Archer and Porthos are in the ready room, when Porthos barks for no apparent reason. Archer wonders why, and then a book falls off a shelf. In engineering, everyone is looking confused, and in sickbay, Phlox's pets are strangely active and erratic. In the mess hall, some cups and cutlery float up to the ceiling, and in a corridor, an anomaly bowls over two crewmen. Back in the ready room, another anomaly knocks a cup off Archer's desk, where it floats in midair. T'Pol calls him to the bridge, where she tells him that anomalies are all over the ship. Then, the warp reactor glitches out and the ship loses main power.
Malcolm restores the emergency power, but the primary systems are still offline. Travis detects a ship, but as the transceiver is offline, Archer sets a course to intercept it. When they arrive, T'Pol determines that the ship has no gravity or bio-signs, so an away team beams aboard in EV suits. The away team, which consists of Archer, Malcolm, and a few MACOs, finds several tools, dead bodies, and the evidence of weapon fire.
Back on Enterprise, Archer tells T'Pol that there were seventeen people on the ship, most of whom were killed by the life support running out and the rest by particle weapons. Then, he tells Travis to continue on course. T'Pol wants to stay so that the ship can be repaired, but Archer wants to continue rather than risk being attacked by whoever attacked the alien ship. Archer then goes to see Trip in engineering, who is having trouble restarting the engines due to the anomalies. Archer goes back into his ready room to find his cup still floating, so he angrily slams it onto his desk.
An alien ship arrives and charges weapons, which is especially bad news at this point because hull plating is still offline. Archer tries to hail the aliens, but they don't reply. Then, four aliens beam into engineering, shoot an engineer, and steal some antimatter injectors. In the cargo bay, another alien hits a crewman on the back and then he and his coworker steal more equipment. Three more aliens try to raid the armory, but are pinned down by a security team. They try to stun them, but the aliens beam away, so Malcolm and Archer chase after the remaining intruders. In engineering, Trip knocks out one alien and corners the rest with sparks from the reactor. The aliens beam out, leaving one behind, and their ship leaves. When Archer checks the cargo bay, he finds that everything in there is gone.
In sickbay, Phlox treats the burn victims, including the alien who was left behind, and Archer finds out that one crewman, named Fuller, was killed. Archer orders Phlox to relocate the injured alien to the brig, and Phlox tells Archer that the species is called Osaarians, and they are not native to the Expanse. Trip then delivers bad news: all the antimatter storage pods are stolen, and if they aren't replaced within a month, the ship will be immobilised.
T'Pol contacts the Vulcan High Command for info on the Osaarians, but they don't know much about them apart from the fact that they're a race of merchants and have never been pirates before. Archer decides to keep searching for the ship that took their equipment, and says as much to the Osaarian prisoner, who is named Orgoth. Orgoth tells Archer that his people were initially simply traders, but they got stranded in the Expanse and learned to kill to survive.
T'Pol informs Archer that the first alien ship was apparently also looking for the Osaarians, but that their life support ran out before they could begin. She also tells him that the hull plating is back online and the phase cannons will be ready in an hour. Archer leaves to assist Malcolm in repairing the torpedoes.
In the mess hall, Trip and Malcolm grieve Fuller. Meanwhile, the ship loses track of the Osaarians but determines that they must be nearby, so Archer orders the weapons to be brought online. Enterprise passes through a cloaking barrier and finds a huge sphere, which they cannot scan.
Archer, Malcolm, Travis, and three MACOs enter it and find enough energy to power twelve cities. Malcolm finds an area with breathable atmosphere, and the team breaks into it and finds most of their technology. Travis finds a cargo manifest, but he can't read it because it's written in Osaarian, so he gives it to Hoshi to see if she can translate it. They put their technology back and Trip, who is getting treatment for a minor injury, wants to give up his neural pressure sessions, but changes his mind when Phlox suggests "mud leeches" as an alternative.
The salvage teams have found most of the stolen antimatter and will restore warp drive in half an hour. T'Pol determines that the sphere is about a thousand years old and is powered by seven fusion reactors, but that only three of them are working. She notes that it's producing gravimetric energy and wonders if that's the cause of the anomalies. Hoshi then finds out that the Osaarians attacked a Xindi vessel.
Orgoth claims not to know about this, but then he admits that he lied, revealing that it was a small vessel. Archer presses Orgoth for more information, threatening to throw him out of the airlock, but he refuses, believing that Archer is too "civilised" to make good on the threat. Archer opens the airlock, so Orgoth finally agrees to give Archer all the information he wants.
As it turns out, the Osaarians stole the fuel and supplies of the Xindi ship and downloaded its database. Archer wants the database, but the ship is too far away, however, Archer is confident that it'll come back. The Osaarian ship returns, and they fight and chase each other into the cloaking barrier. Hoshi begins downloading the database and the Enterprise goes back to the sphere, luring the Osaarians by firing at the portal. Enterprise loses hull plating again, but they manage to disable the Osaarian ship and Hoshi manages to download 90% of the database. Archer puts Orgoth back with his people, then the Enterprise leaves, and Archer searches through the database.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Brick Joke: During The Teaser, an anomaly passes through Archer's ready room and leaves his coffee suspended in the air. A few scenes later, Archer comes back to see both the cup and the coffee still floating. He angrily grabs the cup and puts it back on his desk.
- Chekhov's Gun: Early in the episode, the warp reactor shoots out Jacob's Ladders, forcing Trip to shut it down. When the pirates attack Engineering, he uses that as an Improvised Weapon.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Discussed—the Ossarian doesn't think that Archer's capable of this.
- Combat Pragmatist: Orgoth remarks that those who spend every day focused on survival need to be clever, know how to hide until the right moment, and know how to cover their tracks.
