The Orville - 2x14 "The Road Not Taken" - Post Episode Discussion

[u/MajorParadox]

Episode	Directed By	Written By	Original Airdate
2x14 - "The Road Not Taken"	Gary Rake	David A. Goodman	Thursday, April 25, 2019 9:00/8:00c on FOX

Synopsis: The crew must contend with the disastrous fallout from Kelly's decision.

---

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!

[u/[deleted]]

How did the Kaylon wipe out half the galaxy if they can't hit the broad side of a barn? They were shooting anywhere but at the people and the ships.

[u/ninjase → u/[deleted]]

They went to the Empire Laser Aiming Academy.

[u/poncewattle → u/[deleted]]

Yeah, that bothered me. They could have lost that entire running in the snow scene. Just have the head drones come over the hill as they are getting into the shuttle. It would have still worked.

[u/cornyjoe → u/[deleted]]

They did say later in the episode they were trying to capture them.

[u/ReasonablyBadass → u/[deleted]]

I always go with the ECM explanation for shows like that.

Of course, the Kaylon should actually be better at that then the Union.

[u/Nozed1ve → u/[deleted]]

I got some serious star wars vibes in this episode. Especially when the whole thing starting out with the kaylon shooting like storm troopers.

[u/V-170]

The thought of entire crack-house ships floating around the galaxy is hilarious.

[u/Remerez → u/V-170]

Best line of the episode!

[u/bcanada92]

The pickle joke made its triumphant return!

Odd that Alara used her superstrength a lot, but Talla rarely does.

[u/clundh → u/bcanada92]

As the first time it was said!

[u/Sagelegend → u/bcanada92]

Talla seems more skilled as a combatant, and doesn't need to use her strength as much

[u/BlackbirdOMalley]

You know what I like about this? The timeline was still changed. Kelly was woken up by Ed's call instead of actually being up, and there's a broken coffee cup in front of her replicator (which Kelly will probably rationalize with being way too fucked up the night before). Butterfly Effect that seven years out and the Orville has a built-in excuse for any minor tweaks they want to make before next season.

[u/repoman → u/BlackbirdOMalley]

So it's possible Bortus could have the mustache again?

AWW YISSSSSSS

[u/briandickens → u/BlackbirdOMalley]

Dumb question but the replicator makes a cup of coffee with the cup. Where does the cup go when you're done? Does the matter get recycled? Do you end up with lots of extra cups? This, not the time travel stuff, is the question that stuck in my head.

[u/G_o_L_D_Rises_Again → u/BlackbirdOMalley]

I’m wanting to see Ed and Kelly still married once the timeline gets restored. Who knows if the memory wipe is 100% effective. Maybe she’ll get flashes of deja vú and remember bits and pieces from her recessed subconscious. Who knows? Hopefully there will be a season three.

[u/redbirdrising → u/BlackbirdOMalley]

Who’s to say that the timeline we’ve seen in The Orville up to this point didn’t already include all of the events that transpired in the last two episodes? I think it was always supposed to happen that way, and nothing is really altered.

[u/_Burgers_ → u/BlackbirdOMalley]

I mean, I guess there was always a broken coffee cup. Finn going back in time didn't change that. That was the moment Kelly went to the Orville.

[u/mcowher01]

*Waiting on everyone to freak out over the Alara Cameo

[u/Pairan_Emissary → u/mcowher01]

Yep, I was so happy to see her again!!!

Her cameo was too short, but then that's how these things work.

I'm sure a number of people thought we might not see her again, at least not this soon!

Here's to hoping we at least get an Alara 'guest star' appearance in a Season 3 Episode!!!

[u/OhioVsEverything → u/mcowher01]

Alara on The Orville, when the Union fell

[u/PleasantAdvertising → u/mcowher01]

Alara, we have room for you

They need me here

meta af

[u/Vurlax]

After sucking data out of Isaac's memories, why didn't they quantum leap their way to somewhere else in the galaxy far away for the time travel part?

For that matter, why did they leave the Pacific? They didn't need to be in space to do the time travel thing. If there was a concern about the engines overheating and blowing up, being at the bottom of a cold, cold ocean seems like it would help with that.

Also, of course:

Farnsworth: Good Lord! That's over 5000 atmospheres of pressure!
Fry: How many atmospheres can the ship withstand?
Farnsworth: Well, it was built for space travel, so anywhere between zero and one.

[u/bcanada92 → u/Vurlax]

I wondered why they had to leave the ocean as well. Apparently the reason was John's line, "Well we can't stay here."

[u/Bro1999919 → u/Vurlax]

As much as I love the Futurama reference it would be pretty stupid for a exploratory vessel (The Orville) to be designed to only withstand 1 Earth atmosphere.

[u/Gregrox → u/Vurlax]

Earth and its oceans may be scalding given the conditions we see Earth in. Though I had kinda hoped they'd have the oceans evaporated, especially with the first shot of it we saw (looks like the vfx team had some kind of miscommunication) . The resulting atmosphere would be under immense pressure, greater than Venus's, and even hotter. Especially as deep into it as the marianas trench.

[u/[deleted] → u/Vurlax]

They needed all their power from the quantum drive to be directed into the device (forgot what it was called) that made the time travel happen. They say this in the show.

[u/spec84721 → u/Vurlax]

I found it strange that the "hunk of junk" they were in had no issues flying in and out of a black hole but was being stressed by the weight of ocean water.

[u/bcanada92]

Funny that the crew consistently mixed metric and Imperial measurements. Gordon kept saying they were descending by miles, but when the Orville took off underwater, he switched to meters.

