Stuck in last week's tube Archer solves a pathogen containment breach by removing secondary relays in the primary junction, as Dr. Lucas calls the countdown before being left behind for a year long clean-up. NX-01 blasts the corridor and it decompresses blowing Archer out into space briefly where he is neatly transported aboard. Friction over (supposedly) killing Archer develops between Father and Bright Boy aboard the BOP now entering Klingon space. Soong wants to head to the Briar Patch to secure the embryos; the thought of running ("Khan's fatal mistake") disgusts Malik, with a head full of myths about Botany Bay and KNS. Soong threatens to lock Malik in "the Targ pit;" priceless!

Enterprise fakes its warp signature to pass as a Klingon vessel and follows. Malik confronts Soong about "correcting defects" in the embryos; he ironically argues about rights to tamper with genomes, and serpent-tooths that he no longer has faith in Soong. Enterprise catches up ("Sounds pretty confident for a dead man") but the BOP dumps their Denobulan pilot overboard and leaves, forcing Archer into a rescue mission. Malik takes over, convinced Soong will "never be one of us," and plots to use stolen toxins to annihilate a Klingon colony inciting interstellar war. Soong's not keen on the idea, as it confirms all the nastiness alleged against Augments. Persis helps Soong to an escape pod.

Stealing time needed elsewhere Trip and T'Pol get a needless recap scene but find the BOP. The Klingon camouflage is tested and holds. Hoshi's ear-thing locates the pod and Soong is tossed in the brig for more "lively debates." He conveys Malik's plan to Archer who nags about superior ability and superior ambition. Suspected of helping Soong, Persis pulls a knife and gashes Malik good; he finds her guilty as charged and turns it against her, killing her with a gross goodbye kiss. A D5 battlecruiser intercepts NX-01; Malcolm's grappler subdues it and Enterprise proceeds to the colony.

Just in time they shoot Malik's bio-bomb and channel several minutes of TWOK, burned face, self-destruct and all. (There's a lesson here that Archer trusted Soong, while Malik did not.) Some indeterminate time later Malik miraculously drops in so Archer can shoot him in the back. The Klingon retaliation is called off, and back in prison, Soong changes careers to cybernetics, anticipating a generation or two of work once he adopts the Flint persona. Despite uneven pacing for the entire arc, the acting steadily improved and Levar's direction is among the best. This was fun.