Tanitha's Cosmic Musings

As if “About A Girl”, “A Tale of Two Topas” and “Midnight Blue” were not enough (who does not love Dolly Parton?), The Orville continues with this week’s episode: “Domino”. This is a bittersweet episode. But I am getting ahead of myself. Please do not read if you have not seen the episode or The Orville as there will be a lot of spoilers for the series and the episode.

The Planetary Union has a new weapon to fight the Kaylon. A weapon so destructive that can wipe out all the Kaylon. But the Union wants to use it as a deterrent instead of destroying a civilization and committing genocide. The Orville along with Admiral Halsey travel to the Kaylon homeworld and achieve an understanding.

Rather the Kaylon do not have an alternative. It is either stand down and make a peace treaty or be wiped out at this point. And they do say that they will find a weak spot and disable the weapon. At this point I am thinking, this is a Kaylon episode and we will see more Kaylon vs Union. I couldn’t be more wrong on this.

And so we go to the theft of the weapon from Union Central. By Admiral Perry nonetheless, as he had made his feelings clear about the Kaylon. And he hands the weapon to the Krill who have an agreement with the Moclans. The Moclans went to the Krill with a proposal, and although they wanted to be in charge, Teleya puts them in their place and told them that they would either accept a partnership or no deal. The Moclans accept.

The Orville finds out about what has happened and traces the weapon to a Moclan facility which is heavily defended by Moclan and Krill ships. Captain Mercer contacts the Kaylon and together they go to get the weapon.

The ensuing battle had a lot of Star Wars moments for me. At some points in the battle, I was waiting to hear “Stay on target”! This was one of the best battles ever. This is up there with the battle of Yavin from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and the battle at Wolf 359 in “Best of Both Worlds” episode of Star Trek The Next Generation (episodes 3.26 & 4.1).

And this is where it gets bittersweet. Because it is neither the battle nor the loss of life that changes the Kaylon minds about “biologicals”. It is the act of self-sacrifice by Charly. A team from the Orville with Kaylon Prime, Kelly, Burke, Talla, and Isaac go to the surface to get the weapon. But the weapon has started the activation cycle and cannot be stopped in time. So, Charly wants to overload the weapon and destroy it. Problem is that whoever stays behind to overload the weapon will die. Charly sacrifices herself to save the Kaylon. It is this act of self-sacrifice, the ultimate act of a human heart. Of someone who, despite her hatred for the Kaylon, she still remained true to her principles. RIP Charly Burke.

Every episode of The Orville is a masterpiece. Every episode of The Orville has something to say. Every episode of The Orville is great television. And I will miss The Orville when this season ends next week.