History Recap / StarTrekEnterpriseS01E18RoguePlanet

The next "day", Malcolm gets ready for the hunt while the rest prepare to explore some geothermal sites, and the Eska tease Archer about the woman, assuming that he finds her attractive. While exploring, Archer is distracted thinking about the woman and worried that he was indeed hallucinating. He sees her again and they start a conversation, with her saying that she needs his help because he's "different", all the while appearing scared. When T'Pol and Trip come, the mysterious woman runs away in fear, and Archer doesn't tell them. Meanwhile, Malcolm and the hunters try to hunt a "wraith", but one of them, Burzaan, is gravely injured.

Back at the camp, Archer asks the Eska why they go all the way to Dakala just to hunt, rather than simply hunting on their own planet. Damrus explains that the wraiths are more challenging to hunt, since they can sense people's thoughts and impersonate anything and anyone, even acquaintances. T'Pol notes that that hints at sentience, but Damrus believes that it's merely instinctual. Archer asks the Eska how they catch the wraiths, and the Eska respond that when the wraiths, especially the younger ones, are afraid, they emit a chemical signature.

Back on the ship, an angry Archer tells his crew that the wraiths have asked for his help. However, his crew isn't so sure-- Malcolm points out that the Eska are well-armed and know the terrain, and T'Pol, while she dislikes the practice as much as Archer, doesn't know how to stop it and isn't sure they have any business stopping an old tradition. Archer is determined to stop the hunt, but then T'Pol points out that nothing's stopping the Eska from coming back and fighting more wraiths. Phlox, however, reveals that he's found a way of masking the wraiths' fear-induced chemical signal, so while he may not be able to stop future hunts, he can "level the playing field". Trip tells Archer about a poem in which a fisherman falls for an elusive woman who shapeshifted from a fish, and Archer reveals that the form the wraith woman took was based on how he imagined the lady in the poem.

On the planet, some Eska are hunting another wraith. It takes the form of a tree, then the hunters try to scare it by firing their weapons. It attacks them and knocks one of them over, and they return to camp, believing their equipment must be malfunctioning. They are suspicious of the ''Enterprise'' crew, since this is their first failed hunt, but Archer just smugly says that he's "bad luck".

Archer and the wraith woman meet again and thank each other, and she tells him to never forget the woman in the poem, turns into her default form (a serpentine alien), and goes away.

* HuntingTheMostDangerousGame: The Eska come to Dakala specifically to hunt the wraiths.
* InterspeciesRomance: Downplayed; Archer has a minor crush on the wraith-woman.

* ShapeShifting: The wraiths can change form into humanoids, plants, etc.
* StarfishAliens: The wraith's true form is basically a giant slug.
* TrueBlueFemininity: The wraith-woman wears a blue nightgown.
* UnstableGeneticCode: Phlox gives Trip a report on the DNA of the wraith.

* YouNoTakeCandle: It takes a while for the wraith-woman to become fluent in English.

* WeAllLiveInAmerica: Archer says that he was an Eagle Scout when he was a kid. Malcolm also says he was an Eagle Scout, even though scouts in the UK are grouped by age rather than rank.

* YouNoTakeCandle: It takes a while for the wraith-woman to become fluent in English.

On a planet that's always night, Archer falls for a mysterious woman.

* CallBack: Trip mentions how [[Recap/StarTrekEnterpriseS01E07TheAndorianIncident particularly important Vulcans get mummified]].

* HollywoodScience: Trees and plant life, on a planet with no star!

* HollywoodScience: Trees and plant life, on a planet with no sun!