It was. They announced the cancellation while they were filming this one, in fact.

There is indeed a sexism threadin the general Star Trek forum.

Despite all the bed hopping that She Ho was doing, it didn't seem sexist to me. She still was able to be the communications officer and was just using one of the various tools in her, er, shed. She was grappling for power every bit as much as Archer was. She just did a far better job. Long live Empress Sato.

Rewatching it again yesterday while putting away the laundry, I loved Phlevil's reaction to the offer of "females" from Soevil. The way he barely licks his lips and seems far more intrigued than T'Pevil's previous offer of a research facility just cracks me up. It's those little insights that Billingsley brings to Phlox, but it was also a nice touch of reminding the audience about Phlox's many wives. Subtle is always good. That's what I enjoyed so much about these mirror episodes. They showed so many of the recognizable traits of the characters, but they were still obviously different people. Trip was still something of a good ol' boy, he was just a crabby good ol' boy.

I like that the characters were not complete mirror images of themselves, but rather corrupted versions of the characters we had come to know. it made it more feasible to assume that the difference between this universe and the "real" universe was one pivotal moment in the history of the human race that shaped the attitudes humans would have toward non-humans in the future. These characters still had a lot of the same interests and mannerisms, but the more selfish nature of the Terran Empire brought out uglier sides of them that I'm sure have the potential to show up even in their "real universe" counterparts.

OK, so She-Ho was a bit of a stretch, but it was a fun stretch.

Thanx, 'toast. I have kind of lost track of our step-children threads, but it looks as if we will be reunited soon. I not only agree with your analysis of She-Ho, but it was in perfect keeping with the female roles in Mirror-Mirror. A Captain's woman who was an officer. A communications officer who could use being a woman as a "weapon" if you will. True continuity.

Aack. Evil Phlox is....sexy.

Heh. The hot-chick-in-love lighting (tm keckler).

This is the first episode I've watched of this show since the pilot. It was a guilty pleasure. I'm sorry that Trek is almost gone.

Empress Sato was great (and sexy), but I think Emperor Mayweather would have been even more hilarious. Regardless, having the Regular Universe's two most ignored characters end up running the Mirror Universe is the perfect ending to this story.

Yeah, Empress She-Ho was good, but not a total surprise, as she was already established as something of a canny scheming opportunist in this universe. Mayweather, though... that would've been even better!

I've really warmed up to Mayweather in general recently, going from "Man, they don't give him anything to do - and it's a good thing!" to "Man, I wish they'd give him more to do!" I'm not sure if it's me, or Anthony Montgomery has gotten better, or what, but I find myself hoping he gets some decent roles post-Enterprise.

In this ep, though, MU Archer says that the Terran Empire has been around for centuries. Since it had only been 100 years since first contact, this (as well as the image of the person in the space suit planting the TE flag on the moon) seems to suggest that the TE existed before Zephram Cochrane and that the pivotal moment in which the two universes diverged was earlier.

What fun. It was wickedly delightful that Hoshi poisoned Archer and become Empress (which might last all of 2 months before Reed of Mayweather kills her).

Oh, I don't know. From the episodes it seems that the men don't kill She-ho even if she represents a danger to them, as long as she continues to sleep with them. (See Archer continuing to keep her in his bedroom after she tries to kill him and subsequently continues to show her allegiance to Forrest). So her path to safety is obvious.

Tomorrow night and next Friday are the two last episodes? ...And no Empress Ho' to kick-around.

Including tomorrow's episode, there are three episodes remaining.

I'm such a freak. I stopped watching years ago but as it draws to an end I'm sad that I didn't give it another college try. I read a little taste of the recap. I had no clue what was going on but it made me laugh all the same. Just know you have a sister in solidarity in LambyToes cause I know how devistating it can be to have a show cruelly ripped away. I'm a Browncoat and I watched Angel. I have enough credits for an advanced degree in being screwed over by the programming monkeys.

The saddest thing is that Trek is gone y'all... *sniff*.

