Synopsis: Gul Dukat is dispatched by the Cardassian government to bring Major Kira to a conference at a Cardassian outpost, and when it is destroyed, they work together to go after the Klingon Bird-of-Prey that attacked it.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of inflation. This is what happens when the Logos-driven rational conscious ego identifies too strongly with the god-like energy from an archetype from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious. While as Carl Gustav (C. G.) Jung wrote, this is part of the union of opposites, or transcendent function, the way in which the conscious ego incorporates bits of material from the unconscious into itself, if the ego identifies too long or too strongly with the archetypal energy, inflation can become a problem – but in any case, inflation is always followed by deflation.
In “Return to Grace” Gul Dukat has been demoted to the commander of a Cardassian freighter and is ordered to transport Major Kira Nerys to a Cardassian outpost on Korma. When they arrive, they find that it has been destroyed by a Klingon Bird-of-Prey. The Klingon vessel, sensing the freighter’s inability to harm it, ignores it and moves on. Meanwhile, Kira and Dukat devise a plan to bring a weapon system from Korma aboard the ship and use it to go after the much better armed Klingon vessel. The plan succeeds and Kira, Dukat, and his crew take over the Bird-of-Prey. The Klingon crew is transported aboard the freighter, which Dukat then destroys. Dukat believes that the significance of his military victory will be rewarded and his former position be restored. But instead, when he contacts Cardassia, he is told that they are pursing a diplomatic solution to the hostilities between the Klingons and Cardassians and that he is to stand down. Not wanting to do so, he pleads with Kira to join him in his assault on Klingon forces. She declines and is returned to Deep Space Nine before Dukat goes out on his mission.
In this episode there are multiple illustrations of inflation, the identifying with the god-like quality of an archetype. The first is when the captain of the Klingon Bird-of-Prey incorrectly assumes that Dukat’s freighter poses no risk to his ship. This ends with the deflation of not only losing his ship, but also his life, when Dukat transports the Klingon captain and his crew to the freighter from the Bird-of-Prey and destroys it. But then Dukat is himself inflated, when he immediately assumes this military triumph will bring him glory upon his return to Cardassia. He is then deflated when he is told instead that Cardassia is pursuing diplomatic means to ending the attacks and he is ordered to stand down and return. This deflation lasts only a moment, because almost immediately Dukat decides that he will not follow orders, but instead will go after the Klingons himself. This ongoing inflation and deflation, while it can be dangerous, as in the case of the Klingon captain; more often than not is part of the ups and downs we all go through, much as Dukat’s perception of his place in the universe changes as he goes through what is analogous to the process of the union of opposites, or the transcendent function.
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