Justin Hartline
Summary
Keeping in the spirit of Valentine’s Day, this episode focused on romantic plots aboard the ship, making it the second one in a row to deal with love as a major plot point. This is also the first episode to focus on Talla as a character since her introduction. The main plot revolves around a Moclan named Lokar, a brilliant engineer, who comes aboard the Orville from Moclus to upgrade their shields. It turns out that Lokar used to date Bortus, something which he refuses to discuss. Bortus winds up leaving Talla to serve as Lokar’s escort on ship because he needs someone with clearance to perform the update.
While out in public Lokar is somewhat cold to Talla, though that can be difficult to tell given a Moclan’s aloof nature. Later in private, he admits that he is attracted to her. This confuses Talla because Moclans are all male. It turns out that, while uncommon, some Moclans are attracted to women, something which is considered a crime on Moclus. If anyone back home found out about his heterosexuality, Lokar would be stripped of his position and thrown in prison. Talla agrees to see him in secret and takes him on a date in the simulator. However word gets out, and disaster ensues.
Analysis
I’m a bit upset that Cassius seems to be leaving the show, following his break up with Commander Greyson. I thought that his job as a teacher aboard the ship made for an interesting contrast with the other characters that are all officers of the Planetary Union and his viewpoint provided a slice of what civilian life is like in this world, which I think was a good thing to have. The only other major civilian on the show is Klyden, whose closed nature and alien point of view make for a distorted lens into family life on the ship.
On a side note, as a scientist, I’d also love to know how Moclan reproduction works. Moclans lay eggs which implies female, but they insist that they are male. Being a single sex species might imply asexual reproduction, but Bortus tells Topa that eggs come out of relationships. Sex and finding a partner also seem just as important to Moclan culture as in humans. There are females, but it’s unclear if they are unneeded for reproduction, what their purpose is evolutionarily and Moclan culture would rather hide women then find a place for them in society.
Really, I should hate this episode for three major reasons. First, is focuses primarily on the Moclans (the third one this season alone). Second is that the episode again casts Bortus’s mate, Klyden as the villain, which is becoming somewhat of a trope of episodes in which he appears. Third, the episode stars the new xelayan security chief Talla, who I’ve thus far had mixed feelings about. I actually lost some respect for Captain Mercer in this episode. I understand that he has to walk a fine line between his human morality and maintaining the alliance between the Planetary Union and Moclans, but he should have stood up more for Talla when the Moclan delegation (who was way out of line) accused her of lying about her relationship with Lokar and for seducing him in the first place.
The highlight of the episode was definitely the interactions between Bortus and Talla. Their first encounter is charged with emotion as Bortus sides with his people against Talla. Both went too far in their argument, with Bortus calling Talla a “selfish fool” for seducing Lokar and Talla saying that Bortus should be more “evolved” because of what happened to his daughter in a previous episode. I especially liked their second conversation, during which Talla apologizes for going over the line and Bortus admits that he knew about Lokar’s heterosexuality and helped him cover it up. I hope the two have developed some kind of friendship, especially because Bortus doesn’t seem to be especially close with any of the other members of the crew.
He really needs someone to talk to as his relationship with Klyden continues to sour. There actually seems to be a bit of friction developing between Bortus and the rest of his kind. He protected Lokar long before the crew helped him to decide against his daughter’s sex change. I wonder where Bortus will be left if conflict breaks out between his people and his crew. Klyden seems unrepentant, but I wonder if he can ever be redeemed. Captain Mercer talked to Kelly at the end of the episode about how the Moclans have a vastly different value system from the rest of the Planetary Union and speculated on whether their alliance could last. I think he was right to worry, and I wonder if this is setting up for something to happen with Moclus later.
I really liked how this episode took the issue of gay rights and stood it on its head. They made Lokar a sympathetic character and I think the darker ending of the episode only served to highlight the plight of the injustice that real people face every day. It’s a message that I hope people can take to heart.
