boushh said:
I don't know if he was quite fishing for the invite though... hoping maybe, but trying to get it out of her... I'm not so sure. I think he was genuinely feeling the blues about his home and perhaps because she was heading home and away from him. How could he not hope that she'd invite him along? Even if he did hope though, I wonder if he thought the odds were slim that she would actually invite him.
Either way, that expression of his at the end of that scene is definitely a "Yes!" moment if I ever saw one.
Yeah, he definitely seems pleased.
And I agree with much of that interpretation. I didn’t think Trip was angling for a specific invite to Vulcan – I doubt he would’ve expected T’Pol to take such a big step especially on short notice. But I did think he was feeling lonely and maybe he was hoping that she would find some way to spend some of her time off with him – maybe shortening her trip to Vulcan and/or agreeing to go someplace with him when she returned. I think the invite was more than he expected, which is why he seemed so pleased at the end.
Sorry I’m still catching up but wanted to respond to a few earlier comments….
I think it's possible that TPTB were testing the waters (with T/T and everyone else to see who clicked), and at the time I figured T/T would be the most logical ship to try if they decided to build a romance.
That was my impression as well. In S1 especially, it seemed the writers were testing different combinations together (e.g., Trip/Hoshi, Trip/Malcolm) to see who clicked whether as buddies or something different. And Trip/T’Pol actually had quite a bit of interaction in the first part of S1 – they were paired up on away missions, had confrontations, and even moments of understanding (SNW, BTI) which seemed to be advancing the relationship.
During the latter part of S1 and first part of S2, there was still some interaction but it seemed like there was less than before -- until the writers picked up again on certain elements like the movie invite and teasing about age later in S2.
So, to me it didn’t seem that the S3 T/T interaction came totally “out of the blue” because there were elements in seasons 1 & 2 to build on….But because their interaction in S2 had been more low key and sporadic (imo), the shift to more overt and consistent interaction in S3 (via the neuropressure and problem-solving) stands out more and possibly seems a bit abrupt to some.
I think they were trying to go for something poignant with TATV and sort of failed for a lot of people. As far as I was concerned there were still a lot of obvious feelings between T/T in that last episode, and I think it was supposed to be kind of a tragic ending for Trip and for them.
Yeah, I thought the TATV ending was supposed to be poignant and tragic, sort of in keeping with the Romeo and Juliet theme that seemed to have emerged in S4. (I also thought it was probably convenient for the writers to have that ending, especially if they were working with an outline and certain scenes that had been developed the previous season when T/T were still sorting things out.) Anyway, it did miss the mark for a lot of reasons – although I do like parts of the shuttlepod scene and the one where T’Pol is packing Trip’s things because as you indicated, the feelings still seem to be there.
And speaking of Romeo and Juliet, I do have caps for what is one of my favorite (although angsty) scenes. Here’s the first part with more to come later.
T’Pol and Trip are working together again, but T’Pol realizes that they dynamic between them has changed (contrast this scene with the movie night one in “Impulse”) and searches for a way to engage a stoic, all-business Trip -- moving close to him and turning to face him.
She looks directly at Trip, but he remains unchanged.
T’Pol realizes this isn’t working, so time to try a different approach.