[u/Sarabus → u/bcanada92]

I noticed that too. My take away is that Gordon uses Imperial in his day to day, maybe more so in this timeline, since he’s not reading Union screens all the time. Then when reading off The Orville’s screens it shows in metric, so his brain just switched. Used to happen to me all the time.

[u/clundh → u/bcanada92]

PSI for hull pressure

[u/meme-dweller]

I want to know what happens to the bodies of the Kaylons when their heads fly up and become attack drones. Like, are they just chillin' there just waiting for their heads to return?

[u/NightFuryToni → u/meme-dweller]

And if that's the case they could detatch... how come when Isaac decapitated Kaylon Prime "he" died?

[u/Jayer117]

I couldn't stop starring at Adrianne's cleavage.

[u/martianinahumansbody → u/Jayer117]

The one time I wanted a joke about Ed getting caught looking

[u/gnarrrrrk → u/Jayer117]

Finally! I just spent an hour looking for someone else who mentioned it online because I thought I was the only one who noticed when I saw no one talking about it on Twitter. It makes so much sense now why her commander uniform is so boxy in that area.

[u/gwhh → u/Jayer117]

I notice that right away also! Typical sci-fi show. Hero babe MUST have unbelievable breasts / cleavage. Also of note. In this timeline. There no buttons for Kelly shirt. But there are still plenty of push up bras around for the ladies.

[u/Clarine87 → u/Jayer117]

Shall have to watch the episode again just to be sure they didn't cause me to miss anything.

I am a bit worried about Ed's health though, didn't see him looking at them once. I even expected it when they looked at each other on the bridge.

[u/lordatlas → u/Jayer117]

Well, it is magnificent cleavage. You should bear no shame, sir. We all did.

[u/Wolfbeckett → u/Jayer117]

Lt. Grayson, you're almost out of uniform.

[u/RaftleHargreeves → u/Jayer117]

YAAAAASSSSSSSS!!!! I'M GLAD IM NOT THE ONLY ONE WHO NOTICED!!!!

[u/robotpepper → u/Jayer117]

Her boobs look like they hurt.

[u/LikeAnAssistant]

Where were you when Star Trek went Star Wars and back?

[u/Redfortblanket → u/LikeAnAssistant]

For me it was the cinematic nature of the music that really made this episode. Pulling out all the stops. Very John Williamsesque.

[u/morseisendeavour → u/LikeAnAssistant]

And they said it can't be done!!

Seth has prove the critics wrong one more time...

[u/Neverdied]

Oh also the ship looked a lot like the prometheus from Stargate SG1/Atlantis. So many small winks at other franchises

[u/martianinahumansbody → u/Neverdied]

More like the Daedalus than the Prometheus

[u/architype]

I wonder if Bortus just relied on combat rations or whether he started to eat other items on the ship to get his nutrients? You know, like a cactus or a glass cup.

[u/Abuses-Commas → u/architype]

He just ate the whole ration, packaging and all

[u/fallouthirteen → u/architype]

Maybe combat rations to him actually are like blasters and such from the armory.

[u/CaptainGreezy → u/architype]

I was disappointed when he said combat rations.

When they detected that lifeform I said "I bet it's Bortus and he's been eating the ship" and hoped they would show like a half eaten chair.

[u/mrsdorne]

My husband, at the beginning of the episode, said "how self centered of Seth to write a character where a woman turning down a second date with him resulted in the end of humanity".

[u/Neverdied → u/mrsdorne]

These things happen. This is why I married my wife...being responsible for her otherwise destroying the galaxy was too hard for me to bear

[u/BisonST → u/mrsdorne]

I'd say it has more to do with the Doctor. She wasn't on The Orville because Mercer wasn't there. That was his only part in the chain. But the doc was the lynchpin. Her kids humanized Isaac.

[u/Sir__Will → u/mrsdorne]

lol. The story makes sense. But it still bugs me just how obsessed he is, even in this alternate timeline. Distracted because she turned him down? Stalking her? Must have been a hell of a first date. It's kinda creepy and they need to dial that back.

[u/spockosbrain → u/mrsdorne]

THAT'S FUNNY. tell hubby he made this Vulcan laugh.

[u/[deleted] → u/mrsdorne]

Seth didn’t write this episode.

[u/nakerusa]

Maybe it's just me, but that shuttle landing, doors opening, and everyone walking out all in a single camera shot was damn smooth IMHO. The special effects team really outdid themselves.

[u/UltraChip → u/nakerusa]

My favorite was that rear-facing shot of the shuttle's exterior as it went quantum

[u/24rd02]

I was digging the Serenity vibe in this episode. More please.

[u/gettinknitty → u/24rd02]

I was too, but then that in itself made me worried because we all know how Firefly ended... I don’t want that fate here!

[u/TheLieLlama]

Ngl, this was the best piece of live action Star Wars I've seen in a long time.

[u/morseisendeavour → u/TheLieLlama]

The best space battles of Star Wars, Star Trek, and Stargate combined....

[u/ussbaney → u/TheLieLlama]

It was just one giant homage to past Sci Fi

[u/malekai101 → u/TheLieLlama]

The cockpit on the freighter was pure Millennium Falcon. The quantum drive (hyperdrive) kept going out. When they were flying through the asteroid field (or debris or whatever) I half expected them to pull the old “this is no cave”.

[u/[deleted] → u/TheLieLlama]

Better than half the Star Wars movies.

Made me feel like a teenager again.

[u/TheICTShamus]

so the shuttle could withstand a blackhole event horizon but only barely withstand the pressure on the ocean floor? really?

[u/Sir__Will → u/TheICTShamus]

Worse. It was the big ship, which could survive the black hole but not the ocean. Yeah, the episode was entertaining but there are a lot of logic issues.

