Alexx Aplin
Alexx AplinWarning: This review contains spoilers from the Season 2 premiere of The Orville.
I am very excited for this week’s review of the Season 2 premiere of The Orville. After reviewing the last season, I was very pleased and shocked by how much I enjoyed it. I’m notoriously picky when it comes to Sci-Fi, good Sci-Fi anyway, so this was a series that surprised me. My expectations are pretty high too since I have been told by many people that Season 2 is even better. Let’s kick off this journey into Season 2, shall we?
To recap the finale of Season 1, the Orville crew accidentally made contact with a planet that only came into our universe once every 11 days. During those 11 days that they were in an alternate universe, 700 years passed on the planet. Kelly made contact and accidentally became a messianic figure. Though the problem was solved, she told Ed that she did not think that rekindling their relationship was a good idea. With that, let’s get into Season 2 Episode 1.
Episode Spoilers Begin Here!
The season 2 premiere titled “Ja’loja” begins with Ed drinking alone at the bar in the mess hall, listening to a record player that the bartender just brought in. He’s depressed and tells the bartender that the worst days are the days when he can’t stay busy. The days when there isn’t a crisis to avert or anything else to do beyond let his thoughts run away with him.
Alara joins Ed for a drink and offers to lend an ear if he ever needs to vent to her. He tells her that he wouldn’t have anything to tell her that the crew doesn’t already know. She can relate and says that she’s used to people talking about her love life. Ed in return says he feels like they are more similar than anyone else on the ship. They both are self-conscious about their position on the ship, despite being good at their job.
Bortus comes to the mess hall and interrupts their commiserating to ask that the ship be diverted to his home planet of Moclus. Apparently, Moclans only urinate once a year and it is time for Bortus to…go home to pee? I’m a little worried about the intensity of his stream if he has to go all the way home to take a leak. Is he going to pressure wash a hole in the hull?
Ed tells the crew what is going on and insists that they take this seriously. No jokes, no snide remarks, nothing. Bortus explains that this is a ceremony known as the Ja’loja. Once a year, a Moclan takes friends and family to a place chosen during his childhood, and they observe his urination or Ja’loja (the great release.) In the Moclan culture, this is to signify a cleansing of the spirit and the beginning of a new year in his life.
Because the crew of the Orville are Bortus’ closest friends, he asks that they be present. Following the ceremony is a celebration, and because of this Ed has given him the use of the mess hall as a venue. Bortus has invited the crew to attend “with a mate.” The Union has sanctioned this diversion because it is on the same course as the Orville’s rendezvous with their “Dark Matter Cartographer” who will be coming aboard.
Now, before we go any further, I feel like I should address something. I get that bathroom humor isn’t the peak of comedy. I also get that my maturity level might get called into question here. However, this episode already got off to a funny start for me. One might say that it whizzed off to the little comedian’s room.
In the next scene, Kelly goes to Ed’s office and tells him that she wants to have a conversation because they haven’t talked much lately. Presumably, because she rejected Ed’s desire to get back together. Ed still has feelings for her and it is obvious that this is difficult for him. Ed mistakenly thinks she wants to get back together, but in fact…she tells him that she’s seeing someone, ouch.
She admits that she is telling him this because she wants to bring her new boyfriend to the Ja’loja party and didn’t want Ed to be caught off guard. Ed wants to know how long she’s been dating him, and Kelly says that it has been a month. She didn’t tell Ed before because she wanted to give him some time to heal after the way things went down.
Ed tells her that this isn’t a “heal up and move on” thing. He still loves her and has been doing everything he could to distract himself. He even went so far as to play Backgammon with Isaac. Kelly tells him that they don’t work because she doesn’t want them to ever have to make a choice to sacrifice one or the other, and this is just bad timing.
Ed tells her that regardless of timing, their choice to love one another should matter more. Kelly then decides to go check in with the outpost that they’ll be meeting their Cartographer on. It is a tough situation for Ed and, while I understand Kelly’s reasoning, I think she’s focusing on the worst-case scenario.
Alara introduces Ed to Lieutenant Janel Tyler, their new dark matter cartographer. She has been on science vessels mostly and has been an explorer at heart since she was a kid. Janel introduces herself to Kelly, then asks to familiarize herself with the navigational array on the bridge. She sits next to Gordon, who attempts to strike up a conversation.
