When Episode 22 of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine Season 7 arrives, the series is four episodes away from closing the figurative book on Star Trek‘s most artistically risky and exquisitely crafted piece of long-form storytelling to date. A major contributor to that success, franchise mainstay Ronald D. Moore, turns his screenwriting pen upon the audacious spin-off two more times during this home stretch — one of them being Episode 22, titled “Tacking into the Wind.”

Unsurprisingly, given Moore’s reputation for detailed worldbuilding and subversive emotional rawness, the episode exemplifies Deep Space Nine at its height: a crackling synergy of riveting sociopolitical weight, elite character growth, and cohesive narrative escalation. And it’s a simple-on-the-surface exchange from this episode, not one of the dozens of bracing quips or eloquent monologues from previous entries, that serves as a masterful microcosm of Deep Space Nine‘s lasting resonance.

Kira Nerys Challenges Damar During a Pivotal ‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Scene

Image via Paramount Television

The Dominion War, Deep Space Nine‘s crowning arc, boxes its exceedingly complex heroes into exceedingly complex internal conflicts. The forever honorable Captain Benjamin Sisko (Avery Brooks) realizes he can accept tarnishing his soul to defeat a ferocious enemy, while Bajoran ambassador Kira Nerys (Nana Visitor) educates her former oppressors in the same guerrilla warfare tactics she once deployed against them as a freedom fighter.

Her Cardassian pupils include Damar (Casey Biggs), a long-time foe turned begrudging ally who recently defected from Cardassia’s alliance with the Dominion. During “Tacking into the Wind,” the Dominion retaliates against Damar by assassinating his wife and son. Stunned into grieving stillness, Damar can’t fathom an empire insidious enough to wage war by thoughtlessly sacrificing “innocent women and children.” He wonders aloud, “What kind of people give those orders?” Kira, while compassionate about two lost lives, quietly responds by slicing him open with a blade of accountability: “Yeah, Damar. What kind of people give those orders?”

This moment wouldn’t carry as much profound significance without Deep Space Nine‘s multi-season interconnectivity. By this point, Kira has healed her mosaic of wounds without relinquishing her rage — nor should she surrender it. Raised during Cardassia’s decades-long occupation of Bajor, she knows firsthand the abject cruelty, the labor camps, the mass murders, the “I was following orders” rationalizations, and how to respond in kind via an insurgency. With immeasurable generational tragedy always humming underneath her skin, with a Cardassian military officer in close quarters, Kira turns both the irrevocable reality of war and Damar’s culpability back upon him.

‘Star Trek: Deep Space Nine’ Strengthens the Franchise’s Optimism by Testing Its Limits

Even though the Kira of Season 7 regrets striking a defenseless former enemy, her searing, point-blank wisdom unravels Damar into an ideological crisis. For many individuals whose proximity to power keeps them insulated from harm, it doesn’t matter when torment and subjugation befalls a stranger; brutality only becomes substantive once it arrives at their own doorstep. Now that Damar’s reeling from an atrocity identical to the ones for which he’s culpable — and now that he shares a sliver of the same pain the Bajorans have experienced countless times over — he recognizes the useless horror of it all.

All Damar can do against Kira’s words is nod in silent, bleak comprehension, then redirect his fury away from her toward the appropriate source. Even a season earlier, it would’ve been impossible to imagine this self-described loyal patriot reconciling with his own sins as well as those of his self-serving, stagnant, imperialist civilization — let alone act upon his realization that the poisonous old ways he once vowed to uphold must be shattered and remade. If the Cardassians keep chasing after conquest and glory, they won’t survive long enough to even attempt to atone for the bloodshed they’ve aided and abetted.

Related

After Star Trek, Gene Roddenberry Wrote the Plot to a Sci-Fi Masterpiece That Challenged an ’80s Classic

The premise is virtually identical to a highly popular 1983 miniseries.

Advertisement

Deep Space Nine fully realizes the franchise’s potential by expanding Trek’s progressive fundamentals to their breaking point. Like buffing a diamond into shining sharpness, testing the idea of a peaceful future by measuring the cost required to achieve it strengthens Trek’s optimism into a hope that’s more bittersweet, fragile, but worth cherishing all the more. By Deep Space Nine‘s finale, the series’ surviving characters find closure because trial-by-fire reassessments like Damar’s have forced them to abandon their initial prejudices, oversights, or naivety.

