The pieces
to the season long Xindi puzzle are starting to connect. The
corner and edge have been laid out. And now the rest of the
interlocking jigsaw cut outs need to be snapped together.
For the first time, in what feels like the entire season,
the Xindi story makes sense. We can see the whole picture.
Its all
very exciting, really, to have some of the more confusing
elements of the expanse finally be explained. "Azati
Prime" is a sort of third-season all-star episode. Characters
from the prior months have been dug up and placed in opposition
to the Enterprise and her valiant mission.
And one
character is set to aid her. Daniels, the time traveling human
from the 31st century, makes his first appearance in way too
long. The entire Enterprise premise is based on his
timeline's cold war being played out in the 22nd century.
Thanks to time travel the Enterprise has been dragged into
an anti-terrorist strike in the middle of the most dangerous
region of space - and where has Daniels been? Sure, he showed
up once a few months ago to ship Archer and T'Pol to present
day Detroit to stop a Xindi reptilian attack and compete in
the rap contest on the south side of 8 Mile, but otherwise
Father Time hasn't permitted him to leave the house.
While
it's very cool to have so many things finally make sense,
it may be too little, too late. We've been stalking the Xindi
on tip toes. Every week Archer and crew make minor progress
in hunting down the Xindi super weapon. The pacing has gotten
tedious. Now Enterprise has finally confronted the Xindi base
of operations and we're no closer to the end.
It's like
the top of the third act. We know the hero is within striking
distance, but he still has a lot of obstacles before the goal
is won.
"Azati
Prime" does afford the different Xindi races a little
bit more definition. The reptilians have just been brooding
about acting like space thugs. The unnamed reptilian commander
explains his sect are the men of action. Reptilian action.
Now if
only the rest of the Xindi could be a little more defined.
The humanoid and sloth seem to equally weak, with maybe the
humanoids being more industrial than their hippie sloth cousins.
The insectoids self reproduce… well, they're just creepy.
The aquatics,
or mer-aliens, are still a mystery. The Xindi base on Azati
Prime rests deep bellow a blue marble ocean world. As Mayweather
and Trip plot a visit to hydro space base - a mix between
the submerged deep space nine and a generic Gungan palace
- they worry that their ship will leak… It can fly in
space, but they're afraid of the pressure of water…?
These boys ain't no engineers. Oh, but Trip is. This does
not bode well for the southern flyboy.
Thanks
to the dangerous nature of the alien splashdown mission, Mayweather
is allowed more then two lines this week! Later he volunteers
for a suicide mission. And then gets to teach the captain
how to pilot the alien craft. Look out, but Mayweather just
jumped into 6th most useful cast member. Right in front of
Hoshi, now!
It'll
be a few more weeks before any of them speak again. The next
new episode isn't scheduled until after Easter. With the cliffhanger
of an ending we're left with some question to stew over during
the weeks ahead.
1. Why
is T'Pol so emotional about the captain?
2. Will Archer make it out alive?
3. Will the Xindi believe his outrageous time travel story?
4. How will they fix the ship after its incredible beating?
5. Are the reptilian Xindi really reptiles or just guys in
make up?
In the
mean time we turn to the trusty alien rating chart to score
the entertainment value of this week's episode…
Breen
The secret super power of the Alpha quadrant who in the last
days of the Dominon War sided with the bad guys. They were
tough dudes, impossible to understand and they looked like
really bad rip-offs of Boba Fett.
