Season 2 Final "The Road Not Taken"

L & # 39; orville has never hesitated to pay tribute to his science fiction influences. But while the final of last season used one of the most famous tropes of the genre, "The Road Not Taken" was also a strong showcase of the (mostly) unique badets of the series.

"The Road Not Taken" inspires directly from the previous episode "Tomorrow, Tomorrow and Tomorrow", in which an experimental time travel device accidentally zapped another version Commander Kelly Grayson (Adrianne Palicki) aboard the ship. This Kelly was born seven years ago, more precisely the day after her first date with Ed (Seth MacFarlane). In the set timeline of the series, Ed and Kelly eventually got married, experienced a traumatic divorce, and then slowly became close friends (though Ed has persistent romantic feelings), while serving together OrvilleCaptain and first officer. After returning to her place in time (with a faulty memory erasure that allowed her to remember everything that she had seen on her own fate), young Kelly decided to tell her young Ed that she did not want to go out with him anymore. .

In her mind, she was serving everyone, sparing Ed a great deal of emotional pain. But the scenario "What if?" In the finale of the season shows us that his well-intentioned decision has terrible consequences that affect the entire universe. The new chronology revealed in "The Road Not Taken" shows that without their marriage and divorce, Ed never became captain of Orville (a concert he had thanks to Kelly's behind-the-scenes advocacy). Without Ed and Kelly at the helm of the ship that saved the Earth from Kaylon's attack (as shown by a two-part episode aired earlier this season, "Identity"), the grim robotic run was over. is unrolled in its quest to eliminate all biological life. Determined to put things back in place, Kelly's alternate timeline version travels the galaxy and brings together Orville the crew (many of whom have actually served together Orvillein fact, to try to redo his accidental time jump, this time with a functional erasure of memory so as not to have a clue what the future holds for us – and therefore not be able to guess and ruin everything again.

This episode is significant not only for this elaborate plot, but also because it involves many places. Aside from "Identity" (and a few other episodes and key moments), season two of L & # 39; orville Most of the time, she was installed aboard the ship, exploring stories that tell more about the characters' inner lives. In contrast, "The Road Not Taken" features scenes of alien planet fights, high speed chases through an ice moon and an asteroid field, as well as long sequences of inside a black hole and at the bottom of an ocean trench.

But at the same time, the finale was written to use all the traits and quirks we experienced in two seasons: Dr. Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald), both a brain doctor and a lover of single. mum; Gordon (Scott Grimes), an expert pilot who chooses to end several days of starvation with a Twinkie; Bortus (Peter Macon), who is both a spaceship professional and caring family man; and John LaMarr (J. Lee), a women's man whose engineering genius ends up saving the day more than once. "Road" also featured the resurgence of Alara (Halston Sage), a beloved character who seems to have definitely left the series earlier this season, offering a bit of fan service to reward loyal viewers.

Since L & # 39; orville, which is done with a lot of affection to the image of Star Trek, aired the same night as Star Trek: Discovery this season, the comparisons between the two are even more inevitable than they would already be, and there were some scattered similarities beyond the obvious. L & # 39; orvilleThe "Identity" scenario, which staged a battle that saw the long-standing enemies of humanity (the Krill, very obviously modeled on hikingKlingons) present themselves to a crucial minute to help defeat a common enemy in the form of an apocalyptic genocidal AI, was pbaded on to DiscoveryThe battle against control. The fact that Orville Janel Tyler, his character "in human look but in fact Krill" (any relationship with Discovery& # 39; S Ash Tyler?) Looks like a pretty obvious wink, as does the character name "Commander Grayson" (say it fast and it sounds a lot like Amanda Grayson, right?). In addition, as mentioned earlier: time travel, a pillar of science fiction that also strongly took into account DiscoveryThe most recent season.

But L & # 39; orville-What is generally much brighter and much less emo than DiscoveryMust not endure decades of franchise history. It's basically a series that does what it wants from week to week, whether it's showing us (with humor) what happens when a pair of gigantic alien moclans cling to the old vice called "nicotine" or about us (seriously enough) what happens when these same moclans are confronted with situations that challenge the long-standing traditions that govern their predominantly male race. Therefore, L & # 39; orvilleThe tone may seem a bit incoherent, which is not necessarily a bad thing unless you hear the name "Seth MacFarlane" and wait for intergalactic hilarity wall to wall.

Admittedly, this is not a dark enough series to kill a main character (even Isaac, Kaylon's crew member on the ship, is revived after briefly turning around and being arrested). The stakes are never really this high. But he is not afraid either to face heavy themes … and to balance these themes with karaoke, dances, pranks, scenes of fights turned to rallying cry. Dolly Parton's "9 to 5", interspecific romances, over-the-top mustaches, bunches of cookies and other random curiosities that fit perfectly into the show's setting.

It's a strange mix, but even with Discovery above his head, there is really nothing else on TV. Hoping that our current schedule will allow Fox to give him a third season.

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