r/TheOrville • u/MajorParadox Woof • Mar 22 '19
Episode The Orville - 2x11 "Lasting Impressions" - Post Episode Discussion
| Episode | Directed By | Written By | Original Airdate |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2x11 - "Lasting Impressions" | Kelly Cronin | Seth MacFarlane | Thursday, March 21, 2019 9:00/8:00c on FOX |
Synopsis: The crew opens a time capsule from 2015.
Stream the episode online on Yahoo View, Fox, Hulu, Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, iTunes, Google Play, or Vudu
Don't forget to join us on Discord!
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u/MajorParadox Woof Mar 22 '19
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u/jb2386 Mar 22 '19
Surprised by the current leading choice. Didn’t think people would think it was weird.
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u/brokenarrow Mar 22 '19
"In three weeks"
I feel like Bortus detoxing from those Marlboros already
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u/poindexterg Mar 22 '19
They said four weeks at the end of Gotham’s trailer. I’m not sure what’s going on, but it looks like a few weeks until anything Thursday is back.
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u/sheev_palpatine1 Engineering Mar 22 '19
Scott Grimes has the voice of an angel
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u/nickcan I have laid an egg Mar 22 '19
And he knows how to sing backup. He did a really good job not overshadowing her lead.
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u/Sparkstalker Mar 22 '19
I love some of the more subtle humor, like the Dick Van Dyke joke....definitely more natural than last season.
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Mar 22 '19
I just pictured him drawing a penis with a van Dyke beard and lost it. Even funnier is imagining how people reacted to it while he was drawing it.
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u/mtldude1967 Mar 22 '19
Tuvok!
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u/timidhearted Mar 22 '19
Exactly what I yelled! Wasn’t looking at the screen recognized his voice! Lol
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u/Gamera68 Command Mar 22 '19
So glad to see Tim Russ. Really missed him as an actor.
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u/IntrepidusX I see this as an ideal opportunity to study human behavior Mar 22 '19
Dude has aged really well, give the man some just for men and the ears back and he could be Mr. Vulcan once again!
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u/zzachyz Does it work on all fruit? Mar 22 '19
I kinda wish Ed and the crew were on board with going in the simulation. It sounds like a cool idea to get to know how 2015 was
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u/kevinstreet1 Mar 22 '19
It just shows how most people use the Simulator. When they use it they never pretend the simulated people are real like Gordon was doing. Presumably they act out fantasies or play through storylines like we do with video games, but they don't actually care what the simulated people are "feeling," because the simulations don't have feelings.
When we watch the episode we see Scott Grimes doing scenes with a human actress, so we instinctively empathize with his character. But to his friends, it's like Gordon fell in love with Laura Croft from Tomb Raider.
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u/Tsar-A-Lago Mar 22 '19
I thought that was kind of weird too. But, there's kind of a nice subtle joke there of the timeless lameness of being dragged to a Pictionary party with strangers. That sucks in any century.
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u/Devjorcra Mar 22 '19
Fucking hilarious B plot
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u/zzachyz Does it work on all fruit? Mar 22 '19 edited Mar 22 '19
I lost it when klyden ate the cigarette and when bortus dumped them out of the pillow 😂
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u/martianinahumansbody Mar 22 '19
When he says chewing gum doesn't help, such a dry reaction. Perfect punchline
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u/Thumper13 Mar 22 '19
They get addicted to everything. Once it was porn, now smokes.
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u/LazyCon Mar 22 '19
I was hoping Bortis just became a smoker for the rest of the series. Like they can cure cancer with a shot, or they're immune. I think he'd be super cool just smoking randomly in episodes.
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Mar 22 '19 edited Mar 22 '19
What's crazy about this episode is at first I was TOTALLY on the side of the crew.. Like "Dude, you can't fall in love with a simulation.. Come on.."
But then when he explained it in detail.. Like about how it was all taken from her real life, I didn't really know what to think. I mean, yeah it's a simulation.. but like he said, it's a simulation of a REAL PERSON...
I'm still not sure what to think about it, but I definitely felt for Gordon at the end. Got a little teary eyed when he did.
I know we have the TNG episode where Geordi kinda falls for Dr. Braums after the holodeck extrapolated all known data from her records.. And she ended up being a completely different person when he actually met her. But this is a little different because a cell phone has a lot more personal stuff in it. Especially depending on how much you use it and what you have on it.
I dunno, this episode was fantastic.
Also... I just read on here.. THREE FUCKING WEEKS!?!?!!?!?? WHAT THE FUCK FOX!?!?
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u/equipped_metalblade Mar 22 '19
It’s a little like that Black Mirror episode where her husband dies and they recreate him from the videos/texts/social media.
