"This family is stronger than time."
REVIEW: Lasting Impressions remains one of the very best episodes of the show, so a sequel certainly seemed indicated. And it's also a sequel to the pilot, using the Aronov device as a time machine (the time-traveling sandwich will return, I promise). In Lasting Impressions, Gordon fell in love with a holographic reproduction of a woman who put her life on a cell phone before putting it in a time capsule back in 2015. We're reminded of this at the top of the show, as Gordon plays "That's All I've Got to Say" on the guitar (there's a lot of his guitar and voice on the show this season), the very song he'd played for Laura Huggins in that episode. Then Charly finds a facsimile of the phone, so we know we're going to revisit this. And how!
After Gordon is blasted into the past during a Kaylon attack, he lands in 2015, and the ship immediately receives a message from that year, sent 400 years before. The Aronov device can send the ship back to rescue Gordon, or else history will be changed - which is to say, Gordon will integrate into 21st-Century society, become an airline pilot, and die in his 80s. What other changes this could bring is unknown as timelines remain in flux. And then things get worse when the ship runs out of time fuel before reaching 2015 and gets to Gordon 10 years too late. By then he's found and married Laura, has 1½ kids, and refuses to leave. Especially since he's broken the laws regarding time travel and will have to face disciplinary action. In the end, a refueled Orville will go back another 10 years and undo this version of events, leaving Gordon and his family to huddle against the time winds and hope they aren't truly erased from reality. It's harsh, but there is a line of dialog early on that mentions how a paradox might be resolved by the splitting off of a parallel universe. Returning to the family and either making them disappear from view (dark!) or remaining alive in another universe (phew!) would have helped the episode. Alas, the ambiguity makes the ending a little limp, especially considering that the clueless Gordon, even when told this happened, sides with Ed and Kelly, even though it's clear a life with the love of his life was snatched away from him. The show takes a lot of chances usually, and in this case, the pat ending seems a little facile.
While this is pretty dark material - and the season's generally be going dark - the side-mission that forces Charly and Isaac to work together to obtain the time travel fuel provides a lot of laughs. In this case, Charly truly hating Isaac works in the show's favor and makes her having to pretend they're a couple, for example, pretty funny. Even there's a dark undertow, especially when she admits that her friend Amanda, who died at Kaylon hands, was (or could have been) more than a friend. This ties into the theme of the episode - "what might have been" - and justifies the feelings she harbors for an otherwise well-liked character. It's still the "buddy movie" formula though, so they get great bits between their encounter with the bikers and with the real estate agent.
And a big thumbs up to the discussions about time travel too. In Star Trek, the rules are basically different from episode to episode, and the "space cowboys" often break the Temporal Prime Directive with abandon (Kirk was a menace) with little to no lasting consequences (ST IV is a good example). Here, the rules seem more firm, and the characters admit that it's not a well-understood science. So the implications of Gordon having kids who didn't exist in the previous history are a dangerous variable, which is why messing with time is both illegal and immoral. Indeed, to fix the potential "crime", the Orville has to erase two lives, which is itself immoral. In a way, forcing people to make these kinds of decisions is what's immoral, and I like the notion of the Union being skittish about time travel in that context. There's also some nice, "harder" science-fiction at work when the Aronov device is fried, but the ship can still fly to the future without it, using the power of relativity. Red shift and everything.
Random bits: What IS that Jack McBrayer/Johnny Knoxville Seinfeld-like sitcom that's on TV in 2025? Netflix has to stop it already with all these sitcom rebootquels. Oh, and a quick massage sends Talla and John into a romantic subplot. More to come.
WHERE SOMEONE HAS GONE BEFORE: Falling in love in the past and having to sacrifice that love goes back to The City on the Edge of Forever. Having to complete several missions while stuck in the past recalls Star Trek IV. Getting a message from the past, initiating a rescue mission has parallels with Time's Arrow. But it's perhaps DS9's Time's Orphan, where Molly O'Brien is lost in time, returns as an older character, and the show undoing that timeline, is perhaps closest to this one.
REWATCHABILITY: Almost High - If it had hit the ending a little harder, I would have given it the highest mark. But it shies away from ripping our hearts out in the final moments.
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