Alexx Aplin
Alexx AplinWarning: The following review contains spoilers for The Orville’s Sixth episode and previous ones. You have been warned.
After last week’s review of Episode 5, I am very excited this week to get back into The Orville and see what the gang is up to. It seems like the more I watch, the more I’m impressed by this series and its production value. It blows me away how a show in its first season could have such a strong identity. I’ve mentioned this before, but I still haven’t gotten over it.
To recap the fifth episode, Charlize Theron guest-starred as Pria, a time-traveling artifact collector who saved the Orville from destruction with the goal of selling the ship to her buyer in the future. By destroying the wormhole she came through, they changed the timeline and thus now are free to make a new future. What ramifications will this have on the series going forward? Who knows, but I’m excited to find out! With that out of the way, let’s get into the episode.
Spoilers begin here!
The episode begins with the crew eating while talking to Alara about her most recent breakup. Alara broke it off because her boyfriend couldn’t see past their species differences, particularly Alara’s strength. The topic then turns to Gordon’s sushi and Bortus eats an entire ball of Wasabi without missing a beat. The Moclan digestive system is very resilient apparently. Seeing them all talk and bond was both hilarious and enjoyable.
It gets even better though, as Gordon and John begin to try and test just what Bortus can safely eat. It is a very “hold my beer” human approach to finding out your best friend has a steel stomach. Before they can test too much, Kelly calls for them over the intercom, as they have gotten a priority one distress call. There is a colony being attacked by the Krill, who has been a common villain throughout the series so far, even if they’ve only shown up in a single episode.
The colony is a new colony, with very few planetary defenses. Ed comments that this is the third Krill attack in a month. Ed hails the Krill ship and tells them to cease firing on the planet. They do, only to turn around and attack the Orville instead. The ship starts being pummeled, going so far as to disable the fire suppression console, which is meant to automatically extinguish fires. Ironically, it catches it on fire, which is somewhat hilarious.
After some impressive space combat, they manage to destroy the Krill ship and contact the colony, who mention that they took a lot of injuries and casualties. Ed asks Claire to gather a rescue team before they pull in one of the Krill shuttles for analysis. This is an unprecedented find, as an intact Krill shuttle has never been acquired before.
A union admiral tells them that rather than sending it to the engineering team of the Union to take it apart, they have other plans. Thus far they’ve only managed to gain scraps of intel about the Krill culture. She mentions that typically, as a society gets more advanced they drift away from religion, yet the Krill are different.
The Krill have clung to their religion, even into the age of interstellar travel. All they know so far is that the Krill’s religion places them above all other forms of life. They see attacking colonies and lesser races as their divine right, not as an evil act.
There is no reasoning with the Krill and if a war were to break out, the Krill would see it as a holy crusade, which would likely last decades. Because of this, the Union wants to learn and understand them in order to find a way to communicate and reason with them that resonates. They want to obtain a copy of the Krill bible so that they can understand the religious doctrine that the Krill operates under.
The admiral then tells them that she is sending them, in the Krill shuttle, to infiltrate a Krill ship and obtain the Krill bible. Despite Kelly’s protests, the admiral mentions that they only have a limited window of time before the Krill realize they have the shuttle. This is the only shot they’ve got and she intends to take it, especially since Gordon is the best pilot in the fleet.
Gordon and Ed then prank the entire group, with Gordon using a disguise to make himself look like a Krill, and having him hold Ed at gunpoint before revealing that it is a simple cloaking illusion. Kelly isn’t pleased with the prank, mentioning that if Ed and Gordon are discovered, they’d be killed. She asks Ed to be careful and it is another moment that really cements how she really feels about Ed.
Ed and Gordon take the shuttle and, in the process, Ed reads the intelligence report that the Union sent over. The Krill homeworld is perpetually cloaked in night because of a dense cloud cover over the planet. Gordon and Ed then realize they never came up with Krill names, but no one really knows what Krill names sound like.
Watching Ed and Gordon come up with the most stereotypical alien names was funny, though I have a feeling the Krill are probably going to have some sort of mundane naming convention instead. A Krill destroyer approaches and Ed and Gordon put on their disguises, it is showtime. They get past initial scans and dock on the Krill destroyer, there’s no going back from here.
They are met by two Krill soldiers, who escort them to the captain. They are asked about what happened to the destroyer the shuttle came from and explain that it was destroyed by the Orville. The captain (named Haros) then suggests that since they survived, they might have intel on their current mission. Before Ed and Gordon can find out what that mission is, they are interrupted by bells signaling time for service.
Ed and Gordon then find out that the Krill deity is called Avis and they are brought to a chapel, where they meet a young Krill woman whose brother was on the ship that was destroyed. She asks if they knew her brother and Gordon runs his mouth, saying that he was close to him. They then see a grisly scene in the chapel, where a human’s head is stabbed over and over, for the crime of being a part of a colony that claimed a planet’s resources.