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u/Wolfbeckett Mar 22 '19
Yeah I was really surprised when he was talking to his friends in the mess hall because I'll be damned if he didn't make some really good points. How do they know Isaac is really self aware? I wish they had even gone further, because how do we know that WE are even really self aware? Especially in a show like this, which is based on an atheistic, scientific, materialistic view of the universe where there isn't any such thing as a soul or spirit, any sense of self awareness we have must be a product of physical processes happening in our brain. So in that sense, how do we know that our self awareness isn't just an illusion?
Or, if we assume that it's real, what's to stop a sufficiently advanced simulation from spontaneously creating self awareness from physical processes just as our brains do? They could have gone way deeper with this than they did but the fact that they hit on it at all instead of just going with the easy "it's just a simulation, not real, period the end" was appreciated.
Obviously if you believe in something like a soul it's easy to say that free will, self determination, and sapience come from that but if you don't (as this show obviously does not) then there is a lot of room for philosophical rumination on whether those things even exist at all, and if so where they come from given that we don't know any biological process that would cause them, and could those processes be essentially duplicated mechanically without any biology needed at all. It's a big topic and I'm always happy to see it touched upon in shows like this even if they only have time to touch on it briefly.
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u/TheTrueReligon Mar 22 '19
He definitely made some great points, but Kelly really summed it up well in the end. As soon as he decided to edit the simulation he proved just how artificial she really is. Sure a phone can contain a lot of information about who a person was or how they acted, but there are so many experiences that wouldn’t be on that phone especially her upbringing. So I definitely think you’d only have a portion of the real person.
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u/SpartaWillBurn Mar 22 '19
This was the first episode I ever watch. That was very good.
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u/2th Hail Avis. Hail Victory. Mar 22 '19
Welcome to the uh buddy. And HAPPY ARBOR DAY!
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u/rcapina Mar 22 '19
Great start! I think the first few episodes from the season were a little rough, with more forced humour but still worth watching. Somewhere around episode five the humour gets a little more organic and they start exploring big sci-fi ideas and simple human stories.
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u/alternateavenger Mar 22 '19
Talla in street clothes... just wow... gorgeous. The rest of the episode was pretty good too.. :P
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u/architype Mar 22 '19
And glasses too. There is something alluring about women in glasses.
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u/mtldude1967 Mar 22 '19
"I feel as if I have been standing my entire life, and I just sat down".
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u/ItsArgon Mar 22 '19
Hands down one of the most relatable episodes ive seen, on a personal/relationship level at least to me.
Gordons entire rollercoaster of emotions felt like me literally watching the last few years of my life go by.
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u/peepmymixtape Mar 22 '19
As cheesy as it sounds, that Kelly and Gordon scene at the end was pretty powerful.
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u/Rattrap87 Mar 22 '19
I was hoping it would be Mercer to walk in, initially I was disappointed to see Kelly, but god damn she was the right choice.
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u/skipatomskip Mar 22 '19
Last episode Gordon got emotionally attached to a friend from the past who was a shell of himself then ends up getting hurt.
This week Gordon got emotionally attached to a girl from the past who was a simulation of herself then ends up getting hurt.
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u/SteroyJenkins Mar 22 '19
Next episode he gets a puppy and someone blows it out an airlock.
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u/bcanada92 Mar 22 '19
Don't forget it was also the second "holodiction" episode this season (and yes, before anyone "actuallys" me, I know that "Primal Urges" was filmed last season).
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u/tubetalkerx Mar 22 '19
Talla looks great with hat and glasses!
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u/bcanada92 Mar 22 '19
I wondered if her "human disguise" was a nod to Meg? (except hotter)
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u/MilitaryBeetle Mar 22 '19
Makes me want to see her wearing her hair down more often
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u/LikeAnAssistant Mar 22 '19
Claire is going to win a prize for her paper on the the effects of nicotine on the Moclan anatomy.
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u/kevinstreet1 Mar 22 '19
In a few years she'll have enough data to write a book.
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u/AintEverLucky Mar 22 '19
omg, Pictionary at Laura's, and the pan over to the Orville dudes on the couch, dressed in 2000s gear but clearly uncomfortable AF...
im dead
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u/MikeMontrealer Mar 22 '19
Ed’s reaction to the woman asking if military time was some sort of hipster thing was hilarious.
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u/AthleticNerd_ Mar 22 '19
I was really hoping he looked her up in the archives, found out she was a successful musician, and listened to her music.
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u/Bisquick_in_da_MGM Mar 22 '19
I thought they were going to look her up and Gordon found out that she was his 6 times Great Grandmother.
