does not come up all that often and thus it doesn't unfairly affect too many people. 1) There are the potential distances involved with a society capable of FTL travel meaning that they may never meet again and 2) unless the previous host dies young, the previous partner would in theory be far too old for the new host to ever be tempted to break the law to be with them. I would argue a probability of 5% maximum.

[Darth Wedgius]

The Trill taboo against romantic relationships with former partners seems a little arbitrary. They can resume friendships. Dax and Sisko are very close, though not romantically involved, and have been since the slug was in Kurzon. and Ezri Dax took up the same station and friendships as Jadzia Dax. I know romantic relationships are often particularly strong, sometimes, but still...

I did appreciate Sisko and Dax's conversation. I didn't expect a "don't go with your feelings, follow the rules" argument from Sisko, and, agree with it or not, that was different, and not unrealistic.

And the two splitting up was, well, sensible. Not "right," but, like the philosopher said, you don't always get what you want. And it is the safer option for everyone involved, and, realistically, that matters to people.

Unless Kanh becomes so embittered by the loss that she runs away to become the Borg Queen or something, but what are the odds?

[DanteC]

If relationships with previous hosts partner's is taboo, what about Ezri and Worf? Is it OK since he's not a Trill? To further extremes, how can Jadzia and Sisko be friends? Or is it just a cultural thing between Trill?
The Trill seem like an intriguing species, but the biology is arguably even worse than the Ocampa. How did they even figure out the symbiotes could work with their bodies? They've got to be surgically implanted after all, it's not as if they grow inside like a chestburster.

[clearspira]

If relationships with previous hosts partner's is taboo, what about Ezri and Worf? Is it OK since he's not a Trill? To further extremes, how can Jadzia and Sisko be friends? Or is it just a cultural thing between Trill?
The Trill seem like an intriguing species, but the biology is arguably even worse than the Ocampa. How did they even figure out the symbiotes could work with their bodies? They've got to be surgically implanted after all, it's not as if they grow inside like a chestburster.

I guess we are meant to believe that the rule doesn't apply to Worf. Its bullshit that it never comes up though given how much is made of it here.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

If relationships with previous hosts partner's is taboo, what about Ezri and Worf? Is it OK since he's not a Trill? To further extremes, how can Jadzia and Sisko be friends? Or is it just a cultural thing between Trill?
The Trill seem like an intriguing species, but the biology is arguably even worse than the Ocampa. How did they even figure out the symbiotes could work with their bodies? They've got to be surgically implanted after all, it's not as if they grow inside like a chestburster.

Ezry and Worlf wasn't okay I thought.

That doesn't sound very "worse" than the ocampa. Anyways my guess is that the symbiotes lived on something else and they found out that it has proportionate measures to our appendix, so c'est la vie.

[remagynona]

I assumed the rule only applied to other immortal beings such as other Trill symbionts. Dax could hang out with the same people despite going through 3 hosts but all of those people will eventually die. It seems less arbitrary that way even though it's clear that Dax was around a few of the same people for going on a hundred years, I guess that's still different than 500 years.

[ChrisTheEnby]

I really..... really wanted to like this episode as a queer non-binary person. Star Trek is something i really enjoy but the series can't stop making missteps when it comes to queer issues.

The people in charge of DS9 told Garak's actor to "tone down" his queer-coded portrayal and his open flirting with Basshir.

In The Outcast on TNG they have Riker have a relationship with a nonbinary-coded alien.... but they made sure said alien passes as a cis woman so it wasn't gay. iirc they didn't ever refer to said alien with nonbinary pronouns.....

Rejoined was SO CLOSE to being great, but they really played up the bigotry/"taboo" angle to an uncomfortable degree, like you can't write about queer people being queer openly and happuily, we always need to be used as a prop for tensin.... is it any surprise it ended how it did....

especially when Discovery would go on to give us a canon gay couple......... only to immediately engage in loathsome Bury Your Gays shit.

for all of Star Trek's attempts at being progressive, it is still painfully neoliberal or just outright conservative at times.....

[Link8909]

If relationships with previous hosts partner's is taboo, what about Ezri and Worf? Is it OK since he's not a Trill? To further extremes, how can Jadzia and Sisko be friends? Or is it just a cultural thing between Trill?
The Trill seem like an intriguing species, but the biology is arguably even worse than the Ocampa. How did they even figure out the symbiotes could work with their bodies? They've got to be surgically implanted after all, it's not as if they grow inside like a chestburster.

I guess we are meant to believe that the rule doesn't apply to Worf. Its bullshit that it never comes up though given how much is made of it here.

When Jadzia died and Ezri became the new host to the Dax symbiont, I'm pretty sure when she came onboard she and Worf not only didn't get back together but one of the running stories of Season 7 of Deep Space Nine was the tension between the two and coming to terms with moving on, and the taboo was the major factor of it, and in the end Ezri hooked up with Bashir.

I also think this rule makes sense, not just for the reasons Chuck gave, but since there are strike rules, procedures and screening that goes on just getting a Symbiont, it would make sense that there would be this sort of taboo, since the whole point of the Symbiont is to gain and expand further knowledge, of life, and continuing a relationship like in this episode and with Worf would not benefit the Symbiont.

Also, now that you mentioned the chestburster I have this image of a Trill Symbiont being removed then getting up and singing "Hello My Baby, Hello My Honey!"

[Riedquat]

Agree with the "punishment is ludicrously harsh" angle. Due to the nature of the Trill the taboo makes sense - just too many complexities otherwise, including the dangers of having the symbiote personality calling all the shots, but it doesn't come across as fitting in to a species that's part of the Federation to go that far.

We could've done with a lot more exploration of the nature of a joined species. Personally I'd find the whole idea horribly invasive, completely against every instinct, which makes the idea of a species who regard it as entirely normal all the more intriguing.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

I would also posit that this situation really does not come up all that often and thus it doesn't unfairly affect too many people. 1) There are the potential distances involved with a society capable of FTL travel meaning that they may never meet again and 2) unless the previous host dies young, the previous partner would in theory be far too old for the new host to ever be tempted to break the law to be with them. I would argue a probability of 5% maximum.

Only things that are really coming to mind for me are Catholic priests and military enlistment where such provisions though somewhat draconian can make sense within reason.