Episode Report Card Keckler: C- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Grease Fire
By Keckler | Season 2 | Episode 15 | Aired on 02.11.2003
Excedrin PM bellows at Suzy Blue that he gave specific orders not to screw with the sh'pod. "And they were followed!" Suzy Blue tells him. She implies that the Vulcans fired on the sh'pod in order to blame it on the Andorians and therefore justify an invasion. Hold the phone -- I think she could be lying! Excedrin PM doesn't think the Vulcans would go that far, but Suzy Blue argues that they'd do anything to get squatting rights away from the Andorians. I drink through more verbal evidence that Suzy Blue will one day betray Excedrin PM with a kiss. Finally, Excedrin PM pulls rank to shut her up and tells her he wants the two Vulcans and Quantum brought to him alive, saying he won't give the Vulcans any reason to invade. "I'll see to it myself, sir," Suzy Blue says. I'm sure she will.
In the dark, Quantum and Soval argue about who doesn't really know what about the area. Why is it always night on these planets of ill repute? I think they're just trying to save on set design and they don't want us to recognize this as the same interiors from "The Communicator" and the exteriors from "Detained". Skinflints. Weapons seem to fire near them; from crouched positions, they determine that the guns aren't firing at them. Quantum and Soval argue about their next move. Finally, Quantum says he will take a look around, and instructs Soval and T'Pol to stay put. "Captain!" T'Pol bellows out, soundly strangely desperate. "SHHHH!" Mathra hisses, turning over in his sleep and displacing both cats. I think she has to go to the bathroom. "That's an order!" Quantum tells her. "No offense, but my ears are less likely to draw fire than yours!" Quantum darts off, phaser drawn.
"What is their fixation with our ears?" Soval wonders. "I believe they're envious," T'Pol responds. Soval disdainfully tells T'Pol that she's picked up "a slight human accent," and then proceeds to go off on T'Pol's career decisions. He tells her she would have been promoted a lot if she'd stayed on his staff in San Francisco. T'Pol's aware of all that, but she stayed with Enterprise because she finds the job gratifying and thinks the humans still need to have their hands held as they go down the path of space. Soval looks repulsed: "Gratification is an emotional indulgence. You disagreed with our recommendation that Archer's mission be cancelled after the tragedy at Paraga II, why?" T'Pol thought that, as she was aboard during the massacre of several thousand colonists, her input would be appreciated. Soval snips that her decision to speak out against the other Vulcans shows she's indulging in arrogance -- another emotional extravagance -- and thinks maybe she should consider another assignment. "You know, they just haven't been able to create any other kind of tension with T'Pol's character other than these constant threats to reassign her. I guess that's enough, though, because if Blalock left the show, so would her dinners," Mathra snores. T'Pol kneels oddly close to Soval and says, "Just because Captain Archer has earned my respect doesn't mean I've been contaminated by his emotions." Does Soval know that she's got Vulcan AIDS? The High Command certainly knows, so I find it sort of odd that he never alludes to it in this episode. Even odder considering that last week T'Pol made a grand statement about how she was going to publicly speak out against Dr. Yurinate being ostracized from Vulcan society. Quantum returns and reports no joy in finding the Andorians. They decide to press on.