This was on the cusp of turning into my favorite ST:E episode thus far before the ending occurred. The concept of 3 Vulcans trapped on Earth is a cool concept, a bit of a mirror on the classic "Human Trapped on an Alien Planet" plot. We get to see it from the opposite perspective. All the acting and set design is pretty cool and it's interesting how the Vulcans acclimate to our society as time passes.
Now to the bad stuff: the end. I don't enjoy this piece of revisionist history that occurs in this episode. Leaving a Vulcan behind to live on for another 100 years had me rolling my eyes. This show gave itself an out by positing the possibility that T'Pol made all this up to entertain them. Leaving this up in the air would have been a good finish and would have left the audience wondering. By showing T'Pol with her grandmother's handbag at the end, it throws away any intrigue or opaqueness this episode contained. Now it is established that this story (at least the part about the crash landing and how Vulcans invented Velcro) is true. ST:E really ruined one of it's better episodes with this ending.
Now to the bad stuff: the end. I don't enjoy this piece of revisionist history that occurs in this episode. Leaving a Vulcan behind to live on for another 100 years had me rolling my eyes. This show gave itself an out by positing the possibility that T'Pol made all this up to entertain them. Leaving this up in the air would have been a good finish and would have left the audience wondering. By showing T'Pol with her grandmother's handbag at the end, it throws away any intrigue or opaqueness this episode contained. Now it is established that this story (at least the part about the crash landing and how Vulcans invented Velcro) is true. ST:E really ruined one of it's better episodes with this ending.