Enterprise travels to an alien market, where they buy information on how to synthesize a rare mineral that could protect the ship from the anomalies of the Expanse. While there, they rescue a woman from being sold into slavery. It appears she may have some information about the Xindi... but it fact, she is an undercover operative, working for the Xindi to gather intel on the humans.
The "bookends" of this episode expose for me why I think it's mostly filler. We check in again on the "evil Xindi war council," bickering some more about their Earth-destroying weapon. It's not that the planet killer won't work; it's just that (only four episodes into the season) it's taking too long. So we're told right out of the gate that everything that's going to happen in this episode is in service of a "plan B," something by definition that's new, unrelated to the ongoing story, and isn't likely to be a thing going forward. So twice now, these villainous scenes with the Xindi have not only failed to deliver anything more than generic mustache twirling, they've actively undermined the build of interest in the plot to come.
That plot looks like it's going to be classic Star Trek (I'm talking original series), with the captain finding an alien woman who seems attracted to him. It's a nice subversion to make Rajiin a super-spy who takes full-body medical scans with her hands and is out to manipulate them all. But then the subversion quickly falls into predictable Enterprise patterns: she's gotta have an overtly sexual encounter with everyone she meets -- Hoshi, a security guard, and of course T'Pol -- which feels extra icky, in that it plays out like yet another sexually-coded assault on her. (Don't "worry," there's reciprocal ick when she's captured, thrown in the brig, and Archer manhandles Rajiin for information.)
None of this plan makes much sense, when you scratch beneath the surface. Did embedding Rajiin aboard Enterprise all hinge on them happening to come to that particular alien bazaar, and happening to have a run-in with that slave trader? The whole goal here -- getting body scans of humans -- highlights the fact that at the end of the day, the Xindi don't really know much about humans. Did they know that human morality would include feeling sympathy for enslaved people? How did they know about the "honeypot" cliche? You don't have to try reasoning through any of this for long, though; the episode culminates in a big firefight in which Reptilian Xindi board the ship and blast everything in sight (with an admittedly cool-looking weapon) to retrieve their operative.
Aside from that big concluding action scene, though, Enterprise is not up to its usual standards when it comes to production. The alien bazaar is a disappointment, cobbled together with stuff from the prop closet, and not even supported by music of any kind (neither diegetic nor conventional score; it's weirdly quiet). Slow motion (a rarity in Star Trek) is used not once, but twice -- and is incredibly awkward both times.
Other observations:
- The massage scenes continue, as Enterprise writers continue to play out the idea that every backrub eventually leads to sex. (They "hang a lantern on it" this time, by having Trip and T'Pol talk about how people are gossiping... but that's still exactly where this story is going.)
- It's a fun moment when the crew trades a suitcase of spices to an alien in exchange for information. That alien is a particularly gross creation (in a fun way), as all he wants to do with the spices is sniff them and sneeze.
The extended action sequence at the end of this episode -- the big shoot-out aboard Enterprise -- is well-executed. Pretty much everything else about this episode is dull time-filler, a way to feature the Xindi story without actually progressing the Xindi story. I give "Rajiin" a C+.
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