In the captain's mess, Tavin and his crew member Tolaris have an introductory meal with Archer and T'Pol. Tavin wants to try some of the captain's chicken, even after learning it is meat, which is unusual as Vulcans are usually vegetarians. T'Pol explains that Tavin and his crew belong to a Vulcan culture known as "V'tosh ka'tur", which translates to "Vulcans without logic". Tavin explains that it's a misnomer, since they do use logic; they just don't suppress their emotions with it.
In engineering, Trip meets the Vulcan engineer Kov, who has some misconceptions about humans, then T'Pol shows Archer a list of items the visiting Vulcans want. He notes that she seems to be avoiding them, and she explains that it's because she fears they're dangerous due to not suppressing emotions. He reassures her that they don't appear dangerous.
In the mess, Tolaris asks T'Pol how to use the replicator, and while there, he claims that her emotions are "closer to the surface" than other Vulcans' because she chose to stay on Enterprise and is drinking mint tea. She tells him that his and the others' behaviour is dangerous, but he dismisses the belief that unbridled emotions in Vulcans are dangerous as "propaganda". He asks her out for pizza, and she replies that she's not hungry now but would be fine with it later.
Enterprise reaches the Arachnid Nebula and the crew begins to analyse it, with Archer assigning T'Pol to work on the Vahklas. There, she notes that it's rather odd that they own a statue of Surak, but Tolaris explains that he and his people don't reject Surak; they just interpret him differently than most. When T'Pol admits that she used to consider not suppressing her emotions when she was younger, Tolaris suggests that she try going to bed without meditating and seeing if it affects her dreams.
In the mess, Trip is clearing up Kov's misconceptions about humans and they discuss sex, with Kov revealing that the V'tosh ka'tur are attempting to make themselves go into pon farr more often. On the bridge, Hoshi receives a transmission from Starfleet, and it turns out that Admiral Forrest wants to talk to the Vulcan guests, revealing that Kov's dying, estranged father wants to talk to his son one last time before he dies.
T'Pol goes to bed and has a dream in which she goes to a nightclub in San Francisco and talks to and has sex with Tolaris. The dream ends with an image of the Arachnid Nebula and a statue of Surak breaking. The next morning, she has a headache and goes to sickbay. Phlox notes that she has high blood pressure and unusual synaptic activity, but T'Pol thinks this is just because of the nightmare she had from not meditating and that all she needs is inaprovaline.
Archer invites Kov to his ready room, and Kov mentions that he wants to talk to his father, revealing that the reason he's dying is because he's ill. However, he also mentions that his father claimed he disgraced his family the last time they spoke, so he tells Archer to send the message that he said goodbye a long time ago from him instead.
On the Vulcan ship, Tolaris asks how T'Pol's dream experiment went, but she doesn't want to talk about it. He insists on hearing the details, so she tells him, but leaves out the erotic part. He presumes that T'Pol's awkwardness is because she's afraid of emotion, so he tells her it's nothing to be afraid of.
Back on the Enterprise, Archer goes to engineering and asks Trip to help Kov talk to his father. Trip agrees to give it a try, then Archer expresses concern about Tolaris hanging around T'Pol. Trip, however, thinks it's normal and that if he was on a ship with lots of Vulcans and a human, he'd gravitate towards the human as well. In T'Pol's quarters, Tolaris offers to mind meld with her, saying it helps in dealing with emotions. She agrees, but when he conjures up images from the dream, she decides to cut out of it, but he insists on continuing. They struggle for a bit, he leaves, and then she collapses and contacts sickbay.
In engineering, Trip is trying to convince Kov to talk to his father, but the latter refuses. Trip asks if Vulcans dance, then tells Kov that he wanted to dance with a girl twenty years ago, but didn't have the courage to and still regrets not asking her to dance. He tells Kov that regret is a very strong and negative emotion, and that Kov may regret not speaking to his father.
Archer invites Tolaris into his ready room, where he talks about the ship repairs and the nebula, but also chews him out for what he did to T'Pol, describing it as "assaulting" her. He denies it was assault and claims that he was just helping her with her emotions, but Archer has none of it. Tolaris throws Archer against the wall, so Archer grabs a phase pistol and tells him that he and the others are no longer welcome on the Enterprise.
As Trip escorts Kov back to the docking point, Kov reveals that he did contact his father, and that his father's condition is improving so he might live a few more years. When the Vahklas leaves, Archer asks T'Pol if she feels better and they discuss his dreams, with T'Pol stating that she envies Archer for not having many nightmares.
Tropes in this episode include:
- A Father to His Men: Archer and T'Pol aren't exactly best buds at this point, but he sure as hell won't stand by and let Tolaris get away with a Mind Rape.
- Exept that he does. Tolaris isn't sent to the Enterprise's brig, he isn't punished by Tavin, and T'Pol never has him apprehended and punished by anyone. In fact, as far as the Enterprise crew is aware, Tolaris suffers no consequences for assaulting T'Pol, nor for giving her Pa'nar syndrome. She eventually gets better
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- This episode provides an object lesson in why Vulcans work so hard to control their emotions. They have incredible intellect, strength, and resilience; an angry Vulcan is a very difficult force to stop. Captain Jonathan "Glass Jaw" Archer finds this out the hard way at the end of the episode.