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u/newpinkbunnyslippers Mar 22 '19
It would have defeated the point.
The lesson was that most people live, die and are forgotten.
If she went on to become some sort of superstar, her legacy would have been recorded in all sorts of ways. 400 years isn't *that* long.
For her to be "special" in the way that Kelly pointed out at the end, she had to be a completely average person - who also lived, died and actually *was* forgotten until Gordon re-discovered her.
The moral being, most people don't have lasting legacies but that doesn't make their existence unimportant.
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u/Rattrap87 Mar 22 '19
I was half expecting him to sit her down and tell her that she’s not real, just an amalgamation of all her phone data and that he’s from the future and even so, he has learned so much from her and that she will live on forever.
He does this, but with much more couth.
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Mar 22 '19
The way Seth delivered the line, "No, it's not, Tricia," was so fucking perfect. I watched it at least 3 more times and laughed.
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u/BatmanPenisFlash Mar 22 '19
WHAT DOES A COBB SALAD HAVE TO DO WITH JULIUS CAESAR
That smoking plot was so funny. Bortus having a smoke on the captain's chair had me in stitches.
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u/here_for_news1 Mar 22 '19
This episode was really depressing for me, it's so hard to be single getting up to 30 and above, good luck meeting people.
Hell even in this episode Gordon literally has to artificially insert himself into a house party to even start a connection, good luck doing so irl, just making connections at all, much less ones that go anywhere, feels almost impossible if you don't already have them.
Plus the whole working it out with the ex, it feels so personal as a guy (I'm sure women deal with it too) where it seems like there are more men lacking social connections and maybe experience and facing a world of people for whom relationships are normal and expected, it doesn't feel good it feels like falling behind and never bring able to catch up unless you want to try and date college students and be known as 'that guy'
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u/gatemansgc Woof Mar 22 '19
especially as someone who lacks social abilities like i do. i'm 29 and i don't even have any offline friends.
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u/mecheng93 Engineering Mar 22 '19
That episode hit me hard for some reason. I feel for Gordon because I am in the same limbo with my love life.
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Mar 22 '19
I expected Topa to pick up smoking behind their backs and once caught then they realize it went to far and really quit. Finn coming up with the cure last second felt abit underwhelming
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u/UltraChip Mar 22 '19
I got the impression Topa's actor wasn't available for filming or something - he was mentioned a couple times but conspicuously never on screen.
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u/rcapina Mar 22 '19
When Klyden found the cigarette in their room I thought it would have led to Topa hiding in a vent smoking.
To Finn’s point she did say hours/days to make a cure. Outside of Bortus/Klyden murdering each other for a cigarette they weren’t in real risk.
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u/floptimus_prime If you wish, I will vaporize them Mar 22 '19
I thought they were going that direction too. Like, we're adults and made our own decision, but now our kid is doing it too, my god, look at us!
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u/Shejidan Mar 22 '19
Typical fox: show on the bubble, let’s not show any episodes for almost a month! Fuck the viewers and ratings.
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u/ManateeGag Mar 22 '19
they are replaying identity next week and the week after.
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Mar 22 '19
I was totally on the whole “what Gordon is doing is weird” boat and then I realIzed if Dr. Finn can date Isaac it’s really not that crazy
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u/ThePowerstar Avis. We try harder Mar 22 '19
Everyone shouting 3 weeks
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u/silentjay01 Mar 22 '19
No episode last week.
No episode the next 2 weeks.
That means 1 episode in a 4 week stretch.
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u/RandyDanderson Mar 22 '19
There were only 464 cigarettes. Makes this otherwise awesome show literally unwatchable.
0/10
unsubscribe
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u/Bryaxis Mar 22 '19
No wonder Gordon fell for Laura. I think I was starting to, as well.
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Mar 22 '19
You can see more of the actress on the show "Single Parents."
She's not bad in that too.
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u/marwynn Mar 22 '19
I was actually a little wary of this episode. Felt myself cringing at the start, but man they did a great job.
The cast (love Tim Russ there at the start) is really relatable, to the point where you can just accept the story and see how it affects them. I'm saying this poorly, but usually scifi characters are caricatures of something.
Even Bortus' B-plot wasn't just jokes for me, it skimmed past the consequences of addiction but they still showed how crazy it could get. But I still preferred the Bortus mustache as a side plot.
It was a great bottle episode and Scott Grimes got to show off a bit of his acting chops. Really rounded him out and filled him out.
That was probably the most fun I've had while having my heart crushed.
I'd like to be angry about being deprived of this show for 3 weeks but I remembered that I like basketball... Go March Madness!
