'The Orville' Recap: 'About a Girl'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

​THIS IS THE EMERGENCY SPOILER ALERT SYSTEM...YOU ARE ADVISED TO READ AT YOUR OWN RISK...

Once in a great while, a television show will air something so incredible and so stunning that I am forced to sit in silence and ponder upon what I've just witnessed and often times, the horror genre is the only one that does that to me since I'm trying desperately to process the awful things I've just witnessed. But last night, it was a science fiction show that gave me great pause, but for vastly different reasons that have nothing to do with terror, because The Orville delivered unto us a downright poignant and incredible episode, one that was supremely relevant to our times and quite frankly, I needed the silence to properly work through the wonder and intelligence of what I just saw. 

In fact, let's take a moment to praise Seth MacFarlane's script and what he's doing with this show. Because 'About a Girl' was a tour de force of writing, one that took us on a multitude of emotions and it signifies that The Orville is shaping up to be MacFarlane's finest work because what happened last night storytelling wise, was utterly brilliant, and evolutionary as well. While the first two episodes of this series have served as a love letter to Star Trek, going so far as to include direct homages to that iconic science fiction series, for this tale, everything changed. Gone were the tributes and all that remained was a powerful story that was grounded in pure social commentary and Seth deserves major credit for taking the entire debate regarding gender identity and transgender rights head on.  

It accomplished this, in part, by following up with a brief moment at the end of Sunday's episode, where Lieutenant Commander Bortus and his mate, Klyden, came to discover that their newborn child was in fact a girl and this week, we learned that being a female in the Moclan culture is considered a weakness and it is quite frankly, forbidden thanks to the Moclan species being all male. Which means that all Moclans born as females must undergo a mandatory surgery to make them male; and thanks to the crew of the Orville, and the Planetary Union's forward thinking...Bortus was put in quite the tough position, since he decided that it was not his place to change his daughter's gender, pitting him against the Moclan culture as a whole and well...while that plot should be grounds enough for a brilliant story in its own right, MacFarlane found a way to make this tale far more poignant. 

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Case in point, the fact that this episode holds nothing back when it comes to the debate over gender identity and transgender rights because the show straight up condemns the narrow minded line of thinking when it comes to this matter, which is rare for a series in this vein. Normally, both sides of the debate are presented equally in science fiction, and to a certain degree that's prevalent here since we do hear the Moclan side of the matter often, but the examples used there are enough to force an eye roll or two and really, the Union and later Bortus (and the show for that matter) have it right in that, it is up to the individual to make their own decision as to who they are and how they will live their life and to impose a culture's will upon others is wrong because we don't know what the future holds or what others will contribute to society down the line.  

However, the true brilliance of this particular episode didn't end there. This also turned out to be quite the emotional episode as well, because it was heartbreaking to learn that Klyden was born a female and of course, underwent the reassignment surgery as is the Moclan way and kept this fact from Bortus out of fear of rejection and of course, we have to talk about that ending. Because despite Kelly's best efforts to prove to the tribunal on Moclus that Bortus and Klyden should be allowed to raise their daughter as their daughter and avoid the surgery...the tribunal decided that tradition mattered above all else and well, to see the pain in Bortus' eyes and to see the crew defeated in their endeavor was downright devastating and the series gets serious credit for not giving us the traditional happy ending, yet...despite the fact that Bortus lost his case...this episode did end on a hopeful note. 

After all, we cannot forget that the greatest writer in the history of the Moclan culture is in fact a woman, a truth now known amongst the population of Moclus, and in the closing moments of the episode where Bortus spoke about giving his son, Topa, a good life, there seemed to be a hint that perhaps the solution to Bortus' concerns lie in how he raises his son, since a new generation can bring about a new way of thinking, and considering how intelligent this episode turned out to be...I'm sure the message buried in that moment applies to our world as well. Either way, wow...this was quite the powerful story, one so strong that the ending of this tale brought this reviewer to tears and this episode serves to cement the fact that The Orville is hands down the smartest series on television right now and definitely some of the finest science fiction I've seen in years and I cannot wait for it to be Thursday again so I can see what incredible adventures, and stories await us. Until next time. 

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