S02.E01: Ja'loja

[shapeshifter]

Quote

As The Orville heads towards Moclus for Bortus' special once-a-year ceremony, Ed discovers Kelly has moved on and has started dating. Meanwhile, Gordon asks for John's help in getting game, and Claire turns to Isaac for parenting advice.

Airs Sunday, December 30, 2018

Here's hoping it's not as soapy as it sounds.

[chitowngirl]

Wasn’t this episode supposed to be the season one finale, but they decided to hold it for season 2?

[ketose]

Of all the characters, Isaac is starting to wear on me. He is literally the Deus Ex Machina of the show.

[legaleagle53]

On 12/28/2018 at 3:24 PM, chitowngirl said:

Wasn’t this episode supposed to be the season one finale, but they decided to hold it for season 2?

You're correct. This is technically the Season 1 finale, but it was decided to wait until Season 2 to air it.

[Chaos Theory]

Ok now I am shipping Claire and Isaac.  

Gordon is still my least favorite character.

I like the teacher guy so he is either going to be an interesting new character or evil.  I am down for both,

[Quickbeam]

Love the teacher. Cassius? Seth is just made of win in this. 

[ottoDbusdriver]

Yikes !!!  Did they lose some writers from last year ?   Because that was not so good.

Isaac was pretty good in his parenting duties, but the rest of the show seemed really awkward and lacking in the funny..
 

Edited December 31, 2018 by ottoDbusdriver

[marinw]

Welcome back show!

A rather mediocre episode, but I enjoyed seeing everyone again. I loved how seriously Bortus takes his yearly ritual.

Teachers still use letter grades in the 24th Century? I was hoping education will have evolved by then.

On a shallow note, I loved Kelly’s civilian wadrobe

14 minutes ago, Chaos Theory said:

Ok now I am shipping Claire and Isaac.  

Isaac is "Fully Functional"

Edited December 31, 2018 by marinw

[shapeshifter]

4 minutes ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Yikes !!!  Did they lose some writers from last year ?   Because that was not so good.

Isaac was pretty good in his parenting duties, but the rest of the show seemed really awkward and lacking in the funny..
 

I may not be twelve, but I've carried three babies for a week over term each and had 20 hours of labor for each, so I LOLed at the urination jokes.

[Bort]

I really liked Alara in this. I was apprehensive through most of the episode that she and Ed would end up commiserating over their crappy love lives and was relieved that the new girl seems to be ear marked for him instead. For now. Because I totally noticed that Kelly avoided answering the question the THREE times Ed asked if she still loved him.

[legaleagle53]

8 minutes ago, marinw said:

Welcome back show!

A rather mediocre episode, but I enjoyed seeing everyone again. I loved how seriously Bortus takes his yearly ritual.

Teaches still use letter grades in the 24th Century? I was hoping education would have evolved by then.

On a shallow note, I loved Kelly’s civilian wardrobe

Isaac is "Fully Functional"

It's the 25th Century. The show is set in 2419.

[Joimiaroxeu]

Has Seth done something to his face? His eyes looked different to me.

Always go with one more zipper than you're comfortable with.

Glad this show is back. It's a lighter alternative to ST: Discovery though I think Seth said in an interview that this season would be more serious. It's got a ways to go though before it reaches Discovery's level of darkness.

[marinw]

10 minutes ago, legaleagle53 said:

It's the 25th Century. The show is set in 2419.

I stand Corrected!  

[SmithW6079]

Even though I expected it was going to happen, I still laughed out loud at the sight of Ed in the shuttle doing a drive-by of Kelly's quarters. I also liked that Kelly's new boyfriend was so understanding of Ed's behavior. But when did she have time to start dating (especially if this is the real season 1 finale)? Did she decide (with Ed) that they shouldn't get back together then immediately hook up with the teacher? 

