WARNING: This thread WILL contain unhidden spoilers for this episode and every episode before it. You are allowed to talk about future episodes of the series, but put ANY information that comes after this episode behind spoiler tags.
The Orville season 1, episode 10 "Firestorm"
Written by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong, directed by Brannon Braga.
While navigating a dangerous plasma storm, the Orville takes serious damage. Chief Engineer Newton (Larry Joe Campbell) calls Alara down to Engineering to rescue a trapped crewman. Once down there, Alara freezes when a fireball blocks her path. When she comes to her senses, more debris falls and kills the man before she can reach him. Despite everyone's reassurance and forgiveness, Alara blames herself for his death and decides to quit her position as Chief of Security. Captain Mercer temporarily talks her down and suggests she do some soul searching to understand why she froze at the sight of fire. But just as she starts her investigation, unrealistic yet life-threatening encounters start plaguing her and the rest of the crew.
Originally released: 16 November 2017
Check here to find out where you can stream or digitally purchase The Orville in your country. The Orville season 1 is also available on DVD.
What did you think?
I had forgotten how this episode was structured; I remembered it as everything up until the reveal being part of the simulation, including the death of Lt. Payne in engineering. The episode is obviously much better than that, foreshadowing the plot by having Alara cope with her trauma in the simulated boxing gym.
That's a good point. It's pretty clear this far into the show that main characters are off the table for anti-climactic deaths. Still, I don't mind too much because the "it was all a dream" (simulation) story reveal is one of the least satisfying around. It softens the blow a bit to know ahead of time that this episode is going to have some form of reset by the end. Given the experience involved, I even wonder if it was done deliberately for that reason. I like that by the time of the reveal we're already waiting for what kind of reveal it will be instead of it just being out of nowhere, which is the least satisfactory kind of these.
The scene where Grayson says she's going to "shower and change" then just about falls into the abyss is a fun subversion of the standard horror trope where a woman in a state of undress gets attacked. Having her basically announce an upcoming Psycho pastiche only to hard zag away is a really fun time and one of my favorite "jokes" in an episode that's already doing a lot of good stuff comically: "Looks like a big screensaver, doesn't it?" / "She's not getting a pizza."
It's also a ton of fun to see Robert Picardo from Voyager show up as Alara's father. Overall, just a great, strong episode. I don't have any complaints, they really got it all right here. The Orville running on all cylinders.