"Improbable Cause" (Part I; season three, episode twenty; 24 April 1995): Wikipedia-link.
Commentary: "Improbable Cause" starts off as a detective story—Who blew up Garak's tailor shop?—& builds to a crescendo as Odo & Garak stumble into the heart of a conspiracy that will shape the future of the galaxy for the rest of Deep Space Nine. The dialogue crackles throughout, including one of the most memoriable & satisfying lines (& line deliveries) of the series: Doctor Bashir explains the fable of the boy who cried wolf to Garak, who praises the boy's cleverness; Bashir counters that the lesson is that if one lies all the time, one will not be believed, even when telling the truth; Garak asks if Bashir if certain that is the lesson:
Bashir: "Of course! What else could it be?"There are masterful verbal dances between Odo & an alien assassin masquerading as a perfume merchant; Odo & Garak when Odo reveals that he knews Garak blew up his own shop in order to enlist Odo's aid; & between Elim Garak & Enabran Tain, the not-so-retired chief of the Obsidian Order secret police, the man who exiled Garak from Cardassia &, as we find out in the fullness of time, Garak's father.
Garak: "That you should never tell the same lie twice."
There is also great character work & a brilliant performance from Andrew Robinson (playing Garak): tenderness when contacting Mila, Tain's housekeeper & confidant, & vulnerability when risking his life to save Tain when he thinks the old spymaster is in danger of being assassinated by Romulans. The opening chapter of a two-part story, "Improbable Cause" ends on a cliffhanger, with Garak back in Tain's good graces, his exile about to end, & the joint Obsidian Order/Tal Shiar fleet about to enter the Gamma Quadrant to strike a coup de main against the Dominion.
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