Hoshi has been feeling paranoid lately and keeps hearing the mysterious voice, but Malcolm can't find anything on the sensors. He wonders if she's just letting her imagination run away with her due to fear, but she insists it's something real. Phlox examines her and concludes that she may be hallucinating but can't find anything wrong with her. She goes back to work and is telepathically contacted by an alien, who shows her his planet and says he's waiting there. She finds herself in a building with him, tries to escape only to find a cliff, and then appears back on the Enterprise again.
She calls Archer, who increases security, and later is telepathically contacted by the man again, whose name is Tarquin. He tells her that he may be able to help the crew track down the Xindi and their weapon. Archer is suspicious that it may be a trap, but they head to the building anyway and find the building Hoshi saw. They also find Tarquin, but he looks a lot different.
Tarquin apologises for changing form, claiming he didn't want to shock Hoshi, and explains that he can read the "telepathic imprints" people leave on things. Archer agrees to give him an object of the Xindi's, but when he and the others prepare to go away, Tarquin wants Hoshi to stay with him while he works. Archer isn't sure, but Hoshi wants to take the risk.
They give Tarquin a piece of Xindi weapon and reluctantly say goodbye to Hoshi, then Tarquin and Hoshi dine together. He has found out what she likes to eat by reading her mind, and reveals that he was exiled for being telepathic and that Hoshi was a bit of a loner as a kid. Hoshi, disturbed, decides to call it a night. Meanwhile, the Enterprise, in pursuit of the second sphere, runs into more anomalies, which threaten the ship, so Archer orders Trip to modify the shuttlepod with trellium-D.
While exploring, Hoshi runs into a working Tarquin and asks about the crystal on his desk. He explains that it's used for telepathy and lets her have a try. She does, and sees a bunch of memories, ending with a Xindi-Reptillian, then later, she finds gravestones outside. Tarquin finds her and tries to lead her back in, but she demands to know who the dead people are. He explains that his species lives a long time and they were his previous "companions", who were also geniuses like Hoshi. She refuses to be his "companion", digging her heels in when he tries to appeal to her emotions.
Archer and Trip find the area where T'Pol thinks the sphere is and explore in a shuttlepod. They find the sphere, but the shuttle gets damaged, so Trip must land and exit it to fix it. While fixing the sensor relay, he accidentally triggers the port thruster, sending it into space. They shoot phase pistols at it, causing it to fall back to the sphere, and, having collected all the necessary scans, head back to Tarquin's planet.
Tarquin tells Hoshi that he managed to get the information and the Enterprise is on its way. She again says that she won't stay, and he accepts, offering her a book as a goodbye present. However, when Archer arrives, he reveals that Tarquin will help them for the rest of their mission, as long as Hoshi stays, and she agrees, but then realises that Tarquin was tricking her and that wasn't the real Archer. She confronts Tarquin, and he reveals that he's disabled the Enterprise's life support. She threatens to destroy his telepathic crystal, and he relents and lets her go. He gives her the coordinates of a Xindi colony where part of the weapon is being built, meanwhile T'Pol has discovered that there are over fifty additional spheres.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Anti-Villain: Tarquin is willing to help Archer with the Xindi attack by locating the next location. However, he becomes desperate enough to make Hoshi stay with him that he tries to trick her by pretending to be Archer and holds the Enterprise hostage.
- Blessed with Suck: Telepathy may be a useful ability, but it's also the reason why Tarquin lives in exile.
- Call-Back:
- After what happened last episode, Archer warns T'Pol to stay out of the launch bay while they insulate a shuttle with trellium.
- Tarquin reminds Hoshi of the time she wanted to return to Earth.
- Chekhov's Lecture: Tarquin tells Hoshi that his crystal ball amplifies his telepathic powers. When he threatens to destroy Enterprise unless she stays with him, she threatens to destroy the ball, forcing him to relent.
- Continuity Cavalcade: When Hoshi uses Tarquin's telepathic crystal, her mind is flooded with clips from the first two seasons.
- Do Not Adjust Your Set: When Tarquin is first communicating telepathically with Hoshi, all the computer screens around her show images of her own face.
- A Form You Are Comfortable With: Tarquin first appears in Hoshi's mind as a human, a far cry from the Rubber-Forehead Alien that he actually is.
- I Do Not Like Green Eggs and Ham: Apparently, when she was a kid, Hoshi would refuse to eat soba noodles, but loved them once she actually tried them.
- I Just Want to Be Loved: Tarquin is a telepathic alien who lives in exile and has outlived his wives by a few hundred years.
- I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Not only does Tarquin let Hoshi go, he then gives her information to help Enterprise find the weapon.
- Mayfly–December Romance: Tarquin has already had four "companions", and he wants Hoshi to be number five.
- A Match Made in Stockholm: Invoked Trope; Tarquin tries to force Hoshi to stay with him, certain that she will love him like his previous wives have done. He's implied to have done the same with some or all of his previous wives.
- Negative Space Wedgie: The sphere and its Invisibility Cloak are surrounded by anomalies. One triggers a lot of Explosive Instrumentation on The Bridge while another blows out a section of hull plating.
- The Paranoiac: Hoshi worries that she's becoming paranoid when she sees someone who's not really there. Malcolm assures her that it's not uncommon to see potential enemies in the shadows when under stress.
- Pillow Pistol: Hoshi promises to keep a phaser under her pillow while she stays with Tarquin.
- Playing Sick: Apparently, in her childhood, Hoshi would pretend to have an upset stomach to get out of eating soba noodles.
- Properly Paranoid: Archer is concerned that Tarquin is motivated by more than altruism. He's right.
- Psychometry: Tarquin uses his powers on the piece of the Xindi weapon that Archer gives him. It helps him guide Enterprise to the facility where the component was manufactured.
- Really 700 Years Old: Tarquin is at least 400 and still going strong.
- The Reveal: The spheres are generating gravimetric energy, and the intersections of these different waves are what's creating the anomalies. T'Pol estimates that there are at least 50 spheres in the Expanse.
- Stalker with a Crush: Tarquin sure comes across as stalker-ish, especially when he tries to force Hoshi to stay with him.
- Why Did You Make Me Hit You?: At the end, Tarquin threatens to kill everyone on Enterprise if Hoshi won't stay with him. He claims he doesn't want to kill anyone and acts like she's forcing him to do it; Hoshi calls bull on this and threatens to smash his crystal.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Hoshi tries to convince everyone else that something is going on besides simple hallucinations. Fortunately, even though they don't yet know what's really going on, Archer and Malcolm are willing to take precautions.Archer: Post a security detail outside, and assign teams to Engineering and the armory until further notice.
Malcolm: Are you expecting an attack, sir?
Archer: Around here, you never know. - Your Favorite: Tarquin serves Hoshi some of her favorite foods for her first dinner with him.
