Rigil Kent wrote:Please don't take this the wrong way, WarpGirl, did we watch the same show? Ninety-five percent of the issues TnT had revolved entirely around miscommunication - he said one thing, she perceived it a different way, and vice versa. Look at how
offended she got when he made the old painting comment which was obviously intended to be a compliment on her looks. They were never on the same wavelength yet you seem to believe that Trip had some sort of magical Vulcan translator on hand despite the clear evidence to the contrary. I don't get it.
As a guy, I'm going to have to go with the majority here. Trip was pleased, almost smug when he joined T'Pol at the table and she unloaded that direct hit to his ego - she said 'exploration', he heard 'experiment.' More importantly, he probably heard things in the comment that weren't intended. She said "I wouldn't use that term" and he heard the unspoken "but it
is a good analogy." For that matter, she didn't exactly correct his misconception because she promptly jumped to the "are you getting emotional" comment - which Trip
is going to know is perceived as a negative thing in Vulcan culture. Everything he heard indicated that she was regretting the whole thing, which any guy is going to take as a blow.
The way I see it, you're assigning Trip knowledge that he has no way of knowing. He was the first to (literally) offer her the hand of friendship and she turned her back on him. He is, in canon,
never told about Tolaris' attack or the Pa'nar or the truth about her past (the Fullara), all three of which seem pretty important elements about her life, despite basically telling her everything and anything she wanted to know about him. Throughout season 3, up to this point, yes, they are shown to be getting closer and more comfortable with each other but, as "Harbinger" points out, they
aren't talking about emotional subjects with each other (since he told Cole about Lizzie.) Until she makes the first move, Trip has no idea that she's actually attracted to him - witness his more than surprised expression right before she pounces and the expression when she drops the robe.
If she was just using sex for stress relief she could have chosen anyone.
Uh ... no, she couldn't. Archer is her commanding officer, Reed is a junior officer. Although she holds no technical rank at this point, they made a point of establishing in the previous seasons that her rank is equivalent to Trip's (even if the position is superior.) Sex with any of them complicates the situation almost as much as it complicated what she had with Trip.
He has imperical proof by her jealousy of Amanda Cole.
He has empirical proof that T'Pol reacted because of this fact and, based entirely on her reaction during the Morning After, it's also logical to presume that he (accurately, it appears) also suspects she's regretting it. That's why he started to backtrack and cover his butt - the VNP comment after the fact? Well, that was, as some have stated, the producers wanting their cake and eating it too. In real life, most guys would have thrown up their hands and tracked down the hot MACO to get the wildly inconsistent Vulcan out of their system.
And to the remark that he never told her what he wanted, well why would he? She'd already stomped on his ego already and then later, dragged him to Vulcan so he could watch her get married. The one time he
did start to talk about "them," she held up the Kir'shara and told him she didn't have time for "them."
He might not know its love but she did give him something.
Yeah, she gave him hot sex and the the morning after brush-off which is a serious ego blow. Flip the genders and tell me you wouldn't be offended. "Hey, thanks for last night, T'Pol. I've been wanting to sex up a Vulcan for a while now and you really came through." That's basically what she told him (run through a Guy translation matrix.)
But most importantly he knows her, he knows it was her first time
Fanon. There is absolutely no canonical evidence indicating that this was A) her first time, or B) he had any knowledge that it was her first time. He knows (from "Fusion" and Kov) that Vulcan males are driven to mate every 7 years, so again, it's logical on his part to presume that she
isn't a virgin, particularly since he's still thinking in human terms (which was an ongoing problem of his.) In fact, one could actually make a decent argument that it wasn't - in season 1, she had some rather interesting advice to Phlox about the doctor getting involved with a human (Cutler) that could be construed as her speaking from experience. Do I believe that to be the case? No. But that doesn't negate the fact that you're assigning Trip data he doesn't actually have.
Trip is not a Saint!
No, he hasn't performed three miracles that I'm aware of, but in terms of relationship, yeah, he kind of is. T'Pol was terribly, terribly high maintenance and most men would have run away screaming, no matter "how nice her bum is."
Truth be told I missed the "oil painting episode" and a few others. As for the virginity thing, well it was never directly stated you're right, it was implied though, but frankly a lot of things would make even less sense if she wasn't a virgin. And not that I'm a guy or anything but how can a guy not know he had sex with a virgin? Oh who am I kidding 99.999999% of everything about ENT didn't make sense. As for the exploration vs. experimentation I didn't hear an implied it is a good analogy in her tone, and I didn't see a crushed ego on Trip's face. Sorry I just didn't. Like I said he didn't even know he was in love with her yet. He admitted that in Home. I agree their communication skills were non existant in any shape and form, as well as, mature behavior for two adults. 
Rigil! Stick around!
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I am trying to catch up on the 10-12 episodes I missed. Unfortunately the TV schedual never works out. I even saw *the_abomination*, but I can never find 
