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On its way to meeting up with Degra and the Xindi of the Round Table to convince them not to destroy Earth, Enterprise runs smack into some slack-jawed ancestors. As fate and the 'shippers would have it, Trip and T'Pol have made a large, old, baby, Quantum has some great-ish granddaughter born with a perma-furrow (natch), and Phlox has proven to be quite fertile with Not'Pol. Sad is it that, although both Hoshi and Mayweather seemed to have married and procreated, Reed is still quite the sterile bachelor. Make of that what you will as he rushes off to chase a blond Red Stripe upon hearing this information. At any rate, these ancestors want to prevent, yet help Enterprise onto its destiny. It's really quite confusing but in the end, the ancestors steal a few warp coils, Trip's son shoots him, and then they decide to help the original Enterprise to their obvious destruction. Want more? The full recap starts right below!
Previously: Enterprise looked like a round of Emmenthaler, Degra offered to help out, Trip and T'Pol gave me stomach cramps, and T'Pol became a CRACK WHORE.
Hm, I see a lonely candle in a Pier 1 stand, and I hear soothing pipe music from "Sounds of Logical Stress Relief"...fee, fie, fo, fum, I smell the blood of a VULCAN PUN! A crabby old voice tells someone to come in. A Vulcan walks in, but since the UPN promos leave absolutely NOTHING to the imagination, we already know this is T'Pol's son. It was at this point that I blustered around the rim of my wine glass, "He's clearly Trip's son! Not only does he look like him when you squint your eyes and look over your right shoulder during a new moon, but why else would they put us through the stomach-churning event of their coupling AGAIN?!" Tri'Progeny confirms that the probe has been launched, and T'Pold comments that everything is happening just like before and seven million people will die. She orders her son to find Jonathan Archer.
Even the TechTV guys were thoroughly disgusted by the theme song.
T'Pol meditates in front of a host of the same Pier 1 candles we saw in T'Pold's quarters. Trip comes in and complains of sleeplessness and the fact that it's been a week since they last bumped Nodes. T'Pol puts him off, saying she's got a headache and an early class the morning. Plus she argues that he's fairly adept at the poses. Trip doesn't like this response to his obvious Booty Call, and argues that T'Pol said it took years to master the poses: "I'm not that quick of a study." I'll say. T'Pol insists, shakily, that she's done having sex with him. Okay, so she may not use those exact words, but come on, that's what this scene is ALL about. Trip finally confesses that he's sleeping fine and didn't come for Node Nudging -- he's worried about her and how much she's keeping to herself these days: "You even asked Chef to bring your meals here." T'Pol insists that the Mess Hall is heavily damaged: "Where else do you suggest I eat?" Uh, since you ate a pepperoni pizza there just last week, I'd suggest, oh, I don't know, THE MESS HALL?! Trip says she's been avoiding him since, well, since they, you know. He can't seem to get that out, so T'Pol supplies for him: "Since we had sexual relations." Okay, Clinton. "I told you that what happened was an exploration, not the prelude to an intimate relationship," T'Pol states. "I never said I wanted a relationship!" Trip blurts. Of course not, you just want sex. Typical. And by the way, T'Pol has NOT been avoiding Trip since they Did It. Last week, she ordered him to bed (albeit sans Vulcan) and comforted him in his hour of need -- does he really not remember that? If you ask me, T'Pol's not the only one sniffing Trellium-D these days. "You helped me get through a rough patch and I'm grateful, I just stopped by to see if I could do the same," Trip says. T'Pol thanks him for his concern and tells him it isn't warranted. Just FYI, in the future you can get through a rough patch by smearing Vaseline Intensive Care on it.
Stella Cartography. The qrew senses half a dozen Kovaalan ships in the nebula, which is many more than Degra cautioned them about. "According to Degra, they're not very tolerant of trespassers," Quantum stiffs. Are they ever? Just once I'd like to see an alien race more like the Squire of Gothos where they're all "Be my guest!" until their parents spank them. Technobabble as they discuss how they're going to get to the subspace corridor with minimal detection. I guess the one thing that's important (or ironic) in all Reed's technobabble is that they're going to create multiple and false readings of their ship so the Kovaalans won't know which one to fire at.
