These Clips Are From The First Six Minutes Of S2E12, 'The Alternate'. And I Had To Talk About The Journey

These clips are from the first six minutes of S2E12, 'The Alternate'. And I had to talk about the journey that Odo takes us on with his body language and mannerisms here.

Armchair body language analysis under the cut. Grab a snack; I am a person who is full of words.

In the beginning, Odo is rigid as usual, but he starts to change as soon as he walks into that bar. In that first moment of him looming over Quark, it's like he's eagerly anticipating the verbal spar he's about to engage in.

You quickly see him become more and more relaxed as he talks to Quark. He becomes increasingly animated, to the point of being downright playful. His tone rises and falls with his sarcasm, reaching almost cartoonish levels on occasion. There's a warmth to him even when he's expressing annoyance with Quark.

Eye contact with Quark is constant and intense. He's distinctly leaning towards Quark the whole time. He says more than he needs to, because he's having fun screwing with Quark, and it's overall just an adorable scene.

And then Dr. Mora shows up, rudely interrupting their psychosexual makeout sesh.

The change is instant. Odo's posture becomes incredibly tense and avoidant, leaning back slightly. The sassy head-swaggles are gone, replaced with frantic attempts to find anything to look at other than Dr. Mora. He seems to desperately hang on to every opportunity he has to look at Quark instead. (There's a joke somewhere here on tumblr about how Quark is Odo's 'emotional support criminal' - in this scene, he literally is!)

Odo speaks in strained, terse tones and stares downward in a heartbreakingly submissive manner as Mora treats him like a specimen instead of a person.

Odo physically drags Mora away, not wanting him to interact with Quark any more than necessary. He further reinforces this by telling Mora he doesn't want to know Quark.

I'm guessing he just doesn't want to explain the Thing he has going on with Quark. That would be difficult enough to explain even to the people who know Odo - he sure as hell doesn't want to try to explain it to the abuser who's just going to criticize and analyze it.

Then there's that beautiful little 'fuck you' affectation on the way he pulls that chair out for Mora... and then we have an absolutely withering murderglare in the shuttle.

I think this scene is amazing because it gives us a Quodo segment that is so long and playful that it borders on fanservice, then immediately follows it up with an encounter so uncomfortable that it makes us angry on Odo's behalf.

This shows us the stark difference between how Odo behaves around the person he's only pretending to hate... and how he behaves around the person he actually hates.

How much more relaxed would Odo have become if his playtime with Quark hadn't been interrupted? Dr. Mora cockblocked all of us when he showed up, and I will never forgive him for that.