After two episodes of detours, Enterprise finally makes it to Risa for some R & R for two days. Travis wants to go rock climbing, Trip and Malcolm want to find dates (although they claim it's for a cultural study), Hoshi wants to learn Risian, and Archer wants to read. Meanwhile, Phlox needs to hibernate, as per the norm for his species.
While on Risa, Archer meets an alien woman named Keyla and asks her out. She says no, but suggests meeting up the next day. Meanwhile, Hoshi practices her Risian on an old couple, who are impressed. An alien man shows up, they talk about languages for a bit, and then he asks her to dinner and she says yes.
Meanwhile, Trip and Malcolm are at a nightclub and find dates. However, these dates lead them somewhere and ask them how much starship captains get paid and what their valuables are. The aliens then turn out to be (male) thieves in disguise and they knock Trip and Malcolm out and mug of their uniforms, leaving them in their underwear.
Travis then gets injured while rock climbing and wants to be treated by Phlox as he's a little afraid of alien hospitals. Phlox, however, is unavailable as he's hibernating, but Travis gets beamed aboard for treatment anyway.
Trip and Malcolm wake up, with their hands tied, and they realise they've been locked up all night. They shout for help but no one can hear them, and then they start arguing because Malcolm thinks the Vulcan database never mentioned crime on Risa whereas Trip thinks it did.
Back on the ship, Travis is having trouble breathing because he's allergic to the medication he took on Risa, so Cutler wakes up Phlox. Phlox, however, is very out-of-it and he even forgets that he's the doctor at one point, but he manages to treat Travis.
On Risa, Hoshi is getting along well with her date and ends up sleeping with him. Meanwhile, Keyla visits Archer, but she's in a bad mood, mentioning that her family was killed by Suliban and asking him questions about them. When Archer doesn't know the answers to her questions, Keyla gets mad, making him suspicious. He scans her, and it turns out she is also in disguise, so she knocks him unconscious.
Trip and Malcolm finally manage to escape and walk back to their rooms in their underwear, while Hoshi is also getting ready to leave. Captain Archer also wakes up, after having been unconscious all night, and they all go home.
Tropes featured:
- Aborted Arc: Archer discovers that the woman he was chatting up was actually a Tandaran agent, who then drugs him because "he cannot interfere." While presumably a part of the Temporal Cold War arc, we never follow up on this particular thread.
- Aliens Speaking English: Hoshi's date learns English pretty quickly. She can't figure his language out, though.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Some of the alien women that Trip and Malcolm ogle. Not that we see them.
- Boldly Coming:
- Subverted for Trip and Malcolm, whose dates turn out to be shape-shifting muggers.
- Played Straight, however, for Hoshi and her date.
- Breather Episode: Our heroes spend a few days relaxing (or, at least, trying to) before it hits the fan next week.
- Call-Back: Trip and Malcolm tell their "dates" a few stories from earlier in the season.
- Call-Forward: The book that T'Pol sends Archer was written by Skon, Spock's grandfather.
- Casanova Wannabe: Trip and Malcolm, who go to bars looking like they're ready for A Night at the Roxbury.
- Double Entendre / Unusual Euphemism:
- Hoshi says that she learned "several new conjugations" on her shore leave. Yeah, we saw the end of her "lessons" with her date.
- Trip and Malcolm plan to "broaden their horizons" with the many alien species visiting Riza.
- Hangover Sensitivity: Trip and Malcolm, from both the drinks and getting stunned.
- Idiot Ball: Trip and Malcolm willingly follow two gorgeous women into a basement, who then turn out to be shapeshifters. And then they get mugged.
- In My Language, That Sounds Like...: Hoshi's date says that "kiwi" is his people's term for a kiss.
- Irony: When Trip and Malcolm talk of broadening their horizons, Hoshi asks if that's all they ever think about. However Hoshi is the one who has an Interspecies Romance while Trip and Malcolm just get mugged.
- It's Probably Nothing: Cutler says this of the pain meds that Travis receives from the Risan hospital. It turns out that he's allergic to the meds, and it causes him to have trouble breathing.
- The Men First: Why Archer is reluctant to be on the first shore leave party.
- Mr. Fanservice: Trip's in his underwear again, this time with Malcolm joining in.
- No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction: Why Travis goes rock-climbing on a cliff that changes pitch. It doesn't end well.
- Overly Long Name: The planet where Hoshi's date comes from. His own people can't even say it right, and he can't say it any slower to make it clearer or it changes the meaning.
- Pleasure Planet: This is the final episode in the franchise released (so far) to visit Risa. Interestingly, its portrayal is different from TNG and DS9, depicting the place as more of a tropical resort than a perfect sex-filled brothel world. The NX-01 crew enjoys themselves without a single mention of jamaharon.
- Rubber-Forehead Alien: Keyla is an odd variation in that her rubber forehead was removed to keep Archer from figuring out her motives.
- They Wasted a Perfectly Good Sandwich: The old couple with whom Hoshi tries her Risian leave with their plates full of food.
- Title Drop: Both Trip and Hoshi state the episode title, him when he toasts with Malcolm at the start of their vacation and her when her date comments on how short her vacation was.
- Villain Ball: Even for someone who supposedly lost everything to the Suliban, Keyla comes off way too strong to Archer, begging to know who their leader is, where their helixes are. It's little wonder that Archer was able to expose her.
- Waking Non Sequitur: When Phlox is woken early from his hibernation, he shouts "Do'sani! Do'sani, yo-to aruda!", and follows it up with "I don't care what it tastes like!" He spends the rest of the episode very woozy, even referring to every other person as "Captain."
- Worst Aid: The Risans have no experience treating humans, and so Travis develops an allergic reaction to their treatments.
