“Home”
Page 3 of 7she is going to join Starfleet and may not return home for a long while. Her mother does not look pleased. She apologizes that the food isn’t “fresh”. Her “stasis unit” is not working. Trip offers to repair it. T’Les suggests that T’Pol has picked up the habits of humans as she wants to do as she pleases and not what the family wants.
In a bar, on Earth, Reed is signing an autograph. Phlox and Mayweather are there. A man comes to their table. He confronts and harasses Phlox. A bar fight ensues. The man goes to punch Phlox and the doctor’s face swells up like a puffer fish scaring everyone. The man and the others who were fighting leave. Reed, with an appreciative smile on his face says: “Doctor…”.
On Vulcan, T’Les comes in from outside carrying a basket with vegetables. Trip is sitting alone at a counter. They talk. He thanks her for letting him stay. She tells him: “Expressing gratitude is an Earth custom.” He tells her: “T’Pol says thank you all the time.” She replies: “I’ve noticed.” T’Les tells him she knows he’s attracted to T’Pol and asks how long it has been going on. He tells her the first time they fought, he enjoyed it. He thinks T’Pol told her about them. T’Les tells him no but that she is T’Pol’s mother. He has repaired her stasis unit. She asks him if he can repair her “food synthesizer”. Someone knocks on the door. Trip goes to answer it. It is Koss. He asks to meet with T’Pol.
T’Pol and Koss go outside to talk. She asks him why he has come. He tells her it’s “obvious”. She tells him she’s not interested. She adds that he should choose someone else but he wants her. She threatens to “declare the Kal-if-fee”. He tells her to go ahead. He’ll “do whatever is necessary”. She asks him to leave. Before he goes, he tells her he can help her mother get her job back. T’Pol tells him T’Les is retired. He tells her that she was forced to resign. He adds: “You’d only have to live on Vulcan for one year. You could resume your career with Starfleet after that.” She asks him if he wants an “absent wife”. He replies that he wants her to be happy. She asks him to leave.
Back at the mountain, Archer tells Hernandez about the first M-Class planet they visited. She replies that maybe humans will visit it again. He tells her that wouldn’t be a good idea as the atmosphere has “psychotropic compounds” in it that drove his crew to nearly kill each other (see season one’s “Strange New World”). Archer suggests that “maybe the Vulcans were right”; that humans “weren’t ready”. He thinks the Xindi might not have attacked had the Enterprise not gone exploring. He adds that the Vulcans “keep their ships close to home”, just in case. She tells him: “That’s not the mission either one of us signed up for.” He replies: “Maybe you’ll feel differently after you’ve delivered a few dozen eulogies.”
T’Les is meditating. T’Pol comes in. T’Pol asks her about her retirement. We find out that she was framed and resigned rather than being dismissed. T’Pol realizes that it was because of the incident at P’Jem (see season one’s “The Andorian Incident” and “Shadows of P’Jem”) and that it is her fault her mother was forced to resign as they blamed T’Pol for bringing humans to the sanctuary. “They couldn’t reach me on Enterprise so they punished you.”, she tells her
