I haven’t watched that episode in a looooong time, so I can’t really contribute too much to the conversation. But the vibe I got (and I may be misremembering) was that Sisko was trying to let her know she could be that person, if she wanted to be. She could be Fenna, because she was Fenna. A sort of “the [Fenna] was in you all along” type moment.
I’m mainly posting here because DS9 is my absolute favorite series (close second is ENT), and I’ll happily contribute to any ds9 talks. Lol. Is there a community for ds9? I haven’t found out, but that could just be lemmy search shenanigans.
For your first part, that would make sense, except Nidell isn’t supposed to remember anything about Fenna. I don’t know how Sisko would expect her to think of Fenna as something she’d want to become, since she knew nothing about her. That was what made the line weird to me.
For your second part - agree on both actually! I haven’t seen any particular DS9 specific community in here or elsewhere. Maybe we can be the change we want to see, lol. Maybe a new community or a weekly episode discussion or something.
Not who you replied to, but I always assumed that she sort of knew about her second personality from previous occasions when this had happened. The terraformer with the god complex (whom i found the real star of this episode, LET THERE BE LIGHT!) tells sisko about it, so it is implied that she is even aware herself whom she mr. Hydes into to some degree. She may not have the memories, but should know about her second personality.