Vulcan terrorists blow up the Earth embassy.
The portrayal of Vulcans in Enterprise has been controversial. They are, with no question, not the Vulcans of later series – they don’t act the same, or have the same beliefs. Personally I’ve been happy to let that be, on the basis that the writers were going somewhere with it. And this episode finally starts to deliver. The previous ‘neocon lite’ aspect of the Vulcans is cranked into high gear, with a police state, Vulcan terrorists, and shadowy plots from the political leaders.
We also get the best explanation yet of the Vulcan/Human relationship in the opening scene – Vulcan’s fear Humans because they fear themselves. Fantastic. Wish we could have landed on that a bit earlier. We also get the explanation for ‘Vulcans do not lie’, which also makes sense.
Callbacks: The idic medallion that Spock would later wear. Vulcan’s Forge, site of Spock’s kahs-wan, and a sehlat (and T’Pol’s pet sehlat, just like Spock). Klingon Opera. Surak. The first Human-Vulcan mind meld. Katras being transported with Humans. This is pretty much straight continuity porn.
721 down, 16 to go.