Synopsis: Relationships change direction when Lt. Commander Worf is forced to kill Chancellor Gowron and Legate Damar is forced to kill Rusot.
This episode can be seen as illustrations of Carl (C. G.) Jung’s concept of the enantiodromia, the turning back from one extreme to another.
In “Tacking Into the Wind” Chancellor Gowron sends General Martok out on hopeless missions to dishonor him. This is causing the potential doom of the entire Alpha Quadrant as we know it. Lt. Ezri Dax speaks to Lt. Commander Worf and tells him that the Klingon Empire will fall if the corrupt Gowron is not removed. Worf challenges Gowron, kills him, and Martok is then returned to command. Meanwhile, Rusot, who is second in command to Legate Damar in the Cardassian Liberation Front resents Coronel Kira Nerys taking a leading role in the liberation operation. When he threatens to kill her, Damar kills him.
In this episode, Worf’s duty of honor requires him to confront his leader who is not acting in a way that he feels is to the benefit of the Empire. At the same time Damar’s duty to his cause requires him to cut down his most trusted ally because he is acting against the needs of his people. These can both be seen as points when the characters are driven to extremes and are forced to do something to change the direction of their future. The sudden change in course can be analogized to the sudden reversal of direction in an enantiodromia, often symbolized in Jung’s works as the snake eating its own tail. This too is part of the ongoing process of individuation, the way in which the conscious ego acknowledges and integrates bits of material from the unconscious into itself to become stronger, and the psyche more whole.
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