Equilibrium ( episode ) Jadzia Dax is plagued by disturbing hallucinations that allude to the dark past of the Dax symbiont . Summary . Teaser . Commander Sisko is preparing food for a dinner ( with some help from Jake ) for Doctor Bashir , Major Kira , and Odo in his and his son ' s quarters . Odo assists with the mixing for a soufflé , with difficulty at first , and Kira comments that she finds it cute . It turns out that Sisko used to help out at his father ' s restaurant in New Orleans , Earth . Bashir discovers that the meal contains beet s , something he obviously is none too fond of . " " Beets are a very misunderstood vegetable , " " Sisko tells him . Dax arrives and asks what smells so nice . In response , Bashir mentions the beets as a major ingredient and she notes her approval . Sitting down at the table , Dax finds Jake ' s keyboard instrument . He had taken lessons but had not proven to be terribly musically adept , unfortunately . Dax notes that throughout her seven lifetimes , she ' d ended up with a tin ear and no musical ability . She begins playing a tune on the piano , but cannot recognize it . Act One . Later on , while playing chess with Sisko in his office , Dax keeps humming to herself and is totally distracted from her game . She takes one of his bishops , leaving a move open for Sisko to move a knight and put her king in check . She asks where the knight came from and he points out that she was distracted . She then declares that he must have made an illegal move made to attract her attention and that Curzon had always thought that he was a cheat . Dax then upends the board and storms out of the room . Later on , she is in the Replimat having a drink alone and Kira comes by to ask her what is wrong . Dax asks if she ' s come from Sisko to apologize for his behavior . Kira says she is worried about Dax after she ' d heard about the earlier incident . Kira cannot believe that Sisko would have tried to cheat but Dax insists that Kira leaves . Before she has a chance to do so , Dax stands up to leave , but Kira catches her arm . Dax tells Kira to remove her hand before she does something that she will regret . Dax stares at her for a moment and then storms off , onto the Promenade . As she walks along , the place seems to be deserted , then the light seems to change , and she spots someone watching her from the second level . She turns around to find that figure behind her . It is wearing a robe with a cowl and has a smooth mask on . The figure removes the mask with one hand , revealing another mask beneath it . Dax turns to escape and the figure has now appeared in front of her again , tearing the second mask in half , revealing a third underneath . She turns about again and suddenly runs into Quark , and the Promenade is back to normal with the masked figure having vanished . Act Two . At the infirmary , Bashir checks Dax over with a medical tricorder . She apologizes to Sisko for the horrible things that she had said to him earlier . He suggests that she input the music into the computer to let it find out what it is . After a brief discussion of her symptoms , it arises that Torias ( the host prior to Curzon ) had fallen into a coma after a shuttlecraft accident , forcing the Trill to eventually remove the symbiont due to low isoboramine levels . A quick check of Jadzia shows that her own isoboramine levels are dropping and are now at 73 % of normal , thus she might be rejecting the symbiont . They decide to take Jadzia to the to see if any solutions could be found . On the bridge of the , Bashir and Sisko discuss not having Jadzia ( the host ) around anymore and how much they would miss her if she were gone . That night , Dax cannot sleep and goes to talk to Bashir in his quarters . She discusses her time as an initiate , the tests she endured , the immense pressure she put on herself , and how going back as a patient will be worse than being there as an initiate . She also comments that she was afraid of doctors , while Bashir notes that as a child " he " also was terrified of doctors . As he grew older , he wanted to find out and know more about what they knew , and that ' s what ended up leading him towards medical school . After the discussion , Bashir offers to let her stay over , even allowing her the top bunk . She agrees , but insists on the lower bunk because Curzon once fell out of a tree . She falls asleep almost immediately . Now on the Trill homeworld , Jadzia discusses some of the tests with Bashir . She notes that they had to make a small incision on her side to insert the scanner to scan the symbiont . Doctor Renhol enters the room and notes that Jadzia was the only initiate to successfully reenter the program after being dropped . She notes that Jadzia is on a benzocyatic regimen to compensate , but that she does not need to stay at the hospital because Bashir could administer the treatment . The doctor and Dax make an appointment for the next day for a follow - up and lunch . She then excuses herself to assist an initiate . Back on the " Defiant " , Bashir prescribes rest for Dax , who notes that she could never sleep in the afternoon . Sisko suggests lying down , closing her eyes , and not trying to think , something that worked for him . She left them to head to her quarters , and as she moved down the hallway , she encounters the figure she ' d previously seen on the Promenade . She asks who he is and he replies " " It ' s beautiful , isn ' t it ? " " A door opens , and two Trills come through and try to kidnap her ; as she fights them off , she is just about to punch one in the face , and it turns out to be Bashir . Act Three . Back in the hospital , Bashir can ' t understand why Dax is still hallucinating as her isoboramine levels have risen another 6 % . Jadzia notes that her attackers in the hallucination had been from the Symbiosis Commission , wearing uniforms from over a hundred years ago , long before she had been an initiate herself , but none of her other hosts had bad memories of being there . Sisko notes that the computer still has not figured out the piece of music that Jadzia had been humming earlier . Despite Bashir ' s suggestion of therapy , Dax insists that she needs answers and suggests visiting the s , a group of unjoined Trills who devote their lives to the care of symbionts . They go to the symbionts ' breeding pools in the Caves of Mak ' ala and watch two symbionts surface and communicate with each other with electrical impulses . A