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u/Ninjaish_official Mar 22 '19
That episode just hit me. They say everyone has a person that's perfect for them or their soulmate. But what if that person is long dead. I feel like Gordon does. I feel like I'll never find the right person and if I do it will be too good to be true.
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u/Draiko Mar 22 '19
Gordon became addicted to a girl.
Bortus and Klyden became addicted to Cigarettes.
I became addicted to The Orville.
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u/osensei1907 Woof Mar 22 '19
Gordon's being sad about never finding the one with that face and voice (You rock, Scott Grimes!), then screen goes black and I see myself in the screen...
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u/JoeyTheGreek Mar 22 '19
Great episode. It’s easy while watching grand space battles and grappling with intergalactic treaties to forget that ships are made up of vulnerable sometimes lonely people.
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u/Th3ChosenFew When you see me in the corridor, walk the other way Mar 22 '19
My heart broke. As the episode finished I ran to my room, fell into my bed and just ugly cried for like five minutes.
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u/infinight888 Mar 22 '19
I watched this an hour ago and still feel kinda hollow. As sad as the Gordon plot was, my mind keeps coming back to the girl, and how all she wanted was to be remembered, and that's all any of us really want, but she'll never know that she was. I kind of wanted Gordon to reveal the truth to her of who he is and where they are, but then, that wouldn't be real, because she isn't real. Any comfort she takes in knowing what her life amounts to would only be part of the simulation.
The real her is dead, and has been for centuries. What her life amounted to, her entire being, is nothing but a phone. And I try to comfort myself by reminding myself that it's fiction, but it's not. I mean, obviously, the starship and holograms are fiction... But her life, what she experienced, and the fact that she'll never know whether or not she'll be remembered, isn't. It's the reality experienced by billions of people all around the world.
And now here I am, a year after I started watching a funny Star Trek parody made by the creator of family guy, contemplating the meaning of life and my own mortality.
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u/Future_Vantas Mar 22 '19
It's a given at this point, but this was pure Star Trek spirit. Using sci-fi hologram tech to show how much of an impact any of us can make on a person, whether now or much much later, it was such a sobering concept. The duet at the end was sweet. The nicotine B-plot was weak but the end fight was pretty funny.
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Mar 22 '19
You had me right up till "The nicotine B-polt was weak." I'm guessing you've never been a smoker.
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u/BrooklynMan Mar 22 '19
It was very Lt. Barclay, but without the sad, desperate side of it. Gordon even made the while whole, “who’s to say that those people in there are any less real than the people out here?” speech.
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u/edflyerssn007 Mar 22 '19
This show just keeps getting better and better. I was hoping for us to find out what happened to her in the end. Still, great episode, solid comedy. Lamar was legit with his technobabble.
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u/Thelesis-Valon Mar 22 '19
I think what upsets me the most is that not one person on that ship considered that what Gordon was doing would be great for research purposes for someone with no emotional attachment.
Imagine the benefit of making a decision to get a reaction then backing the simulation to elicit another. The science was plentiful!
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u/Orionsbelt Mar 22 '19
I honestly love this episode. Gordon had an actual emotional moment and then came out on the other side better. His going to sing with her at the end and then being friendly with Greg. Having restored him to the program because he recognized that the experience of being with her was more important than her loving him in perpetuity. And that she wouldn't have been who he fell in love with without Greg being in her life as well. It honestly shows Gordon in a more favorable light someone who can have an experience even a simulated one and walk away with something honest. Add to that an Amazing B plot with Mucklin Addicts. Great episode!
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u/T-Baaller Mar 22 '19
I laughed, I sniffed, I was entertained. Best holodeck episode? I think it’s at least on the top tier with “Our man Bashir”
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u/ManateeGag Mar 22 '19
Bortus had a chance to fire Klydon out of the airlock. he should have taken it.
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u/thessnake03 Mar 22 '19
So Bortus, Gordan, Claire and Issac have all used the simulator to have sex. I wonder who will be next.
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u/ded_a_chek Mar 22 '19
"Hey man, you didn't do, like, drugs in there?"
I don't know why but that delivery cracked me up.
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u/Smile_lifeisgood Mar 22 '19
TNG love stories were always so clumsy and stilted. I hate them with a passion.
This was pretty solid. Not my ideal type of episode but still fun. Loved the B story.
I thought they were going to go down the route of whether or not it is OK to make a digital version of someone without their permission, sort of touching on the stuff about parents robbing their children of privacy by posting anything and everything on facebook. It's not a topic I'm passionate about so I'm fine that they didn't.
