Archer and T'Pol find the resistance enclave they've been searching for, where many revelations ensue. The people there are not the terrorists the government claims. The disillusionment that drove T'Pol's mother to join then runs so deep that the two of them now find surprising common ground. But most significantly, Archer now carries the living spirit of the movement's heroic figure, Surak. Meanwhile, Vulcan leader V'Las escalates his campaign against the dissidents, removing anyone who might stand in his way.
This trilogy has such epic storytelling intentions, aiming to show us how Vulcans grew from their Enterprise depiction (hardly as in control emotionally as they claim) to the people we know from later (well... earlier) Star Trek. Surak appears to Archer in multiple visions to discuss the state of the world, relative to the one he was trying to create; this is not unlike the Buddha or Jesus appearing to someone today. (Time scale and everything.) We soon learn of an artifact containing Surak's original writings, an Ark of the Covenant-like Macguffin that seemingly introduces Raiders of the Lost Ark adventure to the tale.
But to me, the thing this episode does best is balancing the epic story with personal stakes. Soval is fired from his ambassador job, completing his transformation from prickly adversary to stalwart ally for the Enterprise crew. T'Pol and her mother finally reach an understanding... only for the latter to die and leave T'Pol in emotional turmoil once more. The character of T'Pau is made to confront her prejudice against humans. It's all strong material, and generally well performed.
Yet also, this episode has common "middle of a trilogy" issues where the story is straining to get from point A to point B. Surak's katra has been in other Vulcans before now landing in Archer. Why does he reveal to Archer where to find his writings when he could have done so with any of those previous hosts? At the end of the episode, Soval reveals the Vulcan plan to spark war with Andoria... though it sure seems like knowledge he had the entire time and could have revealed earlier, except to make for a dramatic cliffhanger.
Then there's the character of V'Las, leader of the Vulcan government, who just seems cartoonishly villainous. Why is V'Las so bent on war with Andoria? Why does he actually think that bombing the Syrrannite faction is necessary for him to get to that? (I guess Vulcan doesn't have a T'Streisand effect.) How did a guy this irrational become the leader of a people who pride themselves on logic?
(I will admit: in the real world, a certain Cheeto-haired would-be Mussolini is doing his level best to illustrate that this sort of behavior is far more realistic than you might think. But as the saying goes, truth is stranger than fiction... which means that fiction has to "hang together" better.)
Other observations:
- Apparently, most Vulcans regard katras as they do time travel... which we've been told again and again (and again and again and again), is regarded as impossible by Vulcan orthodoxy.
- There's a fun exchange between Soval and Trip, when the former confesses his deep affinity for humans. "You did a pretty good job of hiding it." "Thank you."
The villain of this story seems to be evil just for evil's sake. But I still find the rest of the episode fairly compelling. I give "Awakening" a B.
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