This episode of 'Deep Space Nine' is interesting if unexceptional. An opening scene reveals that Chief O'Brien's (Colm Meaney) wife Keiko (Rosalind Chao) is aboard with their young daughter, although she expresses discouragement with her situation since she has found no usefulness there as a biologist. When the Chief offhandedly suggests she might become a teacher, she takes the idea and runs with it, after observing how Commander Sisko's (Avery Brooks) son Jake (Cirroc Lofton) got in trouble with Nog (Aron Eisenberg), the son of Cardassian Rom (Max Grodénchik). The episode's main story involves the murder of a former black marketer aboard the station whose own crimes in the past included murder. When Ibudan's (Stephen James Carver) corpse is located, it appears that the only one who could have possibly entered his sealed quarters was the shapeshifter, Constable Odo (Rene Auberjonois). While under suspicion, Odo is relieved of duty as security chief by Commander Sisko, as Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) undertakes an extensive forensic examination to determine who the killer might be. With tension rising on the space station, significantly heightened by a Bajoran named Zayra (Edward Albert), a mob mentality gives way to thoughts of an old-fashioned style lynching until Sisko calms the belligerents down long enough for Dr. Bashir to complete his work. What he discovers is that Ibudan himself, with a knowledge of molecular cloning, created a clone of himself which he murdered in order to frame the Constable. Thus exposed, Ibudan was placed under arrest and handed over to authorities. Meanwhile, Keiko got her limited classroom under way, with Jake and Rom among her first students, with an opening review of Bajoran culture.
Review of A Man Alone
