‘The Orville’ Recap: ‘Identity, Part 1’

Written by John Edward Betancourt 

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There are a lot of important elements that go into creating a wonderful science fiction universe and one show that has in essence, nailed it on the head from the get-go is Fox’s The Orville. Because this particular series has not only provided us with colorful and meaningful characters and a magnificent setting for its story, but week in and week out, it’s had a wonderful message or analysis regarding the human condition to provide its audience with and really, if there’s any particular element that the series hasn’t tackled yet, it’s challenging its characters in ways they never knew they could be challenged.
 
Granted, they’ve faced their share of hardships and have been put in some tough situations over the past couple of years. But a powerful challenge, the kind that puts the crew of this intrepid ship to the test and really shows us what they are made of has in fact eluded everyone on this series, until last night that is. Because ‘Identity, Part 1’, more or less stunned us all with some incredible twists and turns that we didn’t see coming in the slightest and what made the challenges that now await Captain Mercer and his crew so stunning, was the sheer fact that at first glance, it seemed as though this episode was going to be about something incredibly different.
 
If anything, it seemed as though this particular tale was going to be about Isaac making one tough decision about where he belongs in the universe since he was a being in crisis early on in this episode. For the opening segment of the show saw Isaac simply ‘pass out’ and remain dormant out of the blue, prompting Ed to contact Admiralty to request permission to take the U.S.S. Orville to Kaylon 1 to see if Isaac’s people could in fact heal their shipmate and friend and well, the arrival on this planet is what set all kinds of surprises in motion. Because we quickly came to learn that the artificial beings of Kaylon shut Isaac down due to the fact that his mission was in essence complete and that they expected him to remain on Kaylon 1, which brought about the first surprise of the night since Isaac didn’t even take the time to ponder upon where he belonged, he knew he was home and made the call to stay with his people.

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Which meant, that it was time for the crew to say goodbye to another one of their own, and the crew said their farewells in classy and fun fashion. In fact, who knew that Scott Grimes had such a magnificent singing voice? Because I sure didn’t. However, I digress, since something about this entire departure felt quite amiss. In fact, Isaac himself was seemingly colder than usual as he made his way off of the ship, since he hurt and disrespected Dr. Finn and her family and well, things only got weirder from there. Because Mercer had the ship stick around in order to see if by chance Isaac’s return would help the Kaylon people make a decision on joining the Union and their hemming and hawing over such a decision was off in its own right since it should have been a simple yes or no.
 
But that’s where the big stunner of the night came into play. Because there was a reason that the Kaylon people were stalling for time, for they had dire plans for the Union and the universe. For Isaac’s real mission, was to see if every species in the galaxy were worth preserving and the Kaylon determined that co-existence with any sentient species was a bad idea and with this robotic species needing to expand its horizons, the time had come to deal with mankind and the other members of the Union in the same way the Kaylon handled their biological creators ages ago, with violence and genocide. And in a stunning turn of events, the Kaylon boarded the Orville and seized control of her and plotted a course for Earth, with their invasion fleet in tow…
 
So, yeah. Just like that, the narrative for this season changed, and the Kaylon have suddenly become this show’s equivalent of The Borg and well, this was just an incredible episode through and through. For there was no deeper meaning to be found here, just the heartbreak of seeing Isaac resolve himself to his robotic identity, and of course it introduced the grand threat of the end of all life in the galaxy and well…it’s up to Mercer and his crew to figure out how to overcome insurmountable odds to save billions of lives and I honestly cannot wait to see how this one ends. Because this is one hell of a setup and well, credit is due to writers Brannon Braga and André Bormanis for giving us a magnificent script, one that shocked us all and has us also wondering as to whether or not any of the best parts of Isaac were real, or if it was all part of his programming and I suppose the only way to know, is to wait for next week’s episode to see how this sheer madness wraps up. Until next time.  

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