The episode opens with the crew sprawled around Enterprise in various states of semiconsciousness. The exception is T'Pol, saying in her log that she is afraid that the ship will be destroyed by a black hole, due to the crew being stricken with a strange condition that began around two days ago when the ship first set off to a trinary star system. The rest of the episode follows what T'Pol has documented of the events.
Enterprise discovers a black hole, which is part of said trinary star system. Archer decides to set a course for the system, which would take two days, and he also tells Trip to fix his chair, which he keeps sliding off. In his ready room, T'Pol tells Archer that Reed is working on a new security system and that the chef is sick, so Hoshi is subbing for him. Archer in turn tells T'Pol that he has received a biography of his late father been asked to write the preface of, but he doesn't know how.
While Hoshi starts working on some soup (a recipe from her grandmother), Travis goes to sickbay, complaining of a headache. Phlox gives him a checkup and takes the opportunity to see if the implants he received at the repair station are still giving him trouble.
On the bridge, Trip begins working on the chair, distracting T'Pol with his loud noise. Meanwhile, Reed, feeling like the crew is slow to react to emergencies, tells Archer that he wants to create a ship-wide emergency alert. Archer, while a bit annoyed (since he feels that is more suited to a warship) decides to run the idea by his security officers.
At dinner, Reed is starting to become obsessive about his security system and is thinking up names for it, while Trip is starting to obsess over Archer's chair and is considering adding a cup holder. They begin to annoy one another, each feeling like their task is more important, and Hoshi overreacts to Reed finding her soup too salty. Phlox, meanwhile, has kept Travis overnight in order to find his ailment, while Archer tries, rather unsuccessfully, to write his preface.
T'Pol calls Trip to her quarters to help her identify some radiation the system is emitting, but he's angry at the interruption and thinks it's revenge for the noise he was making, thus refusing to help. By now, everyone except T'Pol has become very obsessive: Phlox wants to do surgery on Travis, Reed keeps testing various alarms, Trip refuses to help Reed because he's working on Archer's chair, and Hoshi is making the same soup for every meal and fretting over the amount of salt.
T'Pol enters the armory, but Reed reveals that the armory now requires a code to access. She asks him for help establishing a sensor interface in her quarters and if he's noticed anything odd about Trip's behaviour, but all he cares about is her reason for wanting to access the sensor array from her quarters. When he threatens to contact Starfleet Command if Archer doesn't take his ideas seriously, T'Pol realises that it's not only Trip who is acting peculiar, but the bulk of the crew.
Archer begins reading his 19-page essay on his dad to Trip, who doesn't listen because he's preoccupied with taking Archer's measurements for his new "throne". At dinner, T'Pol asks for plomeek broth, but Hoshi insists on serving the soup she wants to perfect instead. She and Archer fight over a pot, and then one of Reed's alarms sounds, indicating that he set it up without getting Archer's permission.
They go to the bridge, where Reed complains about everyone's response time. When Trip brings up the chair yet again, he and Reed get into an argument that ends with Archer separating them and leaving, saying that he is not to be disturbed unless there is a genuine emergency.
T'Pol expresses concern about everyone's behaviour to Archer, wondering if she should declare a medical emergency, but he kicks her out. She goes to see Phlox, only to realise he is also affected when he asks her to join in on doing brain surgery on Travis.
Then, everyone passes out except for T'Pol, who makes a log entry noting that Phlox's scans have provided her with useful info: that it's the radiation which is causing the crew's loopy behaviour. It's too late to turn back, so T'Pol has to pilot the ship away from danger. She can't do that alone, so she goes to Archer's quarters and wakes him up by soaking him in the shower and feeding him coffee. She explains the situation and has him pilot the ship, which he does. At one point, an asteroid gets in the way, but when Reed's weapons turn on, they destroy it with them.
Now that Enterprise is away from the radiation, everybody wakes up, no longer obsessive, and Mayweather's headache is also gone. Reed takes down his alarm system, but Archer tells him to put it back but replace the alarm. Trip finishes fixing Archer's chair... by making it one centimetre lower.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ace Pilot: Even while half-awake, Archer is able to pilot Enterprise around a black hole.
- Brick Joke: Upon finding the black hole, Trip says he'll be sure to take some pictures of it. After they clear it, the first thing he asks when he wakes up is if they did get some decent pictures.
- Call-Back:
- Malcolm refers back to the incidents with the Mazarites and the Suliban as evidence that Enterprise needs to be more combat-ready.
- Travis is concerned about his headache being connected to the automatic repair station incident.
- Chekhov's Gun:
- Travis' headache (or rather, Phlox's scans he takes in order to find the cause of it) eventually helps T'Pol realize what's happening.
- Malcolm's new security protocol brings the weapons online at a crucial moment to save the ship.
