Our latest episode opens with Talla returning to the Orville from vacation. Everything seems normal until the crew gets readings from a nearby planet Narran 1, a planet that has been deemed baron and uninhabited. However according to the readings there are 8.5 billion people on the surface with cities and everything. Things start to get weird though, when The Orville hails the planet no one answers.
Ed decides to put together a landing party consisting of Talla, Kelly, Gordon and Bortus. The party breaks through the atmosphere only to find nothing but miles and miles of trees and no civilization. After doing some exploring the crew comes across a regular looking 20th century high school in the middle of nowhere. They go inside only to find that the doors behind them have locked and there’s no way out. Ed decides the crew should split up to cover more ground, so the break up into two teams. Talla, Bortus and Gordon are looking for an exit with no success when Gordon gets jumped by some bullies. After taking quite a beating they tell Gordon he owes money to someone named Randall and if he doesn’t pay he’s dead. The crew eventually rejoins and continues the day, unable to leave the building until the end of school bell rings. Taking their opportunity to escape they leave only to find that the forest is gone and they aren’t in the middle of nowhere again. Ed decides they should try to find Randall (the guy the bullies mentioned) to get some answers. When they find him they are surprised to find a huge alien with a giant ax. The crew fights back and narrowly escapes back into the school only to find they are now on an airplane.
The alien Randall attacks Gordon
Meanwhile, back on the Orville, LaMarr and Issac haven’t been able to reach the captain. Fearing something may have happened to them he decides to send a landing party down to Narran 1. Issac and Dr. Finn arrive on the planet’s surface only to find that it is barren and empty just as they had previously thought. Back on the airplane, the crew are experiencing heavy turbulence as if the pilot is flying into it deliberately. When the crew decides to investigate though they are met with an empty cockpit. Gordon, being a pilot, does his best to land the plane. After a bumpy and near death landing they leave the cockpit and find that everyone on board has disappeared. They decide to look outside but when they step out of the plane they are now in a Moclan Morgue. The eerie atmosphere has the crew a bit spooked and as they are looking around for an exit Talla discovers a panel. When she activates a button it opens the coffins and to Kelly and Bortus’s surprise one of the bodies is Klydin, Bortus’s mate. Suddenly Klydins eyes open and he grabs Bortus, choking him. After Klyden drops Bortus a doorway opens leading to a long staircase that goes down.
The crew descends down the dark staircase
Arriving at the bottom of the stairs they walk out to find they are at a lake on Tallas homeworld Xelaya. Knowing the extreme gravity of the planet would kill them all they now know what they are seeing is some sort of illusion. The crew sees a light coming from the other side of the lake, they find a raft floating and Kelly, Talla and Gordon take it to cross to the other side. Half way across Kelly gets attacked by a giant squid like alien, it pulls her under and after nearly being eaten Talla saves her and they head back to shore. Suddenly out of the ground stairs appear leading to a door. Not wanting to play along with whatever is happening to them they decide to look for any signs of life. Eventually Bortus picks up a signal coming from a cave. Inside is some sort of holographic projector, when they destroy it the cave disappears and the crew is back on the real Narran 1.
The crew stares out at a lake that looks just like one on Xelaya
The crew arrives back on the Orville and after getting a checkup from Dr. Finn they discover the device they found is Kaylon. After talking with Admiral Halsey he decides to have another planetary Union ship pick up the device fragments so that they can be analyzed better. When the Planetary Union convoy arrives Issac warns that they are Kaylon ships in disguise. Thinking there may be another device on board they go take defensive actions. Just as Issac said the ships are Kaylon and begin an assault on the Orville. Here’s where things get weird. The scene cuts back to Lt. LaMarr on the Orville in the captain's chair. One of the officers informs him that they are getting a hail from Talla, but she’s not on the planet, she’s in the shuttle waiting to be picked up. Confused by them, they open coms. Talla informs LaMarr that she’s been waiting for pick up for 3 hours.
The crew gets a check up and brief explanation from Dr. Finn
After losing power and engines Ed orders an evacuation, just as he does so a small Kaylon ship heads straight for the Orville and just as it’s about to crash into it everything freezes. Talla stands up and turns into an alien, she informs the crew that her name is Dinal after admitting that she has been the one doing everything the ship disappears and the crew are back on Narran 1 yet again but this time for real. Dinal tells them that she is a distant relative from the planet the crew discovered 2 years ago (see season 1 episode 12) the planet had an orbit between two different universes and every time it reappears it aged 7 centuries. Well with that knowledge it has now been 50 thousand years for the planet and they have more or less evolved into a never aging, never dying race of being. The whole reason that Dinal was making the crew see and experience all the things that they went through was so that she could have a near death experience. Basically she tells them that being immortal is boring and sometimes you want to “live” a little. Dinal says her farewells only to tell them that they will meet again. The crew returns to the Orville and share a drink thankful to be back.
Dinal reveals herself to the crew
There was a ton to unpack in this episode. I watched it twice. The second time, I watched the season finale of season 1 and then this episode. It really tied things together a little bit better. As usual I love where and what this series is doing and it keeps getting better!