A young Vulcan man is wandering through a tunnel. He finds a dusty object, cleans it off, and upon noticing a symbol, says, "Surak" to himself. Seventeen years later, Admiral Forrest goes to Vulcan to see if the Vulcans are willing to do joint missions with Starfleet. At the embassy, he talks to Soval, who notes that humans confuse Vulcans with our unpredictable nature. Then, an explosion is heard and the embassy catches fire.
On the Enterprise, T'Pol interrupts a game of basketball to deliver the bad news about the embassy, which, as it turns out, was bombed, and Admiral Forrest was killed. Three days later, they arrive on Vulcan and are greeted by Administrator V'Las, the head of the Vulcan High Command. He also meets Soval and an investigator named Stel. Stel reluctantly admits that he suspects the Syrranites, a group of Vulcans who follow a "corrupted" version of Surak's teachings, but it's unlikely that they did it since they're pacifists. Soval points out that, since the embassy is on Earth soil, Starfleet has the right to investigate it.
Archer sends Malcolm and Travis down to investigate the crime scene, where they find an un-exploded bomb that has Vulcan DNA on it. It explodes, but luckily, Malcolm and Travis manage to beam back beforehand. Phlox matches the DNA to a Syrranite named T'Pau, and Archer wants to keep investigating, but Stel says that since T'Pau is Vulcan, the investigation now falls under Vulcan jurisdiction.
Archer enters the cargo bay, where the bodies of the humans who died in the attack are. Soval enters and they wistfully discuss Admiral Forrest, then Soval notes that it's unlikely the Syrranites are guilty, telling Archer to go down to Vulcan and covertly investigate. Koss visits T'Pol in her quarters, giving her an IDIC from her mother T'Les, who was apparently forced into hiding because she's a Syrranite.
T'Pol shows Archer the IDIC, which she explains has been modified, and activates it, revealing a map of a place called Vulcan's Forge. Despite Trip's warnings that the place is dangerous, Archer and T'Pol go there, with Soval cloaking the transport and helping Trip on the Enterprise.
At the entrance to the Forge, called Gateway, T'Pol points out that it's allegedly where Surak began his journey, but seems unsure. Archer asks her why she's unsure and she responds that some of Surak's scriptures got lost in history and are open to interpretation. They then get chased up a mountain by a creature called a sehlat.
Phlox keeps analysing the DNA samples from the bomb and he finds that the telomeres in them are too long to come from T'Pau, so he suspects they were falsified. They listen to a recording Malcolm took, and they identify when T'Pau's DNA was recorded, but don't know who the suspect was. However, someone else in the recording, Corporal Askwith, recognises the person, and he is onboard the Enterprise, but unconscious.
Back on Vulcan, a man named Arev arrives and chases away the sehlat. He claims to be on a pilgrimage and Archer, pretending he is also on one, asks if the three can walk together. Arev agrees, but on their walk, he finds out that Archer lied— and then a sandfire storm begins.
On Enterprise, Trip and Phlox talk to Soval, hoping to find someone who can mind-meld with Askwith. Soval initially says no, but when they present the evidence, he does it himself. Meanwhile, Arev, Archer, and T'Pol hide in a cave, and Arev recognises T'Pol upon seeing her IDIC. He agrees to take the two to T'Karath Sanctuary, where T'Pol's mother and other Syrranites are hiding, after the storm. Archer explains the situation, and Arev reveals that the Syrranites believe Surak's katra (essentially his soul) is being carried by a man and whoever mind melds with him will touch Surak's mind.
On the Enterprise, Soval, Phlox, and Trip meet with V'Las and Stel, and Soval reveals that Stel was actually the guilty party all along. They claim to have an eyewitness, but when V'Las and Stel ask to speak to the witness, they have to explain that he's in a coma and Soval did a mind-meld. Stel says that telepathic evidence is inadmissable, and V'Las tells Soval that he will be taken before the High Command.
On Vulcan, the storm is getting worse. Both T'Pol and Archer are hit with electric discharges, and Arev dies, but just before his death, he mind-melds with T'Pol, telling her to carry "it" to the sanctuary. Back on the ship, Soval prepares to turn himself into the Vulcan High Command. Trip accuses him of not trusting humans, but Soval replies, "Peace and long life".
T'Pol wakes up Archer, who tells her that Arev said something in Vulcan to him. They bury Arev and find the sanctuary via Archer's strange intuitions. They enter a portal and are grabbed by Vulcans.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Actual Pacifist: The Syrranites, which is why it doesn't make sense when they're accused of the embassy bombing. And then it turns out that they were framed.
- Artistic License – Military: Corporal Asquith is wearing a Starfleet uniform, despite their use of naval ranks. He should've been a MACO.
- Bears Are Bad News: Archer and T'Pol have a run-in with a seh'lat, the Vulcan equivalent. Arev saves them with the same trick that Obi-Wan used on the Tusken raiders. T'Pol does mention that smaller ones can be kept as pets as long as they're properly cared for.T'Pol: You have Porthos.
Archer: Porthos doesn't try to eat me when I'm late with his dinner.
T'Pol: Vulcan children are never late with their seh'lats' dinner.
Archer: I can believe that. - Call-Back:
- Right before dying, Arev melds with Archer while saying the Vulcan word for "remember." Sound familiar?
- The questions that Arev asks Archer are right from Spock's retraining test.
- Arev realizes that Archer is the man who exposed the spy station at P'Jem. This softens his attitude towards both Archer and T'Pol.Arev: You're the human responsible for the destruction of the monastery at P'Jem.
Archer: Is that going to be a problem?
Arev: The High Command defiled P'Jem when they used it to spy on Andoria. You exposed their hypocrisy.
