1x12 Mad Idolatry

In Kelly We Trust

So, we reach the season finale of The Orville and begin our likely to be near year-long wait for season two. It’s interesting the path this show has taken, the popularity of it with fans and with myself as well. Never would have called this when first started seeing the commercials for this this past summer. Though this episode is the season finale I won’t be treating it or looking at it as such since this season was cut short by one episode, that had already been filmed and scheduled. For whatever reason it’s being moved to season 2, perhaps the episode acted to much as an actual finale that’d no longer work in a show with a second season. With this episode we’re playing with another one of Trek’s cards, the religious episode. Which, sure, we’ve already had one this year but this one plays the more aggressive version of the card and there’s a number of different ways we can interpret the episode’s meaning and message particularly if we take into consideration Seth MacFarlane’s religious views (which, as I understand it, he’s atheist or perhaps agnostic.) I’ve watched some of the episode of this season with my parents who like the show well enough but mostly because there’s nothing else on Thursday nights, and the episodes I’ve watched with them (to get them into the show when it first started) they remarked at how surprised they are the few times we’ve heard characters make some reference to God. We’ve heard “God forbid” and like phrases and such a few times over the show so we could maybe take that to mean that religion in some way or another must exist in this time period, even if isn’t something that drives or motivates people like, for example, The Krill. Or it could just be the phrase survived. Though Ed does tell Pria to “go to Hell” when he learns the truth about her. Again, not sure if he’s referencing an actual “place” of damnation or just using it as a general term. (Like how we still say things like “the phone is ringing” even though, strictly, phones don’t “ring” anymore like they did even 25 years ago or so.) But, of note, Pria didn’t understand the reference suggesting by her time “Hell” isn’t a “place” that’s known about. This is also another episode where the humor in it really managed to work and land nicely and is blended in with the rest of the episode and story well. Really it seems like the pilot episode was the odd one out where the humor was a bit too forced and obvious, since then it seems with each successive episode the humor has melded more into show. Sort of like... I dunno, folding beaten egg whites into a cake batter. At first you start with a little bit of batter and gently work in the whites, folding, and folding, adding in more and more batter until the two are nicely combined. Adding it all at once (as well as over beating) collapses the egg whites and your cake ends up not very fluffy. (This is your cooking lesson for the week.) So, right now we have a nice, fluffy, cake batter with nicely worked in whites, er humor. Great, I lost grip on my analogy. If there’s one flaw with the episode it’s that the way things happen seems to extreme and like career enders for Ed and Kelly especially following an early conversation with the Admiralty. But, I suppose, we could argue a Trek-Like “if the ends justify the means” sort of thing where it’s okay if you break the rules so long as everything turns out fine. Trek episodes this is similar to? “Who Watches the Watchers?” (TNG) and “Blink of an Eye” (Voyager.) Both episodes dealt with the ship or members of the crew being taken as religious figures and them having to deal with it. In WWW Picard is seen as a deity after Crusher beams aboard a primitive proto-Vulcan man to the sickbay to heal some injuries he got during a mishap with the away team. They attempt to erase his memory but it doesn’t take and he spreads the word of “The Picard” as a great healer which begins to send the proto-Vulcans into a religious belief. (It’s said they’ve already abandoned religion and are going down the path of logic even though they appear to be in The Bronze Age.) Picard has to work to prove to them he’s not a god but a mortal from an advanced culture. “BoaE” has Voyager trapped in orbit around a planet that’s in an anomaly that causes time to pass greater on the planet than on the ship. The ship is seen in orbit and taken as a deity by the alien race on the planet as, from their perspective, the ship is in orbit for millennia, eventually the race achieves space-flight and meets with the Voyager crew. (It even has The Doctor (a holographic sentient life form) go down to the planet which, for him, is several decades to get his report on things down there. So elements from both of those episodes spring to mind off the bat, though I’m sure there’s pieces of other episodes too since religion and idolatry was a topic Trek tackled a lot. My grade: B+ It was a good, solid, episode with some good moments in it and it seems like I’m a minority when looking at other reviews around the ‘Net. I thought it was a fine episode and like most of the episodes this season on par with “average Trek.” It was enjoyable and interesting, as this general premise is something I’ve always kind of liked and have even done my own short stories on. RECAP SPOILERS BEGIN HERE We open with Ed walking through the corridors of the ship, opening up the front of his uniform indicating he’s off duty; he rings the chime on Gordon’s door and when Gordon answers Ed asks if they can grab a