- Tolaris taught Vulcan literature before rejecting the Kir'Shara's prohibitions on emotion. Generally speaking, he's the antagonist in this episode. He's also very creepy.
- Big Eater: Discussed— Kov initially believed that humans ate six meals a day.
- Creepy Jazz Music: During T'Pol's meld with Tolaris. Starts off fairly neutral-sounding, then turns wild and chaotic as the meld takes a hard left turn into Mind Rape territory.
- Didn't Think This Through: Archer didn't exactly consider that trying to shout down a Vulcan with three times his strength wasn't a good idea, hence why he grabs a phase pistol after getting thrown across his ready room.Tolaris: You planned this.Archer: If I'd known I was going to get thrown across the room that hard, I might have tried a different approach.
- Erotic Dream: T'Pol has a sensual dream involving Tolaris when she skips her evening meditation.
- I Have No Son!: Kov refuses to contact his father because, the last time they spoke, he told him that he brought shame to 15 generations of their family.
- Making Love in All the Wrong Places: T'Pol dreams about having sex with Tolaris in a nightclub.
- Manipulative Bastard: Tolaris. His goals largely involve 'a deep scan' of T'Pol. He shows his true colors when Archer warns him off of her after the disastrous mind-meld.
- Mental Fusion: Tolaris smooth-talks T'Pol into engaging in her first meld. Unfortunately for T'Pol, his intentions are sinister, and it turns into Mind Rape until T'Pol forces him away from her.
- My Species Doth Protest Too Much:
- The V'tosh ka'tur ("Vulcans without logic") have rejected the Vulcan philosophy of Emotion Suppression. That, and vegetarianism.
- Kov also believes that his people are far too squeamish when it comes to discussing sex. He happily answers Trip's questions regarding Vulcan mating practices.
- An inversion is also posed. At one point, T'Pol notices a statue of Surak in the V'tosh ka'tur ship. She asks why they would have that, when they embrace emotion. Tolaris explains that they don't reject logic, as it's necessary, but that in accepting logic they don't have to reject emotion.
- Not So Stoic:
- For the first time, T'Pol expresses emotions, which unnerves her.
- The other thing that unnerves her, is a flashback during her nightmares to a time when she snuck out of the Vulcan Compound in San Francisco, and lost emotional control in a jazz nightclub.
- Parting-Words Regret: Trip manages to convince Kov to contact his dying father in order to avoid this, recounting a story in which he couldn't work up the courage to ask a girl to dance and how he still regrets that.
- Plain Palate: Discussed when Tolaris is surprised that T'Pol is drinking mint tea, since usually, Vulcans prefer blander drinks.
- Rugby Is Slaughter: A variant; Kov was under the impression that American football was some kind of a barbaric ritual where a large group of men pile upon and savagely maul a single man to death, but Trip explains to him that it's just a game and nobody dies or suffers major injuries in the process.
- Science Marches On: In-Universe. Upon arriving at the Arachnid Nebula, Archer is surprised to find that it is 1.5 billion kilometers larger than his astronomy book said. Hoshi jokes that they should tell the publisher so they can print a revised edition.
- Sexophone: Jazzy saxophone music plays during T'Pol's Erotic Dream.
- Sleepyhead: Discussed— Kov initially thought all humans slept for over half the day (which actually is generally only true with babies and toddlers).
- Soap Opera Disease: It's never revealed what's wrong with Kov's father, just that he's "ill" and in danger of dying.
- The Stoic: This episode is all about the duality of this trope and Not So Stoic in the Vulcans.
- The V'tosh ka'tur are Vulcans in self-imposed exile due to rejecting the notion that logic precludes having emotions.
- T'Pol is a mainstream Vulcan who has naturally weak emotional control, as indicated by Tolaris. She attempts to try to experience emotions as a major plot point, with interesting results.
- What happens when a Vulcan loses emotional control? The results vary based on the emotions they are repressing.
- Straw Vegetarian: Averted. The Vulcan captain surprises Archer and T'Pol by trying a piece of chicken.
- Straw Vulcan: Deconstructed. The V'tosh ka'tur believe that the traditional Vulcans' philosophy on suppressing emotions is unreasonable, but the episode demonstrates that Vulcans don't work like humans, and if a Vulcan doesn't suppress their emotions, it can be disastrous.
- You Monster!: Archer calling out Tolaris in the climactic confrontation. Interestingly, he starts the conversation as amiable as he usually is, before...Archer: Sub-Commander T'Pol's in Sickbay. From what the doctor tells me, she's in pretty bad shape.Tolaris: That's unfortunate. What happened?Archer: (demeanor changes) You know damn well what happened. She told me about your, what did she call it, mind-meld? She said when she asked you to stop, you got angry. She said she had to force you away.Tolaris: What happened between us is personal. It's not your concern.Archer: You assaulted a member of my crew.
