Justin Hartline
Summary
Once again, this episode focuses on the Moclans and their backward culture. It begins with the Orville receiving a weapons upgrade due to the Kaylon threat. After receiving the upgrade, the Orville receives orders to transport two Moclans to rendezvous with a research vessel. In the meantime, Bortus gets called into a parent-teacher conference to discuss his son, Topa’s behavior. It seems that Topa has been very disrespectful of the girls in his class. Bortus tells Topa that this is wrong, but Topa responds that Klyden told him that females are inferior and that the Moclan’s strength comes from the fact that they have no females.
This results in Bortus and Klyden having a fight about how their son is being raised. During the fight, Bortus gets a call from the captain asking him to investigate a mysterious power spike in the quarters of the Moclans that they are transporting. Once there, he discovers that the two are smuggling their female Moclan baby. They had heard about the trial back in Season 1 Episode 3, “About a Girl” and beg Bortus to let them make the decision to raise their baby as a girl that he was unable to due to his loss.
He agrees and covers up the power spike with a convincing lie, but shows the baby to Topa as proof that Moclans do have females and are not so different from the other races of the Union. He asks Topa to keep the baby a secret, but after the two travelers depart with their baby, he accidentally lets it slip to Klyden who takes the matter to the Captain. Captain Mercer tells Bortus that he had no reason to doubt him, but that they need to make sure that the two are actually the parents of the baby.
They track the ship that the Moclans departed on to a colony hidden in a cloud nebula. It turns out that the colony is made up of female Moclans whose parents did not want them to undergo forced gender reassignment on Moclus. The leader of the colony is none other than Heveena, a female Moclan who testified on Bortus’ behalf at the trail. At this point, the Orville has 300 people, and that many people can’t keep a secret that big, so Captain Mercer offers to go to the Union and apply for the colony to become an independent state from Moclus.
As leader of the colony, Heveena speaks before the counsel asking for sovereignty for her colony from Moclus. Naturally, the Moclan delegation objects to this and threatens to leave the Union if the grant the colony independence. The Delegate threatens that if this transpires, the Krill will come with them because Moclas has all the weapons. While Captain Mercer accompanies Heveena to the council session, the Orville remains above the colony to watch over it. During the counsel’s deliberations the Moclans send a ship to round up everyone in the colony who they consider to be fugitives from Moclas.
This results in a huge fight both on the surface and in orbit above the planet. In the end, Captain Mercer persuades them by pointing out that the colony is well hidden, and the females may be able to survive by hiding from the Kaylons while Moclas will surely be destroyed, leaving the only living Moclans as females. In the end, Moclas agrees to stay with the Union and leave the colony alone on the condition that the Union doesn’t recognize the sovereignty of the colony and that the colony stop helping females leave Moclas.
Analysis
I was a bit disappointed by the way this episode continues the status quo. Moclas winds up staying with the Union and Klyden and Bortus remain together. The situation with Moclas is not surprising. I hadn’t thought about it, but they were probably right about the Krill. They have no love for the Union, and while they have a treaty, they have not actually joined the Union. They have no obligation to stand with the Union over Moclas and if they think Moclas is better equipped for the fight, they would rather team up with them. The Union, on the other hand, can’t afford to lose any allies. Moclas provides the Union with most of its weapons and splitting forces could be devastating to the war effort with the Kaylons. I suppose there’s really no other solution for now.
I was happy and surprised to see Heveena return. I think she’s the strong female role model that Moclas needs to move on from their toxically masculine culture. While the status quo on Moclus remains the same for now, I think there are little cracks forming. The two travelers mentioned that they knew of Bortus from the trial, so those events are obviously common knowledge. I wonder if the trial may have begun to shift public opinion on Moclas. Heveena was a very popular author on Moclus before the trial and I wonder how the revelation that she is female played out. Were there book burnings? Did her revelation change any minds?
I really liked the interactions between Klyden and Bortus in this episode. Klyden’s belief in the superiority in moclan culture is certainly becoming a problem in their relationship. The first argument focused on the raising of their son Topa. Klyden wants Topa to be raised with the values and opinions of Moclas, because he might want to live there someday. It feels like Klyden should be more understanding because he used to be female, but he doesn’t think that what happened to him was wrong. I especially liked the second argument. Klyden was trying to get Bortus to prepare to return to Moclas with him and Topa when negotiations seemed to be breaking down. Bortus mentions that he thinks that Klyden wanted to return to Moclas all along, a sentiment that I agree with.
He also tells Klyden that he never tried to fit in or make friends among the crew. This is something that I had noticed all along, and I appreciated hearing it mentioned. In most scenes Klyden is either with his family or standing alone. I originally thought it was weird when he invited Bortus’s former lover to dinner in Season 2 episode 7’s “Deflectors”, but his self-isolation must leave him incredibly lonely. I don’t think that Klyden thinks much of other races, and unless he starts interacting with them, I don’t see him changing in the future.
This episode leaves Bortus’s and Klyden’s relationship on the same rocky ground that it’s been on since the trial. I’m honestly unsure at this point whether I want to see Klyden redeemed or see the two break up, but I think something needs to happen.
Justin Hartline has a degree in Chemistry and puts his science knowledge to use as an investigator at a liquid coating company. His Dorky credentials include a love of Science Fiction (especially Star Wars), Fantasy (especially Game of Thrones), and superhero (especially Marvel) genres. He’s also a big fan of Nintendo games!
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