Trip and Phlox are in the galley going over some pictures from school kids back home. T'Pol makes the mistake of saying something almost complimentary about the drawings and is now required to take one with her. She doesn't even have a fridge in her quarters, give her a break guys! The drawings actually look like they were made by children, so +1 for that. The tentacle monster isn't cutting it so Trip finds a Vulcan portrait (crayon on construction paper, I'm opening the bidding at $.10) and T'Pol is saved by the tour guide…ahem..Captain…on the loud speaker announcing that they've found a comet. Scientifically speaking, they're not exactly rare and you won't get a tail unless you're pretty close to a star, about the orbit of Jupiter. OK, sorry, back to our Trek science…Archer seems to think this is the largest comet ever seen by Humans, so it is special, so there.
T'Pol has some squiggles from home to look at in her cabin and we cut to Trip in the galley snagging some pecan pie and milk. T'Pol comes in and informs us that Vulcans are not affected by caffeine. We get some TnT flirting going here. T'Pol has her disturbing letter on a PADD apparently and manages to elicit some sympathy from Trip while continuing to be mysterious.
OK, and now T'Pol's excited about the comet because it's full of balonium (I couldn't figure out how to spell what she was calling it) and everyone's ready for a road trip to the comet. And we have a ship full of Vulcans to annoy Archer show up. I guess their sensors aren't very good because they should be all excited about the balonium too.
Archer is upset that the Vulcans have been showing up all over the place. And I finished my beer already - BRB. OK, gotta move this along. Malcolm and Travis are off to the comet and Malcolm seems a little too excited about spending some time alone with Travis.
Spacesuit time. And the standard Hollywood internally lighted helmets - probably not very good for actual use. Back on Enterprise, Trip has found an encrypted transmission that went straight to T'Pol from the Vulcans.
Now, Archer is making videos for school kids back on Earth (in Ireland!). Chef can make anything "from a peanut butter and jelly sandwich to a turkey with all the trimmings"?? Man, Chef is going to tear Archer a new one when he hears that. How about some actually challenging foods? Ooh, and here's some fodder - "Is dating allowed?" "Well, it's not discouraged, but there isn't a lot of privacy on a starship. Most of our crew share quarters with at least one other person, so it wouldn't exactly be practical. But if two crewmembers decide that they really like each other there are a lot of places they can go to look at the stars." So Starfleet has not discovered the hanger on the door system? Guess without doorknobs that one doesn't work so well. Sounds like a green light for TnT
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Trip is not happy with his "poop question" - and according to Trip, recycling of "waste" goes into boots and cargo containers. Must be a whole shipload of Imelda Marcoses to handle all the boots that the recycler would be pumping out.
Back on the comet, Travis has made a snowman. And Malcolm and Travis are on NSA-vision, with a fine view back on Enterprise of their hijinks and Archer reminds them the Vulcans are probably watching too. Good thing they didn't put any ears on that snowman.
Hoshi has decrypted T'Pol's message but didn't read it, passing the buck to Trip to open her mail. Which, of course, is the letter about coming back to Vulcan to get married or else. And Trip is upset that the Vulcans encrypted her personal mail forcing him and Hoshi to decrypt. Must be a whole planet of tinfoil hat wearing crypto-hippies - though they could get some better ciphers. Just sayin'
Alright, having read T'Pol's personal letter, Trip is determined to tell T'Pol that he read it. T'Pol is not cutting him any slack as he tries to apologize for reading her mail. And we get T'Pol all getting up in Trip's face. Just kiss her already! Oh, sorry, we have to wait another two seasons for that…
Archer is planning dinner with Vanik and wants wine suggestions from T'Pol. Just put some carrots on a plate with a glass of water and be done with it already.
Now, T'Pol is visiting Phlox about her tension headache and lack of sleep. Take two hyposprays and see me in the morning…
Back on the comet Malcolm is ready to block something up and does.
Now is it My Dinner with Vanik. Vanik is not hungry because he ate before he came to dinner. Should have put some bacon on his plate - everyone loves bacon! After a rather testy exchange between Archer and Vanik, Vanik says something in Vulcan that is not well received by T'Pol and exits, stage left.
Archer calls Reed up to teach him how to suck eggs, ummm…position the camp so it doesn't get crispified by the sun. Thanks Dad!
Trip is making his first visit to T'Pol's quarters. He has to twit her about her lit candles and she explains that it's allowed because…meditation - yah, that's the ticket. So T'Pol wants some advice on her wedding plans. Trip has some difficulties understand the concept of "arranged marriage" - I guess he doesn't get out a lot. T'Pol feels duty-bound to go home but Trip argues she should do what she wants. We end up with a typically annoyed Vulcan.
OK and back to the comet, where Travis manages to fall in a hole. Except, ummm, the comet is maybe a couple of miles across and would have gravity measured in microgees. Their main problem would be not floating off into space, not falling.
After a commercial break, Malcolm and Travis make it back to the shuttlepod and try to head back to Enterprise but fall through the ice and get stuck somewhere. And now Archer is going to show off his hot piloting skills as Enterprise heads down to retrieve the shuttlepod with the grappler. Archer and T'Pol have a pissing contest about grappler versus Vanik's tractor beam but Archer eventually gives in and has Vanik rescue the shuttlepod.
We wrap up with T'Pol going to tell Koss to kiss off and she has a slice of pecan pie instead of getting married. Foreshadowing?
Science-wise, this episode gets a big F. It's not terribly exciting, Archer and crew are idiots as usual but the TnT interactions do help. I'd rate it as OK overall.
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