Later, D'Jamat and two others eat together and discuss whether Enterprise's arrival was a "coincidence", with D'Jamat believing it wasn't. He then goes to Archer and reveals that his crew are all implanted with explosives, ordering one of his men to suicide-bomb himself to prove that he's not bluffing (the guy does so, taking out a Red Shirt in the process) and threatening to blow up the warp core if Archer doesn't hand over control. Then, D'Jamat and his crew confine the Enterprise crew to quarters and refuse to answer questions.
On the bridge, D'Jamat orders Travis to take the ship to Triannon and T'Pol to destroy his old ship. D'Jamat then brings Archer to the command centre and reveals that he plans to end a holy war by destroying all enemy ships. He also reveals that he found data on the spheres in the ship's database, which he'd normally execute someone for possessing, but seeing as the Enterprise crew saved his crew's lives, he decides to only kill one, and gives Archer six hours to choose who he should kill.
In his quarters, Archer is visited by Yarrick, who gives him a report on the ship's repairs. Archer strikes up a conversation with him, revealing that Yarrick's wife, Indava, wants an abortion and that according to Phlox, both Yarrick and Indava are doubting D'Jamat's interpretation of the faith. Yarrick, insisting that he's loyal to D'Jamat but clearly shaken up by Archer's words, leaves to argue with Indava, who believes the war won't end even with Enterprise and doesn't want to raise a kid during a war.
Archer confronts D'Jamat in the ready room and D'Jamat claims that he and Archer are similar since they're both "fighting for their people" and have both made hard choices (D'Jamat killed a kid from an enemy faction so the kid wouldn't rat him out, while Archer "tortured" someone with the airlock). Archer then tricks D'Jamat by pretending that the transporter is lethal and thus pretending to sacrifice himself. Later, Yarrick isn't sure about all the killing they've been doing, but stops questioning it when D'Jamat accuses him of heresy.
Archer, who had beamed to another area on the ship, begins fighting the Triannons and contacts Phlox to see what's required to neutralise the explosives. He ties up a Triannon named Lyaal, scans him, and sends the scan to Phlox, then disrupts the main power, taking the ship out of warp. D'Jamat notices that Lyaal is unaccounted for and orders T'Pol to find him and the disruption. Trip maintains that he didn't cause it, then his guard isolates a location and heads off to investigate with Yarrick. Archer stuns the guard, then talks Yarrick into joining forces with him, noting that D'Jamat's view of the faith is different than Yarrick's, and with the current path, Indava will die (and possibly their child if she chooses to carry it). They go to Yarrick's hideout, where he plans on explaining how to reroute environmental countrols to sickbay. Meanwhile, Phlox has invented an airborne agent to neutralise the explosives.
Then, four of D'Jamat's enemy ships show up, leading to a firefight. One of the ships is disabled and D'Jamat has it destroyed despite T'Pol's protests. A second ship is destroyed, then Yarrick arrives and covertly reroutes the environmental system. Phlox distracts his guard with his pet bat, subdues him, and puts the neutralising agent into the environmental system.
Archer frees Malcolm and the MACOs while the neutralising agent does its thing. Then, Archer retakes engineering while Malcolm leads a team to search the rest of the ship. Malcolm gets into a fight with a MACO named Money, but Indava offers help. They go to the bridge, where the alien ships surrender. D'Jamat wants to fire on them anyway, but the weapons now no longer work. Archer tells them that he's in charge again and the explosives are neutralised. Malcolm, Yarrick, and the security team stun the rest of the aliens, and Archer hails the ships, ending the fight. Then, the Triannons are returned to their planet... which is now post-apocalyptic due to the war.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Apocalypse How: Triannon has suffered a Class 2 at best, potentially even a Class 3a, all because of religious loons who couldn't agree whether the Delphic Expanse took nine or ten days to form.
- Bittersweet Ending: Archer and crew take the ship back with some badass heroics, and take D'Jamat and his followers back to their home planet... which, to D'Jamat's horror, had already been destroyed months ago.Archer: From what we've been able to learn, this happened eight months ago. Both sides have been decimated. There are no major cities left. Millions are dead. Your faith was going to bring peace? Here it is.