[The Kings Foot]

48 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I really liked Alara in this. I was apprehensive through most of the episode that she and Ed would end up commiserating over their crappy love lives and was relieved that the new girl seems to be ear marked for him instead. For now. Because I totally noticed that Kelly avoided answering the question the THREE times Ed asked if she still loved him.

I was also relieved that would just be cringe and cliche . Though they did give us a bit of a head fake. 

 

Loved Isaac, though I'm wondering he and the doctor can actually go anywhere.

 

Bartender is my new favorite side character. 

[ganesh]

Dark matter cartographer sounds like quite the job. 

I thought that Ed and Kelly had ended their relationship for good so I'm kind of over that kind of drama. I don't recall him pining for her last season. 

I actually like the characters, so I didn't mind them just kind of rambling around for an episode once and a while. I can see why it was chosen to kick off the second season because everyone was included in the episode and they kind of fleshed out the scope of the ship. 

The story about dating the woman with two heads killed me though, and Bortus 'ordering the guy to mate' with Alara was funny. 

I did like the whole parenting plot. You don't really see that on this kind of show. A parent teacher conference. 

How many people are on this ship? If they have a school, and Kelly is talking about dating someone Ed might not know, but Ed is saying it's a small ship. 

Cassius was doing ok with Kelly there until he busted out the 'calm down.' Her reaction was spot on.

Edited December 31, 2018 by ganesh

[ganesh]

1 hour ago, ottoDbusdriver said:

Isaac was pretty good in his parenting duties, but the rest of the show seemed really awkward and lacking in the funny..

I don't need the show to be funny per se. There's a lot of comedy in just the characters themselves and playing some of the ridiculousness straight up, like level 10 is she's married and has a gun, or Isaac answering 'no' when Claire asked if she was a good parent. 

Wow Alara looked cute on her 'date'. 

I didn't know they had phones where you can text. 

Cassius' and Ed's conversation was good. And he held back on the 'calm down' at the conference. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by ganesh

[ottoDbusdriver]

1 hour ago, shapeshifter said:

I may not be twelve, but I've carried three babies for a week over term each and had 20 hours of labor for each, so I LOLed at the urination jokes.

Those parts were decent, but the stuff with Gordon just dragged on.  And Ed and Kelly's conversation in his office went on way too long too.
 

8 minutes ago, ganesh said:

How many people are on this ship? If they have a school, and Kelly is talking about dating someone Ed might not know. 

Let alone that all those kids in Cassius' class were in the same/similar grade, but yet somehow there was another class that James could transfer to -- how many kids are on this ship ?

If there's a Cassius, there may be a Brutus nearby -- and Ed should watch out, particularly around the middle of certain months. :)

2 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I don't need the show to be funny per se. There's a lot of comedy in just the characters themselves and playing some of the ridiculousness straight up, like level 10 is she's married and has a gun, or Isaac answering 'no' when Claire asked if she was a good parent. 

Wow Alara looked cute on her 'date'. 

Compared to last season, I just found the writing to be off in this episode YMMV.

Alara cleans up nice, but dating must be slightly hellish for her, since she is super strong she could accidentally break things on any date.

[ganesh]

I'm fascinated as to why Jason Alexander is the bartender. 

[phalange]

I really like Isaac and Claire's friendship and his friendship with Ty and Marcus. Glad he proved that it was the other kid who hacked the system; that kid's parents were in serious denial.

Bortus and Klyden's kid Topa seems to have aged quite a bit, even though in Orville time it's probably been less than a year since he was born. Moclans clearly grow much faster than humans.

Kelly's new boyfriend seems like a nice guy (minus the stupidity of telling her to calm down), though she obviously still loves Ed too since she avoided answering that question several times. It was good of Ed to talk to Cassius and try to help him out a little. Even if he did have to go bang his head against the wall after. 

I have a lot of questions about how John dated an alien with two heads who didn't know he was dating both of them.

Gordon had no luck with the cartographer. Maybe he needs a few more zippers.

[Yeah No]

I spent the first 5 minutes laughing, so I generally liked this episode.  It really looked like the show was teasing us at the end with Bortus, like any minute we were going to hear "thar she blows" or something like that.

