The Orville season 2 finale theory: Could the villain actually be … Kelly?
Fox, unsurprisingly, is being really coy on the final episode of the season — neither the promo nor the synopsis for “The Road Not Taken” do much to actually inform you as to some of what’s coming in the story. They want you to be wide-eyed and have that element of surprise for an event we would like to call an unraveling.
Entering the finale, what we know is this: The world of The Orville may no longer be the same. The past iteration of Kelly Grayson returned to her own timeline, but judging from her decision to turn down a second date from Ed, the implication is that either her memory-wipe didn’t quite take or there’s something a little different about who she is now than who she was before. Maybe there’s something about the transition back that changed her psyche on a molecular level.
Either way, this brings us to some of the crazy: What if Kelly ends up being the villain at the heart of the season 2 finale?
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Think about things this way — much of this finale seems to be based on the fundamental concept that this one move for Kelly changes the entire future both for her and also for Ed. This version of Past Kelly, theoretically, has so much more at her disposal than the original Kelly ever did. Think about things in this sense — she knows where she ends up and while she may not have a cheat-sheet of every single move that got her to that point, she at least has a fundamental understanding. That knowledge, plus the knowledge that she attained aboard The Orville in terms of its technology and the modern state of space, puts her at a tactical advantage. Knowing where the Kaylon and some other species stand … it’s almost like knowing who’s going to win sporting events in advance.
The question now becomes how Past Kelly uses the information that she’s been granted. We know that she’s incredibly ambitious and hard-working. With that, we also know that she won’t have the influence of Ed, for better or worse, through the next several years of her life. The positive outcome here is that she manages to rise so much higher up the ranks than she did when she was married to Ed. However, the downside is that maybe something happens to her that makes her lose that ambition, or maybe she ends up becoming power-hungry and she starts to use some of her skills for evil rather than good.
We’ll be honest — we’ve long been a fan of watching the heroes become villains, and seeing actors we know playing someone one way suddenly turn on a dime. With that, seeing Kelly as some sort of villainous commander — or at least, a morally ambiguous one — has a certain degree of appeal. Through this storyline, we could get a sense that Ed and Kelly’s relationship, despite its missteps, did have some value. The other side of the coin is also what happens to Ed. Does he somehow turn bad without Kelly in his life, or does he even get as far?
Given the finale’s title, let’s look at the story possibilities as a series of roads. We’ve been on a very specific path with Ed and Kelly, and in changing their history, maybe you can send them on a path with a few different turns, one that leads them to a slightly different place with some subtle tweaks. Or, maybe these few different turns send them on a completely different direction, one where Kelly becomes a villain and Ed becomes utterly useless — or, something almost the opposite. Sometimes, choices in life impact you in ways you never expect.
Since The Orville has taken the time to really set up this story and send us on a new path, we hope they embrace it — and they deliver a finale that matches all of the expectations for greatness we’ve got in our head. One thing we’re sure of is that for Seth MacFarlane and Adrianne Palicki, playing whatever is next has to be a delight.
What do you think could be coming for The Orville in its season 2 finale, and could we see Kelly Grayson actually become a villain? Be sure to share right now in the comments! (Photo: Fox.)