THE ORVILLE S2, E7: "DEFLECTORS"

[Finn]

^He may have picked up Moclan cues that we Humans wouldn't notice, not to mention we didn't see every single second they were in the same room...

Not to mention Bortus may have told stories about him and Klyden may have found something amiss...

 

[DonIago]

Pheromones?

 

[Mudd]

I'm still not sure how he figured it out. He didn't see anything remotely suspicious.

Could have been a lot of things, including intuition based on things that Bortus might have inadvertently communicated over time. That happens. Or...Klyden might have been paranoid about whether his sexual-event-addicted mate was sneaking around with the ex-boyfriend who he put on such a show about being uninterested in and disdaining, and was spying for that reason.

I'm not the best judge, but I get the vibe that Lokar was much more of a hottie than Klyden. Maybe a little younger, too.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I'm still not sure how he figured it out. He didn't see anything remotely suspicious.

Locar was Bortus's ex, and Klyden seemed to have disapproved of him from the outset, more than merely out of jealously I thought. Klyden said that he knew what Locar was. Although Bortus didn't say he knew, he was evasive when Talla asked him if he had known about Locar, so that would suggest that he knew. Ergo, Klyden could have picked it up from things said and unsaid by Bortus himself, as well as the previous interaction Locar and Klyden had had.

 

[Mudd]

BTW, Cassius PerfectHair (apologies to Mr. Pegg) was transferring to the Watson.

There are several possible derivations for the name, but in keeping with Union Fleet practice so far I'm going to guess Preston Watson, early Scottish aviator.

 

[Mr. Adventure]

Kind of nice to have a Finn lite episode actually.

It annoyed me that Talia didn't point out that she's been in a "relationship" for all of 5 minutes at that point. Not enough time to assess impact on the ship, let alone tell anyone.

I thought so too but I guess knowing how forbidden it was in the Moclan culture might have been a red flag to slow down. (maybe)

 

[Romulan_spy]

The Orville has really found its groove. This was a serious episode with a couple light hearted moments. The use of humor is so much better now. It does not feel out of place and forced like in the first couple of episodes of season 1. Now, the humor is much more organic but also is used more appropriately. The writers are not shoehorning humor in a serious episode but letting serious episodes be their own thing.

This episode also dealt with a serious issue with a strong way and used plot twists very effectively. I honestly did not see the plot twist coming. It was also a great episode for Talia. She is not Alara but she is becoming a great character in her own right. I was moved by the last scene where she is crying as she looks out the window as the oldies music is playing. The Orville sure knows how to do emotional character moments.

The Orville is a true spiritual successor to classic Star Trek (TOS and TNG). It is giving us a great mixture of fun action, deep scifi, first contact with different aliens, spatial anomalies and the serious social issue, just like TNG used to do.

 

[Bad Thoughts]

I looked at Klyden as someone with some issues, not someone that that his spouse should dump.
Maybe Bortus loves Klyden and sees him as a flawed person but can still love him despite what others can't see.

I wonder whether the series is directing us to show how Klyden doubts his gender, and what impact it might have on Bortus to be in a marriage with someone whose gender does not align with his partner's sexuality. Would Bortus stay married to Klyden if he decides he is naturally a woman?

 

[DonIago]

The episode really did a good job of playing with the tropes too:
1) We've never heard of Locar before and don't know his motives...is he (and possibly the Moclans in general) planning something nefarious?
2) Locar is Bortus's ex...is this going to be an episode about them trying to work through their past?
3) Locar has been murdered; now it's a Murder Mystery!(tm)
4) What we saw wasn't what we thought we saw.

I have to admit, I didn't want to believe that Klyden would have murdered Locar, but it definitely seemed like it was a possibility.

 

[Mudd]

By the time they found the scrambled image of the killer I was pretty sure it wouldn't be Klyden - it was too pat, we'd been set up too neatly.

It's interesting that Bortus advanced a little bit of historical explanation for the narrowness of Moclans. I think there are antecedents in our history for cultures that struggle to survive and maintain their cohesion becoming very rigid and rule-based. This usually has something to do, though, with keeping their members from being absorbed too easily into other societies.