- Continuity Nod: Malcolm complains to T'Pol that instead of paying attention to security concerns, Archer's "too busy fraternizing with the crew—inviting them to breakfast and to watch water polo."
- Crazy-Prepared:
- Malcolm with his security protocol begins obsessing over securing everything, from the warp reactor to the EPS grid to giving each senior officer a security clearance for restricted areas. This comes in handy in the climax, as he programmed the tactical alert to automatically prime weapons for a combat situation, allowing T'Pol to blow up an incoming asteroid. This causes Archer to approve the protocol practically as the crazed Malcolm developed it, only mandating a less ear-piercing alert sound.
- Likewise, Trip begins integrating everything into his redesigned captain's chair, from inertial microdampers to secondary helm controls to even a cupholder.
- Creepy Physical: When Travis goes to Sickbay with a headache, Phlox hints that it may have something to do with the events of "Dead Stop"—or it may just be tension. "On the other hand, Terrellian plague starts out with a simple headache, and then all manner of nasty things begin to happen..." The look on Trav's face...
- Cup Holders: Trip considers installing one in Archer's chair.Malcolm: Just what the captain needs in a crisis...(chuckles) a place to rest his beverage.
- Hate Plague: Eventually, everyone is so agitated that Trip is willing to go to blows with Malcolm over the captain's chair.
- Hell Is That Noise: The "Reed Alert" sirens, according to both Trip and Archer.Trip: They both sound like a bag full o' cats!
- How We Got Here: The episode opens showing the crew unconscious throughout the ship, while T'Pol is giving a log entry saying that it's unlikely they'll survive. It starts shortly after T'Pol's visit to sickbay and incapacitating Dr. Phlox.
- Instant Sedation: When Travis refuses to do any further tests, Phlox offers him something for his headache but instead sedates him with a hypospray.
- Irony: T'Pol notes that it's ironic that Phlox's scans gave her useful information, since he only took them because he wasn't right in the head.
- Jerkass Has a Point: While the radiation makes him more ascerbic and obsessive than usual, Reed's concerns about ship's security are entirely valid, and his tactical alert system is clearly a good idea. Archer's objection that Enterprise is "not a warship" is undercut by the multiple times they've been under attack or at risk of it. The only clearly unreasonable things he did was implement the alert without permission and fight with Trip, and even the former ended up saving the ship. By the end of the episode, Archer decides to not only keep the system, but recommend it for all future starships.
- Large Ham: Most of the main cast become very dramatic and loud as they become more obsessed with their tasks.
- Mad Doctor: Phlox becomes one under the effects of the anomaly. Luckily, T'Pol nerve-pinches him before he can dissect Travis's brain.
- Mundane Solution: After everyone returns to sanity, Tucker just lowers the Captain's seat a single centimeter and it sits perfectly.
- O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
- The reason everyone is behaving unusually is because they're affected by dangerous radiation, and T'Pol is the only one who notices.
- Phlox is the first really noticeable example. When Travis first enters sickbay Phlox lacks his usual jovial attitude and instead sound irritated about the interruption to his work.
- Out Sick: The reason Hoshi is cooking is because Chef is unwell.
- The Perfectionist: Most of the crew's obsessions were about trying to perfect something— for Archer it was his piece of writing, for Trip it was fixing Archer's chair, for Reed it was his alarm system, and for Hoshi, it was her soup recipe. The only exception is Phlox, who wasn't trying to perfect a project, but rather to find some kind of severe underlying reason to Travis' minor headache to the degree of wanting to dissect his brain.
- Red Alert: This episode sees the introduction of Malcolm's "Tactical Alert," a precursor to the Red Alert of the later shows. When he's still trying to decide on a name, Trip jokingly suggests "Reed Alert," to which Malcolm responds, "Reed Alert? That's not bad." He ultimately decides against the name, considering it "a bit narcissistic."
- Sanity Slippage: The radiation sends everyone except T'Pol insane, causing them to obsess over minor things and snap at one another.
- Shot at Dawn: Malcolm growls that Trip's less-than-Mildly Military attitude should warrant this fate. Archer then threatens Malcolm with this if he hears the "Reed Alert" siren again.
- Suddenly Shouting: Hoshi while cooking:Hoshi: Hand me the Kreetasan spice. I'll add it to the stock. Oh, and I'm out of carrots.
Red Shirt: There are twenty-five—
Hoshi: CARROTS! - Tempting Fate: Travis refuses to do any further tests and says Phlox will "have to strap him to a biobed." Guess what happens a mere thirty seconds later.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- So does Hoshi get that recipe of hers right? Her plotline is the only one with no hint of a resolution. Presumably, Chef got better once they cleared the black hole.
- Also, we never find out why Travis had a headache, even if his headache did become a Chekhov's Gun.
- You Won't Feel a Thing!: Trip says this to Archer before scanning him with one of his gadgets so he can get Archer's physical dimensions for his new chair.
