In the Vulcan High Command's HQ, Administrator V'Las shows the assembled Vulcans the Andorian ship activity around Paan Mokar. Kuvak points out that the Vulcans gave them back that planet and doesn't understand why the Andorians would mount a defensive position over it. V'Las explains that the Andorians believe that the Vulcans want the planet back and are creating false warp signatures with probes. Kuvak asks why the council wasn't informed, and V'Las explains that he was keeping on the down-low lest the Andorians had penetrated the High Command. He then shows Kuvak the location of some Vulcans preparing to invade Andoria, since the Andorians are suspected to have stolen a probe of the Xindi weapon.
Meanwhile, Archer, T'Pol, and T'Pau keep heading to the Vulcan High Command, with Archer and T'Pau intent on bringing them the eponymous sacred item. On Enterprise, Malcolm gives Trip an update, then asks Trip why they're going to Andoria despite being ordered to Earth. Trip says that the journey to Andoria is just a "detour" and that it's an attempt at preventing war. Soval enters, so Trip dismisses Malcolm, and then Soval asks Trip says that the Andorian Imperial Guard probably won't believe them, but they might be able to trust Shran. Trip doesn't know where Shran is, so Soval offers assistance.
In the High Command's chambers, Kuvak tells V'Las that their patrol has returned with eight Syrranites from the destroyed sanctuary, and that their leader is dead, but two Vulcans and a human (who was identified as Archer) survived. He reveals that the Syrranites told him that Archer is carrying the Kir'Shara, but V'Las thinks the Kir'Shara doesn't exist. Kuvak orders a sublieutenant to inform Talok to find and kill the rest of the Syrranites.
Enterprise arrives in Andorian territory near a nebula. Soval and Trip contact Shran, who is hiding in it, then Shran boards the Enterprise. Soval and Trip tell Shran that a Vulcan fleet is planning an attack on Andorian space near Regulus, but Shran isn't so sure.
Back on Vulcan, T'Pol and T'Pau see a Vulcan patrol craft flying by, and T'Pol notes that they have to get Archer (who is asleep) to a doctor, also apologising for her grief-induced (relative) moodiness. She and T'Pau talk for a bit about the late T'Les, which eventually ends up with T'Pol revealing she has Pa'nar Syndrome. T'Pau cures T'Pol by doing another mind meld, revealing that the High Command lied about the disease being incurable. In the nebula, Shran orders the abduction of Soval and beams him into a restraint.
Shran demands that Soval tell him the truth, but Soval says that he is telling the truth, pointing out that he was honest during previous negotiations. Shran continues to torture Soval, using a device that makes Vulcans unable to suppress their emotions. Enterprise notices that Soval isn't onboard, find that he's on Shran's ship, and hail, but they get no reply. The Andorian ships go into the nebula, followed by the Enterprise which fires on Shran's ship, but they lose track of them.
In the desert, Archer, T'Pol, and T'Pau have stopped due to Archer's weak health. T'Pau scouts the area and Archer tries to get T'Pol to have another look at the Syrranite philosophy. T'Pol, however, notes that there have been similar groups that turned out badly and she has no reason to believe the Syrranites are different. She also believes that their beliefs are unscientific, but ends the conversation when T'Pau returns.
Soval, despite being tortured, stands his ground, insists he's trying to save the Andorians, and compares Shran to an infamous Vulcan man named Nirak, who made a mistake that was fatal to his village, leading to his name being synonymous with "fool". This, however, angers Shran, and he increases the torture. Archer, T'Pol, and T'Pau then run into Vulcan High Command members, leading to a skirmish that separates Archer and T'Pau from T'Pol. T'Pol pretends to be a Syrranite to convince the High Command members to go to Mt. Seleya.
T'Pol is sent to the High Command, where she meets Talok. He asks why she "betrayed" him, and she responds that the Syrranites weren't responsible for the embassy bombing, refusing to answer the question. Meanwhile, Shran gets contacted but ignores it. Soval, despite being not all there and laughing, is still relatively confident— when Shran threatens to raise the setting to a dangerous level, Soval believes he's bluffing and cares about him. Enterprise fires on Shran's ship, causing Shran to relent and accept Soval's words as true. He returns Soval to the Enterprise, where Soval is put in sickbay, and Shran reveals that the Imperial Guard is re-deploying their forces to Regulus and wants Enterprise to join them.
Meanwhile, Archer and T'Pau track their attackers— they are going away from the capital with T'Pol. Archer decides to save her and they find and attack a group. They learn that T'Pol is at the High Command and Archer nerve pinches one of them. Enterprise and the Andorian ships gather outside to meet the Vulcan fleet, but unfortunately, the rest of the Andorian fleet is running late.
Archer and T'Pau reach the outskirts of the city but they need to find a way in. In the council chamber, meanwhile, Kuvak is trying to convince V'Las that they should call off the attack, since there is no evidence that the Andorians possess Xindi tech. However, V'Las wants to destroy the entirety of Andoria.
Trip orders Enterprise to move between the two fleets and hails the Vulcans. V'Las answers, and orders them to leave, but Trip refuses, revealing that he's informed Admiral Gardner about the situation. V'Las, however, orders the fleet to engage. Kuvak wants them to call off the attack, but V'Las threatens to have him arrested if he tries to interfere again. A fight begins, during which the Kumari takes a hit for the Enterprise, causing Shran to claim Archer owes him two favours.
