Enterprise is orbiting Earth and Archer and Trip are headed for the transporter. Trip is very excited because he's going to meet Emory Erickson, an engineer who inspired Trip to become one himself. Erickson beams aboard (in a wheelchair), along with his daughter Danica, and Archer (who is old friends with the Ericksons) introduces them to Trip. Erickson then asks permission to "borrow" the Enterprise for a test that may render Starfleet obsolete.
They reduce the power in all but the essential areas, and in the mess hall, T'Pol (who is reading) and Trip try to have a conversation since they haven't talked in a while, but it gets a bit awkward since they both bring up their dead relatives. Later, Archer invites T'Pol, Trip, and the Ericksons to dinner in his dining room. Dr. Erickson has apparently invented a device that can cause interplanetary teleportation and the group waxes nostalgic and makes a few toasts.
The crew goes to a blank area of space known as "the Barrens" so that Erickson can do his test. Erickson remembers being the first person to ever transport. Trip notes that the experiment needs more power, so asks Erickson to hand him the power converter, which he does. Meanwhile, Archer gives Danica a tour of engineering, where she reveals that she's learnt all about Enterprise and would have signed onto it if not for the fact that she's helping her father grieve the loss of his son and her brother Quinn.
In the Ericksons' quarters, Danica gives Emory a shot and they talk to each other, revealing that they have been lying about something. Danica doesn't want to lie and suggests asking Archer for help, but Emory feels Archer wouldn't understand since his first duty is to his ship. The lights go out in the armory and Malcolm and Ensign Burrows notice something in the room. They try to search, but it attacks Burrows, leaving him deformed, so Malcolm contacts sickbay.
T'Pol and Archer ask Erickson if he has ever encountered anomalies like the one that attacked Burrows (who, unfortunately, was killed). Erickson responds in the negative, but in his quarters, Danica yells at him and claims they're responsible for Burrows's death and need to fess up. Emory says that he only needs two more days, revealing that what he actually wants to do is bring Quinn back.
Trip and Erickson beam a probe 40,000 kilometers away from Enterprise (farther than anything has ever beamed) and Trip invites Erickson to dinner, but he declines. Trip offers to bring Erickson food, but he declines that as well. Trip enters Archer's quarters, suspicious of Erickson's behaviour — he had him do various things that a sub-quantum transporter shouldn't actually need, especially asking for more energy when it should require less. Archer admits that he's also suspicious — Erickson apparently lied about not encountering such an anomaly before, since one of his crewmen had indeed seen one five years prior.
Archer and T'Pol meet up on C deck with some MACOs, who he warns not to let the anomaly touch. Archer and T'Pol go into decon, where the anomaly appears and passes through T'Pol. Luckily, though, she survives (albeit in pain) and is treated in sickbay. She puts scans of the anomaly onscreen, where it turns out to be a deformed version of Quinn.
Archer confronts Erickson, who admits to lying and only wanting Quinn back, since Quinn died during an early transporter test, and he begs for one last scan. Archer then orders Trip and T'Pol to help Erickson, which makes Trip angry since he believes Erickson is responsible for Burrows's death. Archer says that they need to bring Quinn back today or else his signal will be lost.
In the transporter room, Trip helps Erickson with the repairs and they argue, ending with Trip saying he also has a dead relative but wouldn't put others in danger to bring her back. Danica enters Archer's quarters to apologise for her lies and negligence, and she and Archer hope that Quinn will be able to be brought back so her family can move on. Trip and T'Pol work together in engineering, with him trying to encourage her to interact more.
In the launch bay, Archer and Erickson search for Quinn, when the lights flicker and he appears. Erickson tries to speak to Quinn, but the anomaly makes an explosion instead. Trip still doesn't believe Archer is going along with the plan, pointing out that Quinn nearly detonated some torpedoes and Archer's emotions may be clouding his judgment. Archer gets angry and orders Trip to obey.
In the Ericksons' quarters, Emory tells Archer that he got all the data he needs, apologising for his actions and expressing apprehension at the idea of failure. Archer, the Ericksons, Trip, and Phlox assemble by the transporter and try to bring Quinn back. Nothing happens initially, but then T'Pol detects a distortion, followed by Quinn appearing. However, his cellular damage is too severe and he barely has time to ask what's going on before dying.
