Synopsis: Captain Sisko is persuaded to assist rebels in the Mirror Universe fight the Cardassian-Klingon Alliance.
As the episode in my previous post, this episode can be seen as an illustration of one of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s central theories. That of how a complex will bring bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious to the attention of the Logos-driven rational conscious ego, until the ego acknowledges the material and integrates it into itself.
In “Shattered Mirror” the woman who is the Mirror Universe’s Jennifer Sisko, that universe’s counterpart to Captain Benjamin Sisko’s dead wife, visits him and his son, Jake Sisko. She kidnaps Sisko’s son and takes him to the Mirror Universe, so that Sisko might help the rebels complete their version of the Defiant. Sisko does so, but in the battle that follows, the Mirror Universe’s Jennifer Sisko dies.
In this episode, much like EeChar in my previous post, Mirror Universe Jennifer Sisko can be seen as a physical manifestation of a complex. Our universe would be consciousness and the Mirror Universe would be analogous to the unconscious. However, in Sisko’s case, he immediately engages with it, because she has taken something precious from him, his son. This forces Sisko to engage his rebellious tendencies and those associated with social justice, in efforts to further the cause of the Terran, or human-led rebels, in the Mirror Universe. In the end, Mirror Universe Jennifer Sisko, her task complete, dies. Sisko and his son are returned to their own universe, as promised; but each somewhat changed by the experience. This reflects how when the conscious ego acknowledges bits of material from the unconscious and integrates them into itself, it becomes stronger, and the psyche becomes more whole.
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