"Claustrophobic... And you took a job on a spaceship."
"You talked me into it, remember?"
Later, Archer gives Malcolm target practice, while Phlox and Trip eat lunch in the mess hall together, with Phlox enthusing about the food and human behaviour, and Trip complaining about being bored. Then, an alien spaceship appears, but it doesn't respond to hails. Archer wants to explore the vessel, but T'Pol wants to just ignore it. Archer, still curious, scans the ship and confirms there are bio-signs onboard— he thinks they can't make contact, but T'Pol thinks they simply don't want to. He also discovers hull breaches on the ship, prompting him to dispatch an away team, despite T'Pol's objections.
Archer prepares the away team, which consists of himself, Malcolm, and Hoshi. Trip wants to come too, but Archer says no. Archer then makes a log, complaining about T'Pol being too by-the-book, and Hoshi tries to bail out of the mission since the EV suits make her claustrophobic, but he tells her to suck it up and do the mission anyway. They board the ship, enter the other side of the airlock via a lever, and then find that everyone's dead and hanging upside down from hooks, being washed out with liquid. They decide to leave (which was T'Pol's idea) since obviously, dead people don't need their help.
Hoshi talks to Phlox in sickbay, embarrassed for being the only one who screamed when she found the bodies. Phlox reassures her that it's nothing to be ashamed of and offers to have her go back to being a teacher, but she doesn't want to. He then points out that Sluggo will die if it doesn't take its medicine, making Hoshi guilty for bringing it on the ship and consider finding it an argon-rich planet to live on.
At dinner, Archer feels guilty for abandoning the ship and is sore at T'Pol for suggesting they leave, accusing her of having no remorse and going too far to avoid conflict. He decides to go back to the ship, bringing Phlox. On the alien ship, Hoshi goes to work attempting to translate some writing, but then reveals that she's changed her mind and is considering going home after all, since she feels that having screamed before means she's too emotionally unreliable, and thus unfit for her job. However, she does manage to translate the writing and then send a distress call. Meanwhile, Phlox has determined that the aliens died because someone killed them in order to obtain something called "triglobulin" from their bodies.
An alien ship drops out of warp and disables Enterprise's engines. T'Pol speculates that they're the aliens' killers, since they match scans. The away team flies back to Enterprise in the shuttle and T'Pol tells Malcolm to do his best to shoot at the hostile ship. Archer tries to hail them, but they don't reply, instead firing at Enterprise. The away team gets back on the ship, but they can't escape because the enemy ship has disabled Enterprise's port nacelles. Thankfully, however, they've stopped firing. Archer orders the ship to be fired at twice, but neither shot is effective.
The hostile ship scans Enterprise and locks onto it, then a third ship appears, bearing a crew of the same species as the dead crew. There is a bit of a kerfuffle, since they think the Enterprise crew killed them, but after a conversation with Hoshi (difficult due to her barely knowing the language), they eventually realise that they just wanted to help them. Thus, they attack and destroy the ship threatening Enterprise, which leads to a successful first contact, and Hoshi drops Sluggo off on a more suitable planet.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ambiguous Gender: The crew doesn't know whether Sluggo is male, female, or a hermaphrodite, but Hoshi calls it a "she". Actual slugs are all hermaphrodites, but Sluggo is an alien that simply resembles a slug.
- Appetite Equals Health: Hoshi and Phlox fear that Sluggo is dying because it's not eating.
- Bittersweet Ending: Hoshi's self-esteem improves and Sluggo gets better, but Hoshi can't keep Sluggo since there isn't enough argon on the Enterprise to sustain it.
- Book Ends: The beginning and ending scenes with Hoshi, Phlox, and Sluggo.
- Claustrophobia: Hoshi suffers from a fear of confinement; to the point where EV suits scare her. Archer points out how odd it is that she'd serve on a starship despite this.
- Dangerous Drowsiness: Hoshi and Phlox see Sluggo's lack of movement as a sign that it's dying.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: T'Pol is on a First-Name Basis with Hoshi in this episode, despite calling her "Ensign Sato" or simply "Ensign" in later episodes.
- Either "World Domination", or Something About Bananas: Trip speculating about the alien recording that Hoshi's trying to translate."Could be a laundry list, or instructions on how to conquer the universe."
- Epic Fail: Target practice. The first torpedo doesn't even hit the asteroid; the second one glances off it and heads back towards Enterprise, forcing Malcolm to detonate it before it hits.
- First-Name Basis: Perhaps the only time T'Pol calls Hoshi by first name, rather than rank. Could be an example of Early-Installment Weirdness.
- Gunship Rescue: The Axanar showing up to save Enterprise.
- Idiot Ball: The crew points out to Archer just how stupid it is to go back once they've left.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": The slug-like alien is named Sluggo.
- Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: Had they not been saved at the last minute, then Archer and his crew would have been overpowered by the alien ship. In addition, the aliens could very well have made their way to Earth and proceeded to enslave humanity.
- No-Sell: Enterprise launches two torpedoes that don't do squat against the alien ship. (One bounces off their Deflector Shields, while the second one is destroyed with a phaser shot.) A third one finally does some damage.
- Nothing Is Scarier: We never get to see the aliens who butchered the crew of the Axanar ship and tried to do the same to Enterprise.
- Sleep Deprivation: Defied— Archer tells Hoshi that she is allowed to switch quarters, since he doesn't want her to lose sleep over disliking the way the stars are going.
- Speaks Fluent Animal: Phlox jokes about whether Hoshi can communicate with the alien slug.
- Unsuccessful Pet Adoption: Hoshi can't keep Sluggo as it needs more argon than is available on the Enterprise, so she has to set it free on a planet.