Degra's ship. Degra, the other Mr. Man, and Three-Toed argue some more about whether or not they trust Quantum. All I care about in this scene is discussing what the hell happened to Degra's hair. It used to look like a ploughed field with strips of baldness alternating with lines of hair, but now those lines of hair are like big, singular curls! "I'm sorry, but he is just so ready to put on a mawashi and give someone a yorikiri," the Evil Dr. Mathra sniggers. For my part, I think he's getting ready to announce, "Weeee represent the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild, the Lollipop Guild!" It's a really odd hairstyle choice. Degra says they will protect Enterprise from Snake Eyes on their side of the corridor, and the other Mr. Man wonders what makes Degra think Snake Eyes won't fire at them.
Enterprise flies through fog and picks up readings from another ship. It's a Starfleet NX-class ship. They haven't actually entered the nebula yet, so it's not one of their own false readings. A visual is brought up onscreen, and a twin of Enterprise flies at them. "Must be the NX-02 Columbia," Reed guesses. Hail, Columbia. Quantum negates that idea, since the Columbia is still under construction. Hoshi doesn't think it's Columbia either, and a following close-up is supposed to prove that. I had to rewind several times before I finally got the idea that we are looking at "NX-01 Enterprise" on the battered hull. I have 20/20 vision, but it's to impossible to read. They could have done a better job with their "revelation." Everyone is stunned into…stunned reaction shots. Tri'Progeny comes on the screen and -- without saying who he is -- he orders them to alter their course. They alter their course. "Would you tell me what the hell is going on?" Quantum demands. I guess he doesn't, because the scene is at the airlock. Tri'Progeny and some chick with a perma-furrow aliened into her head step aboard. She's clearly related to Quantum -- those furrows have been bred into her DNA. Sure enough, after Tri'Progeny introduces himself as "Lorian, commander of Enterprise," he introduces Perma-Furrow as "Karen Archer, my first officer." Tri'Progeny insists they go somewhere to talk -- the conference room, specifically -- and requests that T'Pol join them.
In the conference room, Tri'Progeny tells Quantum that if he takes the ship into the subspace corridor, it will be thrown back one hundred seventeen years. The reason why he knows this is because it's already happened, and Tri'Progeny wants to make sure it doesn't happen again. As Tri'Progeny narrates, we get the High School Yearbook Cam of Futureprise that shows the ship going into the nebula, getting attacked by Kovaalans, and coming out of the corridor eleven-point-six light years later, where, as May-Partial-Fog puts it, "The stars...they're not where they're supposed to be." They ended up one hundred and seventeen years in the past, and Tri'Progeny's only explanation is one of extreme technobabble. They can't go back though time and the corridor, because the corridor was a one-way street.
High School Yearbook Cam of Futureprise. Quantum tells T'Pol they can't go back to Earth, because they'll contaminate their own culture and history. Never stopped Bermaga -- they've been contaminating their own culture and history for three years now. Rim shot! T'Pol reminds us that Cochrane won't get a DUI for another twenty-six years. Quantum thinks they can use this time travel to their advantage, since they know the date of the Psycho Bocce Ball. He wants them to figure out a way to prevent the attack. T'Pol reminds him that the Psycho Bocce Ball won't be launched for another hundred years.
Normal Camerawork of Presenterprise. Tri'Progeny blathers on that the crew soon realized it would be their descendants who would have to carry out their plan of prevention. People had sex, kids were born, the kids learned how to make the ship go. Quantum gets up to stalk around the room, and states, "You've been flying around the Expanse for over a century." T'Pol doesn't believe him: "Enterprise doesn't have fuel or provisions for such a long journey." Honey, have you ever heard of a little show called Voyager? No? Well, you're not missing much. Tri'Progeny decides to drop the M-bomb with no follow-up explanation whatsoever: "You've hardly changed, Mother." T'Pol's all "Whointhewhat to you?" and Quantum furrows mightily as he hopes upon Dear Diary hope that he's the father of this person. OF COURSE Tri'Progeny doesn't deign to answer T'Pol at this time, and just goes on that they made alliances with other species, had sex with them, and bartered for food and supplies. And very necessarily in that order. Nevertheless, they also failed in carrying out Quantum's mission to stop the Psycho Bocce Ball, so they're now here to help Quantum and Qrew to stop the attack. T'Pol reminds us that the crew of Futureprise claim they can't go back through the corridor, and Perma-Furrow hands over alien technology to help with Presenterprise's propulsion systems. They'll be able to travel at warp six-point-nine for brief spurts, and they will even show them how to shore up their hull integrity to withstand such unprecedented speed. Presenterprise still won't believe the hype, so they all take a little field trip to Sickbay. Could Tri'Progeny's hair be any more 3 AM infomercially?
