Alexx Aplin
Alexx AplinWarning: The following review contains spoilers from The Orville’s fifth episode, you have been warned.
This week’s episode of The Orville has me very excited for a few different reasons. I’ve been very impressed by the production quality and the quality of the storytelling this season for what was (at the time) a freshman series. It isn’t common for a series to start with an identity all its own and to build upon that so early. Episode Five has Charlize Theron guest-starring and after Liam Neeson’s appearance last week, I’m incredibly excited about this one.
To recap the last episode, the Orville crew stumbled upon a bio-ship that had a whole civilization inside. They saved the inhabitants from being pulled into the gravity well of a star and revealed to the civilization that they were, in fact, on a ship. It was a great episode showcasing how religious doctrine and long periods of time can skew how history unfolds and is interpreted.
Let’s get into the episode! Spoilers start here!
Okay, before we go any further, I have to mention that I was very excited when I discovered that Charlize Theron was going to guest star in this episode. Charlize and Liam Neeson both starred with Seth McFarlane in A Million Ways to Die in the West, a movie that I greatly enjoyed. Because of that, I know that Charlize shines in lovely ways in comedic spaces. She has great comedic timing and she commits to pretty much everything she does.
This episode is also funny because Seth himself admitted that he had been dying to write an episode that would give him an excuse to do a love scene with Charlize Theron. Since they’re friends, I find that bluntly honest, but also hilarious.
Episode 5, titled “Pria” begins with the Orville bridge crew watching Seinfeld of all things. They are attempting to teach Isaac about comedy, which has mixed results. They intercept an SOS from a ship that has crashed on a comet hurtling toward a star. When they make contact with the ship, it is run by Captain Pria Lavesque. The ship is a mining ship known as the Horizon.
After a quick risk analysis, Ed, Gordon, and Alara decide to take a shuttle to the ship to rescue Pria. They make their way onto the Horizon and Ed (of course) makes the recurring joke of asking Alara to “open this jar of pickles” meaning the jammed door. It is hilarious that they keep incorporating this without using it as a way to make Alara the butt of the joke. Everyone knows pickle jars are frustrating to open, so it is relatable.
They rescue Pria with mere seconds to spare, along with a few hiccups along the way. When Claire begins her examination and asks why Pria was on the comet, she explains that she was on her way back from a mining expedition and was attacked by a Krill battle cruiser. She narrowly evaded them, but her ship’s power supply was depleted in the process.
She landed on the comet after sensing that a mineral that could be used to derive fuel was inside the comet. Because of this she landed there, torn between landing or dying in space as her life support ran out. She was lucky to be found by the Orville; otherwise, she would have been incinerated.
Pria mentions that she could use a drink after the day she’s had and out of nowhere Ed offers an invitation to a small soiree he’s throwing for the officers in his quarters. Kelly seems surprised by it and, honestly, I am too to some degree. He doesn’t know this woman and yet is bringing her to a work party?
The next scene involves Gordon making a bit of a practical joke at Isaac’s expense, as an explanation of what practical jokes are, which came up earlier in the scene with them discussing comedy. He has put Mister Potato Head parts on Isaac’s face, which is harmless and hilarious. Gordon put them on while Isaac was charging, and because Isaac doesn’t technically have “eyes” and simply detects stimuli with sensors, he didn’t notice.
At the cocktail party, Pria begins to win over the entire crew with good conversation. She reveals that she is from Andover, Massachusetts and she bonds with Ed due to him also being a Massachusetts native. Kelly doesn’t seem to be wowed by their guest, however, and even seems just a little bit jealous of her connection with Ed.
Pria then winds up in Ed’s private chambers, wanting to personally thank him for the rescue. She kisses Ed on the cheek before she turns in for the night and it is very clear that Ed is smitten. Kelly, on the other hand, does a little digging and finds no results in a search for Pria Lavesque in the employee manifests of the mining company that Pria mentioned at the party.
She brings this information to Ed, wanting to speak to him privately. She interrupts him showing Pria around the engine room, and when she brings her concerns to Ed, he’s not convinced. In fact, he agrees to ask Pria about the discrepancy but refuses any other precautionary action. Something tells me that’s going to come back to bite him later.
Kelly then goes to Alara to ask her to check Pria’s quarters. Kelly has a bad feeling and she knows that there is something going on. Alara agrees to help, but only if Kelly can tell her that it isn’t out of jealousy. They go to check out her quarters, only to find a strange object under her mattress. Scans can’t penetrate it, but before they can investigate further, Pria returns. They are able to hide their intentions, but Pria is definitely hiding something.
Ed is furious that Kelly and Alara did the search and after an argument of sorts, Kelly asserts that she believes something is going on with Pria. However, Ed’s judgment is clouded by his attraction to Pria. Before they can resolve the dispute, something hits the ship. Isaac reveals that they have found themselves in a dark matter storm. Pria arrives and presents a convenient solution, asking Ed to trust her.
The sequence of them navigating the dark matter storm is absolutely stunning. The visual effects and camera work they used blew me away. Yet again, this is the first season of what was a network series, and usually, the budget isn’t all that high for special effects.
The ship begins to take damage from the dark matter and Pria offers to fly them out, stating that she has experience. All she needs is helm control. Ed agrees (against Kelly’s advice) and the next sequence involves Pria impressively flying them out of the storm. If Ed had doubts, he definitely doesn’t now.
The ship’s communication is damaged by the dark matter collisions and rather than go five days off course to a union base, Pria offers to use her connections with the Consortium to get their repairs at a location nearby. All of this just seems too convenient.