Guardian , Timor , enters and begins using a testing instrument in the pool . He seems very distracted as he checks to ensure that the symbionts are comfortable and not cranky ; after all , they get very demanding when they are cranky . He comments that he sometimes doesn ' t know why he puts up with it and asks about the weather , before saying that he misses sunshine . He then recognizes Jadzia as Dax and immediately recognizes that something is wrong . He asks about her dreams and points out that they ' re actually memories . This is due to an imbalance between host and symbiont and that someone isn ' t playing fair , and that it could be any one of her prior hosts . Back on the ship , the computer finally discovers the piece of music and that it was written by Joran Belar 86 years previously . The name is not familiar to Jadzia , but his picture is and immediately brings back a memory of what appears to be a Trill doctor working at a desk . The masked figure appears behind him holding a weapon shaped like a spike which he then plunges into the ear of the working man , killing him and stating that " " he left me no choice ! " " Jadzia demands to know who the masked figure is and reaches to remove his mask , which shatters and vanishes in a flash of bright , white light , revealing Joran . The hallucination over , she falls into neural shock . Sisko holds her while she convulses on the floor of the bridge . Act Four . At the hospital , she begins to stabilize , and it is noted that her condition is worsening again and that if her isoboramine levels , now at 51 % , do not rise within 48 hours , the symbiont will have to be removed , killing her . It is suggested by Renhol that dynametric fields from the wormhole might be causing it . Sisko and Bashir visit Timor , the Guardian , and ask for his help . He merely recounts what he had already told Dax and insists that he can ' t help . He acts scared , and both Bashir and Sisko wonder why and are curious as to why an investigation of the past Dax hosts is unwanted . They return to the " Defiant " and begin investigating Joran Belar and find that his record consists of merely a birth date and death date , but also that the file has been altered substantially . In a comparison with the Dax records , it turns out that Belar died on the same day as Torias Dax , which was the same day that the symbiont had been put into Curzon . A check of the musical schools reveals that Yolad Belar had been registered . Contacting Yolad , they discover that he was indeed Joran ' s brother . Yolad has trouble remembering much , but does note that Joran entered to become an initiate but was dropped after his second year . Apparently Joran had killed the doctor who recommended that he be dropped and was killed himself while trying to escape . It turns out that Joran had a violent temper . However , about six months before the incident , Joran had contacted Yolad and had seemed more confident and attributed this to being joined , but Yolad cannot recall the name of the symbiont . Some further checking of the records leads Sisko to theorize that perhaps the Dax symbiont had been put into Joran Belar before being put into Curzon . Act Five . Back in the hospital , Jadzia ' s isoboramine levels have dropped to 44 % and Renhol is preparing for surgery with a nurse to transfer the Dax symbiont to a new host . Sisko and Bashir confront Doctor Renhol about the Joran Dax incident . Since only one in a thousand candidates are acceptable , initiates are put through rigorous testing , since poor choices would result in the symbiont being rejected within three or four days and thus both host and symbiont dying . However , Joran and Dax had been joined for well over six months , despite Joran being a poor candidate . The Symbiosis Commission wanted to hide this fact and had put a into Dax when it was transferred into Curzon , and are now willing to let Jadzia die to continue the cover - up . Sisko threatens to expose the cover - up unless Jadzia is saved . It turns out that nearly half of the Trill population is capable of being joined and the Symbiosis Commission did not want the symbionts to become commodities , items to be sold to the highest bidders and to be fought over . With this ultimatum , Sisko takes the decision out of Renhol ' s hands . Renhol says that in order to stabilize the synaptic functions between Jadzia and the symbiont , Joran ' s memories must be brought to the surface and reintegrated with all of the other previous hosts . Sisko argues that Jadzia is strong enough to cope with the risks involved , and that ultimately it ' s her decision to do so . After her recovery , Jadzia visits the Caves of Mak ' ala again and enters one of the birthing pools . A symbiont approaches her and sends its electrical communication to her . Joran emerges from the pool and Jadzia invites him to become a part of her . They hug and he vanishes into her with an electrical surge , awakening the memories from his host period in Jadzia and Dax once again . Back on the station , Dax sits at a viewport in her quarters , and Sisko enters the room . She asks if he was checking up on her , and he comments that he is just ensuring that she is okay . She comments that Bashir had been in 15 minutes earlier doing the same . She states the importance of knowing one ' s past in knowing one ' s self , then sits down at the table with her piano and begins playing . Memorable quotes . " " Beets are a very misunderstood vegetable . " " " " Nobody said life was fair . " " " " Even if you ' ve had seven of them . " " " " Do you mind ? " " " " What ? " " " " You ' re humming . It ' s a " little " distracting . " " " " Get your hands off of me – before I do something I ' ll regret . " " " " How do you feel ? " " " " I feel like an idiot . " " " " And I used to think Curzon " had " a temper . " " " " If you want to know who you are , it ' s important to know who you ' ve been . " " Links and references . References . Bajoran wormhole ; blackened redfish ; beet ; benzocyatizine ; Caves of Mak ' ala ; coma ; constable ; ; ; ; ; enrollment record ; Federation ; ; isoboramine ; kilometer ; ; music academy ; neural shock ; New Orleans ; " Old Man " ; orrery ; patient ; Promenade ; " raktajino " ; rejection ; Replimat ; ; Sisko ' s Creole Kitchen ; Starfleet ; Symbiosis Commission ; Tenaran Ice Cliffs ; tin ear ; ; Trill ; Trill ( planet ) ; Trill central database ; Trill communications grid ; Trill symbiont ; viscosity ; whisk