- Call-Back: D'Jamat reads through Archer's Captain's Log and learns about the airlock incident.
- Chekhov's Lecture: The Triannon Creation Myth becomes important later in the season.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: D'Jamat promises one to his enemies, saying that they're no match for Enterprise. He destroys two of their ships before Archer and his crew screw things up for him.
- Die Hard on Enterprise: D'Jamat and his mooks take control of Enterprise until Archer fakes his death and starts to fight back.
- Facial Markings: D'Jamat's followers have a big red mark on the right side of their faces. Their enemies (in case the Shout-Out to "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield" wasn't obvious enough) turn out to have the exact same mark, except black and on the left side.
- Faking the Dead: When D'Jamat sentences Archer to death, Archer tells him that there's a device used for hazmat disposals—and sometimes executions. It's actually the transporter, and Archer is simply beamed to a Jeffries tube.
- False Dichotomy: Of the "Science vs Faith" variety—T'Pol and D'Jamat are clearly not on the same page during dinner. Archer wisely ends the debate before it can escalate.
- Faux Affably Evil: D'Jamat seems pleasant enough until he breaks out the suicide bombers.
- Good Girls Avoid Abortion: Subverted. One of D'Jamat's followers is pregnant, and she wants Phlox to perform an abortion to keep her child from becoming another foot soldier in the war.
- Heel–Face Turn: Archer convinces Yarrick to deflect to his side and help retake Enterprise.
- I Owe You My Life: D'Jamat seems sincere in expressing his gratitude to Archer for saving his crew and promises to repay him. How he does that, on the other hand...
- Innocuously Important Episode: D'Jamat explains that the Triannons worship those who created the Spheres, saying they will appear in-person once the Delphic Expanse is reshaped into a paradise. He ends up being much closer to the mark than the audience might've expected, as "Harbinger" and "Azati Prime" will demonstrate that the purpose of the Spheres is to make space habitable for the transdimensional Sphere-Builders.
- Minion with an F in Evil: Yarrick is nowhere near as gung-ho as D'Jamat about their mission, and at one point openly questions D'Jamat (and gets accused of heresy in the process). He then helps Archer retake Enterprise.
- "Not So Different" Remark: D'Jamat claims that he and Archer are the same in that they're both willing to use ruthless methods to protect their people. Naturally, Archer doesn't buy it.
- Series Continuity Error: Intraship beaming is highly dangerous, even in the 23rd century, yet the risk of that gambit to save Archer isn't acknowledged at any point in the episode.
- Shoot the Shaggy Dog: D'Jamat deletes the data that Enterprise has collected on the spheres.
- Silly Reason for War: From Archer's perspective, when Yarrick tells him that the war is over the question of whether it took nine or ten days to create the universe.
- Sinister Minister: D'Jamat is leading a holy war against heretics who disagree on a trivial religious question and has no qualms about dragging Enterprise into the war.
- Single-Precept Religion: The Straw Character version (see Silly Reason for War).
- Something Only They Would Say: Archer identifies himself to Phlox via instant messenger by writing "Don't feed [Porthos] cheese."
- Suicide Attack: D'Jamat has one of his mooks blow himself up, just to prove that he's serious. One poor Red Shirt gets caught in the blast.
- Tautological Templar: D'Jamat believes there is only one truth — the one he believes in. He also doesn't care how many people he kills in service to the Makers.
- Title Drop: D'Jamat refers to the Expanse as the "Chosen Realm" at dinner with Archer and T'Pol.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: D'Jamat wishes to bring a quick end to a devastating war. Unfortunately for him, the war ended months ago — and both sides lost.
- We Need a Distraction: Phlox uses his Pyrithian bat to distract the mook guarding him, just long enough to use the off-button hypospray on him.
- Whole-Plot Reference: A more action-oriented take on "Let That Be Your Last Battlefield," right down to the ending where both sides have been decimated.
- Would Hurt a Child: D'Jamat talks about how he once killed a child from the enemy side who had discovered his regiment.
- Wounded Gazelle Gambit: After detecting Enterprise, D'Jamat places his ship in a dense anomaly field so that they will rescue his crew and allow them to gain access.
