"What You Leave Behind" is the series finale of the television show Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, the 175th and 176th episodes, the 25th and 26th episodes of the seventh season. The episode was written by showrunner Ira Steven Behr and Hans Beimler and directed by Allan Kroeker. It originally aired the week of May 31, 1999. The finale sees the end of the long-running plot arc of the Dominion War and the fulfillment of protagonist Benjamin Sisko's destiny as "Emissary of the Prophets". The episode was mainly well-received, with most critics considering it a satisfying end for the series, though the final confrontation between Sisko and his enemy Gul Dukat was criticized. Background Set in the 24th century, the series follows the adventures of the crew of the Starfleet-managed space station Deep Space Nine near the planet Bajor, as the Bajorans recover from a decades-long occupation by the imperialistic Cardassians. The station is adjacent to a wormhole connecting Bajor to the distant Gamma Quadrant; the wormhole is home to powerful alien beings worshipped by the Bajorans as the godlike "Prophets", who have made Benjamin Sisko, DS9's human captain, their "Emissary". The later seasons of the series follow a war between the United Federation of Planets and the Dominion, an expansionist empire from the Gamma Quadrant ruled by the shape-shifting Changelings, which has already absorbed Cardassia; the Dominion's soldiers are the Jem'Hadar, and their administrators are the Vorta. In the episodes leading up to the finale, the Cardassian officer Damar launched a revolt against Dominion control, aided by the Cardassian ex-spy Elim Garak and the Bajoran officer Kira Nerys; the rogue Changeling Odo, Kira's lover, was cured of a disease afflicting him and the Dominion's Founders; and Gul Dukat, the Cardassian who had been the prefect of Bajor when it was under Cardassian control, disguised himself as a Bajoran and persuaded the power-hungry Bajoran religious leader Kai Winn to follow the Prophets' evil counterparts, the Pah-wraiths. Plot As the Federation and their allies prepare to embark on a final offensive in the Dominion War, Captain Sisko's mother Sarah, one of the Prophets, appears to him in a vision, telling him his journey's end "lies not before you, but behind you". Soon the battle between the Dominion–Breen–Cardassian and Federation–Klingon–Romulan fleets begins. Kira, Garak, and Damar, hiding on Cardassia Prime, sabotage Cardassia's power grid, cutting off communication between the Dominion fleet and