Archer and T'Pau enter the High Command chamber, and V'Las tries to contact security, but Kuvak pinches the guard and steals his weapon. Archer then reveals to the council that it was V'Las who bombed the embassy, as part of a plan to get the Syrranites destroyed so they wouldn't find the Kir'Shara. V'Las still insists it doesn't exist, so Archer activates the Kir'Shara, which shows holographic teachings of Surak. Kuvak and T'Pau decide that the artifact needs to be studied, and V'Las tries to destroy it, only for Kuvak to stun him and tell the assault fleet to call off the attack.
On Enterprise, Koss visits T'Pol and then divorces her, since they only got married to appease her now-dead mother. Meanwhile, a priest removes Surak's katra from Archer and Soval declares that the High Command will be disbanded. V'Las then meets with Talok, who turns out to be a Romulan, in a cave and discusses re-unification.
Tropes in this episode include:
- Call-Back: T'Pol's Pa'nar syndrome is brought back up, and is promptly cured by T'Pau.
- Call-Forward:
- This would not be the last attempt to reunify Vulcans and Romulans.
- Vulcan society nominally being under the control of a civilian government, but in practice being controlled by a military organization with a hostile agenda, with the military eventually being overthrown and dismantled in order to return power to the civilian authorities, echoes what happened to the Cardassians two centuries later. Humorously, the Vulcans would likewise end up part of a much larger organization within a few years, though they co-founded it instead of being subsumed into it.
- Character Development: With the conclusion of this three-parter, Archer has overcome his prejudice against Vulcans.
- Chekhov's Gun: The electromagnetic deposits in the cave come in handy as an Improvised Weapon when T'Pau lures the Vulcans searching for her and Archer near one by mimicing a sehlat call, electrocuting two of them and forcing the third to discard his lirpa staff.
- Cruel Mercy: In his "The Reason You Suck" Speech to Shran, Soval tells the story of Nirak, a guard tasked with guarding the gates of Gol. He mistook an enemy army for a mere sandstorm, and his failure to alert anyone led to the city being destroyed. The invading army opted to spare Nirak, and his failure became so well-known that his name means "fool" in the Vulcan language. Soval then tells Shran that his name will mean the same in Andorian if he doesn't heed Soval's warning.
- The Dog Was the Mastermind: Talok (a minor figure throughout this episode) is revealed to be a Romulan deep cover agent and the liaison for their plan to conquer Vulcan.
- Don't Make Me Destroy You: Shran begs Soval to tell the truth because he doesn't want to destroy Soval's mind—he just can't believe that a Vulcan ambassador would reveal his people's attack plan and thinks it's his duty to uncover what Soval is "hiding."
- Get Out!: With Malcolm still having reservations about warning the Andorians, Trip tells him to leave the ready room with a very pointed "dismissed."
- Go Through Me: Trip tries to forestall a Vulcan-Andorian war by putting the Enterprise in front of the Vulcan fleet to draw their fire.
- Graceful Loser: Talok in uninterested in V'Las fuming about their defeat. He considers the failure of a plan that had decades of prep time put into it to be just "a minor delay" and nothing to get terribly upset about.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Shran's response when Trip chews him out for torturing Soval.
- Jack Bauer Interrogation Technique: Shran tortures Soval to make sure he's telling the truth. The device doesn't inflict pain, rather, it weakens a Vulcan's emotional control in an extremely distressing fashion.
- Mutually Assured Destruction: Shran tells Soval and Trip that Vulcan will be completely devastated once the Andorian fleet launches their retaliatory counterattack.
- Never My Fault: V'Las blaming Talok for his own failures and getting called on it.V'Las: You failed! Decades of work have been lost.
Talok: Am I to be blamed for your incompetence? - No Full Name Given: We never find out Gardner's first name.
- Nothing Is the Same Anymore: T'Pau tells Archer that with the High Command dissolved, Earth will now stand on its own.Archer: We're ready.
- Only Sane Man: As previously, Kuvak remains the only member of the High Command to question what V'Las is doing.
- Permission to Speak Freely: Malcolm, when asking Trip if warning the Andorians about the Vulcan attack is a good idea.
- Purple Is Powerful: T'Pau wears purple robes upon being installed as Minister.
- Real Life Writes the Plot: The writers had always intended to do a Romulan twist in the final scene, but it was going to just be some generic officer instead of Talok. According to Mike Sussman, they couldn't do that for budget reasons; he had to make Talok the Romulan or else the scene would've had to have been cut.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: While under emotion-intensifying torture by Shran, Soval tells him the parable of a Vulcan soldier who mistook an army's dust for a mere sandstorm, allowing his city to be overrun—his name became their word for "fool". This is a lead-in for saying that the name Shran will soon take on the same meaning in Andorian.
- The Reveal: The Romulans were hoping to instigate a war between Vulcan and Andoria as part of their long-term plots. Also, Talok being a Romulan.
- Standing Between the Enemies: Trip tries this to stall for time, but as they begin suffering damage, he's forced to fire on the Vulcan fleet.
- Unwitting Pawn: The Andorians were to be this for the Romulans, as they'd ensure a nasty war that would leave Vulcan too weak to resist a Romulan invasion. The various actions of Archer's crew ensures this doesn't happen, while everyone remains unaware of the Romulans' hand in all this.
- Villain Ball: Major Talok calls out V'Las for involving the humans in their plans.
- Villainous Breakdown: V'Las loses it when Archer and T'Pau show up with the Kir'Shara. In contrast, Syrannite T'Pau is perfectly calm as she dismantles him.
- Wham Shot: The ending reveals that V'Las was actually working with the Romulans to bring about reunification.
- With Due Respect: Malcolm telling Trip that they shouldn't get involved in a Vulcan/Andorian war. Trip's response is that they're already involved.
- You Owe Me: After Shran distracts a Vulcan cruiser from attacking Enterprise:"Tell Archer that's two he owes me!"
