The episode that introduces Oscar-winner Louise Fletcher as Winn, a chillingly sinister religious zealot who would go on to appear in several more episodes during the series run. Still known as Vedek Winn at this point, she's in line to become the next Kai, the Bajoran's spiritual leader, and immediately brings intense conflict by busting into teacher Keiko's class and implying that teaching the young'uns science about the wormhole without mentioning the awesomeness of the prophets is tantamount to blasphemy. She then has Sisko over to her quarters, calls him Emissary, and justifies her actions by worrying about the "consequences" of what will happen if the kids aren't trained up right. Meanwhile, O'Brien and his hottie fellow engineer Neela investigate the death of an engineer who happened to borrow one of Miles's tools before getting melted in a plasma conduit. Was it an accident, or was he murdered? And by who? And why? Sisko appeals to another Vedek, the much mellower Bareil, to try to defuse the situation before the station descends into total chaos.
It's not as brilliant as the preceding episode, "Duet", but "Prophets" is pretty good too, with a tightly interwoven set of story lines, further ugly truths about Bajoran culture (and beautiful faith in the goodness of individuals), and some good performances. Mostly, though, the characters are in service of the plot, and they are sketched somewhat broadly for DS9, which generally delights in nuance and complexity. It's a good stand-alone episode that shows the other sides of our allies, the Bajorans, and will make you think twice about blindly accepting them as victimized good guys. As usual, Louise Fletcher turns in a great performance as an ice-cold, dogmatic ball buster, and it's very entertaining to watch her and Avery Brooks's unflappable Sisko go head to head.