TREKCORE > DEEP SPACE NINE > CAST > Kai Winn Adami

PLAYED BY: Louise Fletcher
FULL NAME: Winn Adami
SPECIES: Bajoran
POSITION/OCCUPATION: Religious leader
RANK/TITLE: Vedek; became Kai in "The Collaborator"
BIRTHPLACE: Bajor
FAMILY: none mentioned

During the Occupation, Winn Adami rose through the ranks of the Bajoran religious hierarchy in her original sect (a small one with orthodox views). At some point in her life, she spent five years in a Cardassian prison camp, during which she was beaten for teaching the Bajoran religion. Also during the Occupation, as a Ranjen, she convinced the vedek of her order to let her bribe several Cardassians for small acts of leniency toward the Bajorans. One such act was the "accidental" rerouting of a transport taking 100 Bajorans to the capital for execution.

As Vedek Winn, she first came to the attention of DS9's officers in "In the Hands of the Prophets", when she came to the station and started a conflict between the Bajorans there and the Federation. Winn had staged the controversy to lure Bareil to DS9 to be assassinated, which was suspected but not provable.

In "The Circle" and "The Siege", Winn worked secretly with Minister Jaro, but adroitly distanced herself when the evidence came to light that the Circle's coup was supplied by the Cardassians. Later that year, in "The Collaborator", she gave asylum to Kubus Oak in exchange for information incriminating Bareil in the Kendra Valley massacre, which she forced Kira to investigate. Winn was elected Kai after Bareil withdrew.

Kai Winn negotiated a peace treaty with Cardassia in "Life Support", taking advantage of Bareil's sense of duty by continuing to rely on his advice despite his precarious condition, and showing no regret of her role in his eventual death.

After the death of Kalem Apren, Winn acted as First Minister pro tem, and nearly started a civil war when she tried to force Shakaar to return some soil reclamators. She stepped down, however, when Shakaar declared his candidacy for First Minister ("Shakaar").

Winn's next appearance was in "Rapture", when she came to the station for the formalizing of Bajor's entry into the Federation. When Sisko had several prophetic visions, and found the legendary city of B'Hala, Winn actually seemed finally convinced that he was the Emissary. She later turned to him for advice when the Dominion approached her about a non-aggression pact, in "In the Cards".

In "The Reckoning", Winn came to DS9 to urge Sisko to return the tablet he had taken from B'Hala. She was present when the Reckoning began between a Prophet and a pah-wraith, but, lacking faith in the outcome, she then went to Ops and triggered a buildup of chroniton radiation, driving the beings away and disrupting the battle, thus leaving Bajor's future in grave doubt. Kira guessed accurately that Winn was resentful of having to share her power as Bajor's spiritual leader with the Emissary.

She finally got what she had wanted all her life in "'Til Death Do Us Part": a vision from what she thought were the Prophets, telling her to expect a guide who would aid her in the restoration of Bajor. When a Bajoran farmer named Anjohl arrived, she welcomed him, and began a romantic liaison, unaware that he was actually Gul Dukat in disguise. In "Strange Bedfellows", however, Winn underwent a spiritual crisis when the beings she had been communicating with revealed themselves as the pah-wraiths, and when Anjohl urged her to join the "true gods of Bajor". However, rather than step down as Kai, she chose to finally reject the Prophets as she felt they had rejected her, and vowed to destroy them and their Emissary.

Winn retreated to her study on Bajor to research the Text of the Kosst Amojan for information on how to free the pah-wraiths. The pages were blank until after Winn's aide Solbor unmasked Anjohl as Gul Dukat. Winn stabbed Solbor to death, and dripped the blood onto the book, which revealed the evil writing contained on the pages ("The Changing Face of Evil"). Later, she took a certain pleasure in having Dukat put out on the street to beg when he was blinded for trying to read the text himself ("When It Rains...").

In "What You Leave Behind", Winn had completed her study of the Text when Dukat returned, his vision restored. Together they entered the Fire Caves, and Winn began the ritual to free the pah-wraiths. She poisoned Dukat as a sacrifice to them, but they knocked her down and possessed his body instead of hers. When Sisko arrived, Winn seemed to have a last-minute change of heart, calling out a warning about the book before she was incinerated in a column of fire.

Louise Fletcher

Born in Birmingham, Alabama to Episcopal minister Robert Fletcher and his wife Estelle, both of whom were deaf, Louise Fletcher was introduced to performing at a young age by the aunt who taught her to speak. After graduating from the University of North Carolina - Chapel Hill, she took a trip out west with her roommates, finding herself in Los Angeles without enough money to return home. She took a temporary job as a receptionist and signed up for acting classes at night. Soon she was working regularly in television and film, but after marrying producer Jerry Bick and having two sons, the actress took a long hiatus to raise her children. Returning to work in 1974 in Robert Altman's Thieves Like Us, Fletcher came to the attention of director Milos Forman, who was casting the difficult role of the nurse in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. She won the role - and then the Academy Award - portraying deadly, inflexible Nurse Ratched, who has since become a cultural icon. Numerous film roles followed, including co-starring turns with Peter Falk in The Cheap Detective and with Richard Burton in Exorcist II: The Heretic. Fletcher has appeared in a number of science fiction and horror classics such as Firestarter, Brainstorm, and Flowers in the Attic. Though she earned an Emmy Award nomination for her recurring role on Picket Fences, Fletcher is perhaps best known to recent television audiences as Kai Winn from Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and as Nora Bloom from the cult classic VR5.