In the twenty-sixth and final episode of the second season of Enterprise, THIS SHOW ESCALATED EVERYTHING FOREVER. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Star Trek.
To say I was unprepared for this would be an understatement. I don’t know what’s in store for me in the second half of Enterprise, but I feel like it’s safe to at least guess that the show may have found its voice. “The Expanse” feels so utterly unlike the other four existing Trek shows, and I adore that. I adore how risky and huge and scary this feels, how these characters – particularly Archer, Tucker, and T’Pol – have been pushed to extremes, and it feels like it was done to see what they would do with the hand that fate dealt them.
THEY DID VERY FASCINATING THINGS, Y’ALL. And that’s not even touching the plot capabilities that are created by the events in this episode. Are we about to get a season that focuses on the Delphic Expanse? WHO ARE THE XINDI??? Why have you done this to me?
Seriously, this opens with the most destructive and violent thing we may have ever seen in Trek in terms of scope and depth and size, and it’s part of the reason “The Expanse” feels so different. It’s a precipice, and the end of the episode is the plunge into something new. In a sense, it’s frightening to the audience because we’re not used to Earth being a target. (Hell, you could even argue that this is a distinctly American interpretation, since most of us have grown up with our country being a target like the vast majority of the world has.) And yet, in the span of a minute or so, life on Earth is changed forever. These characters’s lives are changed, too. A probe appears in the atmosphere, and cuts a swath out of Earth from the middle of Florida to Venezuela, killing seven million people in the process. (And one of those people was Tucker’s baby sister, why is this episode so cruel.) There’s no sense to it (as if there could be); there’s no warning (as if that would have helped.) And until Archer speaks to Future Person (WHO IS THAT), there’s literally nothing that Earth can do. Just like that, seven million lives are snuffed out, gone, and the surface of Earth is quite literally different.
While there’s a great deal done here to address the story of the Xindi and their pre-emptive attack on Earth, “The Expanse” proves to be engaging because of what the writers do with the people involved. This is a horrifying act of terrorism, which Archer learns is the first step towards the complete eradication of humanity. Why? Because in 400 years, the Xindi will be destroyed by humans. Someone told the Xindi of the future, and it made me wonder how many factions there really are in the Temporal Cold War. There are enough that, for the moment, Future Person and the Suliban are allies to Archer and the humans, though it’s for a selfish reason. This act will contaminate the timeline so badly that, I assume, no one will be able to fix it.
What unfolds from this point is a complicated political dance. How can Archer guarantee that Starfleet will send Enterprise to the coordinates that Future Person gave him? Is it worth the trip? Will the Vulcans try to prevent the humans from going to the Delphic Expanse? Oh god, there’s just SO MUCH HERE, and it’s one of the reasons I loved this episode so much. Watching Archer navigate both the political systems that stand in his way to the Expanse was fascinating. Yet what does this mean to him? He has a reaction much closer to Tucker, though Tucker’s personal motivation is much more intense. Still, there’s a hint here in this episode that Tucker and Archer are interested in some form of revenge, which isn’t something we necessarily we see in Starfleet officers. As far as I can tell, the Xindi attack is the first serious attack on Earth, which means that there’s no protocol in place. There’s no precedent. The human characters are venturing into both literal and figurative unknowns from here on out. So how will either of them react once the Xindi are located? Will they jump into action? Is this the start of another war?
Then there’s T’Pol, who is ordered to return to Vulcan because the Vulcans believe that the Delphic Expanse is an illogical place to go. Why? Well, for a place that’s so mysterious, we sure as hell get a lot of UTTERLY UNNERVING stories about what happens when you go there. (That Klingon story is THE MOST FUCKED UP ONE.) There’s even a final transmission from a Vulcan ship that Soval tries to use to convince Archer that going to the Expanse is a terrible, terrible idea. Look, we straight-up have no idea what’s caused anything that’s happened to those who have traveled there, and the threat of violence and suffering and terror makes this even more unbearable. WHAT’S THERE? WHO IS THERE? WHY DO MOST SHIPS NEVER COME BACK?
Yet T’Pol is faced with a much different choice than everyone else: Does she give up the career she has successfully built to stay with Archer? Where do her loyalties lie? Hell, is loyalty an emotion? After spending nearly two years with this crew, T’Pol has made friends; adapted to humanity; experienced things she never would have otherwise. She’s been the logical, measured core of the Enterprise crew. And she’s supposed to just give all of this up? Because of a risk? Because of danger? It’s so intriguing to me that T’Pol rejects the logic of her superiors while making a decision that is – OR AT LEAST I THINK SO – quite emotional. She chooses Archer. She chooses this crew. SHE RESIGNS HER COMMISSION AND POSSIBLY TANKS HER ENTIRE CAREER SO SHE CAN TO INTO THE DELPHIC EXPANSE WITH ENTERPRISE.
I just?!?!?!?! HELP ME, Y’ALL. Watching her grow as a part of this crew has been so spectacular, I LOVE IT DEARLY.
Now, I don’t know that the Duras plot was all that interesting; it was mostly a slight plot annoyance that was meant to push the story forward. And I assumed Duras is dead so… will the Klingon empire give up on Archer? Maybe not? I can’t say I care that much, but it’s hard to invest energy in that when THE DELPHIC EXPANSE IS HERE. This episode is kind of a cliffhanger, but I actually find it way more fulfilling to think of it as the very start of the next chapter. These characters made their choices, and it brought them to the edge of the Expanse. What’s on the other side? That’s not for this season to answer, though. Instead, we get a glimpse of the stars of the Expanse, and that’s it. It’s the kind of ending that wraps up stories in season two, but gives us just the tiniest tease of what’s to come.
COUNT ME IN, Y’ALL. Whew, this was so good!
The video for “The Expanse” can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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