ENT: Countdown

         I will admit that they did find a way to make the wait for the conclusion actually make sense. I had assumed that when they launched the weapon into space it was launched, but no, it was apparently not activated yet which kinda makes sense. What doesn't make sense is how they built a room to hold it with giant doors on the surface of a planet after having constructed it under water. Why not just keep it in space? Or under water again? Not really sure about that. I hadn't really realized that Hayes had become a fairly important character until a few episodes ago, but honestly he has the best arc of any of the characters on the show at this point including his definitive conclusion/death saving Hoshi as a member of the crew in this episode. I actually really liked how the insectoid Xindi turned on the reptiles when they saw that they were wrong, kinda rare in fiction like this for bad guys to be shown as actually smart and self interested.
         We open with Hoshi on the reptilian ship. She refuses to help of course, but they inject her with brain parasites to make her more compliant. Archer meanwhile is trying to convince the aquatics to join him and they seem interested, but only if he can turn off the spheres. Trip and T'Pol are working on that and fighting a lot as T'Pol loses control of her emotions which she finally admits to Trip, but not the reason. Malcolm has a bit of a confrontation with Hayes, but it is clear they two are on the same side now, just both stressed at the loss of the MACO on the previous mission. Malcolm gives Hayes the job of getting Hoshi back which is something he clearly wants to do, but his job is on the bridge right now. Hoshi meanwhile is now working with the reptilians. Well, at first she keeps resisting, but eventually gets the aquatic launch code decrypted. The sphere builders meanwhile turn on the spheres to protect the weapon. The MACO's manages to get Hoshi back, but Hayes is killed on the mission. The reptilians manage to get the weapon launched and into the subspace corridor as the insectoid leader realizes Archer was right about the sphere builders, but too late, his ship is destroyed by the reptiles.

         Review: Only one more episode left in this story arc and while I object to how long they took to get here, it does at least seem to be coming together. Certainly a lot better than the dumb temporal cold war.

6 out of 10