- Crapsack World: Orgoth remarks his crew were peaceful merchants when they came to the Delphic Expanse, but the inhabitants and chaotic environment forced them to turn to piracy just to survive. Trip is also resigned to the idea that, whether the crew saves Earth or not, this mission is a one-way trip.Orgoth: Mercy is not a quality that will serve you well in the Expanse, Captain.
- Didn't See That Coming: Phlox recognizing their attackers as a species that's not native to the Expanse.
- Dramatic Irony: The Ossarians destroyed the Xindi ship that they encountered. Since Xindi ships featured throughout the season all possess vortex technology capable of leaving the Delphic Expanse, the Ossarians quite likely and unknowingly destroyed their best chance to go home.
- Evil-Detecting Dog: Porthos starts barking right before things get weird in Archer's ready room. Phlox's animals also go crazy in sickbay. Downplayed, as they're detecting anomalies instead of villains.
- Exact Time to FailureReed: Sir, he'll die.Archer: Not for another twenty seconds he won't.
- Facial Horror: Orgoth (the Ossarian prisoner) has a distorted face, apparently from being caught in an anomaly.
- Fanservice: While our heroes are suiting up for an away mission, we get shirtless Archer and a female MACO showing off her midriff. Watching it in HD also reveals the MACO's T-shirt to be somewhat sheer—or at least easier to notice compared to SD video.
- Foreshadowing:
- Trip correctly predicts that more will be killed during the course of this mission.
- The giant sphere is the first piece of a larger puzzle about the origins of the Delphic Expanse and the anomalies.
- Frontline General: Archer personally leads Malcolm and the MACOs in fighting against the pirate raiders when they board the ship.
- Good Is Not Soft: Orgoth insists the crew is too new to the Expanse and therefore too civilized to do what needs to be done to survive. Archer proves him wrong.
- Gravity Screw: Plates of food in the mess hall suddenly fly up to the ceiling.
- Halfway Plot Switch: The story is initally about the crew recovering from an attack and reclaiming stolen supplies. Upon finding where the goods are stashed, Hoshi goes over their records and learn they encountered a Xindi ship, so Archer now wants to obtain whatever information the Ossarians have on it.
- He's Back!: Once the crew finds the stolen supplies, Enterprise is back to full strength.Archer: [to the Ossarians] This is Captain Archer. Remember us?
- I Warned You: Orgoth doubts that Archer has what it takes to kill or torture because he's only freshly in the Expanse. Archer warns him early on that he'll do whatever it takes for the sake of his mission and that he'll live with any remorse later. He ends up following through.
- Invisibility Cloak: The sphere is surrounded by a powerful one. Enterprise only detects it by following a warp trail with a huge gap in it.
- It Gets Easier: Orgoth tells Archer that, initially, his crew only acted in self-defense and made a point of not killing anyone, but it didn't last.Orgoth: It takes time to learn to kill without remorse. You're not prepared to kill or torture, not yet.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Archer throws the Ossarian prisoner into the airlock and threatens to space him if he doesn't cooperate while slowly suffocating him in the process.
- Jenny's Number: The numbers 8675309 appear on the viewscreen as the crew tracks the Osaarian merchant ship.
- Mugging the Monster: The Ossarians pick a fight with a ship captained by a guy tasked with saving his planet. It's likely the first time they ever had to deal with someone this intent on hunting them down and retaking stolen property.
- Negative Space Wedgie: Enterprise is crippled by several. Archer then learns that Trellium-D can protect ships from them, prompting him and his crew to start searching for some in future episodes.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Orgoth says that he and his crew were just like Enterprise when they first entered the Expanse, and that Enterprise will end up just like them.
- Properly Paranoid: T'Pol suggests the anomalies are the results of the sphere's gravimeteric energy. Later episodes will prove her correct.
- Red Shirt: Enterprise's first fatality (not including Daniels) is an unseen man named Fuller. Deconstructed in that Archer takes this first loss very hard, Reed reflects on Fuller's capabilities, and Trip grimly notes this won't be the last casualty.
- Replacement Flat Character: Inverted. The crew are actually the replacements to the Ossarians: a civilized crew from much friendlier territory suddenly amongst those who will do anything to survive.
- Reverse Polarity: Several warp relays do this on their own, forcing Enterprise out of warp.
- Rewatch Bonus: The other Ossarians not having Orgoth's distorted features.
- Sealed Evil in a Can / Sealed Good in a Can: Orgoth reveals that everyone in the Delphic Expanse is essentially this. The surrounding clouds let ships enter but prevent them from leaving; a second Ossarian ship was destroyed attempting to do so. The Xindi can only leave because of their exclusive vortex technology.
- Shadow Archetype: The Ossarians were like humans before they came to the Delphic Expanse. They represent what Archer and the overall crew could become there.
- Space Pirates: The Ossarians, though they didn't start out as pirates. They were forced to resort to piracy when they became trapped in the Expanse.
- Squick: Trip's In-Universe reaction to the idea of applying Aldebaran mud leeches to himself as a natural sedative. It makes T'Pol's neuropressure much more appealing, especially since they apparently get "angry" if he sleeps on his back.
- Suspiciously Similar Substitute: Originally, the villains were going to be Orions and that being in the Delphic Expanse is what made them antagonistic pirates in later parts of the franchise. That changed during rewrites to a new but somewhat similar species.
- Underestimating Badassery: Orgoth and the rest of his crew severely underestimate how far Archer will go to get what he wants.
- Worf Had the Flu: The NX-01 outguns the Ossarian ship, but the anomalies at the start of the episode leave them easy prey.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: After the battle, the Ossarian wonders if he'll fall victim to this. Instead, Archer has him returned to his people.Orgoth: So you have let your morality get in the way, after all. Mercy is not a trait that will serve you well in the Expanse, Captain.