Although it’s been a bitter pill to swallow, their adjusted vision for the future doesn’t lack the franchise’s defining idealism; it’s stronger and clearer for acknowledging the cycles of violence and their answering inevitability: righteous resistance against war, corruption, and would-be tyrants. Some manner of change can always happen, however small — and maybe, just maybe, the ultimate change can finally take hold: human nature’s best virtues rising above their worst.

Advertisement

Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Release Date

Advertisement

1993 – 1999-00-00

Showrunner

Michael Piller, Ira Steven Behr

Advertisement

Writers

Rick Berman, Michael Piller

Advertisement

Advertisement

Advertisement

Whitney Port’s journey to expand her family with husband Tim Rosenman has faced its fair share of setbacks.

Port and Rosenman, who wed in November 2015, welcomed son Sonny in July 2017. Following Sonny’s arrival, the Hills alum suffered multiple pregnancy losses.

“It’s been seven years of trying since Sonny. I got pregnant about a year after he was born, and then it was miscarriage after miscarriage after miscarriage. I was getting pregnant but the pregnancies weren’t sticking,” she said in a January 2026 interview with Spread the Jelly. “Eventually, I was told my chances would be better with a fertility doctor. I went to one who came highly recommended and started the process of egg retrieval, freezing embryos, and IVF.”

While struggling with secondary infertility, Port and Rosenman looked into surrogacy as an option. After finding a match and completing two transfers, the surrogate suffered a miscarriage.

“We decided to go down the surrogacy road at the end of last year after a really long journey of not being able to conceive on our own and just having so many things go wrong,” Port said on the April 2025 episode of her “With Whit” podcast. “We found an amazing surrogate, and we ended up doing two transfers with the surrogate. Both transfers ended up miscarrying.”

Related: Whitney Port and Tim Rosenman’s Relationship Timeline

Whitney Port and Tim Rosenman are everyone’s couple goals. The pair met in the mid 2000s at a birthday dinner for one of Port’s ex-boyfriend’s. “Tim was there. And I sat across from him,” she told She Knows in 2014. “I left the dinner saying to a mutual friend, ‘Oh my god. Who is that […]

Advertisement

While Port’s journey to expand her and Rosenman’s family hasn’t gone as planned, she has been candid about her journey and remains hopeful to give Sonny a sibling.

Keep scrolling to see Port’s best quotes about her fertility journey:

Whitney Port Recalls Feeling ‘Incomplete’ Amid Fertility Struggles

During a January 2026 interview with Spread the Jelly, Whitney Port opened up about how she never expected her motherhood journey to turn out the way it did.

“I don’t think motherhood looks like what I imagined. I never thought I’d be a mom to an only child. I always knew I wanted more than one,” she told the outlet. “I didn’t picture this, and that’s been a little weird for me. My identity as a mom doesn’t feel fully solidified yet because I feel incomplete. I really do.”

Port added that while she’s grateful to have Sonny, the struggle to conceive a second child has made her feel insecure.

“This sounds awful, but there’s this feeling like one isn’t enough — or that it’s not as hard, or not as much to balance, or not the full picture,” she continued. “And I carry that insecurity. I’ve done a lot of work around it. Most of the time, I’m able to tell myself, ‘OK, if it’s just the three of us, that is wonderful.’”

Whitney Port Didn’t Feel Like She Deserved to Use a Surrogate

While struggling to conceive a second child, Whitney Port confessed she felt unworthy to use a surrogate.

“I felt like I hadn’t done everything yet, so I didn’t deserve that option. I rejected the idea for a while,” she told Spread the Jelly. “Then I started talking to people who had used surrogates and had similar experiences. I decided to take my power back and see it as a privilege; I don’t need to keep putting my body through this after six years of trying. I was 41 and I was losing myself.”

Whitney Port’s Candid Update on the Egg Retrieval Process

Whitney Port gave an update on how she was faring ahead of an egg retrieval.