Sickbay. Quantum confirms that Perma-Furrow is most definitely related to Quantum -- his great-granddaughter -- and even has several species in her genetic code that Phlox doesn't recognize. Do you think Perma-Furrow's mother ever said, "If you aren't careful, your face is going to FREEZE that way!"? ["I'm more interested in the fact that 'Karen' is still a popular girls' name in the future. Or the past. Or…okay, forget it." -- Sars] , Phlox turns to T'Pol and says she's definitely getting a Mother's Day Teleflora delivery from Tri'Progeny this year. T'Pol cocks her head at the scans and says, "These...chromosomes are...human." Phlox agrees and says they are from the father. T'Pol snorts, "That's impossible, humans and Vulcans have never been able to reproduce." When was the last time you really tried, T'Pol? Phlox laughs lightly and says, "According to Tri'Progeny I discovered -- or rather I will discover -- a method for successfully combing human and Vulcan genomes." The shot of Quantum is hysterical. He's looking down all saddened and distressed by this information and, without even looking up, angrily asks, "Who's the father?" Man, he's really upset here! He's either that scared he is the responsible party, or that scared he isn't. Either way, I kinda don't think it's really any of his business. I think Bakula played that scene really weirdly -- it's sending confusing signals. Phlox gives the answer that anyone with half a genome knew by now -- "Commander Tucker" -- and T'Pol just puffs her lips in surprise. You know, what with the CRACK WHORE problem and now acting surprised that she and Trip made a baby, I'm beginning to think that this Vulcan doesn't have the sharpest ears on the planet.
Quantum logs that he FINALLY caved and DECIDED that MAYBE it was OKAY to let Futureprise modify their engines. But you can just tell it's all with a big sigh. Father and son work together. Trip notes to Tri'Progeny, "It's the strangest thang, I, uh, look at yew and I see m'father. Righ' here -- around the eyes." "So, is he saying Tri'Progeny is like George H. W. Bush then?" the Evil Dr. Mathra asks. In this scene you can see black Xs and Ys on the bulkheads. I know they're probably supposed to be burn marks, but I think they make it look as though the ship's been through a genetic gang war. Trip goes on that Tri'Progeny's ears are definitely from his mother. Ha. Ha. Trip notes with some surprise that Tri'Progeny smiled. That's because he's a CRACK BABY. "I wasn't raised with the same inhibitions most Vulcans have. My human side has allowed me to find a balance between emotion and logic," Tri'Progeny says, trying desperately but just flat-out failing to catch the Spock. Apparently, this half-breed even tells jokes on occasion, but the guy's so Rumsfeldian that I really find that hard to believe.
They keep working, this father and son, ripped apart by massive tragedy and astounding loss, while unbeknownst to them, their future, past, and present is already decided. Okay, I don't know, but the scene seems to think that's what's going on here! It turns out that Tri'Progeny learned all he could by reading Trip's old logs, because Trip himself died when the kid was the burgeoning on the microbial age of fourteen. "What happened?" Trip asks. "I'm not sure we should be discussing the future," Tri'Progeny prisses. Oh, WHATEVER! You've been discussing the FUTURE this whole damn time! In fact, just saying that you read his LOGS is DISCUSSING THE FUTURE! Anyway, it's not the future, it's the past, so shut up, Tri'Progeny. I guess it could be the future, but only in Trip's eyes. Eh, just tell Trip he should stay away from dust jackets and the number eight and he'll be okay. Trip's sorry he wasn't there to help him grow up. "You were a good father," Tri'Progeny assures him, and then adds, "It's strange...being able to tell you that." No, it's actually strange that Trip was a good father, and also? Freakshow? You're DISCUSSING THE FUTURE!
