In the corridor, Orga-Quantum tells Orga-T'Pol that Phlox has learned to stop the infection. He watches for Orga-T'Pol's reaction, who shrugs that she's seen seven other species find the cure, only for it to be too late. They didn't make first contact with any of them. Does it appear to all of you that the Organian rules for first contact all comes down to the observed species' medical prowess? That the Organians are a bunch of OCD-ers who won't make first contact until it's been proven that the observed species use sufficiently aseptic medical techniques and have swept under their beds? Orga-T'Pol says, "Expending resources to attempt an impossible task is not a sign of intelligence." Someone better tell that to my production editor.

Okay, so what the HELL do these Organians want? How does the observed species win the game and get to take home the first contact prize behind door number three? What DO they want? Do they want all species to be as germophobic as they are? Do they want the species to be sufficiently compassionate in how they treat their dying? That would explain why they didn't like the Cardassians or the Klingons, since they just killed their infected crewmembers. Do they want them never to have even explored the planet in the first place? If so, how would they ever have observed them? These are clearly not the same Organians of "Errand of Mercy," who were only concerned with preventing the war between the humans and Klingons. I mean, maybe they've evolved since then, but to what end? What are they now? What do they care about? What are they hoping to achieve? Are these questions ever answered in this episode? No. Instead, the Organians change their M.O. so we never really know what, without changing their M.O., would have made the humans pass Organian Chemistry. If they have standards, we are never made aware of them. Even Q was never this mean. He may have been enigmatic, irrational and egomaniacal, and naked, but he always had a goal. There was always an end. He was trying to teach them something or make them aware of things -- he wasn't just doing stuff to check them off as failures. He kept giving them more chances to prove themselves.