The Orville season 2 finale review: Back to the future; Alara returns!

At the start of tonight’s The Orville season 2 finale, it was pretty clear that everything was different. Because of the decision that Kelly made at the end of the penultimate episode, we were in a position where she and Ed never had anything beyond a first date. As a result of that, there was no Orville crew as we knew them. Everyone was a little bit more disparate, but somehow still managed to come together in the face of great opposition — think in terms of the Kaylon.

Basically, tonight there were three different goals — trying to recover the Orville from the bottom of this ocean, keeping the Kaylon at bay, and then seeing if there was a way for everyone to get back to the timeline and the world that they once knew. That wasn’t altogether easy, given the fact that Kelly was the only one with the memory of what the timeline was before all of this happened.

Was all of this effective? That really depends on what you were hoping to get from this episode. For us, we found it entertaining just because of the creativity that came with seeing these characters in this alternate dimension. Yet, there’s also a case to be made that much of the finale should have revolved around getting a chance to see the characters back on The Orville, moving forward in their own world. On this timeline, Moclus was destroyed and, apparently, Alara had a position that wasn’t with her home planet. (While Halston Sage is gone from the main cast, it was cool to see her in a brief cameo.)

For more discussion on all things The Orville, now in video form – Be sure to check that out below! For some other insight, subscribe to CarterMatt on YouTube and be sure to also view our official series playlist.

When the crew of the Orville tonight finally got their ship, they put themselves in the position where they then had to encourage Ed to get back into his position as Captain — even if this version of the guy had no real experience doing it. He and Kelly were still able to figure that out and because of that, they could continue the next phase of their quest. Go ahead and cross that off as a victory!

From there, the next order of business was trying to locate Isaac. If they can do that, they can find a way to then get the information they need to finish the job … and get back to their old timeline. There were SO many components here that needed to be perfect — the information had to be extracted in JUST enough time so that they could achieve their goal before the Kaylon found them. Because activating Isaac sent off a beacon, they didn’t exactly have a lot of time in order to do that.

The ship exploded, and for a split second, we didn’t know what the result on the other side of it was going to be. Then, we saw Younger Kelly wake up and, seconds after getting her coffee, Dr. Finn transported there to her. She was able to arrive there and actually wipe her memory so that she didn’t make any different decisions. Because of that, the timeline could be returned to what it was supposed to be.

The state of Ed and Kelly

Before the team got back to their old timeline, the two kissed and realized that they loved each other — beyond that, Ed even proposed! None of this really mattered, since in the reset timeline, everything is back to how it was.

CarterMatt Verdict

Tonight’s The Orville was a celebration of a lot of what the show does best — fantastic, imaginative storytelling, and also great performances that won’t get the credit that they deserve. This was a fun way to close out the season, even if the obvious downside is we really learned nothing about events in the present.

Want to see more of our take on The Orville and its season 3 odds?

Then be sure to head over to the link here!

What did you think about tonight’s The Orville season 2 finale? Be sure to share some of your thoughts now in the comments. (Photo: Fox.)