As regular ff.net visitors might know, I'm in the midst of writing a missing scenes collection for season 2 with plans of doing the same for seasons 3 and 4 directly leading to the events of "Trip Of A Lifetime". Since I've tried to build up a general timeline ahead I've been doing a rough analysis of the on-screen dynamics between Trip and T'Pol and the more one looks at it, the less sense it all makes :
Season 1
Both characters go into season one with bad preconceptions about each others species. In true Surak style they challenged their preconceptions - most notably in "Breaking The Ice". In my perception it was mainly Trip, who was the driving force behind this. Vulcans were rather high on his shit list when he came aboard, but he kept openminded enough to get through that inpenetrable wall that T'Pol had built around herself. For me a key moment was, when Trip was hurled into the shuttle in "Desert Crossing". The way T'Pol raced to his side and cared for him immediately was a sure sign that at this point Trip was more than a mere crew mate for her.
Season 2
In season 2, I think the roles were reversed. They were reasonably comfortable with each other and T'Pol became actually more active and obvious in showing that she was interested in Trip. The almost obvious flirting during "Carbon Creek", her stying with Trip, when Archer runs out of the rec room on the automatic repair station in "Dead Stop" are only some of those little moment. Season 2 is a bit hard on the average shipper, because the writers wasted so many episodes for contriving a romance between Archer and T'Pol, something that would never work. Those small exchanges of looks between TnT had more sparks flying than the contrived Archer/T'Pol worship scenes that sometimes hogged half an episode. I think mid-season 2 is where the writers really dropped the ball, both in overall quality, but also in the TnT dynamics.
Season 3
Out of leaft field suddenly comes neuropressure. For a species that considers an individuals age an intimate detail and holding hands a too intimate gesture to be performed in public, fondling each half naked must be short of X-rated, yet they obviously are close and comfortable enough that T'Pol agrees to it without as much as thinking about it for a mere 10 seconds. Unfortunately the development happened completely off-screen in S2, well more fodder for authors of missing scenes.
Now that's when the killer B's started a slow but relentless character assasination of T'Pol. While being all Vulcan, T'Pol seems very content with the growing intimacy of their relationship. Key scene for me is, when Trip starts worrying about gossip, which T'Pol answeres pretty much like 'is it their business, what we're doing in here?'. Note, she doesn't call for more discretion of flat-out denying any insinuations. She just doesn't care.
Enter from left field - Trellium-D. Many people tend to liken her Trellium-ingestion to mind altering drugs consume, which I think is wrong. Trellium-D only inhibits the Vulcan control over their emotions and that said control is not a natural instinct, it is a trained instinct, maybe like a Pavlovian reflex. So what T'Pol did was dampening that reflex, she was by no means 'stoned'. In fact the Trellium allowed her to experience raging jealousy without the reflex of automatically repressing it kicks in. Her decision to jump Trip's bones in "Harbinger" was actually quite a logical - typically Vulcan - decision:
Cause: There's competition to the male I desire (and Trellium hammers the point home by letting her feel jealousy)
Action: Demonstrate my own superiority over the competition and claim the mate by going for the mating.
That's when all went wrong. It is often said that T'Pol got frightened of the Emotions that Trip stirs in her. Why? Yes, Vulcans experience their emotions much stronger than we puny humans. But aren't affection, desire, love supposed to be positive emotions? How can I be afraid of something positive. It would have been more realistic to have her being scared by her jealousy, because that's a negative emotion if I ever saw one.
As I interpret it, 'the next morning' in Harbinger was, when the writer abandoned the idea of making a relationship between the two actually work, because except for that one scene, where T'Pol reveals her age and those where T'Pol get Trip to finally mourn for Lizzy, most scenes between them were purely meant to generate angst. And I have yet to find a single reason, why someone would like angst - it exceeds my comprehension.
Season 4
Say after me please: Contrived Angst. That's what season 4 was all about on the TnT front. Let's break it down Step by step:
"Home"
T'Pol takes him with her to Vulcan to meet T'Mom. But Mom wants her job back, so she wrecks T'Child's life and sells her off to some guy she never met and doesn't want ("Breaking The Ice"). T'Pol goes along, making Trip suffer. Seriously, if my mother would do something like that to me - I would be an orphan now, but one married to the partner I want. T'Pol is 65, her mother willingly risked to throw her into a life of possibly 140 years with a mate she didn't desire. How cruel can it get?
"Augment Arc"
Both suffer like dogs, all that only for the angst value, where's my barf bag. There should have been a more mature way to deal with it. I recommend the "Reconnecting Series" on HoT for how to do it.
"Vulcan Arc"
After selling off her own daughter T'Les gets her job back for a full few weeks, before running off into underground. Seriously, WTF?? Why were the reasons never explained, why was their no explanation for the sudden release from marriage. It was all way too contrived and the only reason was to get TnT shipper's hopes back up, so they could be thoroughly thrashed in the next episode.
"Deadalus"
I couldn't eat as much as I wanted to puke during that one. Trip offers to help, much as T'Pol had helped with his grief for Lizzy and gets an ice-cold "f*ck off" for his troubles. What is it? Did T'Les mind-meld with T'Pol in her dying moments to transfer her own cruelty to her daughter ?
"Observer Effect"
See Vulcan arc. Rebuilding shipper hopes for thorough thrashing in next episode.
Romulan Arc
Trip acts like a love-sick Teenager while T'Pol keeps shutting him down. With all the trust they've built over seasons 1-3. Vulcan logic is not cruelty. She loves him and he loves her, so why do they hurt each other constantly. Again, pure angst value and I'm at a loss, where the appeal in that is. Finally Trip runs off and turns bitter - yep, now that's a mature reaction if I ever saw one.
Klingon Augment Arc
First hints at the bond. And what do they do. First meeting in the white space and they try go get each other to leave. Sorry, by now it all appears just stupid to me. As good a writer Manny Coto is, but the way he handled TnT merrits a public beheading. Once Trip returns, T'Pol starts acting like the love-sick teen for a change, but of course talking to him straight forward is not an option, probably something that Surak forgot to scribble down in the Kir'Shara.
"Bound"
Finally the bond is revealed and we even get to see the Kiss. Both acknowledge their feeling as good as you can without really saying it (ending scene). But it was still vague enough to be destroyed later on.
Terra Prime Arc
The Bond is barely mentioned here. Trip is annoyed about it and T'Pol uses it to read his mind (his doubts) - that's it. If they are bound, shouldn't Trip know that she's honest about the child, so where do those idiotic doubts come from? He doesn't believe his own mate, but he DOES believe Phlox. That's just pathetic.
As nice and touching the final scene was. Did someone notice that they still not said a word that they want to spend their lives together. Between taking a roll in the hay in "Harbinger" and the end of the series, there was as much as two kisses (Home, Bound) but a helluva lot deliberate hurting each other.
So, after having that little rant out of the way, there's two question I'd like to ask:
1. Is there anybody out there who actually saw any redeeming value in the truckloads of angst all over season 4? Maybe I'm just to dense to see the appeal, I'd really like to know, what that was all about.
2. I'm having a heard time to imagine that I can really construct a coherent and believable missing scenes plot line from season 2 to the end of season 4. Does someone have general ideas on how to do that? I think Harbinger is the pivotal point. That's when the writers abandoned the idea of a serious relationship. How does one go about keeping it believable all the way to "Terra Prime" ?
She talks to him about his feelings and he 
) How is she going to know what she must do when he says he's been professional and when 
Naaahh... It's a joke. I can bear the angst. Compared to other shows like "Buffy", ENT is actually a pic-nic.
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