The Enterprise goes to a sort of interstellar bazaar within The Expanse, where Trip and Archer negotiate for the formula to synthesize a material vital to protect the ship from the spacial distortions. While there, Archer picks up a lead on some Xindi. He follows it to a particularly unsavory merchant, who is auctioning off slave girls.
Though the beautiful Rajiin (Nikita Ager) does catch Archer's eye, he declines to bid on any of this "merchandise," walking away. Then Rajiin makes a break for freedom, pleading with Archer to take her with him. They rescue her from the merchant and bring her aboard the ship.
But Rajiin is hiding a darker purpose. It won't be long before Archer finds himself facing the Xindi head-on - a battle his ship simply isn't equipped to win.
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: Climbs atop his white horse to play the knight errant, as he did many times in the first two seasons. This time, his attempt at being noble turns around and bites him - hard. Though outraged at the betrayal, the last look he exchanges with Rajiin indicates that he still has enough basic decency to care about what happens to her (though one could also interpret this as an unwillingness to let the Xindi have valuable information - take your pick, I don't think the two are mutually exclusive). His conduct does impress Rajiin, at least, though his decency is meaningless to the Xindi, at least at this juncture.
Trip: He has concerns about the visits he's making to T'Pol for the Vulcan neurotherapy. Apparently, other crew members have been taking note of his visits to her, and drawing the basest conclusions - something which makes Trip uncomfortable both on his own behalf and T'Pol's. Beyond that, we see him horse trading with the alien scientist to good effect, trading relatively minor bits and bobs (such as a canister of parica) while giving a sales pitch worthy of a tycoon. "On our world, wars were fought over this."
Hot Alien Space Babe of the Week: Nikita Ager is Rajiin, the slave girl Archer rescues who turns out to be more than she seems. At first, Rajiin appears to be a complete innocent, an abused young woman who has been passed from one master to another. But she hides abilities that will ultimately place the crew in danger.
The Xindi: Our second real look at them, and it is clear from both of the appearances of their ruling council that they are a heavily divided body. The insect and reptile Xindi appear to be the most aggressive and warlike, the more humanoid Xindi the most cautious, with the sea creature Xindi lying somewhere in between. Also, the Xindi scientist in charge of developing the weapon appears to have doubts about the course of action that has been ordered. Given the Xindi's obvious technological superiority, I doubt that we're heading for a purely military climax to this arc. With the divided council, and with both the season premiere and this episode clearly establishing individual Xindi who are not necessarily villainous, I suspect this plot will eventually be settled through negotiations. At least, I hope so. I would be very disappointed to have Archer fix everything through some superweapon.
ZAP THE REDSHIRT!
Redshirt count: Four (maybe five). A female security guard is shot in a confrontation with Xindi. She's still moaning when her comrades pull her away, so it's possible she lives. Another security guard definitely does not. Meanwhile, three other redshirts find themselves the victims of a particularly nasty (but cool) Xindi weapon whose discharge lands, in a gelatinous mass, on the wall behind them - then explodes in a shower of deadly energy rays. Like I said. Nasty, but cool.
THOUGHTS
Though my opinion of Extinction has not changed, it is at least nice to see its events acknowledged at the start of this episode. "You were transformed into another species. You cannot expect to fully recover overnight." In previous seasons - or in previous spinoffs, for that matter - that is exactly what would have happened, and it's refreshing to have something like that not entirely forgotten in the very next episode.
Though its starting point is fairly standard, Rajiin turns out to be anything but a filler episode. This episode is entirely about advancing the arc. The Enterprise ends the episode both better and worse off than before. Better: They have the formula for the substance which will protect their ship from the anomalies of The Expanse, even if Trip and T'Pol haven't quite gotten their sums right yet. They have more information about the Xindi, both in terms of biology and technology. They even have a Xindi weapon. Worse: They are down another four (maybe five) crew members, the Xindi have more information about them, and the Xindi are now pursuing two potential means of destroying the Earth. Call this one a "tie," though the Enterprise probably can't afford too many more such ties.
As an episode unto itself, it does its job. It moves along at a strong pace, with a climactic action sequence that's well above-average. I liked that the Enterprise came off far worse than the Xindi in this encounter. Given the Xindi's obvious technological superiority, it would not have been plausible had our heroes been able to beat them on this occasion. I also liked the alien nature of the Xindi weapon - a very effectively-shot and imaginative kill.
Not a great episode, with the "Rajiin seduces the crew" subplot one of those horribly trite sci-fi plots that one can't help roll one's eyes at. Fortunately, though, that subplot ends up occupying far less of the episode than at first appears likely. The episode as a whole is highly watchable, and it does its job of keeping the plot ticking over.
Rating: 6/10.
Previous Episode: Extinction
Next Episode: Impulse
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