This episode KICKS ASS. OMG. YAY.
And... half of my OTP marries somebody else at the end of it. And yet it still kicks SO MUCH ASS. (I have also not wanted to write fic for Enterprise since, like, season 1 -- I so called Trip/T'Pol on the first day with the gratuitous softcore shower porn of gratuitocity -- and now I do. A lot. For everyone. Stop me. J-dawg, I'm counting on you.)
First of all, I hadn't watched last week's yet, so I watched
Oh, and lest any of us had worried that the insane slashy subtext ALL OVER this series had gone by the wayside, there was that wonderful moment of: "Um. The compound's going to blow up." "What?" "The reunion sex later?" "Okay."
Now. "Home." THIS ROCKS MY WORLD for so many reasons.
I want T'Pol's mom to be on the show EVERY WEEK. Forget Brent Spiner. T'Pol's MOM, yo.
I love love love LOVE the background they painted for her. They nailed it perfectly. I love the house, her mom, the way her mom says she's always been a bit... off... and way too interested in getting the heck off the planet... just YAY. Love it. LOVE.
So when T'Pol's all "I've been sick"... they're still talking about the space crack and not the Vulcan AIDS, right? I would worry about Kos' brain, except that
ARCHER. Wow, my Archer/Hoshi OTP lasted... 4 episodes. Because this girl is awesome. Did anyone catch her name? (not going to write fic not going to... damn.) And really, HOW LONG did it take him to realize that she wanted to do sex with him? Because I called it as soon as the camera landed on her that he would get the good sex by the end of the episode, and then he went and waxed sanctimonious for three acts and I was very worried.
But it's all okay! Because Hoshi and Mayweather are still doing lots of sex off-screen. And getting chinese food, off-screen. I'm sad that Hoshi also managed to get un-broken after that torture business off-screen, because that really, really should have been one of the storylines to follow in this episode. Her return to Earth had to have been intense, poor baby.
PSAs. I think it's a bad sign when I am, in every scene, trying to second-guess the message I am about to be beaten with because clearly they must have a socially relevant message. However, the xenophobia one was well-executed, I thought. And the PSA had nothing to do with T'Pol, thank God. Unless her getting married off was a PSA too, because seriously, this show has made me paranoid.
And the Trip/T'Pol. OMG. SQUEEEEEEEEE. I love it, I love how it was handled, I love getting my heart broken IN A GOOD WAY. Man. This is going to suck horribly for them both. *evil grin* I was really surprised that T'Pol went through with it, and really glad of it mostly because I want this show to surprise me. I LOVE VULCANS! (Especially T'Pol's mom.) And I WANT T'Pol to be more Vulcan, I always have... or to at least struggle more with being The World's Worst Vulcan, which she totally has been since day 1, even pre-space-crack.
And as
And as I told
... seriously, LOVE this episode up and down and all over. Even though
As for future hopes... (don't spoil me) yeah, I'd love for things to Work Out for Trip and T'Pol during the run of the series, so I get to see it :). However, I'd also be happy for it to Not Work Out, but in a way that leaves it a bit open or so that it's at least still an open wound. Less gratuitous nekkidity and shower porn, sadly (what DID ever happen to decon?), but maybe more emotional resonance and a chance for something Really Well Done on this show. The worst case scenario would be that they just totally forget about it.
(somewhere, Rick Berman Or Whoever Replaced Him goes: "What? The fans want us to just forget about it?")
In conclusion: OMG. YAY. VULCAN!!! And yay Trip/T'Pol being so in love! And yay Archer's GIRL! And yay for Hoshi and Mayweather for putting in appearances!
p.s.