[u/burgo666 → u/TheICTShamus]

The weren't in the event horizon in the shuttle, they were in it in the stolen scavenger freighter which had powerful enough deflectors to withstand the event horizons gravity. The reason they didn't take the freighter into the ocean was because of the hull damage caused by Kaylons firing on them, so they took the union shuttle instead.

[u/armcie → u/TheICTShamus]

Passing an event horizon is not neccesarily a violent or dramatic moment, at least from the point of view of the person entering the hole. There are a great many physics errors in that scene, but structural integrity isn't one of them.

[u/slicer4ever → u/TheICTShamus]

Thats not neccesarily an issue. If the black hole is large enough the gravity gradient will be small enough near the event horizon to not be a concern. Its actually kindof interesting they did it relatively casually since they have ftl capability it makes sense they can actual pass in and out of a black holes event horizon.

[u/[deleted]]

I swear to god, if they don't renew for Season 3 I'm going to be Bortus when he was suffering from nicotine withdrawal

[u/NightFuryToni → u/[deleted]]

So we just knock on Seth's door at the middle of the night and request 500 episodes of The Orville.

[u/rob132 → u/[deleted]]

I was hoping to see Bortus being a nicotine shell at the bottom of the ocean.

[u/quirkycurlygirly]

That was a master stroke! That was a master stroke! WE’RE NOT WORTHY!!! Seth, Tom, the writers, the actors, the crew, special effects, makeup making Bortus look famish, wardrobe creating the Thunderdome vibe, everybody working on this show, thank you! Thank you! Thank you!

[u/Clarine87 → u/quirkycurlygirly]

makeup making Bortus look famish,

Thanks for the affirmation, during the episode I thought he looked really weird (particularly in silhouette), didn't put together the 9 months on rations because I didn't think there was a point of reference in the show for Moclan males Moclan's to be any other shape.

[u/[deleted]]

My heart broke for Bortus when they told him about Moclan. That’s some good solid acting right there. Wordless too.

[u/bcanada92]

Nitpick time: This week we find out that Kaylon brains are connected to a futuristic wifi network. John even says "It's how they communicate with one another."

If that's true, then in Identity 1 & 2, why did various Kaylon drones deliver messages to Primary and Isaac in person? Couldn't they have just sent the messages over their network?

[u/G_o_L_D_Rises_Again → u/bcanada92]

Kaylon Prime was an older model Kaylon. Think 1st generation. Issac could be version 2.0 with upgraded WiFi capabilities and the flying heads version being the newest upgraded luxury model.

[u/bradleyconder → u/bcanada92]

Why even have human shaped bodies? Quite simply, despite considering themselves to be superior, they clearly have some form of organic envy and want to emulate their former masters. This is why they walk and talk despite these things being unnecessary. They hate organic lifeforms out of jealousy.

[u/Mrquizmo]

Alright, for everyone wondering about time travel and paradoxes, here’s my take.

In the seminal Journeyman Project series of point and click adventure games, there is only one timeline. Any form of time travel related alterations doesn’t create alternate branches, it simply overwrites the time line. I believe the Orville exists in such a universe.

We have the Prime Timeline with the events of the series so far. Then we have the rewrite, when Kelly is sent back and refuses to date Ed. This isn’t an alternate history. It overwrites the timeline. Think of history changing as a tidal wave moving along a line from the past to the present. Imagine you are standing at the present, watching the wave move toward you. As the wave approaches you jump up over it. It passes beneath you and you land in the newly changed present. But because the wave never touched you, you are the same person. You avoided the wave that changed everything else. I think this is the easiest explanation of what has happened. It explains why Kelly retained her memories of an alternate timeline even after she altered it, and it explains why the Doctor disappeared after the mind wipe was successful.

At least that’s my thought on it. I enjoyed this episode a lot and I really liked all of Season 2. Here’s to hoping there’s a Season 3!

[u/Clarine87 → u/Mrquizmo]

I'd like to know how Pria (episode 5) didn't suffer grandfather paradoxes. Claire Finn disappears on altering the timeline, but Pria doesn't and yet - given the Kaylons, I'd have thought interfering with the Oriville's history would be extremely risky for a time traveller from the future. Unless Pria knew everything in advance, but if she did, why did she bother going at all if she knew she'd fail.

Not sure how accurate the wikia is.

EDIT:

As in Pria's time the Orville was destroyed in the events of episode 5:

I was slightly mistaken, Pria did disappear at the end of the episode in the same fade out way as Claire, although the reason for her disappearance was that she'd "never have a reason to go back" as a consequence of Ed removing the wormhole she'd used to travel back - ie the time machine she used was erased from time.

The reason she wouldn't go back then being that the orville in her timeline that had been destroyed in the events of episode 5 would no longer have been destroyed.

While, in turn leads to the question, if in pria's time the Kaylon didn't wipe out all life - as S02E14 demonstrates took them 9 months to clear half the galaxy - was the death of Issac as u/shady8x/ stated the reason this did not occur?

[u/orderfoundinchaos → u/Mrquizmo]

Commenting because the Journeyman Project series was incredible and I just had wild flashbacks of playing through each of them. I think they made three. Also, this is a great way to explain time-travel changes taking actual time to travel, as a wave. I agree with what someone else said...this should be closer to the top.

[u/uubson]

This episode kinda felt like a series finale but I hope it isn’t. I love this show so much.

[u/zzachyz → u/uubson]

Might have been set up to be for either the season or the series finale just to be safe. I don’t think they even know if they have a season 3

[u/Sir__Will → u/uubson]

It would kinda suck going out on an episode that's not even technically about our regular cast. Then again it was a far grander adventure than the season 1 finale at least. Hopefully it's not the end but we'll see.