“It’s not the physical discomfort (which totally sucks- bloating, bruising, swelling, heaviness) but the emotional discomfort. The hormones are making me feel like I can’t manage anything, like everything is just the worst,” Port wrote via Instagram in August 2024. “And I’m nervous that I’m not going to get out any quality eggs and what will this all be for. I’m scared. My energy is non existent and I feel like I’m not showing up the way I should as a wife, mom, sister, friend, coworker, etc.”

While the former reality star struggled with her emotions, she expressed her gratitude for the support she’s received amid her fertility struggles.

“I’ll be ready to return to gratitude soon, but I am just not there yet with so much up in the air. That may be pessimistic, but I don’t want to force any feelings either. I can’t thank you all enough for your support and words of encouragement,” she concluded.

Why Whitney Port Spoke Up About Her Fertility Journey

In an October 2023 Us Weekly cover story, Whitney Port explained the reason why she started sharing her struggles online.

“It wasn’t [hard to discuss] at first, and then the more I put it out there, it was. Not because I was getting any negative response but it became something that I had to talk about and be reminded of all the time,” she exclusively told Us at the time. “It was already taking over my life, and then it was taking over my professional life. As a digital creator, you’re in this world of showing your personal life as part of your business. So I felt like that was becoming the conversation, and it was all-encompassing.”

Dr. Peter Attia issued a lengthy apology after newly-released files connected to the case against convicted pedophile Jeffrey Epstein claimed he chose to stay in New York City for a meeting with the sex trafficker while his wife and child were in the ICU.

“I apologize and regret putting myself in a position where emails, some of them embarrassing, tasteless, and indefensible, are now public, and that is on me,” Attia, 52, wrote in a Monday, February 2, statement shared via X after allegedly sending the same message to his team and patients. “I accept that reality and the humiliation that comes with it.”

Attia, a so-called longevity researcher, came under fire on Friday, January 30, after new emails allegedly sent between the late Epstein and influencers, including Attia, were released by the Department of Justice. (Epstein died by suicide in 2019 at the age of 66 while in jail awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges.)

In one email dated July 12, 2017, Attia and Epstein allegedly engaged in a back and forth exchange to solidify plans to meet up the following morning.

Related: Bill Gates Responds to Epstein Email Claim He Got STI From ‘Russian Girls’

Bill Gates is responding after an email in newly released documents related to the late child sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein claimed the Microsoft billionaire contracted a sexually transmitted infection (STI) from “Russian girls.” “These claims are absolutely absurd and completely false,” a spokesperson for Gates, 70, said in a statement to People published on Saturday, […]

“Can you do before 10am? Tomorrow,” the email allegedly sent from Epstein read. Attia allegedly responded, “Sure. I can come earlier, also, if you have a hard stop at 10. Let me know.”

While the exchange might not seem significant to most, Attia previously confessed to leaving his wife, Jill, and infant son to handle a health scare without him during that same timeframe.

“Tuesday, July 11, 2017, at 5:45 p.m., to be exact — I had received a call from Jill, my wife,” Attia wrote in his book, Outlive: The Science and Art of Longevity, published in 2022.

The physician recalled in his book that his wife called him from the back of an ambulance because their son had “suddenly stopped breathing” and had no heartbeat. The child was resuscitated through CPR by a nurse, but wasn’t out of the woods.

“When Jill called me from the ambulance, I was in New York, in a taxi on Fifty-Fourth Street, on my way to dinner,” Peter wrote. “After she finished telling me the story, I just said, without a shred of emotion, ‘OK, call me when you get to the hospital, so I can talk to the doctors in the ICU.’”

Eagle-eyed fans noticed that Jill called her husband one day before he allegedly emailed Epstein while in New York to cement their meeting.

According to Attia’s book, he remained in New York “busy with my ‘important’ work” for 10 days after his son suffered cardiac arrest — and for the four days his wife and child were in the ICU in California.

While Attia didn’t directly address the alleged connection between his 2017 trip to New York and leaving his wife and son alone, he did deny that he is an individual who “participated in criminal activity, enabled it, or witnessed it,” which Peter said is the “purpose” of the DOJ releasing the Epstein documents.

