The Orville Recap: OK, Buddy, Time to Wash Your Mouth Out With Gordon!

Coming out of Part 1 of The Orville‘s “Identity,” we were left to wonder if Isaac perhaps was playing the long game and waiting for the right time to usurp his Kaylin kinfolk, or if the invading synthetic species would ultimately be thwarted by being “powered down” en masse a la The Avengers, Independence Day and, apparently, Star Trek: TNG.

The answer delivered in Part 2 this Thursday, it turned out, was… a bit of both.

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With the entire crew sequestered inside the shuttle bay and guarded by Kaylons, Ed and Kelly were summoned by Primary to come to the bridge and field a hail from an arriving Union starship. In doing so, Ed explained to Captain Tony Almeida that the Kaylons had agreed to join the Union and, well, are big into pageantry, hence the massive armada. Ed tried to slip a coded S.O.S. to his colleague, using the term “13-button salute,” but Primary caught on and had the other starship blasted to smithereens before they could call for help.

For good measure, Primary had a rando red shirt jettisoned out an airlock while Ed looked on in horror and despite Isaac’s measured protests. Afterward, Primary — sensing sympathy for the organics from Isaac — pointed out that humans have a history of enslaving “others,” using a copy of Alex Hayley’s Roots as an example. Isaac downloads the tome but contends that was a different time, and that he sees no such traits, especially in the children he has met.

When Ed returns to the shuttle bay, Kelly shares her idea to sneak out a shuttle and make tracks for Krill space, to solicit their adversary’s help in defeating a common enemy. To that end, Yaphit oozes into a Jefferies tube to get to the armory and snatch a gun, which Bortis uses to take out the guards watching over them. With Kelly riding shotgun, Gordon then pilots the shuttle just past the quickly closing bay doors. A Kaylon battleship peels off in pursuit, but Gordon loses it by diverting all the ship’s power into the thrusters, or something. They land in Krill space, powerless, but soon enough get reeled in via tractor beam, by a Krill cruiser. Inside, they plead their case to a Captain Dalak, who is at first skeptical — until the Kaylon battleship pops up on the radar.

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Back on the Orville, the crew was determined to get a warning to Earth, and that involved both Yaphit and Claire’s younger son, Ty, crawling through the Jefferies tube to the comms room, where the former transmitted a message while the latter tapped out random frequencies, to mask the outgoing transmission. When two Kaylons caught them off guard, Yaphit glommed onto one, oozing into his suit and short-circuiting him, but the other grabbed Ty. Primary then summoned Isaac, to task him with terminating the human child. Isaac argued against the punishment, for naught. When push came to shove, Isaac popped out his helmet-mount lasers, but instead twisted-and-snapped off Primary’s head before gunning down the nearby guards.

Racing to the bridge, Isaac did same with the Kaylons manning the stations, before telling Ty of his plan to flood the ship with an EMP that will deactivate all of the Kaylons — himself included. Ty protests, but accepts Isaac’s sacrifice. Once the Kaylon troops are neutralized, Ty dashes to the shuttle bay and opens the door for the others, racing into his mom’s arms.

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That battle won, it was now time to win the war, as the Orville and the Kaylon armada arrived in Earth’s orbit — where the Union fleet awaited them, having gotten Yaphit’s message! A massive battle unspooled, with the Union suffering major losses, including at least two entire starships by my count. But just when it appeared they were indeed outgunned, and Ed was readying a desperate maneuver, the Krill fleet dropped out of warp and quickly got to blowing up all the baddies, with help from small fighters, Gordon among their pilots. “For the glory of Avis!”

The Kaylons took a lot of hits, until the remaining stragglers opted to retreat. In the aftermath of the Union victory, there was the matter of what to do with Isaac, whom Yaphit had oozed inside of and managed to reboot. Ed suggested that Isaac — now a non-man without a country — stay aboard the Orville, tasked with developing tech to ward off any future attacks by the Kaylons. Admiral Spy Daddy agreed but with reservations, given that Ed refuses to essentially enslave Isaac with an “off switch” safeguard.

“That’s a heavy obligation,” he warned the Orville‘s captain, to which Ed nodded, “I’m ready.”

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