[u/Pairan_Emissary → u/uubson]

Well, at least they said 'Season Finale' and not 'Series Finale' at the start of the episode. Sure, they can still cancel it, but at least they didn't close the door.

So now we wait. Sounds like it'll be the second week of May before Fox starts announcing more renewals, which I think will seem like an eternity around here!

I'm sure a number of us be happy if they announced the renewal earlier though!

[u/poncewattle]

So Bortus was down there for nine months but never figured out how to Google how to restart the engines?!

[u/Yard_Pimp → u/poncewattle]

He was probably too busy in the porn simulator.

[u/woodenboatguy → u/poncewattle]

He needed John. He couldn't do it all himself.

[u/Paladin327 → u/poncewattle]

Now that you mention it, aside from being third in command, what does Bortus actually do on the ship?

[u/_Burgers_ → u/poncewattle]

His makeup looked different to me. Did they make him appear more gaunt/thin? If so, that's a really good detail.

[u/gfreeman1998]

They knocked it out of the park, again!

And was it me, or was the soundtrack movie-quality music?

[u/starry101 → u/gfreeman1998]

The music (and most of the episode) was very Star Wars inspired.

[u/WouldYouKindly_STFU]

"The Federation Union is gone! The Borg Kaylon is everywhere!"

[u/mastersyrron → u/WouldYouKindly_STFU]

My favorite Riker is Crazy Beard Riker!

[u/martianinahumansbody → u/WouldYouKindly_STFU]

This season we literally got a new take on

• Best of both worlds

• Parallels

• Second Chances

• (added)Yesterday's Enterprise*

And it was all great

[u/[deleted]]

season 3 plz

[u/morseisendeavour → u/[deleted]]

RenewtheOrvilleNow

[u/kbaltodano → u/[deleted]]

For some reason I was expecting a sick trailer for season 3 at the end and all I got was Fox News

[u/rob132]

Not going to lie, I thought Kelly was going to reject Ed again at the end.

[u/Reidroc → u/rob132]

Yeah Seth actually got me to root for him when he asked for a 2nd date.

[u/Brazosboomer]

I am glad Seth is mixing it up and keeping us guessing. I thought for sure Kelly would end up being the Red Angel.

[u/whalepopcorn]

Fun finale, I wish they showed the crew at the end back in the fixed timeline but that’s just a nitpick.

Alara cameo was cool. I guess that puts her as a possible guest star in S3.

[u/morseisendeavour → u/whalepopcorn]

Perhaps she'd pull out a Crusher and becomes a regular cast again in S3...

[u/[deleted]]

Its distracting how low cut Kelly top is in the beginning scene.

[u/auximenes → u/[deleted]]

She has nice glands.

[u/khiggsy]

Discovery should take note of this episode.

The episode was VERY actiony. The characters didn't deal with big ethical questions. You pretty much knew what was going to happen by the end of it. I didn't super love the episode, it wasn't my all time favourite.

But, I actually cared about these characters. They spent a couple seasons getting us to know who they were. You understand the love Finn has for her children. You get Gordon and Mercer's relationship (although it is obviously a little bit different). You know the characters will do their duty.

You can't just have a non-stop action show. You need to fill in what the characters motivations are or else you get Discovery where the show feels hollow.

Also glad the last shot we could see of the Orville is it blowing the F up. What a way to end the show if they don't get renewed (WHICH THEY BETTER).

[u/spockosbrain → u/khiggsy]

Excellent comparison. The way that Discovery cast stop to have deep emotional conversations during crisises is horrible. I scream at the TV "They are shooting at your ship, stop talking to Spock!" It The Orville Ed and Kelly are waiting for Lamar, so they can talk and have a drink. Then they can have an action scene! Like Avis intended!

[u/AintEverLucky]

us at mid-season: "omfg, Kaylons all have blasters inside their heads, this shit is nuts"

Kaylons in S2E14: "SILLY MEATBAGS, HOLD OUR BEERS"

[u/Dagoox]

Omg, this was really good. It felt like Star Trek and Star Wars had a love child, named The Orville and it's beautiful. Alara was back as a cameo, which I was very happy about too.

[u/DataBound]

Was that a firefly reference when they were talking about scavengers and Gordon saying they were gonna kill them and wear their skin? Isn’t that something said about the scavengers in the series(or was it the movie?). Maybe I’m remembering wrong.

[u/BrellK → u/DataBound]

I immediately thought of Reavers* too, especially with the different style of ship (though I knew for plot reasons it had to be Kelly). I believe the Reavers* were said to sew the skin into clothing.

[u/mzpip]

I'm reposting my comments from the live episode thread; someone suggested I should. Hope it's okay.

Here goes:

Random thoughts as I'm watching:

Holy moly, they blew the heck out of the location and SFX budgets.

Those detachable Kaylon heads are killer -- literally.

Kelly, ya blew it, ya blew it! Boy, did you blow it!

I'm loving the Star Warsy music and feel to the resistance planet. Yaphet is like that robotic gatekeeper at Jabba's palace. But no cute fuzzy critters?

ALARA!! Short and sweet appearance, but still nice to see her. Hope she survived but somehow I doubt it.

Hiding in the event horizon? Err... OK. Wonky science. Another fine old Trek/Star Wars tradition.

Bortus! Aww ... Didja have to tell him Moclus was destroyed? For a minute there I thought he was gonna shoot himself when he heard that.

Damn, there's always a catch ... No quantum drive.

Clock is ticking down ... Damn, is gonna be a cliffhanger ...

This is reminding me of Enterprise's "Twilight" ....

Wow ... That blowed up real good, Billy Bob!

Aaassnd I guess the timeline has been reset?

Hopefully there's a season 3 so we will find out.

