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Nice title!

I guessed that was Ed and Gordon way before they took their masks off. Just something about their size, the way they moved, etc.

Man, their shuttle was filthy! Makes sense in this universe!

Flying Kalon heads! Why didn't we see those before? I guess because they were mostly indoors, not much flying head potential there. Admit it, the head cannons look goofy, and now the flying head cannons look even more goofy!

So the Kalon conquered "half the galaxy". I presume - and hope - that's hyperbole.

Holy moly, Kelly looked amazing this episode. In the very non-sexualised Union uniforms (and how great is that?) it's easy to overlook just what a hottie Adrianne Palicki is.

I was talking with Ian the other day about how this could pan out. My chain was "No dating, no marriage... no marriage, no Kelly helping Ed to get The Orville... but then, no marriage no cheating, and so no 'year of hell' for Ed in the first place. So does he get a ship earlier? A different ship? A better ship?" Nice to see that pan out pretty much as I said. But I didn't then realise that without Ed, there's no Doctor Finn, and no kids, and thus no motivation for Isaac to turn traitor and save humanity. For the want of a nail...

Alara! ALARA!!!!!! Whooooooooooo!

Seemed to be tension between her and LaMarr, too. Did I miss something, because I don't remember it ever being explained? Will keep an eye out for that on the second viewing.

Wow, they pulled out the FX stops on this episode. Dodging through the ice moon, playing in asteroid belts... I've seen crowded asteroid fields in sci-fi before, but this was just NUTS. I'm sure everyone here knows that you could fly through a real asteroid belt a million times and never see an asteroid, but I gotta say, crowded belts just look cool.

And Earth, oh wow they have some hella serious weaponry in the Orville universe. By my estimate that crater in north America was at least 1,500 miles wide, and the one in south America was at least 2,000-2,500. Such blasts would have opened the crust and released a lot of magma... was there time for it to crust over again? And then what happened to the moon, just amazing.

A union shuttle can withstand the pressure at the bottom of the Mariana Trench. That's kind of impressive for a ship that may not even have been designed with water in mind. Though maybe it was, there are aquatic planets in sci fi, maybe some are in the Union. Either they have seriously strong materials, or some field that reinforces the hull, AKA a Structural Integrity Field.

I love Bortas sitting on the Orville for nine months all alone, with only the thought of getting back to Moclas to sustain him, and then the first people he meets tell him that his planet has been destroyed. Man, keep it to yourself! He didn't need to be told that!

Orville flies again! Woooo! Orville gets blown to hell! Booooo! But awesome explosion!

So question... does the Orville take the view that all the parallel timelines coexist? Because if so, you can't "correct" a timeline. You can shunt yourself into a different timeline, but that's it. Somewhere out in the multiverse Ed and the others are wondering why this didn't work! But like an episode or two has previously said, time travel stuff is complicated and makes your head hurt, so whatever.

Overall a great episode. A ton of money up on the screen, action packed stuff, a fun crapsack universe, ALARA! And hottie Kelly.

Yep, Kelly rocked that top (skinny legs and all)

Wonderful episode, between this and "Identity I & II" their budget must have been blown to Skaro and back.

Three references I haven't seen mentioned on YT (yet):

1) The obligatory Power Puff Girls: "Can you open this jar of pickles?" (aside-I did not realize where the hell the jar of pickles to Fox idea came from until I binge watched season 1)
2) The Kaylon ships hold 3 Kaylon, ala the Cylon raiders of BG classic.
3) Gordon says "C'mon baby, fly". A similar line was used in the movie "The Hunt For Red October"

I think a combination of Kelly ghosting him (I think that term he used, is not correct, as ghosting is mainly used for people who did date more than once and then one just stopping communication, not first dates.), and him not really getting over it and perhaps even the lack of marriage never got him past that hump to command a ship.

I mean Kelly did get him the command after she felt she owed him one after cheating on him. But prior to that it did seem that he was already on the cusp but heartbreak put some hard breaking on career advancement.

McAvoy wrote:I think a combination of Kelly ghosting him (I think that term he used, is not correct, as ghosting is mainly used for people who did date more than once and then one just stopping communication, not first dates.), and him not really getting over it and perhaps even the lack of marriage never got him past that hump to command a ship.

