Warning: This review contains spoilers for The Orville’s season 2 finale. Read at your own risk.

Well, we’re here folks! We reached the end of Season 2. As I mentioned last week (and a few times previously) I had hoped that we’d have more information on Season 3 by now. They are hard at work on it though and when Season 3 is available on Hulu these review episodes will start up again. They’ll still go out on Fridays just like they always have. With that out of the way, let’s recap the beginning of the end from last week, shall we?

In the last episode of The Orville, a younger version of Kelly was brought back from the past due to the accidental use of a time travel prototype. The Aranov device brought back the Kelly from seven years ago, the day after her first date with Ed. They sent her back to her own time with a memory wipe, but the memory wipe failed, and with her knowledge of the future she declined a second date with Ed. This will have huge ramifications on the timeline, so let’s get into the episode and take “The Road not Taken.”

Episode Spoilers Begin here!

The episode begins with two figures in winter gear walking through the snow on what is presumably Earth. The masked figures trek through the snowy woods and we discover that they are headed to a Union Listening Post on Sarin IV. The two figures seem to be scavenging the listening post looking for supplies. They hear a Kaylon ship following them, grab a food synthesizer from the listening post, and run back out into the snow.

Kaylon foot-soldiers step off the ship and pursue them, and by pursue I mean they detached their heads, using them to fly off and chase them with their eye lasers. The two figures run back to a shuttle, where we discover that it is Gordon and Ed! Though in this new timeline Kelly created they aren’t the two we know. It seems they were hoping to shelter on that planet for a while, but that ship has sailed.

They take their shuttle into space, where a Kaylon ship awakens and pursues them. It seems that the Kaylon have achieved at least part of their goal, as Ed says that “there’s nowhere safe anymore.” Ed and Gordon try to evade the Kaylon ship by sheltering temporarily in an ice moon with their shuttle. It is like a high-speed chase, but with space instead of roads and cars. I’d like to see Vin Diesel and the Fast and Furious crew try to evade a Kaylon ship. I’m kidding, obviously they’d drive a space car through the Kaylon’s hull and explode it from the inside.

Ed manages to destroy the Kaylon ship with Gordon’s expert piloting, but they make a very narrow escape from the ice moon itself. Gordon remarks that it is getting harder to find places to shelter and get supplies. Ed counters that the Kaylon have eradicated half the known galaxy in less than 9 months, so that isn’t a surprise. It seems that without Ed becoming a captain, Isaac never became a Union ship operative, which never led to him falling in love with Claire, etc.

Gordon asks where they go next and Ed suggests Calivon. Gordon isn’t sold on the idea because the Calivon species is dangerous. However, Ed remarks that the Kaylon hasn’t taken them on yet, so they might be able to hide out on the edge of the system and hope the Calivon don’t notice. You might remember the Calivon from the episode where Ed and Kelly were held in a Calivon Zoo.

Ed and Gordon are celebrating their escape by restoring the food synthesizer they acquired when they are pulled out of Quantum space by a scavenger ship. Their shuttle is pulled into the scavenger ship, and Gordon and Ed ready themselves to fight back. The shuttle door opens and they are greeted by Kelly, Claire, John, and Talla, all looking noticeably different from when we last saw them.

Gordon is surprised that Ed knows Kelly, which means that after Kelly refused the second date, Gordon never knew about her at all. Kelly explains the time travel situation and has gathered everyone from the Orville crew in the hopes of undoing what she inadvertently caused. She also explains the sequence of events that led to the Kaylon’s defeat the first time around.

Their plan is to send Claire back in time to correct the memory wipe, which is a hard sell for Ed and Gordon. Claire explains that Kelly’s brain lacks a certain protein that made the memory wipe ineffective the first time. By correcting and accounting for that, they can redo the memory wipe and restore the timeline.

John explains that there is a resistance that they are hoping to get in touch with. If they can get the protein from said resistance, formulate the correct injection, and send Claire back in time, they can prevent this future from happening. While Talla shows Gordon the helm, Kelly apologizes to Ed. She explains that she did what she thought was right.

