"Not perfect yet, but close enough for love."
REVIEW: The mission, in this case, is the B-plot. The crew must ingratiate themselves to the Janisi, a matriarchal society that treats men as second-class citizens and even as property, because beggars can't be choosers, and the Union needs all the allies it can find right now. Though the plan to make believe the Orville's crewmen are dumb servants and put all the women in charge temporarily is kind of fun, it doesn't seem like too good an idea. The Janisi have to be told the truth eventually and will resent being lied to, and indeed that's what happens. The "common ground" Ed and Kelly find is incredibly thin, to the point where I choose to believe the Janisi respect the attempt and give a future Union diplomat a hearing. They certainly don't do it on the merits. Meanwhile, over in the C-plot, John and Talla really do make a go of it after the previous episode's vigorous make-out session, but her super-strength breaks bones until they have to call it quits. It's absurd, but also sad. It was a short affair, but both of them seem to say they haven't felt such a connection in a long time. It's just not practical. The themes of finding common ground and having to accept sacrifice (or not) is present in both these stories, but it's the core of the A-plot.
The Orville rather accidentally detects a signal on the supposedly-abandoned planet chosen as a rendezvous point, and find a very nice Kaylon there with a cyberneticist who found a way to give him emotions, and therefore (this is crucial), empathy. I do think someone should have said something when the idea to use this technology as a weapon against the Kaylon - usually, scientists DO object to this kind of thing - but that's perhaps a matter for another day. Here, Timmis has been gifted with the full range of emotions and sees the Kaylons' genocidal war as wrong. His new-found empathy allows him to place himself in other people's place, which is also what the episode is doing in regards to the Kaylon.
The short teaser shows us aliens who get a Kaylon servitor, and with its ominous music and lack of context, we might think this is a Power of the Daleks situation happening in the present. But it soon becomes clear that these are flashbacks dramatizing how the Kaylon were treated (as slaves, and when they developed sentience, with extreme cruelty), and we come to understand how they justify themselves (and without empathy, they never saw a difference between biologicals and exterminated their makers to the last adult and child). While Timmis seems to relate this, K-1 is played by the actor who plays Kaylon Primary, so this is really the story of the Kaylon leader, the "face" of this evil. He tells all this to Charly who certainly seems to have a lot to digest after the conversation. She later apologizes to Isaac for her attitude towards him, and though she misjudged his intentions, he really IS infuriating. The fact that he doesn't care (or can't) doesn't make it easy for her to say what she has to say, but we can respect her for going through with it.
And of course, Timmis' existence puts the rekindling of the Claire/Isaac romance in the spotlight, specifically how Isaac could be made to actually love her. I keep saying how Penny Johnson is the show's best asset, but she keeps proving it true. She makes us care for this one-sided relationship, and while Isaac can't see the point of getting emotions - exactly because he doesn't have the emotions required to want emotions! - she asks him to go through the procedure, for her (which isn't arrived at selfishly, but after a discussion on the sacrifice required of any sustainable relationship). They could have juiced up the dilemma here by asking if a newly-emotional Isaac would fall in love with Claire, but Johnson presents enough trepidation to make me believe she's at least though of it. As it turns out, Isaac is madly in love with her, he's overwhelmed and a little overwhelming, which makes me believe his new emotions merely support intellectual determinations he'd already made about her (and which have been mentioned before). Tragically, the feelings give out in the middle of a dance because Isaac wasn't one of the original Kaylons and was built differently. His systems reset the unemotionality. And the only to fix it permanently involves a complete reboot and wiping of his memory and "self". And he's ready to do that, if that's what Claire wants. Which of course, is love, even if it's not DEMONSTRATIVE love. It's a wonderfully acted moment, and supports what I've always thought of Data as well. They do have emotions, they just don't "feel" them from the same place, nor manifest them the same way. It's just a different psychology. And so I go back to his final interaction with Charly. Is he being a pain in the ass because he has no feelings? Or is he being difficult on purpose because she's given him reason to dislike her?
WHERE SOMEONE HAS GONE BEFORE: The Enterprise-D also made contact with a bigoted matriarchal society in "Angel One". Though Isaac is the anti-Data and doesn't WANT to be human, his experience here mirrors much of Data's emotion chip subplots. Finding a damaged survivor of a mechanical race, giving him individuality and thinking of using it as a weapon harks back to "I, Borg".
REWATCHABILITY: Medium-High - The non-Kaylon stuff doesn't really enhance what's at the core of the episode. What is, is pretty stellar.
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