Well, that escalated quickly. I mean, that really got out of hand!
A few weeks ago, we were treated to the best episode of The Orville yet. Claire and Isaac decide to become an item. I was very interested to see how this would progress. As it turns out, not far.
At the beginning of the episode, we have Claire and Isaac going public which, in clichéd fashion, means everyone already knows about it. But just as they do, Isaac falls to the floor and shuts down.
Since no one on the ship has any idea what to do they decide to go to Isaac’s home planet of Kaylon. This is a bit of a problem as they are a very closed off society. They only had Isaac go out as an emissary to find out if they wanted to join the planetary union. It’s possible they may just shoot the Orville out of the sky.
Thankfully they do not and the Orville lands on the planet. Man, I got to give it up to the FX guys on this one. Kaylon is pretty breathtaking.
The Kaylons inform Mercer that Isaac’s mission is complete. They simply deactivated him.
This is a bit of shock to the crew and they request he be reactivated so they can say good-bye to him. Claire, in particular, takes this hard but soon comes to accept what is happening.
Her youngest son doesn’t. After a good-bye party, he gives Isaac a picture he drew but Isaac simply discards it later. The kid tries to take it to him on the planet and discovers the secret.
Isaac’s race was built by organics that natively lived on the planet but they turned on them. The robots won and the remains of the citizens are basically piled up in mass graves below the surface. It’s pretty horrifying.
That’s when the robots, who have been stalling on their decision to join the union or not, unveil their real plan. Which as you might suspect, is Kill All Meatbags.
They take over the Orville with little trouble, launch all their spherical borg-like ships and begin heading towards Earth.
So a group of robots decide that organic lifeforms are inferior and must be eradicated. Sounds familiar. And it is. Still, it’s well done. Enough wrinkles here and there to keep you guessing.
The Good
All of the Issacs have the same polite yet somewhat arrogant tone to their voices. They never get menacing in the traditional sense. They are unfailing polite even as they are shooting you in the face, with their faces I might add. Yeah, their guns are in their faces. It’s very disconcerting.
In The Terminator, there was always a sense of menace to the way the Terminators communicated or interacted with humans. With the Kaylons, they don’t change in the slightest when they are friendly or when they are killing you. That’s kinda terrifying.
The effects are top notch. Really some of the most beautiful stuff put on TV and better than some movies even.
The question I think that needs to be addressed is how the humans have a tendency to project themselves on other races. First the Moclins, then the Kaylons. There is a problem with them dealing with beings they don’t understand. It’s biting them in the ass now. I find that very interesting but I doubt McFarlane is going to go that deep with it.
The Bad
Not much bad in this episode. Isaac is the only Kaylon with blue eyes, the rest all have red. Not certain why this is other than the audience being able to easily recognize him from the others. We’ll see if part 2 has an explanation for this.
Claire still seems to think Isaac should have some kind of emotions. She does try to understand a bit better later in the episode but it still came across as provincial and whiny. Perhaps that’s part of the greater scope I mentioned above.
The Verdict
I enjoyed the heck out of this episode. It’s not perfect but I like the probable change to the status quo. Can you ever trust this race? They committed genocide. I’m not sure how you can have any relations with a society that did that. As for Isaac? He didn’t even bat an LED at being told to take over the Orville and begin to Kill All Meatbags.
Bring on part 2!