The Moclans seem to be more than just the weaponeers of the Union, as evidenced by Locar's work on the deflectors. Their general military engineering prowess may be key to the Union Fleet's capabilities.

 

[thribs]

BTW, Cassius PerfectHair (apologies to Mr. Pegg) was transferring to the Watson.

There are several possible derivations for the name, but in keeping with Union Fleet practice so far I'm going to guess Preston Watson, early Scottish aviator.

Or James Watson.

 

[Photoman15]

Yep. This show has apparently been eating its Wheaties, or something. While this wasn't as great as the last episode, it was still really solid, and well above Orville's "eh, that was ok" established standard.

Though if it wasn't supposed to be obvious the guy had faked his own death about ten minutes before the show revealed it ... yeah, it was.

Actually, I thought it was his commanding officer from the Moclan ship that may have done it, not faked.

It really seems like Ed, as Captain, could have done or said something to Kelly's Ex-Beau considering he was pretty much harassing her on the ship when she broke up.

But, I really liked that episode and, for me, The Orville is batting almost 1.000 for the season.



It's always got to come down to bashing on Trek for you, doesn't it?

It would be very inappropriate for Ed to intervene considering his history with Kelly.

But remember, we're talking about the franchise that has been patting itself on the back for 50 years for its cutting-edge daring in showing an interracial kiss. David Gerrold wanted to portray a gay male couple on Enterprise in TNG's first season, and many fans who were active at the time (myself included) thought the show should lead the way in advancing gay rights. Instead the franchise ducked and dodged the subject for decades, ending up being pretty much the last show to finally get on board. Pathetic.

Thank God they didn't. I saw how DG handled it on "New Voyages". I argued with him that it never would have been on a canon series ONLY because it was a Mary-Sue episode. Too much time spent on the guest(s), Peter Kirk and the boyfriend.
You wanna include a gay character, make it part of the characters background. Guest stars would not have had that much screen time allotted to them.

 

[Mudd]

Maybe. But Watson is a biologist; MacFarlane has leaned toward aviators.

 

[eschaton]

Finally saw it. Wow, that was fantastic. Still might not be as good as last week, but The Orville has finally "grown up" and can have a plot which focuses on hard and ugly conflicts with no pat resolution by the end of the episode. Indeed, thematically this episode was basically tearing off a scab and leaving a giant bloody mess in its wake.

I can also see - finally - why they decided to hire Jessica Szohr. She did a great job here - particularly in the last third of the episode.

 

[Nakita Akita]

Klyden was stalking them.

I must have gone to the bathroom when this was pointed out.

 

[CorporalCaptain]

I must have gone to the bathroom when this was pointed out.

I hate it when I miss a part of an episode or fail to notice the cues about something.

 

[Admiral2]

All I can say is, as good as the whole episode was, all I needed to see was the live-fire ship-to-ship battle exercise for it to earn my A+.

Plus, the giant talking sunflower was nightmare fuel...

 

[Charles Phipps]

I confess, I am not on the same page here.

I fully am onboard with them building to Bortis killing Klyden in a Moclan divorce and having to deal with the reprocussions.

Then again, I saw the likely punishment for Bortis' ex as death back on Moclan. Klyden also tried to kill Bortis for not being attentive enough.

He is a terrible person.

 

[Owain Taggart]

This was quite a good episode with some fascinating exploration of culture. Possibly my favourite of this season.

Some really good lines and interactions in this episode. Loved when Locar snapped after being asked twice about wanting a cupcake.

 

[Amaris]

I confess, I am not on the same page here.

I fully am onboard with them building to Bortis killing Klyden in a Moclan divorce and having to deal with the reprocussions.

Then again, I saw the likely punishment for Bortis' ex as death back on Moclan. Klyden also tried to kill Bortis for not being attentive enough.

He is a terrible person.

According to Moclan custom and culture, he is a good person doing what is required. I agree that what he's done and what he advocates are horrible, but in his culture he's the one on the right side of the law.