Speaking of the ties that bind, constrict, and squeeze your organs until you faint and die in childbirth, Quantum and his great-granddaughter stroll down the corridors of Futureprise. All the people in the hallways stop to stare at Quantum and Perma-Furrow. I know, I know, the refurrowance is striking, but still, manners anyone? Two Denobulan children are playing ball, and Quantum remarks on it. "Many of our crew are descendants of Phlox and Amanda," Perma-Furrow tells him. "Many of our crew are sleeping with Phlox," the Evil Dr. Mathra giggles. Seriously, Phlox is clearly the stud horse of the ship, and Quantum is clearly jealous of all his foals. Also, I'm convinced that the fact that Not'pol and Phlox's phuck bunny have the same first name is not merely a coincidence. She got over Trip and moved onto someone who was ridged for her pleasure. Perma-Furrow takes Quantum to "see someone." T'Pold greets Quantum in that dramatic way people do when they're about to Reveal Something Important. You know what I mean: they stand at a window with their back to the person entering the room (So rude!) and say, "Hello [insert name]," before turning slowly around. T'Pold embraces Quantum -- to his great furrowprise -- and then asks about Trip. She doesn't want Quantum to bring her lovah by, because "that might be awkward." I'd say so -- when was the last time you plucked your eyebrows, T'Moldy? T'Pold hands over an e-pad and says, "You must give this to your science officer, she'll know what it means." Why doesn't she just say, "You must give this to me, I'll know what it means"? Would that make things confusing?
Mess Hall. Hoshi and May-Chance-Of-Showers discuss what they learned when they were researching how to fuck up their timelines. Hoshi has two kids, but doesn't want to know who the father is, and May-Chance-Of-Showers gets married to Uh-Oh Mackenzie. Hoshi's impressed, and wonders how well they know each other. Not very. Hoshi thinks May-Chance-Of-Showers should ask her out. But if it's a bad date, they might never get together...ooh, maybe that's what Hoshi already knows! She knows that May-Chance-Of-Showers could only have a successful marriage with the Uh-Oh if they go on a date year. However, this year, the year of the Albatross, is bad for dating, so she encourages the date, they hate each other, and then she becomes Mrs. Chance-Of-Showers! That's totally what's going on here. I know it. Reed joins them and haltingly tells them that he didn't get married or have kids on Futureprise: "Apparently the Reed line came to a rather...unceremonious end." "Unceremonious"? I guess that means gay marriage still isn't legal in the future. Bat rastards. As Reed bitches about not being able to find anyone on a ship the size of Enterprise, Hoshi and May-Chance-Of-Showers exchange uncomfortable looks and make excuses to get away from Lt. Downer. After they leave, Reed eagerly asks a blond buxom Red Stripe to join him at his table of overcompensation.
Quantum's Ready Room. T'Pol tells Quantum that the communiqué from her(old)self is that Tri'Progeny's plan isn't going to work in the slightest, and they could be destroyed in the attempt. Quantum leans into his WOTWW and confirms that Trip agrees with this assessment. They realize they will have to contact Degra to tell him they can't make their court date. T'Pol shows Quantum more calculations she will do in the future which show that if they technobabble a few doohickeys on the ship, they can use the subspace corridor without going back to the future. I'm cracking up that "doohickeys" is actually a word spell check recognizes.
In a parallel Ready Room on Futureprise, Quantum bawls out Tri'Progeny for not telling them about the twenty-two-percent chance that their ship could be destroyed. They argue about what should be done. Quantum seems to have the final word, and says they're making the modifications T'Pold Fart suggested and going through the corridor. As he flounces out, he tells Tri'Progeny that his Daddy Juice could use some extra hands in Engineering. If Quantum does much more flouncing on this show, he's going to need a back brace.
Tri'Progeny bawls out his mother for tattling on him to Quantum. They argue. T'Plucks-No-More-Forever kvetches that Tri'Progeny is letting his human side get the better of him. "You know NOTHING about being human," Tri'Progeny bores me. But can we just discuss how T'Pruneface looks exactly like Katie Couric when she went to Saudi Arabia and wasn't allowed to use her special "Katie Lighting," and we could see that her skin made the Rocky Mountains look like chiffon velvet? Tri'Progeny comments, "Maybe you'd be concerned if Vulcan was in danger and not Earth!" Well, Happy Fucking Mother's Day!
