Warning: The following review contains spoilers for Episode 3 of The Orville’s second season. Read on at your own risk.

Last week’s episode of The Orville really turned up the heat and showed that Season 2 is a more developed version of what came in Season 1. Between the humor and balancing serious topics with character-driven stories, I can easily say that The Orville is one of the better Sci-Fi series on TV right now. Now we’re on to Episode 3, which I am certain will be just as solid as last week’s.

To recap last week’s episode, Bortus struggled to balance his work life and his marriage with a growing pornography addiction. This led to him revealing that he resents Klyden for what happened in Season 1, regarding the gender alteration of their son Topa. At the same time, the Orville had to prepare an evacuation for a planet being destroyed by a star.

Episode Spoilers begin here!

Episode 3, titled “Home,” begins with the crew gathering to watch Alara and Isaac arm wrestle. This seems to have become a routine tradition, with Alara winning 16 matches and Isaac winning 14. Isaac wins, breaking Alara’s arm in the process, which is strange since Xelayans are stronger and more resilient than other species.

Alara goes to Claire to have it treated and is confused as to how this could have happened in the first place. Claire starts asking typical health questions and discovers that Alara’s muscle mass has reduced by twenty percent. Her bone density has declined by five percent as well and Claire determines that Alara’s strength is deteriorating for some reason.

During a meeting with Kelly, Ed, and Alara, Claire explains that strength deterioration due to gravity happens. It happened to the first Astronauts from Earth as well. However, Alara’s deterioration seems to be happening at a faster rate than it should, likely because Alara left home at such a young age. Claire tells Alara that there is a 90 percent chance that she can regain her strength if she re-acclimates to Xelaya’s gravity.

Alara asks how long she would have to re-acclimate to her home planet’s gravity and Claire has a surprising answer. It could be as quickly as a few weeks or it could take as long as four years, which is the longest case on record. There was also a singular subject who never recovered and was unable to leave Xelaya after returning. If Alara doesn’t go back, she would acclimate to Earth’s gravity and would never be able to go home without being “crushed like a grape.” Claire also suggests that she return home as soon as possible to prevent any further deterioration.

Ed goes to visit Alara in her room later, where she is doing weight training. She laments that when she arrived on the Orville, she could lift 100 kilos more than her current weightlifting capacity. Ed points out that she doesn’t have to leave. He could expand her security team and with her skill set, she is still more than qualified.

Alara feels otherwise. She feels as though she got the job because she is Xelayan and that losing her strength would cost her the respect of her peers on the ship, as well as effectiveness as the Chief Security Officer. She confirms that she will be returning home to Xelaya immediately.

Ed is adamant that her job will be waiting for her as soon as she is able to return. Alara is worried about what might happen if it takes her longer than a few weeks, but Ed is more focused on her getting better. She’s a part of his crew and he doesn’t want to replace her at all. Before she leaves for Xelaya, she goes to the bridge and tells the crew that she intends to come back tougher than ever.

Gordon and Ed drive the shuttle to take Alara back to Xelaya, and we see a beautiful shot of the planet and its surface. The technologically advanced civilization has beautiful architecture and interesting cities, along with buildings not so dissimilar to ours. They set the shuttle down outside Alara’s home, surrounded by beautiful greenery.

Ed puts on a gravity resistant suit, sets a timer on it for an hour, and then he and Alara go outside to Alara’s home.  Alara falls as soon as she experiences the gravity again and her father Ildis isn’t all that kind to Ed. Xelayans don’t think much of the military, but Ed asserts that Alara has saved many lives and has distinguished herself amongst the Union.

He sees her off then heads back into the shuttle. Next, we see Alara in a hovering wheelchair-esque thing that is absolutely awesome. She joins her family for breakfast, particularly her father, mother, and sister. I geeked out a little seeing Alara’s sister Solana, as she is portrayed by Candice King, who played Caroline Forbes on The Vampire Diaries, The Originals, and will be reprising the role (at some point) on Legacies.

Her family wastes no time talking crap about the Orville. Her father says they worked her too hard, her mother Drenala says that the recycled air wasn’t good for her, and her sister says being cooped up must be terrible. Alara asserts that she loves her work on the Orville, and clearly takes offense to her family’s stance.

