'The Orville' Recap: 'Firestorm'

Written by John Edward Betancourt

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

At some point along the line, we all come to realize that loss and grief are simply a part of the fabric that makes up our everyday lives and unfortunately coming to understand that fact, doesn’t make the moment when loss arrives any easier. Because when it happens, it takes us by complete and utter surprise and really, when it comes to this tough segment of our lives there is no proper way to deal with it, so we handle it the best way we know how.
 
For some, that involves owning their pain the instant it arrives and facing it head on and those are often times the people that bounce back from it quickly. While others out there, find themselves lost when it hits and their grief consumes them to the point where it may take them years to recover from it. Neither approach is right or wrong, because what matters most is the journey and what we learn about ourselves as we confront our pain and surprisingly, the long road back from grief was the focus of last night’s episode of The Orville, ‘Firestorm’.
 
Because last night, the crew of the Orville lost one of their own while trying to traverse a plasma storm and well, the death of Lieutenant Harrison Payne was one that deeply affected Alara since she firmly believed that her moment of hesitation is why the man died and that’s really where the boldness of this episode begins, since the series once again shed the rose colored glasses that are often used when telling utopian science fiction stories by reminding us that space is a dangerous place and that every life matters by showing us the crew’s reaction to their fallen shipmate by way of a sobering memorial that felt incredibly genuine.  

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But the true power of Lieutenant Payne’s untimely death was explored by way of Alara and the fact that his passing completely shattered her to the point where she was ready to leave the Union altogether, something that the Captain would not allow, forcing her to take a unique route to heal her aching heart by subjecting herself to a simulation filled with fear and worst-case scenarios and this part of the episode was downright fascinating. Because you rarely see horror and sci-fi mix in stories such as this, but anyone who fears spiders and clowns likely shared in the crew’s terror because there they were, in all their horrific glory.
 
Yet while that little genre mashup was fascinating in its own right, the fact that Alara was willing to face her fears and her pain and overcome both of them at the same time was a wonderful twist to the story and honestly, serious credit needs to be given to Halston Sage, the actor who portrays Alara, because her incredible performance in this tale is what sold every single moment. You felt her pain, you shared in her fear and most importantly, you felt the same sense of satisfaction that she did at the end of the episode when the Lieutenant realized that she had in fact, found her way back from the abyss she was slipping into.
 
If anything, this particular episode of The Orville took my breath away because let’s be honest, we so rarely see science fiction shows in this particular vein take the time to explore death much less how it impacts the crew and quite frankly this was a stroke of genius. It just goes to show that the true focus and core of this series will always be about the day to day experiences of the crew of this intrepid vessel and maybe it’s the fact that I’ve dealt with loss myself this year, or the honest feel that came with this episode, but something about this one touched me on a deeply personal level. Either way, this show is simply incredible, and it continues to be bold and unique and this episode, is going to stay with me for quite some time…

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