You
could've been $10 richer. I was wrong. There were no sexual
tensions pulling this week's episode apart.
The
prediction was based on the 20 second trailer in which Archer,
sick as his dog, is forced to pilot Enterprise, with only
him and T'Pol conscious. The previews led us to believe the
entire episode featured the Captain and his first officer
traveling the stars together, locked in sexual frustration,
but in truth they only spent about 4 minutes together. And
the only frustration came from T'Pol, who kept jolting Archer
to keep him awake.
"Just
a little tensi -- ?" "NO."
But since
it wasn't sex (or violence) keeping the audience awake this
week, it was humor. As the crew became consumed with the obsessive-compulsive
disease, or OCD+, their behavior became more and more humorous.
They said
only T'Pol and her hot Vulcan physiology was immune to the
tri-star radiation causing their erratic behavior, but they
were wrong. It wasn't mentioned, but Hoshi wasn't experiencing
radiation poisoning in the kitchen, merely the ancient mental
disorder that has recently been termed "Thanksgiving
Meal Trauma." Did you see the way she snapped? No radiation
could do that quite like the holidays.
But since
the viewers aren't equipped with tricorders, this is only
speculation.
Adding
to the humor was the musical score. This episode was laced
with theme music. Every time someone acted terribly odd we
would hear the pounding of some great drum. Subliminally the
director was saying, "See, they're acting weird."
Next week
Hoshi will get the chance to act weird again, when she is
the first victim of a transporter accident. Here is an episode
that we could see coming since the pilot, and it's very impressive
that they've waited this long to bust it out.
Hoshi
will pull a ShadowCat and walk through walls. Meanwhile, she
will be preparing a large 5-course meal for the entire crew.
Sort of an X-Men meets Iron Chef.
