THE PLOT
The Enterprise finally reaches Azati Prime, where the Xindi weapon is all but ready. Trip and Mayweather use the insectoid shuttle to fly through the Xindi defenses and locate the weapon. The two return with scans showing their target is vulnerable to a shuttle attack from within - but that such a mission would be strictly one-way.
Archer insists on volunteering himself for this suicide run. But before he can leave, the time-travelling Daniels whisks him off to the future, giving him information about the Sphere Builders. Daniels urges him to abandon his one-way mission and to make peace with the Xindi instead. Archer refuses, insisting that the weapon is too close to completion to try diplomacy at this point. But when he is found out and captured by the Xindi, he uses Daniels' information to arrange a meeting with Degra, desperate to convince the Xindi scientist that his people were misled.
Degra seems surprisingly receptive, but it may already be too late. The reptilians have located Enterprise in the space around Azati Prime. Fighers have now been launched. Their mission? Destroy Enterprise!
CHARACTERS
Capt. Archer: With Enterprise in scanning distance of a Xindi outpost, Archer makes the hard but necessary decision, and orders it destroyed. We see that these kinds of decisions - torturing prisoners, ordering the death of Trip's clone, ordering the deaths of these Xindi - weigh heavily on him. He seems almost relieved to take command of a suicide mission, waving off other volunteers by stating that he will not watch anyone else die. When captured, he uses his knowledge of Degra to arrange a meeting with the Xindi scientist. He makes a good enough case for humanity not being the Xindi's enemy that Degra and the other Xindi council member are left feeling less than sanguine about the reptilians.
T'Pol: Accepting that Vulcans have been defined in this series (and indeed most of Trek) as beings who suppress their emotions, rather than actually lacking them, she nevertheless comes across as too emotional in this episode. Her blurting out that she does not want Archer to die, or excusing herself and shedding a single quiet tear in the ready room... That was fine, I had no problem with that much. But when she shuts herself away later, all but ignoring her duties, or when she snaps at a very reasonable Trip just before the Xindi attack - Those moments felt like a stretch. Not enough of one for me to deduct a point from the episode's score, particularly given that Jolene Blalock plays what she's given extremely well. But T'Pol's behavior in these scenes seems out of character. At least she snaps fully back to herself once the ship is under attack.
Degra: His characterization from Strategem is directly followed up on. We continue to see the mixed feelings with which he regards the weapon. On the one hand, he wants desperately to secure the future of his race and particularly of his children. On the other hand, he reflects his doubts as to how future Xindi generations will remember their actions. When Archer gives him an alternative explanation - that the future vision the Xindi were shown was a lie - he clearly wants to believe. At this point, it seems all but certain that Degra will emerge as a significant ally.
The Xindi: "The council is fracturing," we are told. This is consistent with what we saw in the season's early episodes, with the different Xindi races seeming very confrontational with each other. I do wish we could have seen some of this fracturing first-hand. Maybe we could have had a full episode entirely from the Xindi point of view? Ah, well. In any case, it seems clear that the reptilians are driving the Xindi on the warpath. By the episode's end, Degra and the other council member seem a lot less trusting of them, which I suspect will be followed up in the next episode.
THOUGHTS
Wow.
After a couple filler episodes of varying quality, the arc goes into what I'm assuming is its final act with the arrival at Azati Prime. Obviously, some of the season's budget was being saved for just this moment. Everything gets put into overdrive this episode. The result is the best Enterprise episode since Twilight.
Manny Coto's script does an excellent job of utilizing the many plot threads of the season. The sphere builders, an aspect of the season which really came into focus with Harbinger, are once again central. Daniels confronts Archer with the truth of the Sohere Builders and ties them into the lie used to put the Xindi on a war footing with Earth. Archer also references the things he has seen, done, and ordered over the course of the season when explaining why he is so willing to sacrifice himself. The plot even justifies Hatchery, as the insectoid shuttle gained in that rather weak episode is critical to this episode.
Coto, whom I'd currently place in a dead heat with Mike Sussman for the title of Enterprise's best writer, shares Sussman's expertise at structure. This is an extremely well put-together script. It gains momentum at the start, and just builds and builds to a finish in which everything seems lost. I doubt anyone saw the episode fade out without a howl at frustration, and I will be going straight from writing this review back to the DVD to continue watching.
Rating: 10/10. Outstanding.
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