Ed points out that she did so at the expense of other people. He also reminds her that she took temporal law at Union Point. Changing the timeline has unknowable repercussions for everyone involved, as she is now aware. I’m going to sidetrack for a second here because two things become readily apparent in this conversation.

The first thing is that centering Ed and Kelly’s relationship (and Isaac and Claire’s) as the reason the Kaylon won (due to the Butterfly Effect) makes their relationship all the more important. We’ve seen the fact that they still love each other in the original timeline. The Orville at its core is a show about love and relationships, people being stronger together than they are apart. If this isn’t a validation of that, what is? They’re stronger together than they are apart. Maybe I’m just a romantic but that seems clear here.

Secondly, Adrianne Palicki does a wonderful job as Kelly in any form. She is beautiful, smart, and her acting is stellar. She brings the emotional side of a conversation to the forefront, but she also knows when to inject humor, or embrace her inner amazon and fight back when need be. The costuming department also did a wonderful job of differentiating the timelines visually.

All of the characters look like hell because they’ve been through Hell and back. This is a group of misfits who lost people because of the Kaylons. They aren’t a mission-tested crew or people bound by friendship anymore. Yet fate has brought them together again. It is brilliantly done on a visual and written level.

When they get close to the Resistance base, Kelly, Ed, John, and Claire take the shuttle down. They leave Talla, Gordon, Marcus, and Ty on the ship to watch for the Kaylons. They arrive on the planet, making their way to a circular structure. John punches a code into the keypad at the door and Yahphit appears, asking them what they want.

John reminds him that they served on the Orville together and Yahphit takes them inside to meet with the Lieutenant. Said Lieutenant is Alara! I’ve missed Alara, so it is an absolute delight to see her on-screen again. She’s managing this Resistance base, and it seems that she and John have a history together. I wonder if this means Alara will be back next season? Maybe they are hinting at something more in John and Alara’s romantic futures. Some things are inevitable after all.

Alara gives Claire the protein they require, and before she can get information on why they need it, the Kaylons attack. Alara helps the Orville crew get out the back exit and offers to lay covering fire so they can escape. John asks her to come with them, but she insists that her people need her. This is a reality of war I suppose.

While they are headed to their shuttle, Gordon and Talla are trying to evade Kaylon warships in the planet’s orbit. The Resistance base is overrun and destroyed, but the crew makes it back to their shuttle unscathed. Well, other than the single Kaylon standing in the shuttle. Kelly and Ed shoot it before they start the shuttle and head back up to the main ship.

The shuttle is pulled into the ship a little roughly, but it is unscathed thanks to Ty operating the tractor beam at Gordon’s instruction. When they get back to the ship, they discover that the Quantum drive is offline. They try to lose the Kaylon ships in the asteroid field nearby, but when that doesn’t work, they decide to take shelter in the gravity well of a nearby black hole.

Time moves slower inside the gravity well, so they are able to see two days pass for the Kaylon outside. The Kaylon eventually leave them alone, while only minutes pass for the crew on the ship. Kelly then explains that they have to make it back to Earth, even as destroyed as it is, to get Isaac’s files on the Aranov device from the Orville.

They think that the Orville is intact at the bottom of the Pacific Ocean, so on to Earth they go. Kelly finds Talla and John trying to get information from the Kaylon they shot on their shuttle. Talla tells Kelly that Ed wants to talk to her, so she makes her way to his quarters. When she arrives, Ed has prepared a candlelit dinner, asking for a second date, at least in this timeline.

Kelly asks Ed what he has been up to for the past seven years, and he tells her that he was in command of the Epsilon-Eridani outpost, but never became Captain. He asks Kelly what he was like in the other timeline and she tells him that he was a perfect gentleman. In response, Ed asks her why she changed things and didn’t go out with him again.