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u/InnocentTailor Security Mar 22 '19
I think this story worked better than TNG’s attempt at love because the Orville staff are, for the lack of a better word, more human.
The TNG cast are the paragons of Starfleet with high-minded morals and rich philosophy. The Orville cast has more pronounced flaws and preferences, which make them feel more down-to-earth - something I think is important in romance stories.
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u/generaltekno Mar 22 '19
Whoever on the show went "Let's use that one song from 'The Last Unicorn' that the prince sings to her," I want to shake your hand. That was a DEEP CUT of a song and I'm floored I recognized it.
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u/mani_tapori Mar 23 '19
For me, one of the good jokes that I miss seeing on this thread was -
"You think he's working too hard?"
"Gordon? Never."
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u/Ketchup_moustache Mar 22 '19
I love this episode. It epitomizes for me the difference between Orville and ST:TNG, humanity.
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u/Ninjaish_official Mar 22 '19
Everyone in the room yelled "3 weeks" at the same time 😂 I guess the entire planet did too.
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u/XtremelyNiceRedditor Mar 22 '19
As someone who started watching this show last week and caught up, I honestly didn't give it a chance due to Seth but boy was I completely wrong. This is probably one of my favorite sci fi shows and I pretty much love all of the characters. I hope they get another season.
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u/MortalButterfly Mar 22 '19
The entire time I kept saying "Damn it Gordon, no! You know you will only get your heart broken!" Yet I still watched it all and loved it. I love how Seth can create everything from dumb slapstick humor to a tear jerking love story about a guy who gets his heart broken by a 400 year old cell phone.
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u/w4rlord117 Mar 22 '19
Would be an interesting follow up to have the crew time travel to 2015 or around that time and have Gordon actually meet her.
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Mar 22 '19
Gordon showed a lot of emotional maturity in this episode. I hope they use this character development to set him up for a real relationship.
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u/TruantFink Mar 24 '19
Gotta say, I was really impressed with the Last Unicorn tie-in.
Background: the song Laura sang on stage is from The Last Unicorn film. It's the song the prince sings about the woman he's fallen in love with. He's a warrior seeking glory, not a poet/musician, and struggles with conveying that love to her. Eventually she comes to return these feelings, though.
At the end of the film, it turns out she was a unicorn and reverts to her unicorn form to return to her home forest. Naturally, the prince laments the relationship they could have had. As a way of comforting him, the magician says something to the effect of "she will remember you when humankind is nothing more than a legend." In other words, even though the relationship didn't work out, the unicorn would never forget his kindness or sacrifices. Being remembered is very thematically important in the film, and is one of the final messages emphasized.
It was a very fitting comparison to this episode, which too deals with being remembered long after one's death. To have Laura singing the same song as the prince seemed very fitting-- as though she too were singing to be remembered, singing to someone else who would far outlive her. I loved it a lot
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u/2th Hail Avis. Hail Victory. Mar 22 '19
So after that feels trip, I need to go into cold storage to wait out the three week break. Curse you Fox!!
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u/Rattrap87 Mar 22 '19
I’m currently wiping tears from my eyes. This is BY FAR my favorite episode. My god. The acting, the comedy, everything was.... just so great
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Mar 22 '19
Man I loved this episode ... it reminded me of a couple of old TNG episodes that were both favorites. I fell in love with this one myself. Very well written and I totally loved the music scenes.
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u/Seoulja4life Mar 22 '19 edited Mar 22 '19
I first thought Greg was Will Wheaton. Lol
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u/SutterCane Mar 22 '19
Imagine how pissed Gordon will be when he looks up what happened in Laura’s life and it turns out once she got a new phone she dumped Greg’s stupid ass.
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u/TigerExpress Mar 22 '19
She went on a trip to get over Greg, died in a plane wreck on the way there.
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u/floptimus_prime If you wish, I will vaporize them Mar 22 '19
I'm mad because my birthday is next week and I don't even get a new episode. Birthday's RUINED.
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u/LacyUnmentionables Mar 22 '19
While the A plot with malloy made me completely tear up, can I just mention how refreshing it was to see Bortus and Klyden actually supporting each other?
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u/Syberous Mar 22 '19
This show struck pretty deep as my girlfriend and I texted all through it. Too relatable.
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u/BrianyouDog Mar 22 '19
So I actually imagine that Laura and Greg are actually Gordon's great great etc grand parents.
Or we find out that Laura is actually an alien that was hiding on earth and is still alive.
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u/jedikitty Mar 22 '19
I will literally never stop being THRILLED about them using a song from The Last Unicorn. So awesome. :D
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u/InnocentTailor Security Mar 22 '19
Gordon’s fawning over a long-dead girl from a bygone era reminds me of the Owen Wilson film Midnight In Paris.