Ildis immediately starts in on how she should take this time to go back to school. Alara says she doesn’t plan on being home that long, but her sister then launches in about how gravity acclimation can take a long time for people. After her mother chimes in that she doesn’t know how long that may take, Alara has an outburst, asking that they stop rooting for her to fail.

Drenala takes the awkward moment to mention that Solana is engaged and suggests that maybe with Alara being home, she might have some luck in the romance department. Later that evening, Alara is in her room when her father comes to see her. She mentions that they hardly changed her room at all and he says they always knew she’d come back.

He then says that he knew coming home was always what was best for her, which irks Alara even more. She asks if he has any concept of the fact that some people might want a different lifestyle than he does, and honestly? Her family has been pretty insensitive so far. Dear old dad then takes the time to point out that because she isn’t as smart as other Xelayans, she likely thought the military was her only option.

Alara gets even angrier at this and mentions that he never encouraged her, always pointing out that she was slower than other Xelayan kids. The argument gets worse and ultimately ends with Alara saying that the only ones who inspired and encouraged Alara were her shipmates on the Orville. She never got encouragement from her own father.

Ildis then mentions that they don’t know how long she’ll be in her chair, so he thought a trip to their beach house would bring the family together. Alara isn’t convinced, saying that the beach house won’t fix 20 years of him belittling her. At the beach house, Alara’s sister is amazed to see a wild Evak (deer/antelope creature) and despite her reservations and problems with her family, you can tell Alara missed some aspects of Xelaya.

Despite Serris, the caretaker of the island suggesting that the island was all theirs during the “off-season,” Alara notices a light on in one of the other houses while she is watching the sunset. She brings it up to her family, who dismisses her concerns outright. It is obvious that Alara is miserable, wishing that she were back with her friends on the Orville.

Speaking of the Orville, Ed and Kelly get to meet the “Interim Security Chief” Ed mentioned to Kelly beforehand that he hopes Alara is okay, and Kelly knows that he and everyone else on board, misses Alara. The Interim Security Chief is an alien named Tharl, who has a trunklike appendage that connects from his face to his abdomen.

Hilariously enough, Tharl is played by Patrick Warburton, who plays Joe Swanson on Family Guy and is also known as playing Kronk on The Emperor’s New Groove. Back with Alara, she is trying to stand on her own but isn’t quite there yet. Drenala suggests she’s doing better but Alara is annoyed that she isn’t able to stand or walk yet.

They are visited by a couple named Cambis and Floratta who report that they just arrived that morning. However, when they arrived they noticed some of their belongings had been moved around. They couldn’t find anything missing but they think someone has been in their home. Alara asks if they called the police and they tell her that they came right away, but didn’t find anything.

Alara asks if they scanned for DNA and her mother explains that Alara was a Chief Security Officer, which Alara corrects in the present tense. They ask about the island’s caretaker and Solana points out that he already left, though Drenala offers to give him a call. Serris doesn’t answer the call, so Alara offers to go take a look around at his cottage. Solana offers to accompany her since she is still bound to her chair, and her mother agrees.

Back on the Orville, Tharl goes to the bridge with his lunch and begins loudly messing with his food. Before they can dive too much into Tharl’s dietary habits, Claire and John arrive with an idea that might help Alara retain her strength on the Orville for long periods. They ask Ed and Kelly to join them in Simulator 3, but before we see what they have planned, things switch back to Alara and Solana.

After an awkward start, Solana admits that she envies Alara, being able to experience so many exciting things. Alara always had an exciting story to tell when she and Solana would talk. Alara is confused because she thought Xelayans all hated the military, but Solana brings up an interesting theory. She thinks that Soldiers and Intellectuals want what the other has. She thinks that people with muscles want the brains and people with brains want the capability to clobber someone that gets out of line.

Alara asks why people can’t have both, and Solana admits that a lot of Xelayans look at people like Alara and think that they are more evolved. Despite that, Solana tells Alara that she is proud of her, and it is a very sweet bonding moment for them. They arrive at the cottage to discover that Serris still had all of his things at home, he never left.