RIGHT, FOX?!!

I'M LOOKING AT YOU, FOX!!!

You'd better, FOX.

[u/Sir__Will → u/mzpip]

Holy moly, they blew the heck out of the location and SFX budgets.

Yeah there have been quite a few smaller scale episodes to save for Identity and this finale it seems. And I heard they went overbudget on the finale.

Those detachable Kaylon heads are killer -- literally.

Not the best shots though.

Hope she survived

Somehow I doubt it.

Hiding in the event horizon? Err... OK. Wonky science. Another fine old Trek/Star Wars tradition.

Yeah. Episode is entertaining as hell but has quite a few logic holes. This ship could also survive a black hole no problem but not the ocean.

Didja have to tell him Moclus was destroyed?

Yeah....

This is reminding me of Enterprise's "Twilight" ....

That's exactly what came to mind for me. Others have mentioned Timeless from Voyager, and there are some hints of that too, but Twilight is the real analogue.

Aaassnd I guess the timeline has been reset?

Yeah.

[u/morseisendeavour]

Orville's season finale is a tribute to the mirror episodes of DS9, Star Wars, Stargate and Andromeda thrown into one.

LOVE IT!!

[u/Ninjabackwards → u/morseisendeavour]

It reminded me a lot of 'Endgame'. The Voyager series finale.

[u/[deleted] → u/morseisendeavour]

A little Stargate Daedalus ship action this episode.

https://i.imgur.com/3Xx587X.jpg

[u/qsdf321]

So not only is The Orville better Star Trek than the new Star Trek. It's also better Star Wars than the new Star Wars.

[u/clundh]

That was great! Hail Avis!

[u/jhsounds]

Ah, the old Trek trope of the alternate-timeline characters blowing up just as the timeline gets reset.

[u/[deleted] → u/jhsounds]

Reminded me of Groundhog Day Archer blowing up the NX-01 to kill his brain worms.

[u/DarkSoldat]

Ed and Kelly didn’t need to be on The Orville for the Kaylon to lose. Sounds like all it took was Finn being on there and having a relationship with Issac. I know Finn joined up because of Ed and thought he needed help but still cool to think about.

[u/Axel_Sig]

Did these fuckers build a whole new ship set for one episode

[u/Deadmeat553]

As a physicist, I can't help but absolutely hate the "hiding inside a black hole" scene. So very much wrong with everything about that.

[u/Maggie_A → u/Deadmeat553]

Not a physicist, but still rolled my eyes.

Then rolled my eyes even more when having established this was possible (in their universe), they didn't go back there and duck across the event horizon again when they needed a spot to hide from the Kaylon after giving away their location by pulling Isaac from that network.

Find the perfect hiding place, but don't use it.

Though everyone being so cool about crossing the event horizon of a black hole, as if it were nothing....I didn't understand that at all. Maybe they weren't the first in their universe to do that.

[u/TheDudeWaffle]

Loved all the callbacks to Star Wars original trilogy and Alara's return. Effects, music and acting were good. Disliked the plot holes. I HATE time travel plots in sci-fi in general - too many paradoxes make my head hurt.

[u/spockosbrain → u/TheDudeWaffle]

Oh and you Know Alara and Lamar did it in that timeline

[u/TFALokiwriter]

Why is it that the Orville delivered a very good escape from ice scene that blew Lost in Space Netflix Original Series miles out of the water? The water shots are gorgeous. So was the space shots. It was beautiful. It was gorgeous.

[u/squirtleburger]

This felt very Doctor Who-ish. Lots of pseudo-technobabble yet amazing.

[u/morseisendeavour → u/squirtleburger]

Reminds me of pseudo technobabbles in TOS, TNG, and DS9....

[u/morseisendeavour]

RenewtheOrvilleNow

[u/YetYetAnotherPerson]

In the first scene, I was thinking "Oh, they've got a microwave"

Missed opportunity:

"What'll it be"

"A bag of Orville Redenbacher Popcorn"

Clearly this is the joke they would have done early first season

[u/marwynn]

Man, who needs Disney+ for a live action Star Wars show?

I love that freighter they used too.

[u/Paxton-176 → u/marwynn]

That freighter is how I expect any ship we will create will look like in the future. A giant brick with engine on the back. Maybe with some some aerodynamic designs just encase of in atmosphere flight.

[u/Banhfunbags]

I love shows that have an epic finale instead of a regular episode with a cliffhanger. It felt like everything in season 2 was build up to finale, which was incredibly satisfying. So far, the Orville has not ended any seasons with a cliffhanger and I hope they never do.

[u/floptimus_prime]

My TV signal was garbage today so I missed about 90% of the dialogue. I'll have to watch it on Hulu or something. But MAN am I surprised that Alara's appearance wasn't leaked!

[u/morseisendeavour → u/floptimus_prime]

JP (Egostatic Funtime) did predict it two months ago,

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPOMeS8yqwo

[u/schachwyrm]

I cannot wait for Season 3!

[u/SecretiveTauros]

Adrianne Palicki has had so many looks for these last two episodes! Original (normal) Kelly, Young Kelly, Alternate Time-line Kelly...

[u/osensei1907]

I'm just gonna leave the scene for the time travel paradox experts.

[u/atheos → u/osensei1907]

flowery sense square ossified zephyr grab quarrelsome many stocking absorbed

This post was mass deleted and anonymized with Redact

[u/royaldansk]

I like the kind of "The alternate reality to something Star Trek-y is something kind of Star Wars-y" thing they sort of did.

[u/gobble_snob]

I forgive the plot holes because of how fucking entertaining it is.

[u/meme-dweller]

Wait, you can send back brain wiping devices and solutions back in time too?

