Awakening

*** (3 stars out of 5)

Yesterday's wacky Vulcan hermit is today's holy pilgrim as that guy Arev who died touching Archer's face and saying "Remember" turns out to have been Syrran. His disciples, hiding in caves from the High Command's drone planes, include T'Pol's mom and a young T'Pau (not the eighties pop group).

T'Pau gets it on with Archer (psychically, of course) to find the soul of Surak (the Vulcan Jesus) which Syrran thoughtfully tucked away in Archer's mind before he died of sand lightning. Difficult as it might be for the audience to comprehend, most Vulcans seem to have forgotten they even HAVE downloadable souls, and also lost track of Surak's katric ark (soul jar) for a couple of thousand years. In visions, Surak urges Archer to put his planet back on the right track. (The one with all that peace, love, and understanding jazz birthday-boy Gene was always on about.)

Previously the Black Hat when it came to humanity, Ambassador Soval lets slip that he's always kind of liked those stinky blunt-eared jerks. Soval takes Charles Tucker's side in the investigation into the bombing that is starting to look more and more like a government frame-up. Certainly when you press them on it, the government is quick to bomb more things, including T'Pol's mom.

"Awakening" implies sweeping changes will come to the world of Vulcan once word gets out that Surak's teachings have been corrupted or ignored. One of those sweeping changes is apparently that T'Pau will develop a thick accent and a much deeper prejudice against humans. Go figure. Then again, T'Pau is probably a common name. "T'Pau of Shirkahr" may be the equivalent of "Debbie from Dallas".