“Twilight” is episode eight of season three of Star Trek: Enterprise.
Captain Archer is woken up when Enterprise shakes. He tries contacting the bridge but gets no response. Outside his quarters a guard has been posted with orders to keep Archer there. Orders from the captain. Archer slugs him and heads to the bridge, where T’Pol is wearing the captain’s uniform. Enterprise is under attack, near Earth, by the Xindi and T’Pol orders Archer taken back to his quarters. Then the Xindi weapon arrives and destroys Earth.
A clearly older Archer wakes in a room containing his possessions that he doesn’t recognise. He’s also surprised by his appearance in a mirror. He finds T’Pol – they are on a planet – and she says she promises to explain everything. Breakfast is almost ready. Today is an important day and she has much to tell him. What’s the last thing he remembers? Being in the command centre looking at long range scans with her. Does he remember anything after? Yes; they were both in a corridor heading to the bridge. T’Pol tells Archer that was 12 years ago.
12 years ago, the captain was talking to T’Pol about movie night when the ship shakes. Reed reports a power surge in one of the nacelles from an anomaly. They can’t drop out of warp and there are more anomalies ahead. One hits the corridor where Archer and T’Pol are; she gets trapped by falling debris. He refuses to leave her, getting T’Pol free just as another anomaly hits him.
In sickbay, Dr Phlox asks the captain how he feels. Phlox has a few questions he has to ask. He has to insist. When was the last time he spoke to Trip? At the morning at the staff briefing, according to the captain. Why? The anomaly left something behind, parasites in the captain’s brain. They are preventing him from forming long term memories. He can recall everything before the event; everything else fades after a few hours. The captain has been in sickbay for 3 days. Phlox hasn’t worked out how to remove the parasites, but he’s going to keep working.
Trip and T’Pol are keeping the captain updated at breakfast. They tried finding the shipment from the previous episode, “The Shipment”, but found another ship whose cargo has the same signature. The captain had an idea for upgrading the engines. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time he’s had it. The good news is that the modifications are working nicely. Archer starts thinking these briefings are a waste of time. T’Pol disagrees; they can still use the captain’s experience. And she never expressed her gratitude for what he did. Archer doesn’t see much point; in a few hours he’ll forget.
Admiral Forrest contacted Enterprise; Archer is relieved of duty, given his condition, and T’Pol is given a field promotion to captain. Phlox discovered that the parasites came from a domain outside space time, existing in a state of interspatial flux. No treatment had an effect. In the present, Archer asks if they found the weapon.
They learned where it was being constructed and the Xindi sent two ships to intercept. Travis was killed and one ship docked and boarded. T’Pol took the controls and crashed the attached ship into the second, but one of Enterprise‘s nacelles was damaged in the process. At the staff briefing after, Trip says it will take 6 months to repair and the best they can do is warp 1.7. Trip isn’t entirely pleased with what T’Pol did; she suggests he contact the admiral if he has problems with it.
T’Pol explains to Archer they found the facility, but the probe had already been launched. Earth was destroyed, then the Xindi attacked and destroyed every human outpost they could find. There are less than 6,000 humans left. Archer rushes outside; they are in a ramshackle colony that’s bene made from ships.
The planet is Ceti Alpha V – yes, that Ceti Alpha V where Khan was marooned in “Space Seed”. The crew are mostly on the ship, patrolling the system. Survivors of the human colonies fled here in convoys, one led by Enterprise (looks familiar). On the way, Soval met the convoy and invited T’Pol back to Vulcan, with her old rank reinstated. Other convoys are being destroyed. T’Pol believes the Vulcans – Soval – are partially responsible for this by keeping the humans back. Soval thinks she’s got attached to Archer.
T’Pol resigned her commission to look after Archer. Apparently, their relationship evolved over time. It’s not stated how. Things are looking incredibly bleak, as the last surviving humans are whittled down. Obviously, something will happen to change that.