I just finished watching DS9 Season 5 Episode 5 ‘The Assignment’ and as much as I loved it, I couldn’t believe the treatment they gave Keiko. It was a tense episode and I enjoyed seeing O’Brien getting psychologically tortured and I laughed at first at the treatment of Keiko but by the end of the episode I felt really bad about how she was portrayed.
The whole dragon lady dynamic is fun for a while but it gets old fast and you start feeling bad for the character.
I also loved the part in the episode where it’s O’Brien’s birthday and everyone instead sings ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ … it’s a whole musical rights issue where someone has to be paid for the performance of the song ‘Happy Birthday’ which is why they didn’t use it … yet another torturous addition to the life of O’Brien.
Now compare this episode to the one in TNG where the roles are flipped and O’Brien is the one possessed by an alien. How does Keiko react? Does she show concern and try to figure out how to save her husband? No, all she does is scream at him to get away from her. Even when a bit of Miles manages to break through when he paused and looks at her going “Wait… I know her…” she doesn’t tell him to fight it, she just continues to scream in terror.
They really went out of their way to make Keiko as unlikeable as possible.