Introduction

“Necessary Evil” is the 28th episode of the American science fiction television series Star Trek: Deep Space Nine. It is the eighth episode of the second season.

An attack on Quark in his bar leads Odo to re-open an investigation into an unsolved murder dating back to the days of the Cardassian Occupation, and the episode features flashbacks to that time period.

When “Necessary Evil” was broadcast in November 1993, it received a Nielsen rating of 9.3 points and 5th place in its time slot.

Outline

A Bajoran woman, Vaatrick Pallra, hires Quark to retrieve a strongbox from her late husband’s shop on Deep Space Nine. Quark opens it to find a list of Bajoran names. A stranger, Trazko, sneaks up, shoots Quark and steals the list. As Dr. Bashir tries to revive Quark, Rom tells Odo about the list of names, and that the box was hidden in the shop during the Cardassian Occupation.

In a flashback, five years earlier, Odo is solicited by Gul Dukat to investigate a murder on behalf of the Cardassian regime. Odo interrogates Vaatrick Pallra, the deceased’s widow. She claims her husband had been having an affair with Kira Nerys. When he interviews Kira, she says that there was no intimate relationship between her and Vaatrick, and that she was interviewing for a job at Quark’s at the time of the murder.

In the present, Rom tells Odo that one name on the list resembled “Ches’so”. Odo interviews Pallra, who claims ignorance of the list of names and the name “Ches’so”. She also refuses to divulge who loaned her the money to pay her past-due electricity bill. Kira identifies “Ches’so”: a philanthropist named “Ches’sarro”, who has just died.

Five years earlier, Quark admits that Kira bribed him to provide a false alibi. When Odo confronts her about it, Kira reveals that she was committing a terrorist attack on the station. Odo tells Dukat that Kira is not the culprit in the murder.

In the present, Odo deduces that the names on the list are Bajorans who collaborated during the occupation, whom Pallra has been blackmailing. At the infirmary, Trazko attempts again to kill Quark; Rom saves Quark’s life by screaming, gaining the attention of security forces. Brought to DS9, Pallra denies knowing Trazko, but Odo has confirmed that she had transferred a large sum of money into his bank account. When she declares her innocence in the murder of her husband, Odo replies, “I know.”

Odo has realised that it is Kira who killed Vaatrick five years earlier. He tells Kira that he began to suspect her when she was able to identify Ches’saro so quickly. When he deduced that the list consisted of Bajoran collaborators, Odo realised that Vaatrick was a collaborator too. Kira, a member of the resistance, killed Vaatrick when he discovered her trying to steal the list of names. She never told Odo because she was afraid it would affect their friendship. Kira asks him if he will be able to trust her again, and he is unable to answer.

Star Trek TV Series

You can find a full index of Star Trek TV series here.

Star Trek TV Series, Films, and Documentaries

You can find a full index of all Star Trek TV series, films, documentaries here.

Production & Filming Details

• Director(s): James L. Conway.
• Writer(s): Peter Allan Fields.
• Release Date: 14 November 1993.
• Running Time: 45 minutes.
• Country: US.
• Language: English.