The Enterprise crew is exploring an uninhabited planet, when a shuttle appears. A Tellarite offers to be Trip and Archer's guide for shore leave, but then he kidnaps Archer. Everybody has to return to the ship, but T'Pol and Phlox have to wait in decon because they've picked up a microbe.
On the Tellarite ship, Archer wakes up behind a force field and demands to know what's going on, but the Tellarite doesn't answer. Some time later, Archer overhears the Tellarite talking to a Klingon, implying that he (Archer) has bounty from when he escaped prison. Archer points out that he doesn't know what he was accused of, but the Tellarite doesn't care. Meanwhile, the Enterprise crew is tracking him, only to find a false signal.
Archer tries to explain to the Tellarite that he never committed any crime, but the Tellarite (whose name turns out to be Skalaar) says that everyone he kidnaps claims to be innocent and that he's promised his delivery to Goroth.
Back in decon, T'Pol is having trouble suppressing her emotions and is yelling at Phlox, who notes that she has a fever.
Archer, meanwhile, contacts another Tellarite, promising a payment to get something named Tezra back, but the Tellarite is too suspicious and ends the transmission. Archer asks what Tezra is and learns it's a ship, but then abruptly ends the conversation. Another ship arrives with a second bounty hunter named Kago, who wants to take Archer for himself. Skalaar says no, so Kago attacks Skalaar's ship. Archer takes the helm while Skalaar repairs the ship, and they manage to get away from Kago but need to land on the same planet as him to make repairs. T'Pol starts to come onto Phlox and reveals that she's on pon farr, but that it's come on early due to the microbe.
While pretending to help repair the ship, Archer talks to Skalaar about the Tezra, but Skalaar notices that Archer is sabotaging and knocks him over. Archer says that he can't be expected to help Skalaar capture him, so Skalaar reluctantly helps him up.
Trip then brings food to Phlox and the still-crazy T'Pol, then he pilots the Enterprise to the planet Skalaar and Kago landed on, but only Kago is left. Thankfully, Kago tells the crew that Archer is probably headed for Klingon space, so the crew head off in that direction, too.
Skalaar goes to the workshop of his brother Gaavrin to get an antimatter injector, but Gaavrin says that Skalaar wouldn't be able to afford it. Skalaar tells him about Archer and his "bounty", but Gaarvin tells him that the Klingons have already cannibalised the Tezra. He lets him have the injector, but doesn't want to see Skalaar again.
T'Pol is now delirious and refusing medical treatment. She then rips the control panel off the wall and escapes, so Malcolm Reed and a group of security officers in protective suits surround and stun her.
On the Klingon ship, Archer escapes from his holding cell and goes into an escape pod. The Enterprise crew finds him, gets him back, and T'Pol gets treated.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Above the Influence: Phlox isn't at all tempted by T'Pol's attempts at seduction. Possibly because his species' equivalent was the previous year.
- Alien Abduction: Archer gets kidnapped by a Tellarite named Skalaar.
- Anti-Villain: Skalaar is a bounty hunter because he lost his cargo ship to the Klingons and is trying to pay off the impound fees. It's hard not to feel sorry for him when his brother tells him that this is all for nothing: the Klingons have already stripped their old ship of anything of value.
- Call-Back: The A-plot, and the reason this episode's called "Bounty," is a direct result of Archer's escape from Rura Penthe.
- Disproportionate Retribution: As expected, the Klingons take trespassing in their territory very seriously, especially if it's an "insignificant corner."
- Enemy Mine: Archer and Skalaar have to work together to fight off a rival bounty hunter.
- First-Name Basis: T'Pol calls Malcolm by name when she starts getting frisky with him. Fortunately, he's Not Distracted by the Sexy.
- Gunship Rescue: Enterprise shows up to rescue Archer from the Klingons.
- I Lied: The Klingons pay Skalaar a third less than their agreed payment.
- I Want Them Alive!: When Archer escapes, the Klingons are insistent on recapturing him alive.
- Jabba Table Manners: T'Pol wolfs down the salad that Trip brings her in Decon, forcing Phlox to cover for her.
- Mate or Die: Pon farr is back. Turns out to have been induced by an alien pathogen.
- Never Trust a Trailer: In this case, it focuses solely on T'Pol's B-plot. Why, you may ask?UPN trailer: T'Pol's in heat, and she needs relief.
- That's an Order!: While becoming increasingly delirious from her pon farr, T'Pol orders Phlox to release her from decon. It fails, however, as his authority overrides hers in medical situations.
- Title Drop: Skalaar departs mentioning that the Klingons are likely to double the bounty on Archer.
- We Need a Distraction: Skalaar uses a subspace beacon to distract Enterprise. He and Archer then use two more to confuse a rival bounty hunter.