I can't imagine that this would have worked as the season 1 finale so I understand why they kept it for now.  Although it did look to me like the actress that plays Kelly had a makeover or something since I saw her last.  Her uniform is also fitting her more loosely, although I don't think she's lost any weight.  I took a look at her in an episode from last season and her appearance is noticeably different.  I can't put my finger on it but it looks like her hair and makeup have changed somewhat.  Her hair is longer now too.

It's really good to have the show back, cheesy jokes and all.  It seems like we had to wait forever for this season.

[ganesh]

3 minutes ago, phalange said:

I really like Isaac and Claire's friendship and his friendship with Ty and Marcus. Glad he proved that it was the other kid who hacked the system; that kid's parents were in serious denial.

To be fair, he hacked his grades, so the parents had false information too. 

6 minutes ago, Yeah No said:

 It really looked like the show was teasing us at the end with Bortus, like any minute we were going to hear "thar she blows" or something like that.

I actually thought he was going to say "I can't go with all you looking at me."

[Bort]

14 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I'm fascinated as to why Jason Alexander is the bartender. 

Oh right, I saw Alexander’s name in the credits but then forgot about him as the episode progressed.

 

12 minutes ago, phalange said:

I have a lot of questions about how John dated an alien with two heads who didn't know he was dating both of them.

I was wondering that too. Maybe only one head is awake at a time?

[shapeshifter]

22 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I'm fascinated as to why Jason Alexander is the bartender. 

So that's who the bartender was! IMDb didn't have it populated yet when I looked. I knew I recognized his voice and suave delivery from somewhere.

 

 

22 minutes ago, phalange said:

I have a lot of questions about how John dated an alien with two heads who didn't know he was dating both of them.

Because he could. This is classic frat-boy John.

[SmithW6079]

49 minutes ago, ganesh said:

I'm fascinated as to why Jason Alexander is the bartender. 

He's an actor and it's a gig? He's been in a couple of episodes of "Young Sheldon" recently too.

I thought Ed's advice to Cassius was sexist. Cassius is under no obligation to appear "dumb" so Kelly can feel superior because she's not mature enough to accept his nonchalant response to Ed's drive-by. If Cassius had gotten angry, she would have accused him of overreacting.

She needs to grow up or maybe not be in a relationship with a self-confident, secure man. Maybe Ed was immature in their relationship because she treated him like a child.

[paulvdb]

On 28-12-2018 at 11:24 PM, chitowngirl said:

Wasn’t this episode supposed to be the season one finale, but they decided to hold it for season 2?

The show's listings on thefutoncritic.com list this episode with production code 201. Thursday's episode Primal Urges is listed with production code 112 so it would appear that that is the episode that was left over from season 1 and this is a new episode that was filmed for season 2.

[Yeah No]

1 hour ago, ganesh said:

To be fair, he hacked his grades, so the parents had false information too. 

I would think that a kid that can hack grades could have hacked tests too and have fooled his teachers into giving him better grades.  If he did that he may not have been so easily found out.

8 minutes ago, paulvdb said:

The show's listings on thefutoncritic.com list this episode with production code 201. Thursday's episode Primal Urges is listed with production code 112 so it would appear that that is the episode that was left over from season 1 and this is a new episode that was filmed for season 2.

That explains for me why Kelly looks different, thanks.  I knew there had to be some time between last season and this episode.

[Raja]

25 minutes ago, paulvdb said:

The show's listings on thefutoncritic.com list this episode with production code 201. Thursday's episode Primal Urges is listed with production code 112 so it would appear that that is the episode that was left over from season 1 and this is a new episode that was filmed for season 2.

Maybe they didn't want to go out on a weak episode? But promotional Sunday night after football  is not going to get any NFL fans to stay with this after Thursday Night football aired has their last game.

