The Orville’s tale of two Kellys took a timey-wimey turn in the Fox series’ Season 2 finale. In the end, and with renewal still pending, were Ed & Co. able to make things right?
In a jarring cold open, we see two men in winter coats and face masks traverse a snowy mountain to loot a Union Listening Post on Sarin IV. Their theft of a food synthesizer is interrupted by the arrival of a Kaylon shuttle, and the armed troops within. The men escape in their Union shuttle, after which we realize it’s Ed and Gordon, both of whom are very happy to whip up a Twinkie snack. Their enjoyment of the Hostess treat is interrupted by them being grabbed by a scavenger ship’s tractor beam. Once pulled aboard, they are greeted by a dystopian-looking Kelly, Claire, John and Talla — none of whom Ed and Gordon recognize.
Long story short: Because Past Kelly’s memory wipe from last week didn’t work and she turned down a second date with Ed, the world took a dark turn. Kelly never helped Ed, out of guilt over their divorce, get command of The Orville. In turn, Claire never joined Ed on The Orville, and as a result, there was no sense of “family” with her and her sons to keep Isaac from assisting with the Kaylon invasion. The Kaylons thus wiped out half the galaxy in nine months!
But… if they can secure a dose of the betaprotein that was missing and impaired Kelly’s memory wipe… and if they can recreate Isaac’s data for triggering a time jump… and if Claire memory-wipes Pasty Kelly anew… things will be as they were. In the course of pursuing that plan, they crossed paths with Alara, now a leader of the resistance (and who seemed to share a certain “tension” with John), before getting hunted down and chased by Kaylon ships. After hiding out inside a black hole, they set course for a decimated Earth, on which The Orville crash-landed, sinking into the Pacific Ocean.
Taking a shuttle to the Marianas Trench, they board the submerged Orville, where they unexpectedly reunited with Bortus. (He stayed behind to make sure the escape pods all launched, on one of which was Klyden and their son. Moclus has since been destroyed, but that can be fixed if they pull off the new memory wipe.)
After extricating the Orville from beneath the sea and back into space, John went about competing Isaac’s data by accessing his dissembled former crew mate’s consciousness through the Kaylon brain web — though doing so alerted the Kaylons. Worse, to pull off the time jump, just as last time they needed all of the ship’s power, making The Orville a sitting duck. With seconds counting down until they succeeded or not, Ed asked Kelly if she would marry him if they wind up stuck in this new timeline, and she said yes.
That proved moot, however, as Claire was successfully sent back in time to catch Past Kelly just as she woke up the morning after that first date, and administer a memory wipe. Kelly then woke back up and fielded Ed’s eager beaver phone call — but this time she said, “I’d love it” when he asked her back out.
What did you think of the Season 2 finale?
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