Synopsis: As Enterprise is about to enter a subspace corridor to rendezvous with Degra, they are confronted by the Enterprise from a past timeline.
This episode can be seen as an illustration of a cultural complex, which is a psychic wound suffered by a group of individuals. Here, the psychic wound shared by the crews in both Enterprises arose from the Xindi probe that killed seven million people on Earth.
In “E2,” Just as Enterprise reaches the nebula where hostile alien vessels guard the entrance to the subspace corridor that will take them to rendezvous with Degra, another Enterprise, one crewed by the descendants of Enterprise’s crew, blocks their approach and hails them. The commander of the Enterprise from the past, Lorain, in his timeline is the son of Sub-Commander T’Pol and Commander Charles (Trip) Tucker. He explains to Captain Jonathan Archer that their ship exists as the result of the Enterprise having entered into the subspace corridor 107 years prior and having been sent back in time. To avoid this happening, Lorian has a plan to modify Enterprise’s engines so that the vessel can travel fast enough to meet Degra without going through the corridor. T’Pol from the Enterprise that traveled to the past is still alive and gives Archer data that suggests that Lorian’s plan may not work. She has an alternative plan, but when Archer tries to use it, Lorian believes that her plan will fail and sabotages Archer’s Enterprise so that he can take his Enterprise from the past to meet Degra. Archer’s Enterprise fires upon Lorian’s Enterprise from the past and Lorian is taken into custody. In the brig Lorian tells Archer that he feels responsible for not being able to stop the Xindi probe that killed seven million people on Earth. T’Pol from the past has a way to make Enterprise able to safely travel through the subspace corridor, and Enterprise makes the rendezvous with Degra’s vessel.
In this episode, the psychic wound from the Xindi probe’s attack on Earth created the mission that Enterprise is on to stop the second Xindi weapon from annihilating human existence. The desperation that is felt on the part of Archer, Lorian, and their crews to complete their mission can be analogized to a feeling-toned complex shared by a group of people, that makes them act in ways that ordinarily they would not. But they are not the only ones affected by the wound. Degra, who is responsible for the creation of the probe has also been wounded by the devastation it caused. This might be why he, of all the Xindi, is most open to hear Archer’s information that humans are not the enemy, when ordinarily he would not. This reflects on how cultural complexes affect not just those who have experienced a psychic wound; that those who have inflicted the pain are also injured by their action.
mydailysoultrek 