drink in the mess hall; Gordon turns him down since he’s already in his pajamas and headed for bed. Next, Ed rings the chime at Lamar’s quarters who answers in a open bathrobe, before he can fully decline Ed’s offer for a drink a pretty young woman smoking something (I’d bet a joint) who’s wearing Lamar’s uniform tunic opened, revealing her chest as well. (Well, as much as can be shown on primetime network TV) She offers for Ed to come in but Lamar -not so subtly- shakes his head to tell Ed to skedaddle. Ed makes up an excuse of having to work early and excuses himself. Next Ed rings the chime at Bortus’s quarters who initially suspects this is a professional visit; either something is wrong or Bortus is looking at a reprimand on something, Ed assures Bortus this is a social visit. Bortus informs Ed that they’ve just put the baby to bed and he and Klyden were about to have a drink, Ed is welcome to join. Klyden pours the drink into Ed’s glass, the drink resembles.... Well, most people probably instantly thought it looked like the result of what comes out of you 20-minutes after eating a bad meal at Taco Bell but, to me, it looked more like uncooked chocolate brownie or cakeb atter. It’s dark brown and thick, either way you want to liken it. Though Ed takes the former and says he’s worried what it’ll look like coming out. Klyden says that it doesn’t come out it stays within you as a parasite. Which, I guess could be the case for a species that only uses the bathroom once a year but Ed, and later he confirms this, has it come out of him. Ed takes a sip as Bortus and Klyden take hefty drinks. Bortus and Klyden are dress nicely in casual clothes and it’s a nice aspect of these characters, to see them in civvies. There were plenty of times in Star Trek’s various incarnations where we saw the crew off duty and more often than not they were off duty in their Starfleet uniform. It’s also a shame we’ve never really gotten to see much of what’s going on between Bortus and Klyden following the events of “About a Girl,” and we’ve seen and heard them having marital difficulty a few times since then but it seems that difficulty is more about Bortus’s work schedule and dedication to his duty and the problems the new child is causing in their relationship just by being a baby. I’m sure anyone who’s had kids knows how hard it can be to balance a relationship and take care of a child, especially when someone (or both) has a demanding job. Ed, asks what they do when off duty, if their culture has any games. Bortus says there is a common game Moclans play but he doesn’t think a human would be interested. Ed insists. Klyden comes into the room carrying and egg-shaped device about the size and shape of a football, actually, and sits down on the couch explaining the rules of the game. He’ll toss the “ball” to someone and then that person tosses the ball to someone and they just keep doing that. In effect, they’re playing Hot Potato, though no indication is given on a time limit so as to not get “stuck” with it so, at first, it seems like they’re simply playing a lame game of catch. After a few tosses Ed keeps the ball and starts ask if this is the whole game, but in the middle of asking an impaling knife justs out of the ball and through Ed’s hand, he reacts in a horror, pained, scream; Bortus and Klyden pump their arms in the air and shout the name of the game. A little later we see Ed in the sparsely decorated upstairs bedroom of his quarters, he’s sitting on his bed looking at a PDA. You know, of such a “small” ship, it seems the use of space for these quarters is rather poor. This bedroom is about the size of one you’d see in a millionaire’s home and not on even a well-appointed vessel where space is limited. Ed turns on the monitor on the night stand, calling Kelly. She’s seemingly in bed too, they both admit to not being able to sleep. Kelly, notice’s the bandage on Ed’s hand and Ed tells her he “won” the Moclan game, Ed doesn’t want how this happened on record so he asks if Kelly will get him a healing device from sickbay and smuggle it to him. The two agree to share a drink in the mess hall. In the outer rotunda of the mess hall, at one of the high-top tables and both of them still wearing their pajamas and night robes, they share a drink in the otherwise, quiet, empty room. Ed soon turns their conversation to the visit from Derulio (the alien male Kelly cheated on Ed with while they were married) a few episodes back where it was implied that Kelly didn’t willingly cheat on Ed, she was under the influence of Derulio’s species power pheromones. Ed, pretty much, saying he forgives Kelly; she says they may never really know what happened but it’s good of Ed to give her that benefit of the doubt. Ed admits that his motives are some-what selfish, as he’s enjoyed working with her and seeing her again since they started serving on the ship and he wonders if she might want to try and rekindle their relationship, starting with a dinner in his quarters in a following evening. Kelly agrees and the two share a drink to them trying to start things up again. The following morning a clearly hungover Ed and Kelly sit in their chairs on the bridge, slouched and nursing headaches as the ship approaches a star. Ed strains his eyes and asks for the brightness of the view-screen to be turned down. The ship’s sensors detect and anomaly, setting off an alarm much to Ed and Kelly’s annoyance. Their’s a spatial anomaly coming from somewhere in orbit around the star but there’s nothing