Her response is that she saw what had happened to them and thought she could save them from the pain they would suffer. She wanted to save them from their regrets of hurting each other. They loved each other deeply, but there was a lot of pain there too. He reminds her that if they succeed, they’ll relive it all.

It is worth it, considering all the lives that have been lost. The ship approaches Earth and it is a barren wasteland. The moon is in pieces and there are no signs of life anywhere that they can find. They do manage to find the Orville though, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. The ship can’t handle that kind of pressure, but if enough power is diverted to the deflectors, a shuttle might make it.

Everyone loads up in the shuttle and they go underwater. I should mention that the visual effects in this episode have been fantastic, along with the combat sequences. They didn’t hold back at all on this finale so far. As they go lower, the shuttle shows signs of strain under the pressure. However, at the last second, they spot the Orville. It is there, right where their scans showed.

The ship has minimal life support and low-level energy output. Plus, the shuttle bay doors are open, so they are able to get inside unscathed. They depressurize the shuttle bay to get the water out, and just like that they are safely inside, home sweet home.

They walk through the halls of the damaged Orville and while they are scanning they uncover a single life sign above them. Could it be Bortus? Or someone we haven’t seen yet? They manage to get to the bridge of the ship and Ed is punched by Bortus, who holds them at gunpoint. John tells him to stand down and they ask how he is still alive.

It turns out, the Captain and First Officer both perished, so Bortus stayed on the helm to let the escape pods escape. However, he could not stop the ship from crashing into the sea. He has been alone for nine months, surviving on minimal life support and combat rations. Talla tells Bortus that Moclus was destroyed, but Kelly explains that they may be able to make it all right.

Ed begrudgingly takes the Captain’s chair after a pep talk from Kelly and Bortus, and just like that everyone is back as they should be… mostly. They are low on power but are able to get the Orville back into space. They discover that Isaac never completed the file on the Aranov device. However, they think they might be able to hack into the Kaylon hivemind to find out what he knew.

Kelly finds Ed at the bar or what is left of it anyway, just pouring himself a drink. He offers her a drink, and they start to talk about how in some strange way, they’ve found comfort reuniting. Ed offers a scenario where if they fail, they’d have to find a planet to live in secret. Maybe have some kids, a little house, it is a romantic contingency plan, but it is not ideal for humanity.

They kiss and I still can’t help but feel like they belong together. Forget rank and file in the normal timeline… they fit together. It is something special, seeing them reconnect. Maybe that is just evidence of how great their on-screen chemistry is.

Afterward, John tells them that their plan has a good side and a bad side. He can upload Isaac into the Kaylon they disabled and get his calculations. However, the Quantum drive will have to power the transfer, and they’ll be sitting ducks. On top of that, it will likely alert the Kaylon when they do.

They will have to work fast, but there is hope. The plan goes off without a hitch, for the most part. They get the information and start the transfer, but the Kaylon know their location. They are closing in fast. Claire tells her boys goodbye but tells them that she will see them soon in a better timeline. As the transfer kicks off, Ed proposes to Kelly in case it doesn’t work though realistically if it doesn’t work, they’ll all die.

The Orville is destroyed, but the transfer works! Claire is sent back to the morning Kelly was sent back from The Orville. Claire administers the memory wipe (properly this time) and once it works, she disappears, because her timeline never existed. Kelly wakes to her phone ringing and she accepts a second date with Ed.

Just like that season 2 of The Orville comes to a close! What a fantastic, action-packed finale that was! It was a great dip into more time-travel, while also showing a “What if?” scenario for our crew. The character work was fantastic and the writing was great. I cannot overstate how much I love The Orville. Seriously, if you haven’t watched it yet, go watch it! If you have, maybe it’s time for a refresher before we find out more about Season 3?

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The Orville

10

Score

10.0/10

Pros

• Great Visual Effects and Costuming
• Superb "What If" Scenario
• Fantastic Acting
• Intense Action
• Alara Returned for the Episode!

Cons

• Where is Season 3?