Brandyjane wrote:What all of this says to me about Trip is that there is something going on inside his head that we - that no one, perhaps - knows about. For a long time I've thought that Trip probably suffered from some traumatic experience long ago, perhaps as a young child. Maybe it was abuse, maybe he saw someone he loved die - I don't know. I just get the feeling that Trip's happy-go-lucky, confident, emotional, open personality is just a facade and that the "real" Trip is the insecure, closed-off Trip we see in the last two seasons.
That Trip can hide inside much more than he shows outside ... well this is definitely something that can be shared by most. After all, you cannot think of him as a boy never grown, one-dimensional and no depth, the way that not infrequently he was shown on the screen.
And I think that the actor, with his own abilities, has contributed not a little to push - at least a little - the authors out from their wrong-headed intent to make this character, so full of potential, nothing else than a silly and tasteless figure of contour, that is, in my opinion, what should have been intended by them. I think he, so to say even against the will itself of the writers, became something different from the mere comic counterpoint to the already predetermined love story that should have been developed between the intrepid Captain and the exotic alien woman and cold, who eventually would inevitably fall at the foot of the Great Conqueror of Space, the defender of the Human Race: the brave and unconquerable Archer.
And, if I must be honest, I often found myself thinking that all this (I mean the unexpected direction that the series had taken) led the authors to a sort of love-hate for Trip.
I cannot explain in a better way the absurd and inane continuous ballet that they forced to dance Trip with T'Pol. Almost as if they wanted to say, unconsciously:
so now you two are the protagonists? And you two are in love with each other, too? And your love, your love story, it is very loved, in addition? In this case, you two must suffer, damned! Suffer, suffer!And then, you know: more tears, more drama! Consequently, more audience. Yeah.
If you think about it, even the so-called end (you know what I mean) of the series seems to reflect this ambiguous feeling. Think about it: Trip dies, and, in a sense, he dies as a hero. Not only that: it is clearly stated that between him and T'Pol there was a love story. And, after all, the whole episode revolves around him.
Yeah, sure. But ...
What a stupid hero he proves to be!
And the love story between him and T'Pol ... Well, there was, of course, but now there no longer is. Not only that, but what clearly (think of those hands that are intertwined in mutual consolation and hope) should have been the final push toward their clear and definitive union (finally!), it has turned (I think we have to think that it has been so ) into a further and conclusive cause of separation.
And as for the fact that the episode seems to revolve around him ... well, isn't it a bit strange that in the end, when the great Archer makes his important speech, there is not the slightest mention of Trip? He seems to disappear into nothingness, the nothingness where the authors have subconsciously wanted to push him.
My friends, I can understand all, but not what is not understandable!
All this leads me to share and simultaneously to reject what
Brandyjane says. I mean that the Trip of the last two seasons, especially the last, seems much more mature, but at the same time too
insecure, too closed-off, using
Brandyjane's words. Basically, I am persuaded, he is a sunny and strong character, and it's hard to believe that he would not have been able to react to a tragedy of youth, or at least I think he would have reacted differently. Think about his reaction with Malcolm about the death of his sister: when I think about that scene, I am thinking that it was the actor who wanted it, rather than the authors. It is a scene really fitting to the real Trip, not to the flabby man that sometimes the authors are pleased to show.
Oh well! I talked too much.
A little of silence, now.
If a man slaps a woman on the butt without asking, he's a mollester, if the chick butt-slaps the man, the guy's a spoiled brat because he didn't have to work for it ?? 
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