I mean Kelly did get him the command after she felt she owed him one after cheating on him. But prior to that it did seem that he was already on the cusp but heartbreak put some hard breaking on career advancement.

For me it seems like Kelly at least prior to her cheating was a force that helped Mercer with his own career. Though you have to wonder what is or was holding Kelly back from having her own command. Especially in the prior episode how her younger self was initially appalled in how current Kelly was in her career.

So you could say Kelly prior to the cheating got him far but with Kelly cheating on him he stumbled until Kelly got him the command. I mean I seriously doubt Kelly rejecting him in the alternate time line fucked him up that much.

Ghosting, yeah. It has happened to me. Usually you date a couple of times and talk alot. One then will stop communicating completely. That was what I thought is ghosting. In my case, date for four months and then she stops talking to you. You finally find out months later to find out she went back to her ex boyfriend...

McAvoy wrote:For me it seems like Kelly at least prior to her cheating was a force that helped Mercer with his own career.

Maybe in terms of her being good for him and encouraging him on a personal level. I wouldn't expect her to have any ability to influence his career otherwise, except via her family connection of dad who was close to Admiral Big Muckity-Muck. It would be very odd if Commanders could influence the promotion of other Commanders, for sure; such influence goes down, not up or out.

Though you have to wonder what is or was holding Kelly back from having her own command. Especially in the prior episode how her younger self was initially appalled in how current Kelly was in her career.

I wonder if it's just a matter of age. In Ep1, Admiral Big Muckity-Muck said people thought Ed would have his own ship already, and would have one by the time he was 40. So Ed was 40/41 by that point, and thus 42/3 at the end of season 2.

I can believe Kelly is 3 or 4 years younger than that, and as an excellent officer would have been expected to have her own ship a few years after Ed.

Also note, Kelly has done some dumbass stuff. Violating their version of the PD at the end of season 1, for example. It's very possible she's not regarded as such a high flyer any more after that, and it could easily have put off her getting her own ship.

Which is kind of a shame. I wouldn't mind seeing Kelly promoted and given her own ship. Make her kind of like Hernandez in the final season of Enterprise, where she and Ed are assigned to the same region of space and come help one another out or have joint missions. Don't suppose they'll do it, but it's interesting to me.

When I meant by force, I meant by helping him along with his career as a supportive spouse/girlfriend that he normally wouldn't have had if he was single. Maybe help him focus, or keep the dumb decisions down to a minimum.

Then again seems like young Kelly had her own dumb things too. Like she was a party girl when they first met.

I think young Kelly's comments about having a command by the time current Kelly is, is more about having goals. It's definitely possible that you can get a command younger than 40.

McAvoy wrote:When I meant by force, I meant by helping him along with his career as a supportive spouse/girlfriend that he normally wouldn't have had if he was single. Maybe help him focus, or keep the dumb decisions down to a minimum.

Absolutely. Though it's interesting that Ed himself would deliberately behave dumber than he is, specifically to give her things to correct him on so that she could feel clever. He's a bit less of a goofball than he sometimes seems, I think.

Then again seems like young Kelly had her own dumb things too. Like she was a party girl when they first met.

She still is. Have you noticed how much she drinks? It's really quite noticeable once you're looking for it, and given how prudish American TV is about such things, it's obviously done deliberately. Not to mention she tends to dive on the pot brownies when she can, too. I sometimes wonder if they're setting her up for an alcoholism storyline somewhere down the road.

I think young Kelly's comments about having a command by the time current Kelly is, is more about having goals. It's definitely possible that you can get a command younger than 40.

I dunno. Ed potentially doing it by 40 was regarded as a significant and unusual accomplishment. But on the other hand, they do have all those ships to fill and apparently not as many people to fill them as they'd like. That's a recipe for fast promotion right there.

Americans are not really prudish on alcoholism. In fact it borderline celebrates excessive consumption of it especially as way of comedy.

Americans are prudish though on sex. Lots of pearl clutches here.

I forgot about that line about the need for more captains for their ships which is probably the main reason how he got the command.

Even in real life, 40 is about right for a Captain. So there is that.