Synopsis: Major Kira gives birth to the O’Brien’s child and Odo comes across a baby changeling.
This episode is very rich in depth psychological material, but what I will highlight in this post is the idea of what is gained by trying to connect to the knowledge of the ancestors.
In “The Begotten” there are two complementary storylines running throughout the episode. One, has Major Kira Nerys giving birth to the child that she had been carrying as a surrogate for the O’Briens, and the second has Quark selling Odo a changeling, which Odo is able to identify as being both ill and a baby. Odo nurses it back to health with the assistance of Dr. Mora, the Bajoran who raised him in a lab during the occupation. Odo does not want the baby changeling to go through the treatment that he received at Mora’s hands, yet at the same time, in working with Mora on the baby changeling’s behalf, he learns what it must have been like for Mora when he was caring for the young Odo. While I am not a parent, I imagine that this would be how individuals appreciate what their parents went through with them once they become parents themselves. This pattern of a new understanding goes back generations and can be considered knowledge from our ancestors. Something that is often not as valued as it should be in modern Western culture.
In addition to the gift of insight that the baby changeling brings Odo, there is something even more precious that is passed on to him. It turns out that the baby changeling was too ill to survive, and it perishes. Yet before the baby dies, its energy is somehow absorbed by Odo, restoring his own ability to shapeshift. This can be compared to how when we are able to connect with the wisdom of the ancestors, which can also be considered part of the collective unconscious, we are made more whole.
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