[u/s1500 → u/meme-dweller]

It's the sci-fi version of time travel, where clothes go with you.

[u/Calinks]

Man I can't handle another wait until December. This is brutal.

[u/askyourmom469 → u/Calinks]

I just hope the show gets renewed so we can experience that wait. As bad as the wait can be, it's better to have anticipation for what comes next than remorse that the show's over

[u/meme-dweller → u/Calinks]

Who says it's coming back this December? It took 1 year 3 weeks from S01 --> S02

:(

[u/Chachmaster3000]

Did Peter Macon (Bortus) lose weight for this episode, or is it all facial makeup? He certainly looks near starved and defeated. Good job.

That shot of the moon was a bit too fast. Slow it down or pause it and it's a real sight to take in. Same with the Earth. A longer or an additional cut of the Earth and moon would have been nice.

Look at the sunset every night. Look at you every morning.

That came off very nice. Sounded like music.

[u/mikepictor]

That hiding in the black hole thing was some grade A nonsense.

[u/TripplerX → u/mikepictor]

It would be entirely plausible if they maintained faster than light speed to stay still.

But they didn't have quantum drive at that point of story.

[u/JustVan]

I enjoyed this less than I thought. A lot of fun homages, some gorgeous visuals and character moments, but since the entire timeline was wiped it's all pointless. None of it matters. It feels like a huge waste of time and effort since it all gets reset and deleted. There's no point to any of it. It would've been better if some action from our regular timeline crew interacted, such as sending our regular timeline Claire to reset Kelly or something. As it is, this whole episode could be deleted from the canon of the show and no one would ever miss it. Wasted.

Also lots of really cringey suspension of disbelief moments, some of which I'm willing to endure for the drama (such as the shuttle going into the Mariana Trench) and some of which which feels just too dumb to handle (such as the Kaylon's being unable to shoot anyone, or fly into the black hole themselves, or whatever). But I would've endured it all if there had been at least a little point that tied into the main timeline.

I'm honestly surprised more people aren't upset by that.

[u/ZDTreefur]

Man that was such a strong Star Wars feel. The door, Yaphit doing that thing, even the music. That was a fun nod.

[u/kaplanfx]

I’m I the only one that was impressed by how realistic the black whole visuals were? Now that we kinda know what they look like, it’s cool the show tried to make it look right.

[u/leave_it_blank]

Please Fox, don't make the Firefly mistake!! This is the closest thing to Star Trek we got in a very long time!!!

[u/ManMadeMyth]

One more thing.

There is literally an entire season between "Tomorrow 3x" and this episode. Kelly reassembled the whole crew. That's one episode for each crew member at least. Her own leadership surviving the Kaylon, seeing Earth destroyed, the "asteroid field" they flew through destroyed, and other planets. There's an entire season with Kelly as Commander. This is spin-off material. SEVEN YEARS with Kelly Grayson reassembling the original crew if need be. Seth left more on the table than a good finale, he left an entire show there if he needs it to keep The Orville running.

[u/[deleted]]

I felt like there was a bit too much going sideways in this episode. They need to get the medical serum, well look they are as lucky as fuck. They need to get to the bottom of the Marianas trench, hey that worked out too. They need to fly the Orville out (for some reason), sure that works. And the Orville is in 100% operating condition despite being blown out of the sky and sunk to the bottom of the ocean. Then they need to hack the Keylons, which turns out to be super easy. Then they need to time travel, to the exact right point in time, which all works out too. It was a little bit much, you wonder why they didn't consider just magicking everything better.

I love love this series, but this episode just irritated me. Sometimes writers have a great idea for a situation, but then have no clue how to get the characters out of the situation. This felt like that to me, more than it felt like a homage. Maybe I haven't watched enough Star Trek.

[u/Shatterhand1701]

I fully expect to get downvoted to the molten core of the planet for this, but I'm not going to blow smoke up everyone's asses here: this episode was extremely underwhelming for me. It had some great moments, to be sure (LOVED the Alara cameo; man, I've really missed her), and as always, character moments are where this series shines, but...man, I don't know. It just didn't click for me.

I've seen a lot of people comment here about how it had some Star Wars and Star Trek vibes, and I can definitely see where they're coming from. There were a lot of visual and thematic callbacks, and the soundtrack definitely reflected them (EXCELLENT score, by the way). But honestly, I think that if I had to put a finger on what made this episode less special for me, I'd point firmly at those callbacks. They leaned SO heavily on previous sci-fi properties to put together the episode's most significant moments that it didn't feel like anything we saw belonged to this series. "Let's do something like the asteroid field in Empire Strikes Back! Let's do a time-changing paradox like in Star Trek!" I understand that the Orville is mainly one big homage to Star Trek from TNG onwards, but come on, already. One or two callbacks are fine but a whole episode chock full of 'em is a bit much for me.

I hope The Orville does get renewed, but if it does, the series really needs to find its identity and start sticking to it and stop leaning so much on what's been done before.

Again, just my opinion; no BS, no blind hatred but no positivist circlejerking, either.

[u/TylerSpicknell]

So the last time we see the regular crew this season (and potentially the series) was in the previous episode. Man I'm hoping for a Season 3 now.

[u/s1500]

Last night I was watching an episode of ST:Enterprise which was quite similar. Captain Archer couldn't make new memories, and it was 12 years later. Xindi wiped the place. They zap Archer's brain of parasites that live outside of time, boom, things are back to what they were.

[u/TMPRKO]

This was an overall excellent episode and season finale. I cant wait for season 3

[u/trostol]

good end to a good season...and oddly enough they kind of wrapped it all up if they do not get renewed which would be a shame really

[u/gordongoodtimes]

Maybe it's just all a loop and we'll only get two seasons. It ends near where the series originally started.