for it to be emanating from, Isaac wants to take a shuttle to get a closer study; a hungover Kelly agrees. On the shuttle, Kelly nurses her hangover dehydration by gulping down a large glass of water as Isaac and Gordon operate the shuttle, still not finding the source of the unusual reading. Suddenly the shuttle rocks violently and bright lights pours into the shuttle cabin a confused Gordon reports the shuttle is now in an atmosphere. From the bridge of the ship a planet is now visible, having came out of nowhere. Contact with the shuttle says they need to make a crash landing. Having “landed” on the planet the three size up their situation, the shuttle is still operable but it will take some time to make the repairs, while Gordon and Isaac do that Kelly says she’s going to take a look around the nearby area. She reaches the edge of a cliff/overlook and she sees a small village, contacting the shuttle she says their humanoid lifeforms on the planet at the Bronze Age level of development, she says she’s going to take a closer look. Isaac pops in to remind her of Union rules when it comes to contacting primitive civilizations, which is the first we hear on The Orville of there being something akin to Trek’s Prime Directive (which says no direct contact can be made with a civilization until it has achieved faster-than-light travel.) This is interesting because in at least two other episodes the crew has come across “pre-warp” (quantum?) civilizations it seemed imply there’s nothing akin to a Prime Directive in the Orville universe and Seth MacFarlane himself, IIRC, has said no such thing exists that each situation is a case-by-case decision. This could be a special circumstance, however, since it’s such a primitive culture and not with a more developed society; so cultural contamination may be a bigger no-no. (As seen in “If the Stars Should Appear” and “Majority Rule” both civilizations seemingly in 20th/21st century levels. Hell, in “Majority Rule” Ed even suggests they reveal themselves to the civilization, which suggests that doing such a thing is even an option and the Admiralty doesn’t act as if he’s crazy, just that this situation doesn’t allow for it.) Kelly walks down a hill a soon hears the laughter of children, she seems to try and walk away but steps on, and breaks, a twig. The children stop and look at this strange woman and quickly run off, one of the tripping in the process and hitting her head on a rock. As the girl sits back up she’s bleeding slightly from the forehead but, otherwise, is conscious and seems okay. Kelly greets the girl and tries to calm her, telling her her name. Kelly pulls a medical device out of her pocket and offers to treat the little girl’s wound. The device instantly heals the cut on the girl’s head. Kelly turns and sees a group of locals approaching her, she backs away slowly as the natives look on. The girl looks up and simply says, “Kelly.” Uh-oh, I knew exactly where this was going on first viewing. It also is sort of a problem in Kelly’s actions. Why did she treat the girl’s wound? In the above mentioned Star Trek: The Next Generation episode one of the natives is critically injured when he touches an electrified sill of an exposed duck-blind, he falls and is knocked out and, presumably, has serious injuries. Dr. Crusher in that episode beams him to the ship to treat his wounds with the intent of sending him back with his short-term memory wiped. She makes the argument to Picard that his injuries were life-threatening and technically the fault of the Federation’s and this sets the Picard-as-deity events into motion when the memory wipe doesn’t take. Here the girl seemed, more or less, fine from the fall. She doesn’t suffer anything beyond a moment of unconsciousness (she seemed more stunned than anything) and seems to only have a cut on her head, this seems like a circumstance where Kelly didn’t need to step in to help and could have just let the girl go on with her injury. Though, later when Kelly and Ed talk about this Ed seems to speak as if the child would have died from the fall. So I dunno, I just think a more obvious, serious, injury should’ve occurred, like the girl didn’t regain consciousness until while Kelly is healing her, Kelly reveals her name and the rest of the episode goes on. They talk with an Union Admiral who says they’ll remain there for another day or so to see what happens before a more dedicated science vessel is sent out, in his report Ed doesn’t mention the cultural contamination, saying he didn’t think it was a big deal (Though it’s implied it’s more he did it to protect Kelly.) The following day they’re on the bridge, it’s been 12 hours, and the planet is still there, they begin to discuss what to do next before the planet disappears. Isaac thinks he has an explanation. The planet is caught between two universes, when it reaches a certain point in its orbit it transfers to ours for 12 hours, then goes back to its own until it re-approaches that point in its orbit, the other universe’s star would have to be similar to this one’s in order for the planet’s habitability to remain intact. Apparently the planet is in such a tight orbit around the star it’s year lasts 11 days. (Which..... I dunno. I’m sure I could figure out the distance it’d have to be and the size of the star and all of that to figure out how this is possible. For a planet’s orbit to be 12 hours it’d have to be really close to a star but the star dim enough to not cook the planet as it’d be out of the habitable