I Have Reprised My DS9 Rewatch, And Now That I've Rewatched The "Julian Bashir Got Replaced And No One

I have reprised my DS9 rewatch, and now that I've rewatched the "Julian Bashir got replaced and no one noticed" episode, can I say that... it makes sense that no one noticed?

When you look at him, Julian doesn't seem to have that many friends, and the people who know him best all have their hands full by the time we reach the switch.

Leeta broke up with him, and as far as I can tell he hasn't had a steady relationship after that. Leeta probably could've noticed, but it's doubtful that they would spend much time together now that they've moved on.

Jadzia is just entering the long phase relationship with Worf and probably spending less time with Julian as a result. Plus, she was the primary target of Julian's more... aggressively immature behaviour for years, and she certainly isn't going to complain if he's respecting her spaces more and bringing sandwiches to the Promenade.

Miles has the new baby to look after, which means a lot of nights up and a lot less LARPing with his buddy. When they do go out together, Miles would still be tired and distracted enough that he wouldn't notice if Julian's behaviour is slightly off, he would only notice how helpful and easy to get along with Julian is becoming and isn't that nice?

This leaves Garak, who is a paranoid bastard who regularly engaged with Julian in philosophical debates, something that I would imagine is particularly hard to fake well. Except, this is not season 3, this is after Garak tried to blow up the Changeling planet while Julian was still standing on it. If they've resumed their book club recently, as I assume they did, it would probably be awkward and tentative, and then Ziyal began coming too and that's just enough changed circumstances that Garak wouldn't question any changes in Julian's behaviour.

As for the other characters, they don't seem to be close enough to Julian to realise that something may be off.

So this leaves... no one. Julian doesn't seem to have close family, he has no romantic relationships going on, his co-workers don't seem to know him all that well, and his closer friends all have other things going on.

Someone please give this poor man a hug