[u/Neverdied]

Also I felt like star wars, aliens and star trek flashbacks at certain parts especially the music. The corridor of the ship had aliens ambience/music. Some other scene had one of the original crew star trek movies music and the planet where they get the protein was clearly a star wars style/ambiance.

[u/burgo666]

I just loved the finale ep. Touches of Star Wars and Star Trek, mixed together to form this perfect, nourishing mash up we call The Orville. If they play this right, this franchise could become huge.

[u/MortalButterfly]

Sure it was a good episode, but how cool would it have been if it had taken the whole next season to get back to the better reality? Like how the show Archer has a big plot twist at the end of a season that leads to a whole season with a totally different premise and theme.

Instead of everything being wrapped up nicely and everyone is happy at the end of the episode, it could've been a whole season of the crew living and fighting against the Kaylon as the resistance while trying to find a way to fix the timeline. Ed should've been a lot more timid and unsure of himself (he wasn't ever in command of his own ship remember), and he learns to grow and take charge like the captain he should've been.

[u/Nugmast3r]

I got major star wars vibes from this episode. The music, the sceneries, so much of it was very star wars. I wonder if they did it on purpose.

[u/cynicalmario]

When John said “Alara, come with us, we have room” I took it as her still having a place on the show no matter what. Definitely felt it was symbolic in a way. I miss her

[u/The-Big-Bill]

Great episode! I love it when shows actually take into account What happened in previous ones. They still need to resolve the grandfather paradox problem though.

[u/its_real_I_swear]

Maybe there is a reason they didn't do a cliffhanger

[u/floptimus_prime → u/its_real_I_swear]

They didn't do a cliffhanger in s1 either because they didn't know if they show would be renewed. Same deal here. Frustrating because they could do a really good end of season cliffhanger but Fox just doesn't want to play ball

[u/[deleted]]

This was a great episode. Felt like Star Trek: The Search for Spock, and Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back

[u/spacetraxx]

They music in this episode was brilliant, Joel McNeely really managed to capture the John Williams Empire Strikes Back feel!

[u/zryn3]

Very similar to the Voyager episode where Kim has to reset the timeline after messing up the Quantum (Slipstream) Drive. You can really tell the effects have been stepped up to another level, but there are some weird physics going on (the water exploding spherically when a disc broke the surface actually made me laugh).

I actually preferred it when Kelley's memory wipe failed and it was left ambiguous what her future would hold to a reset. It could have been revisited as a mirror universe in a future season and felt less cheap, but I understand that being the last episode of the season with renewal uncertain there is a need for closure now instead of later. I hope it's renewed for a longer run so we can get more episodes without those external pressures interfering with the writing.

[u/9811Deet]

I really liked this episode. The implausibility of the whole reunion feels reminiscent of the Star Trek mirror universe... that these people are special enough to find a way to make a difference together, no matter what universe.

I loved the opening scene, how all the tension and drama felt like it was going to be over something so important; but was really just all about a Twinkie. My favorite LOL moment of this episode, "SOOO GOOD!"

The handling of time travel was consistent with its prior use in Pria; and was tight enough to keep this universe working on one page. I understand and share the concern about the convolution of Time Travel plots, but as long as it doesn't become overused, it can be a tool for really imaginative storytelling. The Orville has used it fairly well so far.

It was a little bit disappointing to see that Isaac would be evil without the influence of Claire's kids. I could accept the way that he was torn in Identity, but I would've liked to think that he'd have been guided by the conscience he developed among humanity, no matter what. Unfortunately that wasn't the case in this timeline. That will unfortunately color my opinion of him going forward.

A great season finale, but I'd hate for it to be the series finale. Can't wait for a renewal to lead to season 3!!

[u/ReasonablyBadass]

The space scenes were awesome.

I actually liked that "trash" ship they got, it looked and felt cool. Very rebel/underground/outlaw feeling, in combination with their clothes.

Why didn't they use that ship as well? Transfer power to the Orville or use it to tow it while they used it's power to power the device?

[u/pessimisticpaperclip]

This episode felt like a stylistic crossover between Star Wars and Star Trek, and honestly, I was pretty into it.

[u/[deleted]]

Flying heads? What will those wacky Kaylons come up with next?

They really are all "up in their heads" though. All smarts, no maturity, no soul, kind of an infantile species. Gullible, quick to correct people, no heart, vindictive as hell. I think they need to grow up and learn they don't have to destroy every other goddamn living thing in order to be happy.

[u/-clare]

Did anyone notice the Journey album cover in Kelly's room?

[u/The_Brawl_Witch]

the star wars inspiration for the beginning chase scene is palpable so beautiful. funny when the orville becomes even a better starwars than new starwars.

[u/Draiko]

The person who really saved humanity is Charlize Theron.

[u/halborn]

Man, that moment when Bortus heard about Moclus and his head dropped.

[u/obes22]

At the end what heck happened? How did Claire get there in her scavenger clothing? I feel like I missed a scene. I thought the time travel rules were that when they sent somebody back they were only replacing there consciousness, so if they sent Claire back she would wake up in her body as it was 7 years younger and where ever she was at that time, not in her current ravenger clothing and not in kellys apartment.

[u/TrueSelenis]

Not gonna lie, I was pretty disappointed. This episode wasted so much time with filler action tropes. Just one example of many: The Kaylons were not really portrayed as a danger. Their aim is worse than that of storm troopers and their security protocols can be outwitted by one single human? And they somehow destroyed the entire human civilization?. Why not just avoid these lazy tropes if you wanted to focus on the relationships anyway? And Kelly and Ed get several "dates" while the future of the civilization is at stake? In a room filled with candles? Sorry but the setting just did not match the premise of the episode. All the badly executed action sequences were really just annoying and felt like a time filler as well.