He basically blabbers on for a while, trying to impress Janel. It is cringe-worthy, but not surprising from Gordon. Claire finds Isaac teaching Ty to play Piano. Ty tells Isaac that Claire has been making him practice for 30 minutes every day and Claire praises him, then tells him to get washed up for dinner.
We then see Marcus come in with his friend James, who is not the type of kid she wants Marcus hanging around with. He swears, has a smart mouth, and is generally not a good influence. Marcus says that she doesn’t even know James and that he’s popular. Claire puts her foot down and Marcus goes to his room.
Claire then laments to Isaac that she’s never raised a teenager before and has no idea how to get through to Marcus. She even says “it’s like he hates me for no reason.” Which, let’s be honest, puberty sucks, sometimes teenagers are jerks because of hormones. Sometimes they’re just jerks. Isaac asks if Marcus is sick with something and Claire tells him that he’s just growing up, and she doesn’t know how to handle it.
Isaac asks a few more outlandish questions, but ultimately Claire just asks him to play her something calming on the piano. We then see Marcus, James, and another friend in an unoccupied room on the ship. James has hacked the synthesizer to make them a bottle of vodka. They then run off with the bottle, to do who knows what.
Gordon is in the mess hall asking Alara about Janel, clearly wanting intel to try and get her to let him take her on a date. Alara tells him that she only knows what he does, which he counters by saying that as Chief Security Officer, she sees all files on incoming personnel. He wants to invite Janel to the Ja’loja party and Alara re-asserts that she’s had terrible luck in dating, so she isn’t the person to ask for advice.
Gordon then goes to ask John because he is apparently the “girl guru” of the ship. John then mentions that he dated a two-headed alien, dating both heads, while each head apparently didn’t know he was dating the other head. How he managed that I have no idea.
We then see Marcus and James in class. Because Marcus is trying to impress James, he gets the same punishment James does, when he emulates him in class. A thousand-word essay about Moclan physiology. It turns out that Marcus’ teacher, happens to be Kelly’s new boyfriend. He confirms that they’re having dinner tonight and Kelly tells him that she has something to tell him over dinner, if he’s charming enough.
Meanwhile, Ed is in his office, looking at photos of himself and Kelly together. He decides to take a shuttle out for a drive, while Alara goes to talk to Bortus. Bortus mentions to Alara that he overheard her talking about her dating woes and offers to order one of the men under his command to mate with her. Alara is shocked by this but then realizes that he means (in his own way) that he wants to set her up with a single guy he knows.
She agrees to meet the guy, as long as Bortus doesn’t order him to do anything. During her date with her boyfriend, Kelly tells him that she wants him to come with her to the Ja’loja. He asks if she’s sure about it, as it would mean going public and Ed knowing. She tells him she’s ready, but he warns her that sometimes seeing your ex with another man is tough on a guy.
Kelly asserts that Ed will have to get used to it eventually and though Ed can be intense, he’s very adaptable. While they’re kissing by the window, Ed drives by in his shuttle, seeing them together. Kelly spots the shuttle and decides that they should take their wine (and their date) to the simulator for something a little more romantic, likely knowing it is Ed seeing them.
They get to the simulator and find James, Marcus, and their friend drinking Vodka in the simulator room. Marcus is in big trouble with Claire. She forbids Marcus from hanging out with James and asserts that drinking, along with hacking a food synthesizer is a very serious deal. Claire admits that she’s worried about him because he hasn’t been acting like himself.
She tells him that she just wants him to talk to her and wants to try to understand what is going on with him. She re-affirms that while she is upset, she still loves him. Marcus is still closed off, refusing to divulge what is going on, so she sends him to his room.
In the meantime, John is trying to get Gordon ready to ask Janel out. Gordon admits that he’s nervous because he’s never successfully asked a girl out that wasn’t overtly interested in him first. He also admits that he once had a stalker, whom he dated for five months, only for the stalker to dump him for being too clingy.
We then discover that the person Bortus wanted to set Alara up with was Dann. You may remember Dann as the elevator guy from Season 1 episode 9. Alara admits to Dann that she’s not too great at dating and doesn’t think they’ll be a good match. What ensues is an awkward sort of conversation that ultimately leads to Alara agreeing to have drinks with Dann.
Kelly shows up at Ed’s office to ask if he took a shuttle out the night before. He lies about it and she shows him the shuttle bay logs that say he clearly took a shuttle out. He then tries to blame it on a running gag with Gordon. Kelly isn’t convinced and knows he was the one that drove past her room. Ed responds that he saw her with Cassius and that he had needed some air.
