Jadzia Dax - Joined Nature

Joined Nature

Jadzia Dax is a joined Trill. "Jadzia" is the name of the young Trill woman, while "Dax" refers to a slug-like symbiont that resides in her abdomen. (Jadzia's actual family name was never revealed on the show. In the novels, her original name is said to be Jadzia Idaris.) While Jadzia is 28 years old at the beginning of the series, the creature Dax is roughly 300 years old, having previously been hosted by seven other Trill. As a result, Dax may be considered the oldest crewmate on Deep Space Nine.

Prior to Jadzia, the Dax symbiont had been hosted by Lela, Tobin, Emony, Audrid, Torias, Joran, and Curzon.

The burden of seven lifetimes' worth of memories is not always a positive one; several episodes of Deep Space Nine focus on Dax's struggle with her dual nature:

• In the extended pilot episode, when Jadzia touches an Orb, a brief scene shows the symbiont being removed from Curzon and being placed into Jadzia. She (presumably) sees Curzon die.
• In the first-season episode "Dax", the previous host Curzon Dax is accused of murder. This leads to an extradition hearing to determine whether Jadzia can be held responsible for crimes committed during another lifetime. While the moral question remained unsolved, the legal issue was resolved when evidence arose of Curzon's innocence.
• In the second-season episode "Invasive Procedures", an unjoined Trill named Verad attempts to steal the Dax symbiont. Verad is upset that his application for a joining has been rejected by the Trill Symbiosis Commission, and he plans to steal the Dax symbiont and escape into the Gamma quadrant. He manages to remove the Dax symbiont from Jadzia and partially join with it before his escape is thwarted.
• Later that season, Dax mentors a Trill initiate in the episode "Playing God". Dax is responsible for training the young Trill, and for evaluating his suitability for joining. During the episode, Jadzia and Sisko discuss her own training under Curzon Dax, as well as the role that joining plays in Trill society.
• In the third-season episode "Equilibrium", Dax begins to experience unsettling mental problems. She travels back to Trill to discover the source of the problems. On her homeworld, she visits the "Caves of Mak'ala", a place on Trill where unjoined symbionts swim in pools carefully and lovingly tended by Trill Guardians. Eventually, she learns that Dax had previously been joined with an unsuitable host known as Joran, and that her memories of this trauma had been suppressed. Her mental problems subside after the other Trill help her to regain these memories.
• Later that season in the episode "Facets", Jadzia encounters each of Dax's previous hosts in the Trill "rite of closure", including the insane Joran. This episode reveals much of the back story for the Dax character, and explores the relationship between Jadzia Dax, Curzon Dax, and Benjamin Sisko.
• In the fourth season episode "Rejoined", Jadzia encounters Lenara Kahn, the current host of the symbiont Kahn, who had been previously joined to Nilani Kahn, the wife of Torias Dax. Because Torias died suddenly, Dax's relationship with Kahn through its previous host was never resolved, and the two current hosts struggle in the episode with their feelings towards one another. This is complicated by a taboo in Trill culture against romantic relationships with partners of previous hosts. This episode features one of the first televised kisses between two female characters.