While monitoring Enterprise, the Xindi council discuss whether or not to use a bio-weapon instead of Degra's. Most of the council veto this, though Dolim and Kiaphet Amman'sor both consider using it if progress isn't made soon. Meanwhile, Enterprise is on its way to a planet where a chemist lives, who can synthesise liquid trellium-D that can protect the ship against the anomalies. Trip and T'Pol are having a neuro-pressure session (though he's considering giving them up due to the crew thinking they're a couple) and Archer is getting treatment from Phlox for lesions and nightmares as the result of him turning into an alien in the previous episode.
Archer Trip, and Malcolm arrive on the planet and go to the marketplace where the chemist, named B'Rat, works. He is closed, but Archer is insistent, then when B'Rat finally agrees to sell some trellium-D, he tries to drive the price up by talking about how rare it is. They then start talking about the Xindi and B'Rat mentions some Xindi visited him a week prior and he's willing to charge them in exchange for information, so the away team decide to barter with him.
Trip tries to figure out what to trade with B'Rat, while Archer and Malcolm visit a man named Zjot, who is apparently a slave trader and his slaves are all women. He admits that the Xindi came and went two days ago, but is otherwise unhelpful and keeps trying to get Archer to buy one of the women. They go to leave, but then one of the slave women runs up to them and begs them to take her with them, so they do. Phlox gives her a checkup and determines that she seems healthy, but he doesn't know her species. She introduces herself as Rajiin and thanks Archer, who tells her that he doesn't believe in slavery and wants to return her to her planet.
Trip finally manages to get the trellium, in exchange for some spices, but is warned (along with Malcolm) to be careful as it's unstable. Back on Enterprise, Archer eats with Rajiin and they ask each other questions. She claims not to know much about Xindi and that the ones she saw were Reptillians. Trip and T'Pol then interrupt and tell Archer about their plan to synthesise the trellium-D.
That evening, Rajiin enters Archer's quarters, where he tells her that he's found her home world, and she kisses him, which seems to put him in a trance (literally). She uses her hands to seemingly scan his insides, then leaves. T'Pol and Trip try to synthesise the trellium, only for the pressure to build up and cause an explosion. Rajiin also meets Hoshi in the transporter and they talk business (with Hoshi maybe attracted to Rajiin) on the way to the mess hall.
Rajiin later enters the quarters of a meditating T'Pol and tries to feel her up. T'Pol says no, but Rajiin persists, and starts scanning T'Pol, who can't speak, but is able to fight back. Unfortunately, Rajiin knocks T'Pol out, then Trip enters, she attacks him (though doesn't knock him out), leaves, and he calls security.
Rajiin contacts someone and tells them of her plan to use the transporter, then Malcolm arrives with a security team, but she seduces one of them, steals his phaser, and goes to engineering, then the transporter room. Luckily, Archer and another security team catch her, tell her that her communications have been jammed, and throw her into the brig. Archer then checks on T'Pol in sickbay, who Phlox thinks would have died if she weren't a Vulcan, and that she will be awake in a few hours. Archer goes to the brig and demands to know what Rajiin is doing, but she claims her superiors will kill her if she snitches. He threatens to do the same, but she just asks to be let go.
Then, two Xindi-Reptillian ships approach and attack Enterprise, disabling the warp core. When one of them attempts to board, Rajiin admits that the Xindi want medical information on humans for a bio-weapon they're making, so Archer leaves, but not before ordering the brig secured. The Enterprise crew fights the Reptillians, but their weapons aren't effective, and the Reptillians manage to break into the brig and take Rajiin away with them.
Archer tries to chase after them but fails, and they leave, except one, who died, apparently sacrificing himself with a "suicide gland". Archer orders Phlox to do an autopsy, Malcolm to analyse the Xindi weapon, and T'Pol to analyse the vortex. Meanwhile, Rajiin reveals the information she gathered for the bio-weapon, but the other Xindi are angry, since they fear exposure.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Ambiguously Bi: Hoshi, who has had sex with a man before, is hinted to be attracted to Rajiin since she makes prolonged eye contact at her and sounds vaguely suggestive when she talks about work, though it's left ambiguous as to whether this actually was attraction.
