To fully understand the Bashir/Garak thing in Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, you need to understand that Garak first appears in the second episode of the series, very obviously trying to arrange a hookup with Bashir – like, it's just barely subtext – and then the network was like "what the fuck" and ordered to showrunners to knock it off with the gay shit, and as a result, Garak promptly disappears from the show for twenty episodes, next appearing in the fifth episode of season two. Can you imagine what that did to folks who were watching in real time?