Last episode of the Orville was an inevitability. From the time Bortus lost his case to keep his child a girl, I knew that this episode had to happen. Since season 1’s “About A Girl”, we’ve had 1 other look at this part of Moclan culture in season 2’s “Deflectors”, which clearly showed that nothing had changed on Moclas since season 1. Coupled with their “divorce by murder” custom, this mutilation of female children represented a drastic difference from the values shared by the Union, and so, as I said in my first line, this episode was inevitable.



This review will not be a blow-by-blow recap of the episode, but rather, a breakdown of what made the episode tick.

The Setup

The episode doesn’t waste any time on the setup. Topa’s disdain for females is used to bring that aspect of Moclan culture back to the forefront, and provides a way for new viewers to understand what has gone before without recaps. Special shout out here to Marina Sirtis, who played Dianna Troi in TNG and did a fantastic job here as Topa’s teacher.



Marina Sirtis did a fantastic job as Topa’s teacher.

The Moclan parents board the ship and their plot to conceal the infant is quickly uncovered. As quickly as it was uncovered, Bortus is compelled to conceal it and they leave the ship. Bortus is quickly exposed and the captain hunts down the ship only to discover a planet full of female Moclans hidden in a nebula. These events unfold at a reasonable pace and this setup is in no way stretched out.

I must also plug in here that the nebula entrance scene was superb with great visuals and created a great location for the conflict of the episode, bit more on that later.

the nebula entrance scene was superb with great visuals.

The Premise

At its core, this episode was a classic TNG diplomacy crisis. Heveena making her case to The Union with Ed’s support, and the opposing case of the Moclans is the core of this episode. This is always risky to do on television but it works well for a couple of reasons;

Jonathan Frakes directed these scenes really well. It was just people in a chamber talking but the camera never stagnates and the shots are well setup to keep it visually interesting even thought there really is nothing much happening beyond speech. There were also enough interesting aliens in the chamber to keep your eyes busy but more on that later. The arguments are well put together for both sides. Up to the time of this review there are still many people online debating which side was “correct”. That is always a sign of social commentary done well; when both sides are so well articulated that you can relate to both. Rena Owen’s Heveena and Tony Todd’s Moclan character did a fantastic job in their deliveries in the chamber, as did Victor Garber’s Admiral Halsey. Their performances made the scenes and the argument much more compelling.



Rena Owen



Tony Todd

World Building

This episode does a lot of world building. It proves that The Orville has become its own property with its own canon. Seeing Union Central was nice but also the many different alien species that make up The Planetary Union. Many of these aliens were cool callbacks to previous episodes.

We also got further insight into the politics of The Union, and confirmed the fact that the Moclans are the primary source of weapons in The Union. We got this notion in the episode “Deflectors” when the Moclans provided the deflector upgrades and showed off their engineering prowess.

It was also nice to incorporate Heveena so heavily into the story after not seeing her since season 1. It’s always nice to see The Orville immerse us into the rich universe they’ve built.

The Conflict

This episode also featured a physical conflict, which was unnecessary to the core premise but still welcome in a story full of dialogue. This conflict was also an interesting diplomatic issue because while the Moclans acted outside of The Union’s mandate, The Orville fired on them first. Sure, it fired to disable a tractor beam but engaging a tractor beam doesn’t quite signal war like firing a weapon does. The ladies had some bold decisions to make as Kelly decides to defend the Moclan women and Talla decides to engage the Moclan ship.

The ladies had some bold decisions to make

As stated, these are career-ending moves and I believe these decisions will come back to bite later. Bortus also made a bold decision to fight against his people, no doubt foreshadowing touch decisions to come.

The Feel

On the subject of this conflict though, I must say that I never thought I would see a laser battle / space fight set to a Dolly Parton song. More importantly, I never thought I would enjoy it so much! As much as The Orville feels like 90’s Star Trek, it has definitely found its own tone and feel, and it works well. When Heveena first discovered the song, it was funny to watch, but when it stated playing in the fight, there was no denying that I was watching The Orville and I was smiling throughout.

I never thought I would see a laser battle / space fight set to a Dolly Parton song.

So we had a serious episode with some serious subject matter and some serious arguments, but they were still able to inject that Orville fun into the episode without breaking it and that’s something special for me.

The Outcome

I have to say I loved the outcome of this episode. The solution reached was one of true diplomacy and was really the best compromise under the circumstances. The situation was not black and white and that’s what made the commentary so compelling. We might not like politics but there’s no escaping it, and sometimes you have to make compromises for the greater good. The Union needs the Moclans right now, it needs their weapons, but it also has to be mindful of the ideals upon which it was founded, and there is no clean fairy tale answer at the moment.

The situation was not black and white and that’s what made the commentary so compelling.

Yes, there are things I didn’t necessarily like, (Klyden’s character is portrayed in an increasingly unlikable way to the point that he is almost becoming a plot device) but ultimately, this episode did what good Star Trek used to do; open dialogue. People are talking and having debates over the issues presented in this episode and we probably will be here on this site for a while as well. That’s what social commentary should do, it should spark debate without forcing a particular point-of-view down your throat and I think this episode succeeded in doing just that. Another excellent showing from The Orville.