Tri'Progeny tells Perma-Furrow and the rest of his commanding crew that the crew of Futureprise has to be the ones to speak with Degra and meet with the Xindi of the Round Table, and they're going to steal Presenterprise's injectors to make it so. Perma-Furrow doesn't like that idea. "My father's a resourceful engineer -- he'll be able to fabricate new injectors," Tri'Progency states. I didn't know Trip was so talented in the medium of thin air. "You're asking me to betray Jonathan Archer!" Perma-Furrow whines. You know, if only these Futureprisers weren't all so wooden and cold in their approach to the lines, I might have felt something with that line, but as it is? I just feel the urge to throw my laptop at the television -- just to have something to get upset about. Tri'Progeny delivers a speech insisting that they follow his plan. I wonder if Quantum ever worked as a milkman. Because Tri'Progeny sure as hell got his Not Really That Stirring Speech Delivery traits from SOME-one.
Trip and T'Pol fiddle with stuff. On the ship, not each other. Trip wonders if T'Pol's had any mother-son talks with Tri'Progeny. You know, I was kind of hoping Tri'Progeny was old enough to already know about the warbirds and the bees. As T'Pol tries hard not to vomit a little in her mouth, Trip goes on about them getting married in a traditional Vulcan ceremony: "It's going to take me weeks to learn to pronounce the vows. You know where we're going to have our honeymoon? Cargo Bay Three." Ho-ho! Big spender. "He says I'll fill it up with sand that we dug up from a passing asteroid. I'm even supposed to [high-pitched giggle] fabricate a palm tree," Trip blathers. At first when he mentioned filling it up with sand, I was all "Aw, that's sweet -- like her homeworld," but when he mentioned the palm tree I was back to being confused again. Did he make coconut phones too? And did T'Pol wonder why? T'Pol really doesn't want to talk about any of this, and Trip can't believe she's not curious about figuring out how they ended up together. Is he really that dumb or am I losing it? I mean, it doesn't take such a leap of the imagination to realize where their Neural Node Nudging could naturally take them -- especially if they were stranded out of their own time and actually forced to procreate. T'Pol refuses to get drawn into this discussion. Trip insists that under the "right circumstances" T'Pol could have feelings for him: "Mebbe you have them alreddy." "I should've known this was a mistake," T'Pol grinds her teeth. "What?" Trip asks. "Exploring human sexuality with you," T'Pol says, standing with her back against the wall, dinners jutted out, so he can explore her Vulcan sexuality. T'Pol rants about Trip being unable to leave their relationship in the bedroom. "Y'know, all the other wimmin on the ship must be taken, because I can't imagine enny other reason why I wulda married ennywun as stubbern as yew!" Trip decides. Oh, pull her pigtails, rub mud in her face, put a worm down her back, and be DONE with it, because I'm so not buying this Maddie Hayes-David Addison relationship! Trip storms out, saying he's off to help Rostov.
Tri'Progeny and crew steal injectors. Trip surprises them and doesn't get what's going on. There's lots of yelling. Trip finally drops the father card and says meaningfully, "Take some advice from your old man." Yes? "Y'all might end up killing us, which means none of you will ever exist"? Oh, wait, or: "Never a borrower nor a lender be"? No, no, I know: "Keep your nose clean and mind your Ps and Qs"? "You don't wanna dew this!" is actually Trip's fatherly advice. Color me underwhelmed, tinged with starting to sympathize with Futureprise if they had these role models to "inspire" them. "I'm sorry," Tri'Progeny says, and shoots his father. It was on "stun," I assume; otherwise Tri'Progeny's arm would have started disappearing in the Polaroid.
Bridge. Quantum and May-Partly-Cloudy realize there's something wrong and they can't get a hold of Trip. Futureprise takes off and ignores their hails. They start shooting.
Firefight in the skyyyyy, I can go twice as hiiiigh! Take a shot, it's in the pot, bleedin' painbow! Bleedin' painbow, painbow, painbow!
At this point, I was really impressed by how they kept cutting seamlessly back to each bridge for successive shots. As the camera panned over one bridge, they'd cut to the other and still be in the exact same place as the camera continued panning. It was neat.
More chasing and firefighting.
They lose power, they lose hull plating, they can't do stuff. I'm not keeping track of which ship can't do what because it really, REALLY doesn't matter.
