Synopsis: The Enterprise crew is blamed for an explosion that destroys an alien colony.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of the relationship between the two archetypes, or energies patterns, found in the Eros-driven irrational unconscious, that of the Senex and the Puer.
In “Shockwave, Part I” Enterprise arrives at a Paraagan colony and when the shuttlepod is in the atmosphere of the planet the colony is located on, there is an explosion which destroys the colony. When Captain Jonathan Archer reports back to Admiral Forrest about the fatal accident the mission is cancelled, and Enterprise ordered to return to Earth. Sub-Commander becomes so concerned about Archer that she asks Dr. Phlox to monitor him, and she tells Archer that he has a responsibility to stand up for himself and the mission. Archer is then contacted by Temporal Agent Daniels who takes Archer back in time ten months and tells him that Enterprise did not cause the explosion. He tells Archer how to identify the true cause of the catastrophe, which turns out to be a cloaked Suliban vessel. The Enterprise then locates the Suliban vessel and Archer, T’Pol and Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker go aboard to get the evidence they need to prove the Enterprise crew is innocent of causing the explosion. Archer tells T’Pol about his meeting with Daniels and the shadowy creature tells the Suliban Silik to bring Archer back to him. Silik sends dozens of Suliban ships to engage Enterprise, and when she is surrounded by enemy vessels, Silik orders Archer to get into one of the Suliban ships and come to him. Archer enters a turbolift to comply with the order, but instead of being taken to a different deck, he is taken to the thirty-first century, where he finds Daniels in the ruins of a city.
In this episode, there seems to be an ongoing change of power dynamics in the relationship between Archer and T’Pol. After the explosion that destroyed the alien colony and then the recall of the Enterprise, Archer is so distraught that T’Pol looks over him in an almost parental way and then urges him to stand up for himself and the mission. After his encounter with Daniels, he tells her that whether or not the Vulcan scientific community believes in time travel, he did it, and therefore she should believe it exists. Then when Archer is leaving the ship he puts T’Pol in charge but asks her to hold his course. This change of position between who is the wise one in charge and the eternal youth open to adventures and new ideas, changes back and forth between Archer and T’Pol throughout the episode. Archer is confident and in charge, like the Senex, until the explosion occurs, and he blames himself. At that point T’Pol appears as being a wise caretaker of Archer, embodying the Senex archetype. When Archer tells T’Pol the story about the meeting with Daniels, she does not believe him, because of her own biases. When Archer pleads with her to believe him, he is acting in the manner of a Puer trying to convince a sage about something that doesn’t make sense. Yet, Archer is back in charge, or in Senex mode until he leaves the bridge to surrender himself, and leaves T’Pol in charge, once more the Senex to the crew. James Hillman’s believed that the ever evolving link between these two archetypes could be used to explain all the other complimentary archetypes in the human psyche.
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