Back at home that evening, Ildis is cooking dinner for the family, Cambis, and Floratta, who are staying at the house with them rather than going home after their place has been broken into. Floratta thanks Drenala for letting them stay and Cambis mentions that they’re heading back to the mainland the next day.

Cambis, Floratta, Ildis, and Drenala start discussing Cambis’ son and their respective families. Drenala brags about Solana but says nothing of Alara’s achievements. Things deteriorate quickly as Cambis holds Ildis at gunpoint while Floratta holds the rest of the family at gunpoint. They make Ildis put his hand into a boiling pot of sauce he was cooking,

The family is suddenly hostages to the two guests, who reveal that they are here for revenge. Their son committed suicide after Ildis “destroyed his career and his life.” Their son was a medical researcher on a drug that Ildis wrote a paper on. His paper unveiled side effects that destroyed the researcher’s career. They want Ildis to tell the world that he lied, to restore their late son’s good name, at the cost of his own.

They threaten to kill Ildis if he doesn’t do what they want but after Alara points out that there’s nothing to stop them from killing them all afterward, they change their tune. They’re about to cut Solana’s finger off when a union shuttle arrives. Ed comes down to speak to Alara and in the meantime, while Ildis is held at gunpoint to try and get Ed to go away, Alara tries to find them a solution.

After Ed refuses to be turned away, Cambis shoots him, which gives Alara an opening to attack Floratta. Alara shoots Floratta and Cambis begins to chase Alara through the house, unable to finish Ed off. Ed’s gravity field is malfunctioning though and Alara asks Ildis to go get him back into the shuttle. She encourages him, just like she always wanted him to encourage her.

Alara stops Cambis while Ildis goes to help Ed, finding Serris’ corpse in the process. It seems Cambis and Floratta killed him before he could leave. Ildis gets Ed back on the shuttle, but not before the gravity breaks both of Ed’s legs. Ildis goes back to his family and before he can tell her that without her they would have all been killed (or worse,) she simply tells him that it’s her job.

She tells him that this is what she’s been trying to tell him for years and Ildis admits that not only does he not know Alara, he never tried to get to know her in the first place. Alara explains that she only ever wanted him to be proud of her. Ildis finally tells her he’s proud of her and apologizes that she got him as a father.

It is the start of mending their relationship and honestly, I am so glad about it. Maybe her family will start to treat her better from here on. Back on the Orville, John and Claire tell Alara that they’ve managed to simulate Xelaya’s gravity in the simulator. If she stayed in the simulator two hours a week for these treatments, she’d be able to maintain her strength.

Ultimately though, Alara declines the treatments and chooses to stay on Xelaya. She explains that she joined the Fleet because she never had a family and the Orville became more than she could have ever asked for. The Orville became her family when she needed it. Her family needs her now and she missed out on so much time that she doesn’t want to miss out anymore.

Ed tells her that if she ever changes her mind, she is always welcome to return to her old job as Chief of Security. Just like that, Alara leaves her job and returns home. Before she leaves for good, she makes her way to the shuttle bay and finds John, Claire, Ed, Kelly, Isaac, Gordon, and Bortus waiting to send her off. It is a tearful goodbye and yet it leaves room for Alara to return if she ever chooses to.

The final scene is Ed opening up Alara’s parting gift, which contains a jar of pickles. It references a recurring joke throughout the series and it is a perfect way to honor their friendship. I have to admit, this was a fantastic episode, even if it wasn’t on the same sort of level as last week’s episode. It had all the emotional moments and character development you could ask for.

My only complaint is that Cambis and Floratta kind of appeared out of nowhere and went from innocent to villain incredibly quickly. That side of the plot felt a little rushed but on the whole, I can’t really complain too much. I love character-focused episodes like this and after the Bortus-centric episode last week, this was a great next step.

These sorts of episodes make me a bit weepy, especially since I am very fond of Alara, and didn’t want to see her go. Halston Sage played her so well and I can only hope that they’ll bring Alara back in the future. She is a part of The Orville and the show won’t be the same without her.

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The Orville

9.5

Score

9.5/10

Pros

• Beautiful Visuals and Costuming
• Great Character Development for Alara's family
• Wonderful Callbacks to Alara's Arc
• Room for Alara to Return

Cons

• Cambis and Floratta's Story is Rushed