[Dobian]

Great the show is back.  I was thinking about last season before this premiere, and really the Orville worked best when it leaned toward the light comedy and took itself less seriously, which this episode did.  So I liked it.  Ed doing the drive by was hilarious, the Journey reference, Gordon doing the pick-up simulation, Claire and the obnoxious parents, Dann with his poem to Alara (who is cute as ever).  And a cultural ceremony about pissing.  It was all good.  I'm sure they'll have meatier episodes on the way, but this set a good tone.

[Yeah No]

2 hours ago, ganesh said:

I'm fascinated as to why Jason Alexander is the bartender. 

Jason Alexander was also in an episode of "Star Trek Voyager" 20 years ago.  He's appeared in single episodes of a lot of TV series over the years.

[HunterHunted]

4 hours ago, Yeah No said:

Jason Alexander was also in an episode of "Star Trek Voyager" 20 years ago.  He's appeared in single episodes of a lot of TV series over the years.

Alexander is a Trekker and tweeted that he was a fan of the Orville.

https://mobile.twitter.com/ijasonalexander/status/915994339897200640

http://www.startrek.com/article/jason-alexander-reveals-his-trek-love

Or the reason Christian Slater showed up as an officer who woke Sulu up on the Excelsior in the Undiscovered Country. He was a fan and his mom was the casting director.

[marinw]

7 hours ago, ganesh said:

And he held back on the 'calm down' at the conference. 

Good call. Many women find being told to 'calm down' Infuriating and patronizing.

[SmithW6079]

2 hours ago, marinw said:

Good call. Many women find being told to 'calm down' Infuriating and patronizing.

Maybe women should control their emotions so two people can have a rational discussion.

[Ottis]

Never have I cared less about any of the plots and yet enjoyed seeing a show back on the air. 

They should have held this episode for Valentine’s Day. At least then it would have made sense why we were seeing 4-5 plots about personal relationships on a show about exploring the universe. 

I’ll give them a pass for copying a real ST plot because the fact they made it about urinating was authentic Orville. 

[marinw]

45 minutes ago, Ottis said:

I’ll give them a pass for copying a real ST plot because the fact they made it about urinating was authentic Orville.

I was reminded of Spock's Pon Farr, but with lower stakes,

If a Moclan can't make it home in time, where else could he go? Going home to pee is nice, but is it more a culteral requirement than a medical one?

Edited December 31, 2018 by marinw

[Raja]

15 minutes ago, marinw said:

I was reminded of Spock's Pon Farr, but with lower states,

If a Moclan can't make it home in time, where else could he go? Going home to pee is nice, but is it more a culteral requirement than a medical one?

I took it more of a cultural ceremony more in line with a birthday party than a salmon driven back to the river to spawn.

[Bort]

1 minute ago, Raja said:

I took it more of a cultural ceremony more in line with a birthday party than a salmon driven back to the river to spawn.

I think it's more important than that, because I can't see anybody approving someone's request to take the entire ship to go home for a birthday party.

[Raja]

8 minutes ago, kariyaki said:

I think it's more important than that, because I can't see anybody approving someone's request to take the entire ship to go home for a birthday party.

Re-routeing the ship to a short detour wasn't that much of a thing when we opened with the Orville basically drifting in space waiting for something to do. I would guess that most years up to now that Lt Commander Brotus took vacation leave but this year he invited his new crew to be among the family observers

Edited December 31, 2018 by Raja

[Dobian]

Bortus' request was pretty contrived though.  Wouldn't he have sort of known it was coming up (Hey my bladder's getting pretty full here!) and requested the time off as opposed to just springing it on the captain?  But they wanted an excuse to send the whole ship there I guess.

[vibeology]

2 hours ago, SmithW6079 said:

Maybe women should control their emotions so two people can have a rational discussion.

This is insulting but it also misses the point of the scene completely. Kelly wasn't looking to have a discussion. She wanted to express herself emotionally to her romantic partner and receive support from him. She didn't want to have a discussion about Ed's drive by and she didn't want someone to fix how she was feeling. She just wanted to release those emotions in a safe place to a safe person and Cassius was way too focused on solving the "problem" and seeing both sides rather than just listening and being there for his girlfriend.