Kelly tells him that he needs to come to terms with this because if anything like the previous night’s drive-by happens again, she’s going to request a transfer. Ed counters by suggesting that it is harder for him to turn his feelings off than it is for Kelly and that it must have been easy for her to move on since she’s dating so quickly.
Despite Ed insisting that their relationship could be as simple as them loving each other, she asserts that a Captain and his first officer cannot be in a relationship together. Things end on a tense note, and it is clear that Ed’s feelings for Kelly aren’t just going to go away.
Claire is in her office when James’ parents show up. They try to say that Marcus was the one that hacked the synthesizer and they want to request that Marcus be the one transferred out of their class. Claire insists that Marcus tells a different story and that James is lying. The parents refuse to see reason, so they tell her that she is more than welcome to join them at the parent-teacher conference.
We then see Kelly talking to Cassius, who mentions that he’s done a “drive-by” of an ex before. He’s trying to be understanding and says that Ed is hurting and that it isn’t a big deal. He’s surprisingly practical when Kelly is wanting him to be a bit more jealous. Things devolve quickly from there, and ultimately Kelly disengages from the conversation.
John takes Gordon to a simulation of a nightclub, to try and give him practice asking women out. What ensues is Gordon being absolutely ridiculous, while John is teaching him to improvise and think on his feet. Honestly, Gordon’s scenes this episode (while funny) have been the weakest part of it so far. Season 1 didn’t establish him as anything more than an idiot and I was hoping that they’d push the envelope a little here.
Claire goes to Isaac and vents about what is going on with the parents. She wonders if she went wrong with raising Marcus somewhere. Isaac offers to join her at the parent-teacher conference, which makes Claire feel better.
Dann and Alara show up for their date, with Alara arriving early. The date is awkward from the start with Dann writing a poem for Alara that is absolutely painful to listen to. He asks Alara for her feedback and, after insisting that she won’t offend him, she gives him honest feedback. He’s not receptive to that at all and when she tries to go to the bathroom to clear her head, he texts her that he misses her immediately.
Ed meets with Cassius and offers him an apology. Cassius in return, admits that he feels a little out of his depth with Kelly. He was once an aspiring paleontologist, which ended his first marriage because he was hardly home. Somehow the conversation evolves into Ed giving Cassius advice about Kelly, which is something I would never have expected from Ed.
The parent-teacher conference begins and the parents try to act like James is innocent, and that he’s a straight-A student. Cassius says that’s patently false, James is a B- student, occasionally a C. Isaac accesses Cassius’ class files and reveals that James has been hacking his report cards to reflect straight A’s that he didn’t earn.
Isaac confirms that James was the one to hack the synthesizer and tells the parents that they should discipline their son, but he will be reporting this to Commander Grayson as well. Claire is so excited and happy, that she invites Isaac as her date to Bortus’ Ja’loja.
John and Gordon go to the mess hall and find Janel. John gives Gordon a pep talk and Gordon goes to try his luck, only to chicken out at the last second. They then arrive on Moclus, all set and ready for Bortus’ ceremony.
After the ceremony, which I am not mature enough for apparently, we lead directly into the afterparty. At the afterparty, it is clear that Cassius took Ed’s advice, and now all things are good with him and Kelly. Dann shows his poem to Gordon and, of course, Gordon thinks it is riveting because he’s a moron. The crew is celebrating, and Ed is drinking alone.
Surprisingly, Janel comes to join Ed at the bar and it seems like Ed might have a new beginning in love after all. This episode was solid all the way around. It showed off the various strong relationships in the show, such as Isaac and Claire, while also showing off some new characters and new possibilities. I think Alara and Gordon’s storylines were the weakest though.
It was a solid start for Season 2 of The Orville, but I can’t imagine any of the new relationships lasting. Ed and Kelly still love each other, and I would bet money that it’ll pop up again all season long. Along with that, I do like Cassius but I think he’s going to wind up broken-hearted by the end of it all. Focusing on the relationships of the crew, familial, romantic, or otherwise, was a strong way to start the season. I just hope that The Orville continues to grow and get better from here on out.
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🔥630The Orville
Pros
- Hilarious Episode
- Lots of Character Development
- Focus on Strong Relationships in the Show
- Realistic Parenting Struggles
Cons
- Dann is Painful to Watch Sometimes
