Synopsis: Captain Archer tries to convince Degra that humanity is not the Xindis’ enemy while Sub-Commander T’Pol must deal with her emotions.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of how the perception of Logos-driven rational conscious ego can be disrupted by eruptions of bits of material from the Eros-driven irrational unconscious coming to its attention.
In “The Forgotten,” Captain Jonathan Archer shows Degra and his associate from the Xindi Council, Jannar, evidence of Reptilian Xindis went back in time to Earth 2004 and the body of the Sphere Builder that came aboard Enterprise, supporting his claims that it is not humans, but the Sphere Builders who are the true enemy of the Xindi. Degra tells Archer that he needs to speak to the Xindi Council. Meanwhile, Sub-Commander T’Pol who has been injecting herself with Trillium D, goes to see Dr. Phlox seeking treatment that will help her retain control of her emotions. Phlox tells T’Pol the story of the genie that was let out of the bottle, and how once that happened, could not be forced back into confinement.
In this episode, T’Pol, being unable to control her emotions, and Degra, with not being able to dismiss what Archer is telling him, can be compared to what happens when bits of material come into the purview of the conscious ego to disrupt how it interacted with the world before. What T’Pol and Degra are experiencing can be analogized to when the conscious ego suppresses something, like an emotion or a hunch, so much that eventually pressure builds up and becomes impossible to ignore. But when this occurs, and the conscious ego acknowledges the unconscious material and integrates it into itself, it does become stronger – at least eventually, and the psyche more whole.
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