Recap / Star Trek Enterprise S 04 E 03 Home

The crew return home as heroes, only to find that home is a very different place.

Directed by Allan Kroeker

Written by Michael Sussman

After their successful Xindi mission and an unexpected detour into an alternate timeline where Temporal Cold War factions helped Nazi Germany invade the eastern United States, Captain Archer and his weary surviving crew finally return to Earth. As Enterprise undergoes repairs and refitting, Archer is debriefed by Admiral Forrest, Ambassador Soval and others, and is reunited with a former girlfriend, Erika Hernandez, who has been appointed captain of Starfleet's second Warp 5 starship, Columbia (NX-02).

After reacting in anger when Soval asks pointed questions about the Xindi mission, Archer is ordered by Forrest to take some rest and relaxation leave. He chooses to go mountain climbing; to his initial chagrin, Hernandez invites herself along. Archer experiences a flashback in which he dreams that he's attacked by reptilian Xindi, and Hernandez tries to help him come to terms with his experience. In return, Archer tries to warn Hernandez that space exploration isn't as romantic as she thinks it is. Before long, the two rekindle their romance. Upon resuming the debriefing after returning to Starfleet Command, Archer keeps his emotions in check, and ultimately receives an unexpected "thank you" from Soval.

In a subplot, Dr. Phlox and his fellow Enterprise crew learn that some people on Earth not only still hold a grudge over the Xindi's attack on Earth, but that all aliens are sharing the blame, as Phlox discovers when his presence in a pub results in a brawl. This scene contains the only depiction of Dr. Phlox's genetic ability to inflate his face.

Meanwhile, Sub-commander T'Pol - who has been invited to accept a Starfleet commission - takes the opportunity to travel to Vulcan to visit her mother, T'Les. When Commander Tucker mentions that he doesn't really have a home to go to (although a later episode mentions his parents survived the Xindi attack), T'Pol invites him along.

On Vulcan, T'Pol learns that her mother has resigned from the Vulcan Science Academy as indirect punishment for T'Pol's role a few years earlier in exposing a secret monitoring station at the P'Jem sanctuary which had been used to covertly spy on the Andorians. The only way for T'Pol to restore her mother's position and honor is to marry Koss, a member of an influential family with whom T'Pol had been engaged prior to her posting aboard Enterprise. Despite protests from Tucker (who admits to a knowing T'Les that he is in love with T'Pol), T'Pol reluctantly agrees to marry Koss. Just before the marriage ceremony begins, however, T'Pol quickly kisses Tucker on the cheek.

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This episode provides examples of:

• Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: The only good way to explain some loudmouth in a bar throwing a punch at a Starfleet officer.
• All Love Is Unrequited: T'Pol puts family obligations above her romance with Trip, who turns down his chance to make a Love Confession.
• All Men Are Perverts: During a trip to the bar, Reed flaunts his Starfleet service to impress a couple of women.
  Travis: You had to wear that jacket.
• Anywhere but Their Lips: T'Pol kisses Trip on the cheek, as befits someone making a romantic gesture that can never be intimate.
• Arranged Marriage: T'Pol finds herself having to marry Koss in order to restore her mother's position and honor.
• Bar Brawl: A drunk keeps harassing them and throws the first punch, so Reed and Travis have to fight him and his buddies. Phlox puts a stop to it in an interesting fashion.
• Be All My Sins Remembered: Archer's confession to Hernandez. He has a serious guilt complex going.
• Belligerent Sexual Tension: Lampshaded when Trip says he first noticed the chemistry with T'Pol the first time they had an argument.
• Breather Episode: Now that the Xindi/Temporal Cold War arc is finally over.
• Busman's Holiday: Averted; the Xindi attack on Archer is All Just a Dream.
• Call-Back:
  • In "Two Days and Two Nights", Keyla suggested that there might have been schools on Earth named after Archer. It may have been false flattery, but it turns out that she wasn't wrong.
  • Archer tells Hernandez about the planet with the paranoia pollen.
• Calling Out for Not Calling: T'Pol returns home to Vulcan with her human boyfriend and gets a chilly reception from her mother.
  T'Les: My daughter's always been fascinated by alien worlds. She was all too eager to finish her schooling and leave Vulcan.
  T'Pol: As I recall, you encouraged me to leave.
  T'Les: A mother is expected to push her young out of the nest. At some point, they're supposed to return.
• Call-Forward: To Spock, when T'Les disparages her daughter's relationship with Trip.
  "Do you really believe that a human and a Vulcan can have a future together? Imagine the shame your children would endure, assuming that the two of you could have children."
• Catapult Nightmare: Archer dreams of being thrown off a cliff by Xindi Reptillians.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Travis and Malcolm are outnumbered at least two-to-one in the bar fight. This is barely an impediment to them, as they're both sober and better trained in combat.
• Death Seeker: Hernandez hints that Archer's experiences in the Expanse might have turned him into this.
• Due to the Dead: Archer delivers one to Earth during The Teaser.
  "I've been told that people are calling us heroes. When it comes to my crew, you won't get any argument from me. But I think it's important that we remember the heroes who aren't with us: the twenty-seven crewmen who didn't make it back. Without their sacrifice, I wouldn't be standing here right now; none of us would. But I'm sure I speak on behalf of my entire crew when I say... it's good to be home."
• Entitled to Have You: Koss comes off as thinking this, even manipulating T'Pol's mother to ensure that T'Pol marries him.
• Famed In-Story: The crew are lauded as heroes upon their return, especially Archer.
• Fantastic Racism:
  • In light of the Xindi attack, some humans have become antagonistic towards aliens. Phlox learns this firsthand during a trip to a bar with Reed and Travis. This also serves as Foreshadowing for the Terra Prime mini-arc.
  • T'Les isn't happy about her daughter's Interspecies Romance (even asking her to Think of the Children!), or how she's prioritizing her Starfleet career over Vulcan interests.
• Foreshadowing: Archer says in his speech that he won't argue that his crew are heroes (and especially the ones who never made it back). This hints, though, at something which becomes increasingly clear over the course of the episode: that he doesn't see himself as a hero, due to the many times he's had to compromise his principles over the past year.
• Handshake Refusal: Averted with Soval, in a gesture of reconciliation with Archer.
• Heroic BSoD: Archer's storyline is coming to terms with his actions in Season 3.
  "I thought this would be the last place where someone would wanna shake my hand, take my picture or tell me I'm an inspiration to their children. If they'd known what I done..."
• Inflating Body Gag: Phlox defuses a Bar Brawl by inflating his face up like a pufferfish to the alarm of the xenophobic humans attacking them.
• Ignored Expert: Archer recalls how he argued with Captain Jefferies over installing weapons on NX-class ships.
  "I told him I didn't wanna be in command of a warship, trying to make first contact with new species. Jefferies was right. We needed those weapons, and a hell of a lot more."
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Even though she's opposed to their relationship on principle, T'Les offers Trip the opportunity to tell T'Pol he loves her, as her daughter deserves to know all the facts before committing to her marriage. Trip refuses, as it will only make things worse.
• My God, What Have I Done?: After a year of saying I Did What I Had to Do, Archer's conscience hits him hard.
• Mythology Gag: Captain Jefferies is again name-dropped; this time being revealed as the designer of the NX-class. The unseen character is a reference to Matt Jefferies, who designed the original Enterprise on Star Trek: The Original Series.
  • "Things have changed since Enterprise left spacedock. You'll spend a lot of your time boldly going into battle."
    • Though he's actually quoting Zephram Cochrane, so it's also an Ironic Echo.
• New Old Flame: Erika to Archer.
• No True Scotsman: T'Les accuses T'Pol of basically Going Native among the humans and forgetting how to act like a proper Vulcan.
• Oh, Crap!: T'Pol's reaction when she finds T'Les is home, clearly hoping to avoid the embarrassment of mom finding out about her offworlder boyfriend.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business:
  • After Archer blows up at Soval for making it sound like he purposefully left a shipful of murderous, trellium-poisoned Vulcans to die out of callousness/latent racism even though they were too far gone to be saved, Forrest puts the debriefing on hold and tells him to take some time to cool off. As Archer blows that off...
    Forrest: That's an order, Captain!
  • Also with T'Pol; her mother notices that her emotional control has gotten a lot worse.
• Reluctant Retiree: T'Les was strong-armed into retiring as punishment for what T'Pol did back at P'Jem. T'Pol is pissed that the Vulcan Powers That Be are taking it out on T'Les.
• Replacement Flat Character: Hardened by the Xindi mission, Archer draws this kind of comparison to Erika.
  "I look at you, and I see the person I was three years ago—the explorer that my father wanted me to be."
• Revenge by Proxy: T'Les was framed by the Vulcan Security Directorate, as they blamed T'Pol for their loss of the monastery of P'Jem.
• Screw You, Elves!/"The Reason You Suck" Speech: Archer delivers a very memorable example when Soval essentially blames him for the loss of the Seleya in "Impulse."
  Archer: Maybe that'd crew would still be alive if you'd been a little more helpful.
  Soval: I beg your pardon.
  Archer: You did everything you could to sabotage our mission. I got more help from the Andorians than I ever got from the High Command!
  Forrest: That's enough, Captain.
  Archer: (gets in Soval's face) This planet would be a cloud of dust right now if we listened to you!
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: Archer is trying to come to terms with this over the Xindi mission.
  "I lost something out there. I don't know how to get it back."
• Subcommander Obvious: T'Pol's reaction to her mother being at home when she and Trip show up:
  T'Pol: Mother, you're home.
  T'Les: Obviously.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: Archer and T'Pol find themselves in this position. Their experiences have changed them and they find it difficult to act according to expected norms.
• You Can't Go Home Again: Commander Tucker's home was destroyed by the Xindi attack.

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