zone. Mercury, the closest planet to our sun, has a year of 58 days and... Well you wouldn’t want to live there.) Anyway, they decide to wait until the planet revisits our universe. In the mean time, Ed and Kelly have their date in his quarters, both wearing nice casual clothing (including Kelly in a very nice dress.) Kelly takes a bite of her meal and points out she had forgotten what a bad cook Ed is. Ed laughs and said he was prepared for this, and he didn’t want to use the replicators for their date, so he made them some peanut butter and jelly sandwiches, figuring even he couldn’t mess that up. The two sit over their meal talking, catching up and deciding if they want to continue with their relationship. Kelly takes a bite of her sandwich and notes that it only has jelly on it; Ed says his sandwich only has peanut butter on it; he didn’t put both on both sandwiches because he worried about screwing up the ratio and for them to combine the two sandwiches by kissing one another. Which, first of all, that kind of sounds a little gross sharing food while kissing but, I guess, people do it. Secondly, slick Ed. The two begin passionately kissing. When the planet reappears they read some unusual inconsistencies with it, namely in the population of the planet, and they decide to go down to investigate. Ed, Kelly, John, Gordon and Alara make-up the landing party. On the overlook from earlier they look out, what was once a small village of a few huts and crude shelters is now a city with more structures; they figure it’s equivalent to Earth’s 14th century. Issac says that there’s a time discontinuity between universes, 11 days have passed for them but 700 years have passed for the planet. The landing party decides to get a closer look. On their way into the main town they decide to take some clothing off a clothes line and while doing so a native woman comes out of a nearby cabin. She looks at the team in shock and rushes back inside; the team tries to make a hasty escape but the woman comes back out of her hut carrying her child. She goes up to Kelly with wide yes and speaking in a groveling tone, asking for Kelly to “bless” her child. Kelly is unsure of what to do at first, but the woman’s pleas convince Kelly to lay her hand on the child and offer the best she can come up with a blessing. The native woman is grateful and retreats back to her cabin. The team, now in local clothing, walks down a road heading into the city, Ed’s been quiet during their journey. He says he just wants to know what’s happening, on the outskirts of the city they see several bodies, effectively, “crucified” on poles, a native rides up on a horse-drawn carriage and greets the team. They ask what happened to these people. The man says they were killed for denying “The Word of Kelly.” (Interestingly, they covered up Alara’s forehead with a hood and her alien nose bridge with what looks like a glob of mud. Or maybe Bortus’s poo drink.) In the village they watch as the people mill around in their 14th century clothing, they watch as a child is yelled at by his mother for doing something wrong, her saying that if the kid isn’t good “Kelly will get you.” Kelly says this is a nightmare. A bell rings, and man walks out on a platform saying that three prisoners, guilty of theft, will now be judged. The men are tied up their arms hoisted in the air, and they have their wrists slit, long-wise, with a knife. The “judge” says that if “Kelly” chooses to come and save these men they will be seen as innocent, otherwise they’re rightfully judged by her. Kelly makes a move to reveal herself, but she’s stopped by Ed. They enter a large nearby central structure and in the foyer of it see a large statue of Kelly, remarkably accurately made (even with the Union command division logo on her chest) for being 700 years removed from when she was seen by a single child. (And from a distance by several adults.) Reporting this to the Admiral from earlier, she admonishes Ed for not including the cultural contamination in his initial report, and a reprimand will be put in Ed’s file. Ed asks what they should do, thinking they should reveal the truth to them, but they’re forbidden from doing so and are told to wait until the society reaches a space-travel level of development and then they can make contact. Admiral out. Ed tries to talk to Kelly, make her feel better about this, but she’s upset about the number of deaths and admonishments being done in her name. She asks to be alone. Later, Kelly is curled up on the couch in her quarters, crying, when the door chime rings. She wipes away tears, and allows the entry. Ed, Alara and John enter wearing the alien clothing, saying they’re going back, when they arrive they’ll have 20 minutes before the planet disappears. In the main room of the church a “pope” sits at a chair taking in a drink, to his side is a large painting of Kelly with the alien girl, and behind the pope is stained glass window made to look like Kelly. Again, all of this is remarkably accurate all things considered. One of church staff comes in with a kid accused of stealing and they look for what action to take, the pope says to have him judged by Kelly, just as they’re about to take the man out of the room the party walks in, Kelly reveals herself, and tells them to let the accused go. Everyone in the room bows down to her as, non-subtly, the light from her window shines down on her. She tells them to stand up, she’s not worthy of their groveling. They seem truly frightened, but in