10 Dumbest Things In Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

6. Plain Simple Ex-High Ranking Cardassian Intelligence Agent Garak

As the meme sort of goes, especially the plain, simple tailors.

Appearing once in the first season and having to wait until season two's Cardassians for a reprise, Andrew Robinson's fantastic exiled station resident is a true highlight of the series.

Odo does, as with Quark, keep tabs on his activities but given Garak's talents and history that doesn't seem enough and is quite clear on several occasions.

Capable of sneaking a subspace communication out to Gul Dukat in The Way of the Warrior (although there may have been some overlooking from the higher-ups here) and more critically switching sides temporarily during Improbable Cause/The Die is Cast, Garak is given significant free reign when it comes to his place on the station, probably up to the beginning of the sixth season. Even after torturing Odo for information his sins are quickly forgiven and forgotten which is odd. Even Quark never did that.

There are advantages to his presence. He dropped Dr Bashir into a changing room to overhear the Duras Sisters' conversation. He knows one or two contacts in the Cardassian Empire. However, in the grand scheme of checks and balances there's more than a swing towards "highly dangerous" than there is towards "absolute ally". In Broken Link, Garak almost manages to fire on the Founders homeworld which begs the question as to why no-one was checking on his whereabouts.