T'Pol manages to beam an EPS manifold off Futureprise. Is that an important part? I don't really care. T'Pol beams more likely important stuff off Futureprise, and Futureprise loses power. Quantum suggests that they call a truce and return each other's toys. Reed notes that Futurerprise has its final torpedo aimed at their starboard engine. Quantum guilts them into not firing at them by saying they're "going to hurt a lot of people over here." Over on Futureprise, Perma-Furrow talks Tri'Progeny down from his rooftop and reminds him that Quantum and Qrew are family: "I'm not going to let you kill them." Of course you aren't, because then YOU WOULDN'T EXIST! I'm sorry, but I really, really hate stupid time-travel episodes. If you can't get it right, DON'T DO IT!
The Evil Dr. Mathra: Some would argue that the laws of physics say that it's impossible to kill your own father.
Keckler: Huh. I guess Oedipus was sick that day.
Tri'Progeny orders, "Stand down weapons. Tell Archer I wanna talk." Dude, you just had him on the phone -- why don't YOU tell him you want to talk? Sigh, this is what corporate captaining does to people -- they choose to forget how to do the simplest things.
For a secret special reason known only to himfurrowself, Quantum chooses to put Tri'Progeny in the brig while they have their "talk." Quantum lectures him about his choices, and Tri'Progeny tells Quantum he can't accept that his Mission Infurrowable is over. Tri'Progeny then whips out his Vulcan violin and plucks out a dirge about carrying around the responsibility of millions of people's deaths. Twing, twang, bit-ter dregs. Ahh -- ahh, bit-ter dregs. Strummy-strum-strum. "I'm sure your crew did everything they could to stop the probe," Quantum cold-comforts. "I could've destroyed it!" Tri'Progeny shouts. "Years ago, I swore to my captain on my deathbed that I'd save those seven million lives. You were the man I made that promise to!" Oh. What a surprise. Wait, wait, I have to pick myself up off the floor. Tri'Progeny goes on about devoting his life to the mission, figuring out every detail, and finishes by admitting that they failed because he hesitated to set Futureprise on a collision course to destroy the Psycho Bocce Ball. His emotions and lack of sufficiently pointy balls to sacrifice his crew took over. Tri'Progeny insists he won't let his emotions get in the way again, and this time he will STOP the Psycho Bocce Ball. Quantum walks into the cell and says keeping him locked up wouldn't do them any good: "All that matters is what we're going to do -- whether you agree with it or not, I'm taking my ship into that corridor and I'll stand a much better chance of completing this mission -- our mission -- if we work together."
T'Pol visits the set of the Today Show. T'Pruneface offers her some tea. "Chamomile?" T'Pol asks. "Of course," T'Prune Juice (the drink of warriors) death-rattles. Yeah, god forbid she go a little crazy in a few years and start drinking Lapsang Souchong, right? Actually, there was a time when T'Pol was drinking mint tea, so, what's the thing, chicken wing? They talk shop for a bit, and then T'Prune Danish asks how she's dealing with her new job as the ship's CRACK WHORE. T'Pol's dealing, but she hasn't been able to regain complete control of her emotions. "You'll never fully recover," T'Pruning Shears assures her. "The emotions you've accessed will be with you for the rest of your life." T'Pol looks horrified. T'Prunella De Vil tells T'Pol to embrace her emotions and learn to live with them as she has. "There's someone on the ship who can help," T'Prunelighting advises. T'Pol says that Phlox already doped her up real good. "I don't mean Phhhloooxxx," T'Prunestruck says, enunciating Phlox's name most oddly and munching her lips in that old person's way. "Trip can be an outlet for these feelings." Is that what the kids are calling it these days? T'Prunesday Machine counsels T'Pol to trust him: "The emotions he stirred in me were powerful and frightening." Ew, come on, I don't want to hear about GRANNY SEX! T'Prunewalk admits that she tried to push Trip away at first -- well, who could blame her, really? -- but that if they hadn't been stranded in the past, it's possible she never would have married him. By the sounds of that honeymoon, it doesn't seem to me that she'd be missing much. Sex and sand do not mix -- bah! There's the GRANNY SEX image again! Stoooooooop! Anyway, Granny Sex -- I mean, "T'Pruney Toons" says she couldn't imagine what her life would have been like without him. "What do you suggest I do?" T'Pol asks, squelching the urge to toss her cookies. "There's a human expression: 'Follow your heart,'" T'Prunebeam intones, showing that T'Pol iPods way too much Thompson Twins in the future. T'Pol wonders what she'll do if her heart won't go on. "It will. In time. It will," T'Prune Cobbler predicts. Future people are so damn smug.