- Character Death: Admiral Maxwell Forrest dies in the attack.
- Chekhov's Lecture: T'Pol tells Archer that Vulcans can go several days without water. When he says he's good without water at the end of the episode, she has to remind him that he isn't Vulcan, a clue as to what Arev did to him before dying.
- Deadpan Snarker: Archer trying to bluff his way out of Arev's questions.Arev: Who said "Logic is the cement of our civilization with which we ascend from chaos, using reason as our guide"?note
Archer: I'm new at this. You tell me.
Arev: Something more basic then. What is Kiri-kin-tha's First Law of Metaphysics?noteArcher: (beat) I'm familiar with Newton's First Law of Motion. I imagine they're pretty much the same. - Death Glare: Soval shoots Trip a skunk eye for hovering over him during the mind meld.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?:
- A terrorist attack that leads to overbearing and intrusive new security measures. That sounds familiar...
- What happened to Surak's teachings rings a few bells for Archer.T'Pol: Over the centuries, his followers made copies of his teachings.
Archer: Let me guess. With the originals lost, whatever's left is open to interpretation.
T'Pol: You find this amusing.
Archer: I find it familiar.
- Due to the Dead:
- Archer stands over Forrest's coffin in the storage bay.
- Archer and T'Pol bury Arev before continuing to the sanctuary.
- Expy Coexistence: T'Pol was originally going to be T'Pau before becoming a new character. Here she and T'Pau appear in the same episode for the first time.
- Foregone Conclusion: T'Pau obviously isn't going to be guilty of bombing the embassy and kiling Admiral Forrest, among many other people, since she's a well-respected and noted public figure not only on Vulcan but within the Federation in "Amok Time".
- Foreshadowing: The bomb Travis finds arms itself when scanned, just as Malcolm predicted. However, it doesn't explode before they have time to beam away, as if they're supposed to find it.
- Gallows Humor: While trying to examine an unexploded bomb, Malcolm remarks to Travis that at least if it detonates, they'll never know.
- Heroic Sacrifice: Forrest selflessly pushes Soval out of the path of an explosion.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: Right before dying, Arev melds with Archer to transfer Surak's katra.
- Although in one of the Hilarious Outtakes, a different MacGuffin is mentioned.
- Impractically Fancy Outfit: T'Pol continues to wear her tight catsuit instead of Vulcan robes which would be more pragmatic in the desert.
- Jerkass Has a Point: Soval explains to Forrest why Vulcans are wary of humans. Both suffered through destroyed civilizations, but while Vulcans took a thousand years to rebuild, humans did the same in less than 100."There are those on the High Command who wonder what humans would accomplish in the century to come, and they don't like the answer."
- The Needs of the Many: Soval says this before revealing himself to be a melder, potentially throwing away his career to get crucial information from a comatose Red Shirt.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Archer laughs a little when T'Pol tells him that with the original teachings of Surak lost, they've been subject to interpretation and disagreement ever since. He doesn't find it amusing, he says—he finds it familiar.
- Not So Stoic: Arev chuckles a bit when Archer tells him what the High Command thinks of the Syrranites.
- Oh, Crap!: Travis when he finds an undetonated bomb in the rubble, and then him and Malcolm when it arms itself to blow up.Travis: That can't be good.
Malcolm: Oh damn! - Paper-Thin Disguise: Arev easily shoots holes in Archer's claim to be a human student studying Vulcan philosophy, when he can't answer some basic questions.
- Planet of Hats: Rather, it's humanity's lack of a "hat" that concerns the Vulcans.Soval: We don't know what to do about humans. Of all the species we've made contact with, yours is the only one we can't define. You have the arrogance of Andorians, the stubborn pride of Tellarites, one minute you're as driven by your emotions as Klingons, and the next you confound us by suddenly embracing logic.
Forrest: I'm sure those traits are found in every species.
Soval: Not in such confusing abundance.- This then segues into how humans and Vulcans aren't all that different:Forrest: Ambassador...are Vulcans afraid of humans?
*Soval nods slightly*
Forrest: Why?
Soval: Because there is one species you remind us of.
Forrest: *Beat* Vulcans.
- This then segues into how humans and Vulcans aren't all that different:
- Present Company Excluded: Archer giving Trip orders before beaming down to the Forge with T'Pol:"...And whatever the Vulcans tell you, believe the opposite." (glances at Soval) "Present company excepted."
- Revealing Cover-Up: Phlox reexamines the DNA found on the bomb, and finds that it's actually a sample from when T'Pau was registered as a baby.
- Run or Die: The only way for Archer and T'Pol to survive the dangers of the Forge, from a seh'lat to an electrical sandstorm.
- Spanner in the Works: The High Command's plot to implicate the Syrannites would have worked had Soval not convinced Archer to reexamine the evidence.
- That's What I Would Do: Malcolm suggests that the undetonated bomb might arm itself upon being scanned or transported, saying that he would design a bomb to do so. He's quickly proven right when he scans the bomb and it starts beeping.
- Took a Level in Kindness: Soval becomes kinder and more open with Archer and his crew after the attack.
- Tranquil Fury: Ambassador Soval shows shades of this while inside of the Enterprise with Archer in the storage bay filled with the human caskets that died in the embassy bombing while both of them mourned over Admiral Forrest's death.Soval: It makes no sense that the Syrranites are responsible for this... outrage.
Archer: We have DNA evidence.
Soval: (Tone becoming more aggressive) Recheck everything, Captain. Question everything. And don't let them keep you on Enterprise, the answers you need are on Vulcan. And how ever far you need to take this investigation: you have my support. - Wide-Eyed Idealist: Soval recalls how Forrest genuinely believed in the alliance despite all the friction and was proposing joint missions.