Related: Giants Co-Owner Steve Tisch Breaks Silence After Appearing in Epstein Files

Advertisement

New York Giants co-owner Steve Tisch broke his silence after he was connected to the late disgraced financier and convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. “We had a brief association where we exchanged emails about adult women, and in addition, we discussed movies, philanthropy, and investments,” Tisch said of his relationship with Epstein in a Friday, […]

“I am not in any of those categories, and there is no evidence to the contrary,” he claimed in his Monday statement. “To be clear: 1. I was not involved in any criminal activity. 2. My interactions with Epstein had nothing to do with his sexual abuse or exploitation of anyone. 3. I was never on his plane, never on his island, and never present at any sex parties.”

In addition to seemingly abandoning his family to buddy up to Epstein in 2017, Attia’s name was mentioned more than 1,700 times in the latest set of released files.

Attia attempted to explain his connection to Epstein in his statement, noting that they met in 2014 through a “prominent female healthcare leader while I was raising funds for scientific research.”

Attia explained that between summer 2014 and spring 2019 he met with Epstein “on approximately seven or eight occasions at his New York City home, regarding research studies and to meet others he introduced me to.”

Related: Newly Released Epstein Photos Feature Donald Trump, Woody Allen and More

President Donald Trump, Woody Allen, former President Bill Clinton and Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor are all seen in newly released photos obtained from the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. On Friday, December 12, Democrats on the House Oversight Committee released 19 archival photos, of more than 95,000 total images, recovered from Epstein’s estate as part […]

Advertisement

He claimed he “never visited” Epstein’s ranch or island and “never” flew on any of his planes.

“I was not his doctor, though several times I answered general medical questions and recommended other providers to him,” Attia alleged.

He then cleared up one email exchange between him and Epstein that was reportedly sent in 2015 — and didn’t paint Attia in the best light.

“In June 2015, I sent Epstein an email with the subject line ‘Got a fresh shipment,’” Attia recalled. “The email contained a photograph of bottles of metformin, a medication I had just received from the pharmacy for my own use. The subject line referred to the picture of the bottles of medication.”

Epstein allegedly responded with the words “me too” and sent back a “photograph of an adult woman.”

Attia confessed, “I responded with crude, tasteless banter,” admitting that it is now “very embarrassing,” to see how he engaged with Epstein. “I will not defend it. I’m ashamed of myself for everything about this. At the time, I understood this exchange as juvenile, not a reference to anything dark or harmful,” he added.

Attia claimed that in 2018 he learned that Epstein’s 2008 conviction, which he allegedly characterized as “prostitution-related charges,” was “grossly minimized,” which is when he started to distance himself from the man. (Epstein was convicted in Florida in 2008 on a charge of soliciting prostitution from someone under 18.)

Related: Prince Andrew ‘Kneels On All Fours’ Over Woman in New Epstein Photos

Advertisement

Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor — formerly known as Prince Andrew — appears to kneel on all fours over an unknown woman in new photos obtained from late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein’s estate. On Friday, January 30, the Justice Department released more evidence from Epstein’s estate, including 100 new photographs. Mountbatten-Windsor seemingly appears in three new images […]

“I was incredibly naïve to believe him. I mistook his social acceptance in the eyes of the credible people I saw him with for acceptability, and that was a serious error in my judgment,” Attia wrote. “To be clear, I never witnessed illegal behavior and never saw anyone who appeared underage in his presence.”

He continued, “Nothing in this letter is meant to minimize the harm suffered by the young women Epstein abused. Their trauma is permanent.”

Attia noted he was “not asking for a pass” from anyone, but claimed roughly 10 years after he sent the emails to Epstein — and being the man that he is today — he “would not write them and would not associate with Epstein at all.”

“I recognize that my actions and words have consequences for the people I care deeply about, including all of you,” he concluded. “I regret the cost this has placed on you, and I take responsibility for it.”

If you or someone you know has been sexually assaulted, contact the National Sexual Assault Hotline at 1-800-656-HOPE (4673). If you or someone you know is experiencing child abuse, call or text Child Help Hotline at 1-800-422-4453.

Taylor Frankie Paul Joins Star-Studded NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

‘Mormon Wives’ Fans Are Ready To See Taylor Frankie Paul On The Court

This Year’s NBA All-Star Game Format Is Different Than Previous Years

Taylor Frankie Paul Recently Said, ‘I Know Ball’ About Another Topic