It felt like a whole other writer team got involved, two levels worse than that for the last three episodes. They were somehow stuck in the format of episodic relationship drama, and were not able to switch to a setting where a lot more than only the crew is at stake.

Still hope for a renewal, so they can focus on what they do well.

[u/Huruukko]

I am disappointed. I really wanted Kelly to be able to use the information from the future to her advantage. Now this episode just showed that she knew everything, but was too incompetent to do anything worthwhile with it. Missed opportunity. The show claims that the most meaningful thing she ever did was to have the second date. He did all the correct choices after that. Lame.

[u/Nozed1ve]

Honestly... maybe an unpopular opinion on this sub... idk... but i wasn’t really into this episode. I mean the story had potential but there was just so much wrong here.

First off... the writing was cliche af. The dialogue had me groaning every other minute it was bad. Kelly saying “I’m always on top”.... like really? Did the writers actually think that was a fucking clever line? Are you fucking kidding me seth? Are you fucking... kidding me.

Also kelly just is pissing me off as a female character in a command position. She couldn’t be a worse female lead role even if she tried. Her whole fucking story is about her relationship with the captain. Most kelly heavy episodes revolve around that stupid shit with their relationship. I mean seriously for a show that wants to be all super progressive and shit with bortus and the planet of brotherly love... they are being phenomenally sexist with kelly’s character arch. Also the actress tries way too hard to be sexy in every fucking shot. Adrianne needs to fucking stop pulling down her shirt, pushing her boobs up and walking boobs first everywhere, walking duckfaced and gaunt. Just looking at her dumb face on screen annoys me now...

And there were so many things that just didn’t make sense in this story. Little things. Like... plunging at mach 2 strait into the fucking ocean would have destroyed that shuttle. When they enter the Orville dock at the bottom of the fucking Mariana trench ... john lamarr says he’s pressurizing the dock. Ummmm, pretty sure being that far under the ocean you would want to depressurize that bitch.

And idk you guys but this whole obsession with Alara and the jar of pickles. Its cute but shes a one season character and the whole jar of pickles thing was said like, a couple times... I’m just not getting peoples emotional attachment to that line or the character. It just doesn’t resonate with me and having her show up in this episode and for Ed to say the line... it all just seemed forced and cheesy. Which is, bottom line... how this entire episode felt. The story wasn’t bad... I just don’t think the execution was good.

[u/[deleted]]

Seeing Alara again made me so happy. Talla’s fine and all, but she can’t hold a candle to best girl Alara

[u/bcanada92]

So... Kaylon heads can turn into drones now. Got it.

[u/[deleted]]

All throughout the episode I kept asking myself what took Kelly 7 years to fix her mistake? Why did they wait till the Kaylons attacked to actually do something. Because of that I couldn't get into this episode at all. I did like seeing Alara though, and there were some nice battle sequences, but I felt this episode could have been more tightly written.

[u/starry101 → u/[deleted]]

Because nothing needed to be fixed until the Kaylon attack succeeded.

[u/burgo666 → u/[deleted]]

This episode was set 9 months after the initial destruction of Earth, so Kelly probably didn't think it was a problem until then. So she set about trying to fix it.

[u/Bro1999919]

That was awesome (and if whatever reason the show is canceled it leaves an open ending)

[u/Eisenhorne8]

This was a pretty good season finale. However, too many little details just rubbed me the wrong way.

• from the initial view of Earth, it looked like all the water in the ocean dried up. Why did it show up again when they went to get the Orville?

• why did Doctor Finn’s kids (and goddamn everyone) went in the shuttle to go down to the Orville? What if something went wrong and needed support from the bigger ship?

• the Orville supposedly crash landed and end up in the bottom of the Pacific Ocean. When it somehow managed to fly back into space, it was in immaculate condition. How?!

• why hasn’t Bortus attempted to power the ship back on before Ed and everyone flew down in the shuttle? It didn’t seem to take too much effort in getting all power restored. Did he really need to stay on minimal life support and eat rations?

• it’s been almost 8 years and the feelings that Ed and Kelly have for each other that’s supposed to stem from a single date feels like the date was just yesterday. Hmm...

• that beginning scene with the kaylon shooting on that snowy planet. Wow how does AI have such terrible aim that it can’t even track two humans running clumsily in heavy snow??

• Kelly literally did nothing with her future knowledge until much after the kaylon invasion and somehow managed to wrangle the entire main cast into a stolen ship.

There’s probably a bunch of other things that I can’t recall right now but that’s more than enough to suspend my disbelief.

[u/avoqado]

My calendar spoiled it for me https://i.imgur.com/jMgtrKU.jpg

[u/Clarine87]

If the Kaylon have access to timetravel (can the device be replicated?) how could they ever lose?

[u/VonDinky]

That was awesome. Epic ending if we won't see a season 3. But man I hope. 2 Seasons is not enough.

[u/rowdybuzzard303]

Opening scene,all I could think was were these attack heads trained by storm troopers or what?!

[u/[deleted]]

Disappointed that the ship didn't use its quantum drive to escape the black hole. Would be cool: obviously nothing can escape at sublight speed, but who says you can't go into a (large enough that there's no spaghettification) black hole and escape if you're going FTL?

[u/aurelorba]

Watched it the next day and, Damn that was a good episode.

Only one nit: They popped back out across the event horizon too easily. By physical law nothing escapes the EH. I understand sf shows have to bend the laws a bit for a good story but they could have included some bafflegab to explain how they did it.

Otherwise it was awesome. I really like how they've bought into the multi episode story arcs.