Synopsis: The Xindi council plots to get information on humans by maneuvering Archer into bringing a beautiful female alien aboard Enterprise.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how projection can allow the Logos-driven rational conscious ego to see something of its own Eros-driven irrational unconscious in another, whether the projection is accurate or not.
In “Rajiin,” the Xindi Council discusses how they are having difficulties creating a weapon to destroy Earth and how perhaps they should instead try to develop a bioweapon to annihilate human life. But to do this they would need more information about humans. Meanwhile, as Enterprise orbits a Xanthan planet, Captain Jonathan Archer, Lt. Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker, and Lt. Malcom Reed, take a shuttlepod to a market on the planet where Archer has been told they will find a chemist with a formula to synthesize liquid Trellium D, that can be used to protect Enterprise’s hull from spacial anomalies. At the market, Archer comes across a merchant peddling slave women, and is immediately drawn to one of them, Rajiin. Rajiin is also seemingly drawn to Archer and begs him to take her with him. Archer brings Rajiin aboard Enterprise and tells her that he will bring her back to her homeworld, Oran’taku. Rajiin comes to Archer’s quarters and tries to seduce him while at the same time performing some sort of scan on him. She then tries to do the same thing to T’Pol and when T’Pol objects, she attacks her. Rajiin then flees and seduces a security team member to get his weapon, and when she is cornered Archer orders her put in the brig. Rajiin tells Archer that she is there to collect information on humans for the Xindi, and soon thereafter, a Xindi ship comes to collect her.
In this episode, when Archer was attracted to Rajiin, it was because he was projecting upon her something akin to his own inner ideal other upon her. That he wanted to take care of her in a way that he would have wanted to be treated in her shoes, illustrates how he thought he knew her. Archer did not understand that Rajiin was allowing him to project upon her his own ideal feminine in order to use it against him. Archer could not see this until he removed the projection from her and saw Rajiin for what she truly was. Sometimes, the removal of a projection can lead to loving an individual for who they truly are. Sometimes, as is the case here, once the projection is removed, the individual it was thrust upon is revealed to be less than ideal, or as it was in this case, an enemy.
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