The Orville Season 2 Episode 6 Review: A Happy Refrain
Diana Keng
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The masks were literally stripped away on The Orville Season 2 Episode 6 when two of the ship's most alien crew members -- Yaphit and Isaac -- show us their human faces for the first time.
Dr. Finn and Isaac's relationship has been an interesting one ever since The Orville Season 1 Episode 8 when they crash-landed on a planet and Isaac was left to care for Dr. Finn's sons while she tried to escape captivity.
Furthermore, we saw Isaac teaching Ty, the younger son, piano on The Orville Season 2 Episode 1 and he helped Dr. Finn prove the older son, Marcus', innocence when his classmate tried to pin a hacking transgression on him.
It's a sweet sentiment that Isaac has become so accustomed to his interactions with Dr. Finn that he deems his programming to be deficient without her in his life. Sweet and ridiculous but let's call this the Valentine's Day episode and give them some leeway.
Mercer: She's gotten under your skin.
Isaac: I do not have skin.
Mercer: Your various programs are used to her and, it turns out, she's not so easy to just... delete.
The arc of the experience is nicely drawn. From the banana he brings her because he's noticed she gets hangry to his admission that Ty is quite a talented musician, it's easy to see what attracts Dr. Finn to Isaac.
The moment he transformed, it was one of the most moving experiences I ever had. A machine who knows nothing of love, only logic, figured out a way to say,'I'm trying. Let me try.'
Dr. Finn
I also suspect that she is intellectually fascinated by him and his purely logical approach. Many of their conversations have been her interrogating him on his emotion-free perspective.
There is a strong sense of the familiar throughout the story for fans of Star Trek: The Next Generation. Musical concerts were some of the only recreational pastimes we ever saw the Enterprise-D crew take part in.
Both Ty's recital and the Union Symphony's concert worked well to bring the crew together in a unifying event.
And once again, MacFarlane's love of musicals is a strong influence from the episode's title (taken from the lyrics of "Singin' in the Rain") to the running theme of revealing the faces behind the voices on the show (which is also a major element in the movie Singin' in the Rain)
By the way, does it feel like they buy the license for one song every episode and just play the heck out of it over and over again?
Perhaps my only gripe with what basically amounts to an elegant love story told well is that, besides Dr. Finn and Isaac, no one else had a lot to do here.
Yes, Bortus had his mustache experiment but that was such a minor secondary plotline that it might've not even been there.
I'm actually a little curious as to what was the context of the conversation with Malloy that sparked the need for facial hair. Bortus, as has been demonstrated at length, is definitely a still waters run deep sort of fella.
Mercer steps in at the end to help Isaac interpret his system diagnostic.
Grayson and Keyali provide sounding boards for Dr. Finn's emoting.
It's the best it's ever been for me. And maybe it's okay it doesn't look like I thought it would. Maybe it's okay that it looks like a woman and a vacuum cleaner.
Dr. Finn
Malloy and LaMarr are comedic relief, I guess. And LaMarr has obviously been identified by Isaac as the font of all relationship knowledge.
But it was clearly the Isaac and Dr. Finn show this trip out. And they do a fantastic job with it.
When I was on Earth, I used to sit outside on the front porch before a thunderstorm and smell the ozone in the air. And then the rain would come crashing down in big, dark curtains and it was exciting and beautiful and humbling and wonderful and I always thought to myself,'This is what being alive is all about.'
Dr. Finn
It's a change of pace. Mind you, every episode this season has hit a different note with great enthusiasm. Mostly winners but the season hasn't really achieved a cohesive feel yet.
Sometimes, it's electrifying being afraid. It means you're out of your comfort zone.
Dr. Finn
With Isaac committed to the relationship's "longevity," we are left with some obvious questions:
1) How awkward is it going to be to explain the relationship to Marcus and Ty?
2) Since the only place Isaac can have a human form is on the simulator deck, aren't they basically using the simulator as their own personal love nest?
Related: The Orville EPs on Star Trek Influences, Sci-Fi For Everyone
2.1) Is this different from Bortus monopolizing the deck to feed his porn addiction?
2.2) Considering how often Marcus spends his free time in the simulator, aren't they running a risk of an embarrassing encounter?
Additional question: how is the simulator not a busier place?
As mentioned, Keyali didn't have much to do but she showed up in a lot more scenes than I really expected and I thought it was interesting that she is already so integrated with the social fabric of the ship.
I really enjoyed the symphonic performance even if it was a little out of place. Also, bemused that the symphony spends their "summer" traveling the galaxy.
You would be forgiven if you wonder when the soundtrack is coming out when you watch The Orville online. The use of music and lyrics over multiple episodes has been both clever and catchy.
The M.V.P. award goes to Malloy's final line of the episode:
We are, without a doubt, the weirdest ship in the fleet.
Malloy
And we wouldn't want it any other way, would we?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments!
Diana Keng was a staff writer for TV Fanatic. She is a lifelong fan of smart sci-fi and fantasy media, an upstanding citizen of the United Federation of Planets, and a supporter of AFC Richmond 'til she dies. Her guilty pleasures include female-led procedurals, old-school sitcoms, and Bluey. She teaches, knits, and dreams big. Follow her on X.
