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In the middle of Homefront, we hear that the Changelings know that

Odo killed one of them

(in the earlier episode The Adversary).

How it this possible? How could this information reach The Great Link?

From our perspective (the viewers, Odo's, or the Federation's) it went like this:

- the Changelings send one of their spies to spy on the Defiant, - Odo kills him, - therefore the Changeling spy does not return to the Great Link.

But from the Changelings / The Great Link’s perspective,

the "Odo kills him" part is missing.

So, they may think (at nearly any particular point in time) that:

  • the spy hasn't yet finished his task or was forced to hide,
  • the spy is captured and kept in some Federation detention center, or
  • the spy is killed.

The fact that he hasn't returned to The Great Link does not imply that he was killed. And even if they assume that he was killed, that does not imply that Odo killed him: the Federation has many ways to kill a Changeling once captured, and Odo hasn't got any special abilities that make him the only one able to kill another Changeling.

Thus, to my knowledge, it wasn't possible for The Great Link to learn that one of their spies was killed by Odo and this is a screenplay gap in Homefront. Can anyone confirm that or tell me what am I missing?

The assumption that Odo and other Federation members learn that The Great Link knows that Odo killed one of them is even less possible to prove, assuming that Odo had never visited The Great Link in the period between killing the Changeling spy and the events shown in Homefront.

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  • 5
    At this point, Earth (and Starfleet) have been comprehensively infiltrated by Dominion shapeshifter spies. I assume Odo filed a report.
    – Valorum
    Jan 8, 2016 at 11:34
  • That would look like a good answer and a counter-point to my arguments.
    – trejder
    Jan 8, 2016 at 14:20
  • 1
    Maybe. I'll wait to see if anyone comes up with anything more conclusive.
    – Valorum
    Jan 8, 2016 at 14:27
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    If the first spoiler is there, shouldn't the second bullet point in the first group also be spoiler tagged? Or neither?
    – T.J.L.
    Feb 17, 2016 at 15:55
  • 1
    I suspect "list" and "spoiler" don't work together...
    – T.J.L.
    Feb 17, 2016 at 19:24

2 Answers 2

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The last thing that the Changeling spy on the Defiant said to Odo was:

You are too late. We are everywhere.

This is confirmed in Homefront itself, where we see that Changelings are active and undetected even on earth.

As such, there may have been one or more other Changelings aboard the Defiant at the time. I don’t think we’re sure the entire crew get scanned for tetryon particles, so there could even have been another Changeling installing the sabotage devices (which were, apparently, all over the — admittedly little — ship).

However, even if the Changeling spy was the only one aboard, as @Richard commented, Odo would have filed a report about the incident (and Captain Sisko would probably have recorded it in his log too), so another Changeling spy could have learned of the incident from their records, and communicated the events to the Great Link.

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    Great answer (as always)! Thanks for it and thanks for editing my question to hide a possible spoiler. One technical question about that. Why do you think, that my part may be possible taken as spoiler while you don't find your cite a spoiler as well? I think, this short, two-sentence cite may reveal way to much to someone, who never watched that part of DS9. I'm not complaining though. I just want to know this for future reference (future questions) to better distinguish possible spoiler from not spoiling anything question.
    – trejder
    Jan 12, 2016 at 17:57
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    @trejder: aw thanks! Yeah my quote is definitely a spoiler too. I worry less about spoilers in answers because someone would have to scroll down past the question to see them — if they’ve done that much, I don’t think they can really complain about being spoiled. Maybe I should change it though. Jan 12, 2016 at 21:55
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    Well... your argument is correct. I didn't think about this that way. Surely, you're right, that spoilers are mostly found in questions. In this case, I don't think you should change it.
    – trejder
    Jan 14, 2016 at 7:33
2

If you re-watch Adversary there's a scene where O’Brien is alone in engineering and he hears a "bump" noise, then the scene shows bulkhead/ machinery near the floor, with Miles in the background. I think maybe there was more than one Changeling. Or it could have been the same one farting.

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