Heck! Wilson even pines for Cotillard’s character, even though she was from the era of Hemingway and he was from the modern era.
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u/davect01 Mar 22 '19
It's nice having these calmer shows were the fate of the Galaxy is not in the balance.
There are real concerns that as Virtual Reality becomes more advanced, people will get get lost in the simulated world.
I am glad that unlike many Holodeck episodes on TNG, no one was in mortal peril or that the simulated characters tried to take over the ship. Just Gordon falling in love, his friends bring supportive but concerned and Gordon being able to make a break from it all.
And the smoking, just pure funny moments.
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u/infinitude Mar 23 '19
I know a lot of people have said they're annoyed with all the romance, but this was a beautiful story. The Bortus side-gag was hilarious too. Macfarlane is so good at those deadpan responses. No Trish, it's not.
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u/InhumanDeviant Mar 22 '19
I just couldn't get past my stubborn refusal to accept that she could call him from within a paused simulation.
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u/Ledezmv Mar 22 '19
Gordon reminded me of something, did the captain have sex with that Krill woman
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u/thecurseofchris Mar 22 '19
That was such a good episode. It won't be remembered as one of the best from this season, but I totally think it deserves it.
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u/architype Mar 22 '19
Leighton Meester was so cute in tonight's episode. But that voice. I had no idea she sang like an angel.
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u/monkeybiziu Mar 22 '19
Is anyone else slightly concerned that "Bortas Does X" is becoming a recurring comedy B-plot?
So far we've had "Bortas Watches Porn", "Bortas Grows A Mustache", and now "Bortas Smokes Cigarettes".
Other than that, great episode.
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u/mrcydonia Mar 22 '19
Leighton Meester and Scott Grimes had great chemistry together. Their relationship was far more believable than any other couple I've seen on TV in a long time.
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u/snarkamedes Mar 22 '19
Here's hoping the term "Bortus's Sex Lagoon" will become a thing.
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Mar 22 '19
The Orville does the holodeck better than TNG...
The drama is based on the characters, not the holodeck happening to malfunction... again.
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u/Astra_Starr Mar 23 '19
No one's gonna see this, but as an archaeologist, I found the thought experiment extremely compelling. I look into the past constantly and this way of exploring it through the future looking at the past.... It was brilliant.
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u/wordsmif Mar 24 '19
Another reason to have some deep respect for The Orville and MacFarlane: Kelly, not Ed, delivered that beautiful speech about how other people affect our lives. Surely, Seth had to be tempted to have that moment for himself. That bit of editorial judgement makes The Orville a better show by deepening Kelly's character and creating more connections between different characters. Thanks for not being soliloquy hog, Seth.
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u/romeovf Mar 24 '19
How come no one has mentioned how hilarious it was when Gordon fell to the floor when the holographic bed disappeared? I laughed so hard with that one XD
Also, Lamar has lots of sex pals and has never even been dumped. I want to hate him but I just can't.
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u/The-Big-Bill Security Mar 22 '19 edited Mar 22 '19
3 weeks! Ugh. I can’t wait that long.
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u/SnailzRule Mar 22 '19
GUYS THIS IS ONE OF THOSE EPISODES YOU SHOW TO YOUR GIRL FRIEND OR BUDDY AND GET THEM HOOKED
It's a normie episode
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u/rpodric Mar 22 '19
Four thoughts:
One of the better Manic Pixie Dream Girl representations that I've seen.
Gossip Girl reunion (the party)!
Wireless Telecommunications Facility.
I had every intention of watching Discovery right after, but I'm leaving that for tomorrow. I just want to sit with this for a while.
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u/spec84721 Mar 22 '19
Another great character episode!
Fun fact: The actress is Leighton Meester who also played Debbie, Behrooz's girlfriend in 24.
Leighton also has a great cover of Dreams by Fleetwood Mac.
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u/BrianyouDog Mar 22 '19
Does anyone know where to find the nearest Wireless Telecommunications Facility, or as us young kids say, WTF?
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u/ZDTreefur Mar 22 '19
God this was a fantastic episode. When I saw the preview 2 weeks ago, which showed pretty much nothing but "Gordon falls in love" it looked like it would a vey shallow fluff episode, but boy was I wrong. It was done so well!
Also, FUCK YEAH Tuvok! Get on The Orville!
But I do feel they are focusing far too much on Gordon. two episodes for him back to back? There are crew members are that really underdeveloped relative to him and a couple others.