Her boss/ex refused to respect her privacy. She was upset. Why should she have to control that in private with her boyfriend?

[Chicago Redshirt]

My least favorite thing about the Orville is the Ed-Kelly will-they-won't-they dance. In large part, because they write for it inconsistently, superficially and/or by making Ed a whiny, entitled manchild and Kelly a shrew. Such was the case here. If Ed wants to make a go of dating Kelly, he has a lot of issues to work through first. And it would be good for Kelly to not beat around the bush and avoid saying that either she does or doesn't love Ed romantically, or to point out that they were often miserable together. Indeed, in the zoo episode, they couldn't stand each other after just a few hours together. I know that the drive-by is supposed to be for laughs, but playing stalker is not funny. Getting upset with someone for being not upset is a thing that happens, but it's not a good look from Kelly. Finally, I don't want Ed to be Cyrano for Cassius. It seems like Kelly should have recognized Ed's handiwork in suggesting Journey.

Here's hoping the show picks up.

[Cobb Salad]

@Chicago Redshirt I agree completely re: Kelly and Ed. They must work together given their roles on the ship so they can’t avoid each other.  I want the show to work this out so we don’t need to have it used as a continued source of conflict / plot device.  I hope the show finds something else.  

I did like the plot about Claire’s problems with her son and saw the outcome coming (it was James who was the problem) but I hope the relationship between her and Isaac does not evolve into more than what it is now.  

[ganesh]

3 hours ago, kariyaki said:

I think it's more important than that, because I can't see anybody approving someone's request to take the entire ship to go home for a birthday party.

One thing I'm interested in, and I have to credit Seth et al. for doing a good job of world building because I have lots of questions, what are the other captains like? Would they have diverted the ship as well? Ed didn't hesitate and even called a command staff meeting in support of Bortus. That doesn't surprise me, but I'm wondering what other ships are like. 

We also know that the Orville is an 'exploratory ship' (the carto said it tonight) but not what that really means. I mean, they were floating around with literally nothing to do.

 

1 hour ago, Chicago Redshirt said:

I know that the drive-by is supposed to be for laughs, but playing stalker is not funny.

I honestly thought it was a mistake and not by design. Like, Ed wanted to go out for a drive, and didn't realize he was flying by Kelly's room. I mean, he couldn't have known that she and Cassie were going to be making out in the living room window at that particular moment. Or maybe he wasn't planning on it and subconsciously made his way over there. He should have owned up to it and just apologized though. 

It seemed to me that Ed and Kelly was resolved fairly clear last season, so I don't know where this is all coming from. Actually, it would have been better if this were Kelly's first dating experience since they split, and you really have the same plot. 

[Bort]

11 minutes ago, ganesh said:

One thing I'm interested in, and I have to credit Seth et al. for doing a good job of world building because I have lots of questions, what are the other captains like? Would they have diverted the ship as well? Ed didn't hesitate and even called a command staff meeting in support of Bortus. That doesn't surprise me, but I'm wondering what other ships are like. 

Ed said something about asking permission to divert the ship, which means he ran it up the chain of command and they approved it. So it's not just that Ed was supporting it, but the admirals in charge of the fleet also were.

[Jacks-Son]

Damn,  Claire is either the love object of a slug engineer,  Yaphit, or she's a shipping half of an "Artificial Life Form" couple.  Sucks.   I was actually happy the new Cartographer might end up with Ed and not Gordon.  I'm not a fan of Gordon,  as I believe everything is a joke to him (except noctornal leg amputations - which I found hilarious BTW)  I thought Seth had finally decided to just incorporate his RL relationship with Halston Sage into the show and have them be together.  They may still go there,  however,  there is real concern on my part that Alara will no longer be part of the show and I like her character. 