Presenterprise flies into the anomaly. Because the dog sneezed, they start to lose the picture on their viewscreen. Their warp signatures are being reflected, and T'Pol is reading multiple images. Just so you know, that's a good thing. Three Kovaalan ships attack. "Return fire!" Quantum orders. "The nebula's interfering with our targeting scanners," Reed reports, "we'll have to wait until they get closer." "THEY don't seem to be having the same problem!" Quantum bitchily points out. Reed finally gets a lock after Quantum yells at him some more. Ass. Quantum comms Tri'Progeny, and from under Presenterprise, Futureprise wings out. Together they manage to confuse the Kovaalans enough to disable the lead Kovaalan ship and force the other two back. Quantum compliments Tri'Progeny over on Futurerprise. "They must have been surprised when your reflection turned and attacked them," Tri'Progeny explains for the dull-witted among us. Trip suddenly sits up and says, "Oh, NOW I get it!" May-Low-Visibility reports that they're losing speed, and Trip shouts from Engineering that they lost something technologically important. Quantum sits down heavily and tells Tri'Progeny they won't be able to keep up with them. Look, just smear some paste on the flux capacitor, write Doc a note (that he'll tear up and then tape back together again), and all will be well! Maybe I should be the ship's engineer.
On Futureprise, Perma-Furrow announces that the Kovaalans are regrouping. Tri'Progeny decides to use the tractor beam to tow Presenterprise into the corridor. We see the graphic, but May-Low-Visibility feels the need to explain it to us. Some more. Again. The Kovaalans are closing. Presenterprise loses aft plating, and their weapons are down. Sars, if I start recapping Extras of TNG, can I get a bottle of wine every time I have to type that line? ["Yeah, right. Is my last name Rockefeller over here?" -- Sars]
Futureprise decides to distract the Kovaalans by shooting at them, disengaging their tractor beam, and drawing the aliens' fire. Tri'Progeny tells them, "Your momentum will carry you into the corridor. We'll follow as soon as we can. Tell my parents I'll see them soon." WHATEVER! Quantum looks over at Tri'Progeny's mommy. She looks down and wonders why she breastfed him into his teens. As Futureprise starts to take serious damage, Presenterprise sails into the corridor and out the other side. Just like in the future flash-forward we saw earlier, Reed reports that there's no sign of pursuit, T'Pol reports that they've traveled eleven-point-six light years, and May-Low-Visibility announces that the stars are where they supposed to be. There's no sign of Tri'Progeny.
Five hours later, Quantum logs that Futureprise still hasn't arrived, and they are making repairs. Quantum and T'Pol discuss the odds of Futureprise surviving the attack of the Kovaalans. T'Pol takes a negative view of her son's fate, whereas Quantum prefers to believe Tri'Progeny was man enough to captain them through the onslaught. Before I start foaming at the mouth about how the timeline works, Quantum admits that it's possible that since they weren't thrown into the past, there was no need for them to marry, have kids, and keep Futureprise wandering around in space. "Are you suggesting the other Enterprise never existed? If you're right...then why would we remember them?" T'Pol wonders. Luckily, a comm from Hoshi asking them to come to the Bridge saves Quantum from having to say, "Temporal mechanics give me a headache."
Bridge. May-Evening-Showers announces that a ship is dropping out of warp. Quantum and T'Pol look hopeful. Hoshi says it's Degra. Quantum and T'Pol slump. You know, Trip's actually the only one who bonded with his son -- why don't we get to see his reaction? I mean, since they acted so antiseptic toward one another, I don't really give a flying shit about Perma-Furrow and Quantum. And the T'Pol/T'Prunelight Becomes You bonding was just...odd, but Trip and Tri'Progeny shared a few precious moments that will later be molded into china statuettes, so his distress at the loss of the other ship would have been much more affecting. Degra hails them, "Captain, you're early." Oh, ha ha! NOT!