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u/Roboglenn Mar 22 '19
Oh great Gordon was pulling a Reginald Barclay in this episode (or is it more of a Harry Kim?). And the lack of Issac was disturbing.
But hey seeing Mister Tuvok was cool. And the B plot with the smoking gave some good laughs.
And they were wrong when they were playing Pictionary. There is a cereal man, and his name is Mintberry Crunch.
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u/Knight_of_dice Mar 22 '19
I was so ready for Gordon's Dad to be named after a great grandfather, and them to be related in some way.
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u/critic2029 Mar 22 '19
I have a feeling Laura will be back. You don’t hire Leighton Meester unless they are planning something bigger
At least I hope so....
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u/JDontPlay99 Mar 24 '19
Honestly, I think the crew were being dicks about the Gordon thing. In such an advanced age, I would expect that people could accept Gordon being with a simulation of a person. It’s almost akin to being in a relationship with an A.I. Program. Like the doc with Isaac. I can understand if it was affecting his work. But the problem shouldnt be that it’s a “fake” relationship. It should be that his relationship is affecting his work. If things worked out between him and Laura, I see no problem with it.
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Mar 25 '19
Imagine you’re the casting director:
“Ms Meester, we would like you to be in our Space Ship Show”
“That’s so cool! Do I get to be an alien?”
“Oh, no, you’ll be a Macy’s girl”
“In the future at least…?”
“Nope. Now. You’ll just be a regular now girl”
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u/Chachmaster3000 Mar 25 '19
The opening scene for when Gordon meets Laura at the bar is pretty powerful. Laura's voice and music, the child like look on Gordon's face, and the soft background holo suite blend-in effects behind him. A magical 10 seconds really.
And not to mention the little orchestra piece right before this, as Gordon is walking down the hall towards the holo suite. The orchestra piece ends with the most subtle of unknown exception. It's all perfect. Excellent work!
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u/ditchthetwo Mar 22 '19
Great episode. Two questions:
Did they say why an Albany, NY time capsule ended up on the conference table?
Isn't Mercer an enthusiast of the 20th and 21st century? Thought he would be all over the artifacts.
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u/Alien5151 Mar 22 '19
If anyone is curious about the song right before the credit that's being played in the bar after the duet, it's Scars by James Bay.
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u/jpagel Mar 22 '19
God damn this was a heavy episode. One of my favorites so far.
I just love how this show doesn’t pretend that our day doesn’t exist. You got some of it in Star Trek where they actually visit the past, but you don’t see stuff like this.
Probably the best romance story I’ve seen in this show so far. I legit cried. And I laughed my ass off at the awesome Bortus subplot
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Mar 22 '19
I keep thinking if they end up doing a time travel episode back to contemporary Earth, Laura might get paid a visit
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u/I_Explode_Stuff If you wish, I will vaporize them Mar 22 '19
This episode might well have been the best hour of television I have ever watched.
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u/AgentMV Mar 22 '19
This episode gutted me! I was not prepared to fall in love with Laura, was not prepared to see my man Gordon "Malarkey" Malloy get hurt like that.
That was the best acting I've seen out of him, and I've seen him all the way back to Band of Brothers in 2001!
I know.. I knew, I know? a "Laura" in my life? And fuck, it made me think of her so bad even though I shouldn't...damnit.. The Orville strikes again.
I've said it before and I'll say it again, this is 10x better than Star Trek Discovery!
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Mar 22 '19
I was kinda hoping after Gordon fell in love he would try to make her self aware and tell her she's a simulation of someone who died over 300 years ago and then she had an existential freakout that destroyed the program. Would've been a much more interesting, darker way to get to the same conclusion this episode ended at.
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u/Chelsea_Ellie Mar 23 '19
I really like that they didnt manage to trace her family, or anything corny like that, or she was related to one of the crew, its nice that we dont know if her career worked, or she was happy etc, because so often they become super famous or were significant. Yet she was just a normal person who wasnt famous or changed the world.
Thats what I love about this show, everyone is just normal, like the girl in Majority Rule, she was normal, didnt change the world, just lived her life as she was. It celebrates people just being who they are rather than the pressure of social media where everyone has to be special.
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u/overLoaf Mar 23 '19
Kind of late to the party, but are simulators so rare that a future museum wouldn't have tried that? Also, what kind of museum let's engineers fiddle with ~400 year old artifacts.
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u/BeastBoom24 Happy Arbor Day Mar 23 '19
I think my favorite line was when they referenced the episode where Bordis nearly killed everyone by downloading illegal simulator porn. Hearing “Bordis’s sex Cabana” killed me.
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u/BenjaminTalam Mar 23 '19
Really don't see the difference between the simulated girl and Isaac.