Sheap, the last two are on one night, next week.

nelamm, do you always have to be so right. (pun intended) :-P

What's a "Browncoat"? And man-oh-man...they just had to break out the good stuff now, when it's too late to save the show. When will these people learn to take TWOP seriously?

A Browncoat is a Firefly fan. Often one of its save-the-show activists, too.

Aha! Well, in that case...I'm right there with ya, buddy. Not to mention the fact that I watched Angel, too. Season Five was just all kinds of wrong (except for "Smile Time", where Angel was turned into a puppet; that was cool!).

Continuity question: Is the Suliban cloaking device proof that the TCW was going on in the MU too? (Heh, if so, I guess Mirror Daniels wasn't so devoted to saving Mirror Archer from his own ineptitude.)

That question makes my brain hurt. I'm going to just assume the Suliban have cloaking tech here and the Enterprise acquired it through alternate means.

I was vaguely hoping that Evil!Archer would have the Mirror Universe Shower Guy frozen and mounted in his quarters - sorta like Jabba the Hutt's "Han Solo in Carbonite" decoration.... :)

Better yet, mount Mirror!Daniels on the wall. He WAS undercover as a member of the crew.

(eta: As I best recall. My memory, she is not so good...)

True, that'd be better thematically. I was thinking you might be able to rig the shower with a "freeze" setting, though, creating an attractive yet still appropriately vague shower sculpture....

Speaking of Daniels, one wonders why he didn't try to go back and stop the Terran Empire from existing in the Mirror Universe. I mean, Mirror Universes are caused by timelines splitting off, right?

But then again, if these universes are going to exist, and a certain subset of them will have things all fine and well as they should be in the Federation, I guess it isn't Daniels' (or anyone else's job) to go back and prevent other timelines from existing... I mean, they'll exist anyway, right?

My brain just exploded.

That's open for debate.

Maybe Mirror Daniels is responsible for deliberately mucking about in the timeline to create the Mirror Universe.

No, don't try to relate the cause and effect of that, it'll make your head bleed.

I guess we'll have to leave it to non-canon novels to wrap up the Temporal Cold War arc. Either that or a movie. Or whatever the next series is a few years down the line.

Or maybe nobody cares. Oh well, I still care.

OK, so it was fun & all, but my beef with this episode was that it didn’t matter. Not because Enterprise was cancelled (well, that too!) but because whatever happened here would have no consequences for the “real” Universe. In previous MU episodes, our heroes had to survive to get back to their lives (or prevent their MU equivalents from perpetrating their evil schemes in this Universe), whereas in this one there was nobody from our universe anywhere in the plot. OK, from a continuity point of view that makes sense (not that that normally bothered the Producers) but they could have got round it by beaming an Away Team down to a planet (which miraculously contains none of the main cast!) – who arrive in the MU. They then try to convince She-Ho to institute a coup to institute a kinder, gentler Federation. It then plays out as it did onscreen except that when her coup succeeds, she turns to her “real” Universe co-conspirators… and shoots them, saying “Why would I give up power now I’ve got it?” Final scene sees the “Real” Quantum & co saying, “It’s no good, we can’t find them…” and pulls out of the stystem.

[These scenes could replace the Gorn sub-plot and/or Quantum arguing with himself]

Not bad suggestions, actually. I kind of like that twist at the end where, after watching the two parter, you're reminded that the real Enterprise has lost some of their own.

Plus, anything that cuts down on Quantum time is great, right?

So long as ruthless Empress Hoshi Sato doesn't go away.

Empress Sato Rules! I love it when she poisons Archer, checks to make sure he's dying, then makes out with Travis right in front of him! It's the last thing he sees! That's so vicious! I want to be Empress Sato when I grow up (in the MU).

I think that because Enterprise was a prequel, there was no need for there to be consequences outside of the MU in the same time period. Because we know that there will be consequences for later, when Kirk and co. cross over. These episodes really did what a prequel was supposed to do -- it told the story of how something ended up the way it did.

I wish they could have kept the opening credits for the rest of the season though.

What do you mean?

Sorry 'bout that.