star trek - Why did the Female Changeling surrender?

Two possibilities that I can think of, really. Quite likely a bit of both.

Odo shared his faith in the solids. Quite literally.

The Great Link was described waaay back in Season 2 by the female changeling as "A merging of form and thought, the sharing of idea and sensation." When Odo linked with her, their minds melded in a much deeper way than the Vulcan mind meld. He showed her everything, from his perspective. For example:

• The morphogenic virus implanted into Odo was created by a small subset of the Federation that only cared because the Dominion was the enemy. The greater whole of the Federation (the part not working outside the public eye) worked to cure it, and succeeded.


• The Federation is all-inclusive, former enemies (Klingons) and exiles of their current enemies (Garak) included.

It wasn't a faith thing, it was a negotiation

Odo was cured of the morphogenic virus. No one from the Dominion had the same skill. So he cured the female changeling during that link, but didn't pass the cure on to her - he held it back, and the Great Link continued to suffer until after he returned in the finale episode.

So he made a deal with her: Stop the war, or all the Changelings would die, regardless of whether or not they trusted the solids. And believing themselves to be "above" the solids - presumably including "more honorable" - they couldn't go back on the peace treaty.