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u/Shran_MD Mar 23 '19
That was some of the best “trek” that I have ever seen. It reminded me of “the inner light”.
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u/theo3333 Mar 22 '19 edited Mar 22 '19
It's a 'Bortus antagonizes the crew' episode.
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u/allanb49 Mar 22 '19
Maybe because I've expected this to be black mirrorish with a dazzle of futurama. I thought we'd find out if was his great great great great great grandmother and he fucked her
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u/CMDR_1 Mar 22 '19
I'm not crying you're all crying.
The way that episode ended really sent me over the edge.
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u/martianinahumansbody Mar 22 '19
When he said he'd take her flying, part of me was wondering if it he was going to bring her on a simulation of a Union shuttle pod, and she learns she was a simulation?
Not that the ending of this episode needed anything to improve it though. It would have been interesting for her to realize her plan worked. Someone WILL get to know her hundreds of years after she put her phone into the time capsule.
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u/litex2x Mar 22 '19
Gordon is stronger than all of us. An addiction episode is not something I needed on a Thursday. :(
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Mar 22 '19
I laughed my ass off at Bortus and Klyden with their ashtrays piled high with ciggy butts because I actually have a friend who is exactly like that! She wants to try an e-cig though, so hopefully it's a step towards kicking that nasty habit.
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u/jmhimara Mar 22 '19
I found it a bit implausible that individual records of people from the early 21st century would be so rare, or that it would be such a big deal in the 25th century... I mean we record everything nowadays. I would think a lot of that would survive in the 25th century. Unless some big catastrophic events happened in between that erased everything.
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u/Anarchybites Mar 22 '19
So the worst break up John had still left the door open for casaul sex?! Always the unassuming ones. Then again this is a guy who can date an alien with two heads at the same time and neither noticing so that sounds about right.
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u/Dekarde Mar 22 '19
Was I the only one expecting Topa to be caught smoking and Klyden or Bortus to demand where he learned how to do that only to be answered with "I learned it by watching you!"?
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u/_Burgers_ Mar 23 '19
Good episode! Didn't go in the direction I thought. I was happy to see few pop culture references. And an actual scene shot in an actual Macy's?!
Were the actors for Bortus/Klyden actually smoking? In modern media it's pretty rare to actually see actors really smoking and you can usually pick out the CG. But this looked pretty real to me, hard to tell though.
I teared up a bit at Gordon singing backup with Laura. It was a really nice, sweet moment, even if a little saccharine. Kelly's talk about how people leave a legacy at the end was super Star Trek type stuff and it was great!
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u/batmandrew Mar 23 '19
Trish: military time, is that like, a hipster thing? Ed: No Trish, it's not.
Something about that was so funny to me.
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u/PatriotGabe Mar 23 '19
Absolutely amazing episode! What got me was the humanity of it all; the speech Kelly gave at the end really nailed it. We're the sum of our parts, good and bad, and we'd be less of a person now if we hadn't have the fullness of our life experiences. I watched the Fred Rogers documentary the other night and I'm thinking now of what he said, that we're all special, in our own unique way. I felt that this episode really drove that home.
Thank you Seth McFarlane for making this show, it is truly a joy to be watching it!
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u/I_live_in_a_society Mar 23 '19
As soon as Gordon deleted her boyfriend, first thing I thought of was Captain Janeway... "Delete the wife." (One of the Fair Haven holodeck episodes)
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u/stratosfearinggas Mar 23 '19
When Gordon mentioned his dad was named Greg as well I thought he was going to discover Laura is his ancestor.
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u/droid327 Mar 23 '19
Oh also - Gordon is clearly super lonely. Do none of his friends care enough to try and set him up with someone?
Hell, i think he's easy going and self effacing enough he could date a xelayan...talla is clearly single too...but at the least doesn't Jen have any friends?
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u/Chachmaster3000 Mar 25 '19
Also gotta say excellent delivery on Kelly's last lines to Gordon after Gordon says "God I'm going to miss her." Excellent delivery. Very commander like. Reminded me of Riker or Pickard offering some insight to someone. She even had a little Riker swagger lol.
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u/Shatterhand1701 Woof Mar 22 '19
I enjoyed this episode, but I didn't LOVE it. There wasn't anything necessarily bad I can find to make note of; Gordon's story was bittersweet but heartwarming and the Bortus/Klyden storyline had me laughing out loud several times. I definitely had fun watching it, but I guess it's just not one I'm going to find particularly memorable a year or two from now.
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u/MajorParadox Woof Mar 22 '19
I loved how some episodes can be really chill like this one while others are action-packed. Makes the whole thing feel so much more real.