- Attempted Rape: T'Pol is nearly victimized by Rajiin, who tries to feel up the Vulcan's body.
- Bond Villain Stupidity: For no clear reason, the Reptilians don't bother to take out Enterprise either by simply leaving a bomb on a timer as they evacuate, or, by shooting it to pieces once they have what they came for. The council rightly call out the Reptilians for having provided the humans with a lot more data on the Xindi with their raid; this could have been entirely avoided by finishing off the Enterprise.
- Curb-Stomp Battle: The Reptilians invade Enterprise to recover Rajiin, and rout both the MACOs and Malcolm's security teams.
- Decoy Damsel: The liberated sex slave Rajiin turns out to be an agent for the Xindi-Reptilians.
- Distracted by the Sexy: Rajiin has this effect (distracting someone due to them finding her attractive) on Archer. And Hoshi. And a Red Shirt who gives her his phaser. The latter in particular implies that some kind of Mind Control is involved.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Rajiin says that T'Pol "shouldn't have resisted" the Mind Rape. Gee, Victim-Blaming much?
- Downer Ending: Rajiin is taken back by force by Xindi soldiers, despite a valiant fight from the Enterprise crew. They then disappear into a vortex, leaving casualties, a wounded soldier who promptly commits suicide, and a very unhappy Archer.
- Fauxshadow: Early on, Archer is shown still recovering from the Loque'eque virus. Rajinn later scans not just him for the bio-weapon plot, but also Hoshi and T'Pol (who were also exposed to the DNA-altering virus). The intent appears to be to make the audience think the bio-weapon will have faulty data and therefore not work properly when it's deployed. However, the bio-weapon subplot goes in a much different direction and the scientists working on it never mention Rajinn giving them problematic data.
- Early-Installment Weirdness: Both the MACO's weapons and the ships phase pistols are completely useless against the Reptilians as they simply walk onto the ship, grab Rajiin and walk off. This is certainly not the case later - and no mention is made of why their weapons were much more effective later.
- Femme Fatale Spy: Rajiin was sent by the Xindi to gain information on Archer's species.
- Go-Go Enslavement: Rajiin is wearing a skimpy outfit when she's held by the traders.
- Honey Trap: Rajiin was sent to seduce Enterprise crew members so she could gain scans of their biology for the Xindi to modify their superweapon.
- Idiot Ball: T'Pol does absolutely nothing when she tells off Rajiin for breaking into her room, violating her personal space, or feeling her body up against her wishes. Though that might be due to Rajiin's telepathic powers.
- I Owe You My Life: Rajiin holds nothing back in expressing her gratitude to Archer.
- Jump Cut: Used to show the memory loss of whoever Rajiin is affecting.
- No-Sell: Phaser fire doesn't stop the Reptilians.
- Not So Stoic: T'Pol's Ice Queen facade cracks when Rajiin tries to break through her mental defenses.
- Obfuscating Stupidity: Rajiin only pretends to be a naïve alien, when she's actually a spy.
- Red Shirt: The Xindi attack takes out several of Enterprise's security personnel, though it's not stated if they're killed or just KO'd.
- Shout-Out: The Reptilians' boarding action begins with an exploding airlock door, similar to the opening scene of A New Hope.
- Spice of Life: Amusingly inverted; rather than spice IN SPACE!, they're ordinary spices being sold on a world where no-one had encountered Earth food before.
- Tap on the Head: Rajiin breaks something over Trip's head when he finds T'Pol unconscious. Fortunately, he stays conscious enough to alert Security.
- Unobtanium: Trip and T'Pol try to synthesize Trellium-D. Unfortunately, it's as explosive as the natural ore is rare.
- The Unreveal: It's never made clear if Rajiin is a Xindi who was surgically altered or really is from another species.
- Worthless Yellow Rocks: Trip pays for the trellium formula with a set of Earth table spices, which is completely priceless for the alien chemist. Trip does mention that they weren't always so ordinary on his world."On my planet, wars were fought over these."
