Enterprise returns to Earth after the Xindi mission, where Archer confronts his trauma, Phlox meets anti-alien hostility, and T'Pol agrees to marry Koss on Vulcan.
Back at Earth after the Xindi mission, the crew are hailed as heroes. During a debriefing, Archer snaps at Ambassador Soval's questions about Seleya, and Admiral Forrest orders him on leave. He goes mountain climbing, joined uninvited by his old girlfriend Erika Hernandez, captain of the new Columbia. She helps him face nightmares of the Reptilian Xindi and the weight of what he did, and the two rekindle their romance. Soval later admits he was wrong about humanity.
T'Pol travels to Vulcan with Tucker to visit her mother T'Les, who resigned from the Science Academy as punishment for her daughter's actions at P'Jem. To restore her family's standing, T'Pol agrees to marry Koss, her intended since Breaking the Ice, and Tucker reluctantly accepts it. On Earth, Phlox finds that some humans blame all aliens for the Xindi attack, and his presence sparks a bar brawl. Michael Sussman wrote this fourth-season episode, which closes the Xindi chapter.