Calling someone's mother a PITA, is fighting words,  and James earned himself a smack in the mouth from Marcus.  Kelly dating Cassius is fine because she's right,  their relationship can't work while she's his XO.  If they want to continue the relationship,  someone should step down.

Seth making an entire episode based on a throw-a-way line about Moclan's urinating once a year (how does THAT work??) is brilliant comedy material.

Welcome back show!  Now,  the wait for ST: D begins. 

Edited December 31, 2018 by Jacks-Son
Included Yaphit's name.

[shapeshifter]

2 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

Kelly dating Cassius is fine because she's right,  their relationship can't work while she's his XO.  If they want to continue the relationship,  someone should step down.

True. But last season it was revealed (IIRC) that Kelly had pulled strings to get Ed the CO position to her XO position, right?

[ganesh]

2 hours ago, kariyaki said:

Ed said something about asking permission to divert the ship, which means he ran it up the chain of command and they approved it. So it's not just that Ed was supporting it, but the admirals in charge of the fleet also were.

That's even more interesting. I missed that. Maybe the Union is trying to be inclusive and culturally sensitive then. Which means it's not like an empire or something. 

2 hours ago, Jacks-Son said:

Calling someone's mother a PITA, is fighting words,  and James earned himself a smack in the mouth from Marcus.

What bothered me was that the parents denied he even said it. When I was a kid, if someone else's parents came over to talk to mine about something bad I did, there wasn't any skepticism, it was game over for me. 

[Jacks-Son]

3 minutes ago, shapeshifter said:

True. But last season it was revealed (IIRC) that Kelly had pulled strings to get Ed the CO position to her XO position, right?

I don't think that's how it transpired.  Kelly's dad was friends of the Admiral's and Kelly used that friendship to put in a good word for Ed.  The Orville was a ship without a Captain, a pilot,  and an XO.  Ed was given the Captaincy,  he chose Gordon as his pilot,  While the ship was waiting for an XO to be assigned.  Kelly was assigned to the Orville based on her working relationship to Ed.  Kelly was assigned AFTER Ed got the Orville and neither had anything to do with that assignment. 

[Bort]

3 minutes ago, ganesh said:

What bothered me was that the parents denied he even said it. When I was a kid, if someone else's parents came over to talk to mine about something bad I did, there wasn't any skepticism, it was game over for me. 

No kidding. It's one thing if it's one kid's word against the other, but Claire was telling them that their kid called her a name TO HER FACE and they didn't believe her. Those are some sucky parents. Not to mention condescending, with all that "we know being a single mother is difficult..."

[thuganomics85]

At long last, the return of The Orville a.k.a. "Seth MacFarlane's Surprisingly Better Than Expected Homage to Star Trek: The Next Generation!"

The episode was fine for the most part, but I'm just bored with the drama between Ed and Kelly.  It just makes both of them come off immature and wishy-washy, and reminds me how awful they are together.  Even though Kelly was in the right this go around, it just hard to really care since she's played her own parts into causing all of this romantic turmoil, but she seems to get treated with kid gloves over it, compared to Ed.  I just want them both to move on.  At least Cassius seems like a nice guy and will hopefully learn to not always try to find the right, logical solution, but simply just listen to his girlfriend and be there for her.

Love that the Moclans peeing once a year has actually been turned into some kind of ceremony.  I could actually see that happening in real life (well, if there is an alien race out that only uses the bathroom once!)  Still felt kind of Bortus-lite despite the storyline, but he's still awesome.

Speaking of awesome, Claire and Isaac are the best.  I'm glad that it seems like the show realized how well they worked together last season.  The stuff with her kids were fun.  Both of the actors playing the other kids parents were both people I've seen in various small roles in various shows, so that was cool too.

Halston Sage's reaction in all of the Alara/Dann scenes were great.  And she was rocking that dining dress too.

Totally recognized Jason Alexander's voice underneath all those prosthetics!

I didn't see her name in the credits, but that was Michaela McManus as the new crew member, right?