With the Enterprise in dire need of repair, the crew is lucky to encounter another alien ship that's been damaged by anomalies in the Expanse. But hopes for a mutually beneficial trade are quickly dashed; the component Enterprise needs most is one that the alien captain is unwilling to give up. Archer must decide: to continue his vital mission to save Earth, is he willing to raid the aliens and take what they need by force? Meanwhile, we learn the reason behind T'Pol's increasingly emotional state.
From here through the rest of the season, the series really takes advantage of the fact that its visual effects are achieved through CG and not practical models. The damage inflicted on the Enterprise by the Xindi is extreme -- beyond what you could have done to a physical model on a television budget. The chewed-up exterior of ship is matched by extensive distressing of the sets. (Because the plan is to live for many episodes in this damaged state, the cost to distress the sets -- and eventually restore them -- can be spread across many episodes.)
It has to look this desperate. AND we have to have the ticking clock of Enterprise needing to make a rendezvous with Xindi allies in three days. Only then can we maybe get on board with Archer embracing a piratical plan to steal what they need. Maybe. Deep Space Nine got this dark on occasion (once resulting in one of its best episodes). But I feel the success there stemmed from how much Deep Space Nine cared about its characters and made us care. Enterprise has been far less intentional (or successful) in that regard, so I have a hard time mustering feelings for Archer's dark turn here.
But the episode tries to get us there. Archer seeks moral council with Phlox before starting down his dark path. T'Pol protests strenuously. Trip tries to tell him he's doing the right thing. And cleverly, a recognizable Star Trek actor (Casey Biggs) is cast as the alien captain, perhaps giving the sense that Archer has to do this to someone we know. Yet despite all of this, I feel like "dark Archer" is getting tiresome. I appreciate that this season has walked him gradually down this path, so that the decision here doesn't come from nowhere. Yet also, the decision here doesn't feel much farther over the line. I'm ready to see Archer struggle not to talk himself into another bad thing, but to talk himself into doing the right thing again, despite risks or costs.
I don't get any more satisfaction from the T'Pol subplot. We learn that she's become addicted to injecting herself with microdoses of trellium. Drug addiction feels like one of the go-to plot lines for a televised drama of this era, and sure, telling that story with a Vulcan character seems like an appealing novelty. Yet it also essentially undermines any character development we've seen from T'Pol this season, telling us that her emotional growth has come as a side effect of drug addition. At best, this is saying that her personal change was unintentional. At worst, there's a complicated message about drugs and self-help that I think Enterprise as a series is uninterested and incapable of exploring with any nuance.
Other observations:
- T'Pol's nightmare is packed with everything the writers could dream up -- a steamy shower scene for the commercials, and a good old fashioned jump scare for the lolz.
- Archer asks Reed to prepare the boarding party that will ransack the alien ship. Isn't this sort of personal combat planning exactly the reason the MACOs are here?
- We're still at it with the dull villain monologuing at the Xindi council. Now they are joined by a Sphere Builder to give everyone something new to argue about.
While I appreciate the lasting consequences of Enterprise's recent space battle, I don't think this episode does nearly as good a job wrestling with the consequences of Archer's decisions. For that, and undermining T'Pol's character growth at the same time, I give "Damage" a C+.
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