Once everyone is out of the chapel, Ed and Gordon sneak in to try and take pictures of every page of the Anhkana. The only problem is, the priest (named Sazeron) comes in part way through and they are barely able to keep from being discovered. The priest is suspicious of them though, which I feel might wind up being problematic later on.
They sneak into the chapel again after the night shift and, at the same time, Sazeron asks the captain to put a guard on the chapel. He does not believe that “Chris” and “Devin” (Ed and Gordon) have holy intentions. Haros mentions that he has always been suspicious but he agrees to place a guard on the chapel. This isn’t good for Ed and Gordon.
Things get even worse though, as the guard arrives Ed and Gordon realize their disguise emitters are no longer functioning. They barely manage to get out of the chapel and into their private quarters on the ship without being spotted, but the problem remains. How are they going to get out? The ship was providing electromagnetic interference and, by adjusting the emitter’s frequency, they are able to fix their disguises.
They follow the source of the interference and discover that the Krill have a large bomb onboard, which can’t be good for whomever their target is. They decide to share a meal with Teleya, the woman they met earlier, to figure out what the ship’s intended target is. She tells them that her brother’s death has reinforced her resolve. Their religion teaches that anything that isn’t Krill has no soul and losing her brother to the Union has only reinforced that idea.
Teleya then tells them that the bomb will be used on a farming colony and can wipe out an entire continent in minutes. Back in their quarters, Ed decides that he can’t stand by while the colony is wiped out, even if it was against their mission. He and Gordon discover that they can use the frequency of their emitters to overload the bomb, hopefully preventing the Krill from using it on the colony.
Gordon laments that they came to try and find a way to make peace, but will ultimately be killing everyone on board. Before they can get their tools to do the job, Teleya interrupts them and asks them to come speak to her trainees. They see a classroom full of Krill children, who all have questions, and are clearly being indoctrinated by their elders to believe that humans and other races are inferior.
It is a hard pill to swallow and it becomes even more difficult when Koja, one of the children, visits them to ask more questions in their room. One of Koja’s questions gives Ed an idea that would keep them from having to kill the children on board the Krill destroyer. Ed realizes that the Krill are used to darkness on their home planet, so they wear helmets on other planets because sunlight is harmful to them.
They intend to blow out the lights in the classroom and then turn up the lights everywhere else, to fry the enemy Krill while not killing any children. There are still some problems with this plan but it is the best option they have. Gordon sets a 10-minute timer for the surge, while Ed is with Teleya and the children. Ed tells him that when the surge hits they are to meet at the rendezvous point on the bridge.
However, Gordon (Devin) is found by Sazeron, who turns off his emitter and discovers that he is a human. An alarm is sounded and Ed manages to convince Teleya to keep the kids in the classroom until he returns. He asks her to trust him and she agrees, though I doubt she’ll think very much of him once she learns the truth.
Haros interrogates Gordon and winds up stabbing his new leg. He doesn’t believe that they really came just for the Anhkana, despite what Gordon says. Gordon tries to get the captain to see reason, but Haros firmly believes that it is the Will of Avis and begins to prepare the weapon to fire on the planet. They are unable to stop the weapon from firing, but Ed manages to get Koja to safety.
The Krill are destroyed on the ship, other than Teleya and the kids, and Gordon is able to fire the ship’s weapons to hit the bomb before it lands on the planet. Ed and Gordon contact the Orville to let them know that they’re okay and Teleya and the others are brought on board the ship. Claire checks Teleya out, noting that she has a clean bill of health. Ed then arrives and asks for a moment alone with Teleya, and despite Alara’s misgivings, they agree.
Teleya is angry (justifiably) that Ed killed her crew and doesn’t believe Ed when she is told that she won’t be harmed. Ed tells her that the children will be delivered to their families on Krill, but that he doesn’t know what will become of her. He also tells her that their mission was in the interest of peace and that he had no intention of any of that happening.
She asks Ed why he spared the children and he gives her an honest answer. They have their entire lives ahead of them, they are not his enemies. Teleya then assures him that after what happened today, they will be his enemies one day. It is a dark way to end an episode, but also a realistic one.
This episode of The Orville had everything really. It covered extremism, religious indoctrination, a “fish out of water” type story, while also bringing up good points about the reality of what those children will one day believe about humans. This episode also allowed us to understand more about the Krill, and while I don’t think there will be peace anytime soon, I do find that this episode made them a much more interesting villainous race.
I hope that we will see Teleya again further on in The Orville. It will be interesting to see what becomes of her and if she changes her mind. I doubt she will, but it is an interesting concept anyway. I should also mention that the alien design in this episode was great, from the special effects makeup to the costuming and everything else involved.
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🔥482The Orville
Pros
- Fantastic Development of the Krill
- Great Costuming and SFX Makeup
- Interesting Discussion of Extremism
- Intense Pacing
Cons
- Semi-Abrupt Ending