Later, Archer visits Erickson, who has gotten over Quinn, noting that at least death is better than limbo, and is anticipating being punished by Starfleet and becoming a teacher. In sickbay, Phlox confirms that T'Pol no longer has Pa'nar Syndrome and she reports that more afflicted Vulcans are coming forward now because of the Kir'Shara. She then goes into engineering and breaks up with Trip, noting that she's too busy discovering what it means to be Vulcan to be in a romantic relationship with him, and he accepts the breakup gracefully. Finally, the Ericksons say goodbye.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Alliterative Name: Emory Erickson.
- Arson, Murder, and Jaywalking: Erickson recalls how people fought against his testing of the transporter on living beings, saying it caused "brain cancer, psychosis, and sleep disorders."
- Bittersweet Ending: In the end, Erickson fails to save his son; he manages to rematerialize, but dies seconds later. He justifies this by saying "better to be alive or dead, than somewhere in between."
- Body Horror:
- Erickson has some gnarly-looking deformities on his back; apparently they're the result of some kind of accident from a transporter test, but the episode doesn't go into specifics.
- Burrows ends up being killed via coming into contact with the distortion containing Quinn, leaving Burrows' flesh horribly melted and warped. T'Pol later has it happen to her hand after it gets caught up in said distortion, though Phlox is apparently able to repair it with no lasting damage.
- Bottle Episode: Another instance of nobody leaving Enterprise. Of course, they're literally in the middle of nowhere in a pocket of subspace, so there's no place to go.
- Broken Pedestal: Trip is disappointed to learn that Erickson's "sub-quantum transporter" isn't viable, and that he's been lying to everyone about his true motives.
- Call-Forward:
- About that aforementioned "transporters causing psychosis" thing — Reg Barclay would know all about that.
- The crewman who came in contact with the transporter phantom got delta radiation burns that strongly resemble Captain Pike's own crippling injuries.
- Died in Your Arms Tonight: Erickson's plan finally works... but Quinn's suffered so much cellular degredation that he's only conscious for a moment before dying in his father's arms.
- Fate Worse than Death: Erickson describes Quinn's semi-transported purgatory as this.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Erickson justifies what he does in the name of rescuing Quinn.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: After going through the first transporter, Erickson got himself drunk (after what was either a Stress Vomit or vomiting due to Teleportation Sickness), stating that it's another thing that Zefram Cochrane taught him.
- I Work Alone: Erickson says this to Trip (probably to make sure that Trip doesn't get a chance to see what he's really up to).
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Trip is very excited about meeting Emory Erickson. His excitement doesn't last.
- My Greatest Failure: Erickson's greatest regret is the loss of his son, Quinn, while testing an inherently flawed transporter prototype.
- Noodle Incident: Archer meeting Zefram Cochrane. He's told Trip the story, though.
- Professor Guinea Pig: Erickson used himself as a test subject in the first transporter.
- Red Shirt: Turns out that touching a transporter phantom is bad for your health. Surprisingly enough, this is the only instance of the series employing this trope in the classic sense of showing the audience how dangerous a situation is, with all the other Enterprise crew fatalities in the series being either in battles with the Xindi, or the result of someone doing a Heroic Sacrifice.
- Rewind, Replay, Repeat: Archer uses this with the Enhance Button on a recording that T'Pol took of the transporter phantom and sees that it's Quinn.
- Series Continuity Error: Archer says that his father gave him some words of advice the day before he entered flight training. In "Cold Station 12," Archer said his father died when he was 12.
- Spotting the Thread: One of the signs that leads Trip to figure out that Erickson isn't actually there to test sub-quantum teleportation is the fact that one of its additional benefits is supposed to be lessened energy consumption over the normal variety, yet what they're doing requires much more power than transporting people normally does to the degree that they need to dedicate most of the ship's power to accomplishing it.
- Take That!: The episode does this to the arguments presented by fans over the years, as to whether or not a person who's been transported is the original person or just a copy of them that thinks they're the original. Archer and Erickson both laugh it off as a ridiculous argument that only Luddites and people with an irrational fear of transporters would make.
- To Absent Friends: Erickson offers a toast to Henry Archer.
- What the Hell, Hero?: Archer yells at Erickson for lying to him as well as Starfleet, and for having knowingly sent Quinn through a flawed transporter.
