Archer is posing for pictures for Starfleet HQ and he isn't too happy about it. The Enterprise then discovers, well, a rogue planet, and the crew decides to take a closer look. T'Pol scans the planet and discovers that, due to geothermal activity, there are many animals on the planet. Despite there being no evidence of humanoids on it, a power signature is detected on the equator, meaning that a starship landed on it. Hoshi sends a hail, but no one answers, so Archer, T'Pol, Malcolm, and Hoshi go down to the planet.
They travel through a jungle and put on some night vision goggles, and discover what appears to be an abandoned campsite. They split up to investigate, when aliens attack T'Pol and Malcolm. However, realising they aren't dangerous, they let them go and bring them back to the campsite, where Archer has met their leader Damrus.
As it turns out, their species is called the Eska, and they explain that there are dangerous animals on the planet, which they call Dakala, and they've never seen humanoids there before. They reveal that, for generations, the Eska have come to Dakala to hunt and kill the native species, and they use sensing cloaks to prevent the hunted from seeing them. Malcolm expresses curiosity at the idea of the game needing such complicated technology in order to take down, so they (albeit reluctantly) invite him to join them on their next hunt.
Hoshi returns to the ship, but the guys and T'Pol stay and camp out on the planet. Everyone goes to bed, when Archer is woken up by a female voice calling his name from the plants. He goes out to investigate, finding a woman shrouded in light, and she disappears.
Archer comes back and tells everybody about the woman, giving a description of her and noting that she both knew his name and seemed familiar to him. The Eska, however, believe that his mind is just playing tricks on him, since it's always night on Dakala and therefore hard to see, it's unlikely he'd see an acquaintance on an unfamiliar planet, and she was wearing a skimpy nightie, so they think it was just wishful thinking. The Enterprise crew are also dubious.
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.
Archer offers to take Burzaan to the ship for medical treatment, and Burzaan (reluctantly) agrees. He suggests that they all leave due to the danger, but Archer isn't giving up. While Phlox treats Burzaan on the ship, Archer tells T'Pol about his second encounter with the woman. She wants to accompany him to search, but he insists on searching alone, thinking the woman won't show herself with others around. Back on Enterprise, Phlox has finished treating Burzaan and notes that he has mutating cellular residues in his injuries.
Archer wanders into the jungle and finds the woman again, who reveals that she's a telepathic shapeshifter and that the creatures the Eska hunt are in fact her and her species. He asks why he feels he knows her, and she replies that he does, and again states that he was chosen to talk to because he's "different".
Back at the camp, with the help of some shared alcohol, 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.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ace Pilot: Archer claims that he can land a shuttlepod with his eyes closed.
- Always Night: Naturally, there's no daylight on a planet with no star.
- Camping Episode: Archer, Trip, Malcolm, and T'Pol spend the episode camping on the planet.
- Continuity Nod: Trip mentions how particularly important Vulcans get mummified.
- Creator's Culture Carryover: 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.
- Everyone Has Standards: The Eska may have no qualms about hunting wildlife on other worlds, but they don't go after primates.
- Hollywood Science: Trees and plant life, on a planet with no star!
- Hunting the Most Dangerous Game: The Eska come to Dakala specifically to hunt the Wraiths.
- Interspecies Romance: Downplayed; Archer has a minor crush on the Wraith-Woman as she is modeled after an imaginary woman from a poem Archer had read as a child.
- In Vino Veritas: With the help of some shared alcohol, Archer is able to get the Eska to reveal that they are on Dakala to hunt Wraiths.
- Night-Vision Goggles: Both the Eska and the Enterprise crew use them on Dakala.
- Noodle Incident: Trip mentions a poker game at Jupiter Station as an example of Archer doing something "really foolish."
- Paranoia Fuel: In-Universe—Hoshi tells Trip and Malcolm about bore worms that crawl into people's ears to lay their eggs.
- Rogue Planet: Dakala. It's in the title, after all.
- Series Continuity Error: At one point, Archer lectures the Eska on how hunting has been almost entirely abandoned on Earth for over a century. For one thing, it seems really implausible that hunting wouldn't see a resurgence following World War III and the virtual destruction of society. And for another thing, the TNG episode "New Ground" established that in the mid-22nd century (when this episode is set), hunting was still carried on to enough of an extent to render the white rhino extinct.
- Shapeshifting: The Wraiths can change form into humanoids, plants, etc.
- Starfish Aliens: The Wraith's true form is basically a giant slug.
- True Blue Femininity: The Wraith-Woman wears a blue nightgown.
- Unstable Genetic Code: Phlox gives Trip a report on the DNA of the Wraith.Phlox: The cells are in a state of chromosomal flux. They're mutating. It's as if they're trying to change into something but can't quite figure out what.
- With Due Respect: T'Pol says this when asking Archer if he'd be so interested in finding out about the mysterious woman if it were a scantily-clad male. Guess she's not a Yaoi Fangirl.
- You Have to Believe Me!: Archer has a hard time trying to convince anyone that the woman he saw was real.
- You No Take Candle: It takes a while for the Wraith-Woman to become fluent in English.
