Synopsis: Ensign Sato grapples with whether to remain a member of the crew, while Captain Archer continues to struggle with advice he receives from Sub-Commander T’Pol.
This episode illustrates Archetypal Psychologist James Hillmans acorn theory, the idea that just as an acorn has all the information inside it to become a tree, we all have an inner daimon inside us, which knows who we were meant to be if we only listen to it.
“Fight or Flight” begins with Communications Officer Ensign Hoshi Sato in Sick Bay talking to Dr. Phlox, about a slug-like life form that she found on a planet, that is now struggling to keep alive outside its native environment. Sato is also trying to decide whether or not she wants to remain on Enterprise. Then sensors locate a vessel that seems dead in space. Although Vulcan Sub-Commander T’Pol urges against it, Captain Jonathan Archer orders an away team to board and investigate the alien ship. The away team includes a reluctant Sato. On the alien vessel Sato screams when she is the one who discovers a group of alien corpses hanging upside down from the ceiling. When the away team returns to Enterprise, Archer initially listens to T’Pol’s advice to leave the area because whatever species did this to the crew of the alien ship might come back. But then he decides to return to the vessel, telling T’Pol that it is not the Starfleet way to leave a crew behind. Once back at the alien vessel, Sato comes across a log entry, which allows her to learn the language of the species that was killed, the Axanar. Not long after this, the alien vessel that killed the other crew returns and fires upon Enterprise. Then an Axanar vessel appears. Sato is the only one able to communicate with them, to tell them that the vessel firing upon Enterprise is the one that killed their crew. The Axanar ship fires on the aggressive vessel, which saves Enterprise. At the end of the episode, Sato finds a more suitable home for the slug-like life form and decides to stay on Enterprise.
In this episode, although Sato had been doubting her place on Enterprise and whether or not she was cut out to be on her crew, at the end of the episode she uses her natural gifts to save the ship and all aboard. This can be seen as an illustration of Hillman’s acorn theory, in that Sato had everything she needed when called upon, she just had to listen to her inner daimon. Similarly, when Archer decided to go back to the vessel that had been attacked to ascertain what had happened, he was listening to his own inner daimon, which he had ignored when he listened to T’Pol’s advice. In the end, although it was not the easiest path, both Archer and Sato gained much inner knowledge from their experiences.
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