awe, of her. She interacts with the pope, explaining who she really is, a traveler from the stars for whom time works differently. She cuts her hand with a knife to reveal her biological nature and then heals the wound with the medical tool. The pope at first seems to think it’s a divine tool, but Kelly tells him to do it to himself. The pope cuts his hand, Kelly shows him how to use the medical device, and he seems to now get what is going on and accepts Kelly as a traveler and not a deity. The party has to go in order to get off the planet before it travels to the other universe. The pope enters another chamber to do something or amend their holy book, but his aide tries to convince the pope to not change The Word as it’ll cause their Theocratic government to lose power. The pope is convinced he must do the right thing, the assistant stabs the pope. Eleven days/700 years later, Kelly and Ed hold hands and watch on the bridge as the planet re-emerges into our universe, now at a 21st century level of development, Issac says he detects artificial satellites, industrial pollution, computer technology and planetary broadcasts. Ed asks for him to search for any mentions of “Kelly.” Isaac finds just over 700,000 results, which... For a planetary deity seems kind of small. Ed asks to see the broadcasts. Issac shows a few clips from various programs, we see a televangelist at a mega church giving a sermon, a cable news station with a three-person argument over the secularization of public schools, and a news report on a holy war happening in what looks to be a mid-east like country. Kelly looks on sad, them feeling ehri plan didn’t work. They talk it over in the conference room on what to do next, Kelly says she should go down there and say and try and lead the people out of this, but Ed doesn’t think that’s a good idea. Not only would she die on the planet but given the state the planet’s society has advanced to it’s more likely she’ll be committed as insane more than being accepted as a deity. Which, really, makes a lot of sense. It’s always said that any technology significantly advanced is indistinguishable from magic, it’s true enough that if anyone from today were to travel back in time 700 years and bring with them a 21st century piece of technology or knowledge on healing or something of the sort, that person will likely be seen as a deity, such a primitive society has no concept of such technology. But, look at where we are today with computers, advanced medicine, space craft of our own and knowledge of the vastness of the universe and, thus, the likelihood we are not alone in it. It’s highly unlikely today someone visiting with advanced technology would be seen as a deity, we know what technology is and that it likely has no limits. So beyond pure, actual, magic of the impossible kind we’re not going to see a being with advanced technology as a deity if they make such claims, more likely to see them as nuts. Instead, Issac offers to go to the planet to try the cultural correction, he says his species is very long-lived and for him the 700 years is an insignificant length of time. Everyone feels bad about putting Isaac in such a position, but he assures everyone it’s not a big deal to him as well as an opportunity to witness a developing civilization. They say their goodbyes to Isaac planetside as the planet leaves our universe for 11 days. The time has passed, and everyone waits on the bridge for the planet to re-emerge, once doing so a planet covered with lights and organized shapes appears, large space elevators extending from the planet’s surface, an alien ship comes up to the Orville and hails for permission to come aboard, Ed allows it. Three people transport onto the bridge, Isaac and male and female native, they greet Captain Mercer, saying they’re there to return his artificial life form. In the conference room the senior staff talks with the two aliens and find out about what’s happened over the last 7 centuries, Issac says after revealing himself he had to do very little to change the planet’s course. The two natives talk about how from their own exploration of their universe’s space all civilizations go through a period of worshiping a deity and following a path of darkness, fighting the ideas and then advancing past it. Had it not been Kelly, something else likely would have happened. She shouldn’t feel guilty about what happened. This seems to make Kelly feel better before the aliens leave for the planet. It’s evening time and Ed sits in the rotunda of the mess hall waiting for Kelly, she comes up to him and has a serious talk with him. She doesn’t think it’s a good idea for the two of them to resume their relationship given how Ed risked his career to protect her earlier (like a month ago.) She’s fine with them being friends and co-workers but she doesn’t think a relationship will work out. Ed’s naturally sad and disappointed but seems to understand where she’s coming from. He knows she’s right, but it doesn’t change how he feels about her. As she leaves, Ed continues sitting at the table alone. I will say, even though this wasn’t meant to be the last episode of the season the Ed/Kelly aspect of it works nicely in its connection with the first episode and, really, the theme of the entire season with the relationship between the two of them. As I said, it’s a pretty good, solid, episode with interesting elements. It’s going to be a long wait until next season. Next week: We’ll start doing the other episodes as they run in repeats.