Star Trek: 10 Best Odo Episodes
2. The Die Is Cast
The Die Is Cast follows up from Improbable Cause, where Odo and Garak are investigating a plot to have the simple tailor killed. During the course of this investigation, they find a much larger scheme by Garak's former mentor, the venerable Enabran Tain. Tain has retaken his place as head of the Obsidian Order and has forged an alliance with the Romulan Tal Shiar. Together, the two organisations plan to launch an attack on the home world of the Founders.
Sisko and his crew launch the Defiant in pursuit of the Cardassian-Romulan fleet, hoping to rescue the two of them. Tain instructs Garak to torture Odo to gain intelligence on the Founders and his former pupil agrees to do so, knowing that he'd never be able to return to Cardassia if he does not. A device is revealed, one that will block the ability to shapeshift in that room. While this doesn't seem like an issue to start with, our Changeling has to return to a gelatinous state every sixteen hours.
The constable begins to suffer as the tailor keeps asking him to give up something, anything. It's clear that Garak doesn't want to be doing this, Odo is shrivelling before his eyes, his skin flaking off. Garak implores him to lie, just so that something can be reported to Tain. Eventually, Odo relents and tells him something, something that he's never told anyone before. He wishes that he could rejoin the Great Link, wishes that he could be with his people. No matter how evil they are, no matter what they've done, they're his people and he misses them.
Garak relents and shuts off the device. He tells Tain that Odo never broke under torture, but the matter is mute. The Cardassians and Romulans bomb the Founder's home world, only to be caught in a trap by the Jem'Hadar. As the fleet is destroyed, the constable knocks out Garak and drags him to safety so that they can be rescued by the Defiant.
Back on DS9, Odo invites Garak to breakfast, showing that he doesn't hold any hard feelings, because he knows how much the other man wants to return home. He feels that himself.