Ed then takes Pria to an environmental simulation of a beautiful planet. One thing leads to another and Ed winds up in bed with Pria, no surprise there. During a bit of pillow talk, Pria asks Ed what happened with his marriage to Kelly. For once, Ed admits that despite the fact that Kelly cheated, he knew it was coming because he was working too much. He admits to not giving the relationship the time it needed, and it is the first bit of accountability that I’ve actually seen him take so far.
Ed also tells her that he hasn’t trusted anyone since then, except Pria. That just…doesn’t seem like it is going to end well. The next scene shows Gordon waking up in bed to discover that his left leg has been cut off. I can only imagine that this was Isaac’s attempt at a practical joke, which…yikes. Gordon comes to the bridge to discover that…yep, this was Isaac’s idea of a joke.
While Alara takes Gordon to the sickbay for Claire to regenerate Gordon’s leg, Ed and Kelly are called to engineering. The engineers have found something strange on one of their relays, the item that Kelly and Alara found in her room. What’s worse is that now they can’t remove the object without blasting it out.
Alara, Kelly, and Ed confront Pria, who tells them that she is from the 29th century, 400 years in the future. In her time, the Orville was destroyed in the dark matter storm. Pria then uses the object she planted on the relay to take control of the ship. Pria is a dealer in mint condition artifacts, so she came back in time to save the Orville and sell it.
She intends for Ed and his crew to live out their lives in the 29th century, while she sells the Orville to the highest bidder. During this conversation, Gordon’s missing leg falls through the ceiling in a hilarious bit of timing-based comedy. Ed asks about the comet and she reveals that none of them were ever in danger. It was just a setup to get them all to trust her.
After sending Kelly and Alara out of the room, Ed asks Pria if it was all a lie. Pria says that she felt something for Ed and she’d like to see where they can go, in her time. Ed isn’t okay with that and I can understand why. She doesn’t see anything wrong with the things she does. The ends justify the means, because Ed and his crew were going to die anyway before she came along.
Ed then goes to apologize to Kelly, first trying to save face, but ultimately admitting that she was right. They then go to engineering to try and remove the object. Gunfire doesn’t work, a drill doesn’t work, and Isaac trying to interface with it causes him to get blown across the room. Isaac’s body is now showing no signs of internal activity; by all estimates he is dead.
They take Isaac to Claire but she’s a doctor of organics, not machines. While Claire and the Chief Engineer are looking for a way to fix Isaac, Gordon tells his lifeless body that the practical joke he played was the best one he’s ever seen.
On the bridge, Ed tries to convince Pria to let them go, but she is resolute. They all died in this timeline, so if she let them go she’d be responsible for altering the timeline. The ship breaches the wormhole in yet another beautifully done sequence, and just like that they’re in the 29th century.
As Pria is distracted talking to her client, Isaac makes himself known to Ed. He is inside the ship, therefore he is able to help them regain control. Kelly punches Pria in the face and with the ship back in their hands, they go back to their proper timeline. Alara takes Pria to the brig and it is revealed that Isaac’s “death” was a carefully orchestrated plan.
Pria then is brought to Ed’s office and suggests that now that they have her teleportation device, they will probably study it. Ed tells her that he has no plans to mess with the timeline. He then tells her that the most depressing part is that he allowed himself to trust her and she used him for her own gain. On top of that, despite her saying that she cares for him, she has not apologized once. Pria tells him that she makes a habit never to apologize because the right kinds of people don’t want apologies and the wrong kind takes advantage of them.
Pria offers him a chance to join her in the future, saying that the Orville was meant to be destroyed, so who knows how it could affect the timeline. It doesn’t matter to Ed and he tells her he doesn’t care how it changes her timeline. He then tells Pria that if they destroy the wormhole, the Orville will be free to chart its own course, and Pria Lavesque will have no reason to ever come to their timeline. The problem with this, in Pria’s mind, is that the two of them will never have met. The interesting part though, is that she tells Ed he would “still be that messed up guy who could never get over his ex-wife.”
Someone else has noticed what I’ve seen all along. Ed and Kelly still love each other, even if they won’t admit it. He has the Orville fire on the wormhole and just like that, Pria is gone. I am very curious to see how the ramifications of this episode play out throughout the series. If they follow most time travel ideas, alterations to the timeline can be felt further on.
This was a solid episode of The Orville and I am a sucker for time travel stories, which makes it even better. Charlize Theron’s acting was fantastic and the writing of the episode was stellar. If I’m honest, the entire episode has to be the best episode I’ve seen so far. I can only hope the rest of the season and the rest of the series continue to have such solid episodes.
The visuals were great, the jokes landed where they should (just like Gordon’s leg), and all-in-all I am very excited to see where things go from here. This was more of an Ed-Centric episode to some degree, so I’m hoping we get a few more crew-centric episodes. We still don’t know as much about Isaac’s people or Kelly’s background. That’s not even counting Claire or John.
I am very pleased to keep up with this review series and I hope you all are enjoying The Orville as much as I am. I wasn’t expecting such a stellar Star Trek style adventure when the series started, but if it keeps going like this, it could easily be Seth McFarlane’s finest work.
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🔥1.0 KThe Orville
Pros
- Beautiful Visual Effects
- Great Time Travel Plot
- Great Acting by Charlize
- Hilarious Isaac Subplot
- Fun Episode All Around
Cons
- Bits Were a Little Predictable
