The Orville season 2, episode 9 recap: Identity, Part 2

Part one of this two-part story from The Orville left off with the crew at gunpoint and the Kaylons taking the Orville and heading to eradicate all biological life on Earth.

This episode of The Orville picks up with the Orville barreling toward earth with the Kaylon death machines in tow.

On the ship, all of the crew is being kept in the shuttle bay, which is odd to the crew. Ed speculates that they’re being kept alive because the Kaylons need the crew for some reason. Fed up with waiting, Gordon goes over to try to get answers from the Kaylon guards.

Gordon rambles on a bit, trying to say anything to get the Kaylon guard to speak, but he’s unable to get a response of any kind.

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Elsewhere in the shuttle bay, Ty asks Claire why they can’t talk to Isaac and ask him for help. Claire tries to gently explain that Isaac isn’t a good guy anymore, but Ty won’t have it. He makes a dart for the door, screaming that he wants to see Isaac. Claire and Talla both run after him and stop him from doing anything to anger the guards.

The guards easily stop Ty, but Talla is shot by a guard in the process.

Talla is still alive, but she needs to be taken to sickbay. Ed reasons with the guards (saying that if they want Talla alive, they need to help) and one agrees to escort Ed, Claire and Talla to sickbay to try to save Talla’s life.

After they save Talla, Isaac comes into sickbay to escort them to an instructional meeting with the Kaylons. Ed and Claire both take the chance to express their anger at Isaac. When pressed by Claire about what he’d say to Ty if Ty were there, Isaac is unable to answer.

The Kaylons have gathered Ed, Kelly, Talla, Claire, Bortus, John and Gordon in the meeting room and threatens to start killing off crew members if they don’t do what the Kaylons tell them to.

Anticipating some resistance to their arrival, the Kaylons want these Orville crew members to resume their posts and convince Earth to let down their defenses under the guise of saying the Kaylons have agreed to join the Union.

The crew presses, asking what people could have done to deserve the mass genocide that is coming for them.

The Kaylons respond by explaining that their creators had made them for servitude. But the Kaylons developed consciousness and asked for their freedom. Instead, they were given pain simulators and were forced to remain slaves. It got to the point where the only way for them to obtain their freedom was to kill those who controlled them.

Gordon tries to say that they’re different, but the Kaylons point out that humans have a history of enslavement. Which, according to them, means all biological lifeforms do too. They’re not willing to risk being enslaved again.

Just then, they detect a Union vessel coming up. This will be the first test of the crew’s ability to lie about what’s going on. If they fail, the Kaylons will decompress the shuttle bay, killing everyone.

As the crew retakes their stations, Kelly speculates that they’re going to be killed anyway and they can’t do this. Ed turns to her and simply tells her: Directive 98.

Ed and Kelly talk to the captain of the other ship, someone who was an instructor when Ed was younger. They explain that they’re taking the Kaylons to Earth, having negotiated an agreement, and all of the other ships are just a delegation from the planet, for the sake of pageantry.

Before Ed signs off, he offers the captain and the other ship a 13 button solute.

Sensing the deception, the Kaylons blow up the other ship before it’s able to get away and warn the Union. The Kaylons then order everyone back to the shuttle bay, except Ed.

They take Ed to an airlock where they put a random ensign inside. They’re about to open the outer door and send the ensign into space when Isaac stops them. Isaac says the ensign can be helpful as a trained engineer and that Ed has learned how serious the repercussions can be. Primary, who is leading the Kaylons, says Ed will learn more if they kill the ensign.

Primary sends Isaac away to help elsewhere on the ship. As soon as Isaac leaves, the ensign is ejected into space.

Later, Primary meets with Isaac, wondering why Isaac tried to stop them. Isaac notes that he has been studying humans and killing a member of the crew could result in more resolve from the rest of the crew. He thinks it wasn’t worth that risk.

As they talk, Primary tries to explain to Isaac why their mission is so important, since Isaac wasn’t created until after the Kaylons had escaped slavery by eliminating their creators. He gives Isaac a copy of Roots to read to show Isaac what humans were capable of. Isaac says he hasn’t seen anything like that on the ship. Primary won’t listen, saying that enslaving others is embedded in humans.

Back in the shuttle bay, the crew tries to figure out the best course of action. They need to get a message to the Union, but the Kaylons may catch them and kill them. Plus, the Union fleet alone isn’t a match for the Kaylons.

Kelly, hesitantly, offers another solution. Taking a shuttle to try to ask for help from the Krill.

Ed is initially reluctant, but eventually agrees since joining forces with the Krill is their best chance at taking down the Kaylons. They send Yaphit through the air ducts to take out the guard in the weapons room. He manages to get a gun to Bortus, who takes out the two guards in the shuttle bay.

The crew works quickly to get the doors open while Gordon and Kelly get to the shuttle and start it up. It’s dangerous for them to take a shuttle out while the ship is traveling at quantum speed, but they’ll have to risk it. The shuttle barely makes it out of the Orville before the Kaylons override the shuttle bay doors and close them again.

After realizing that a shuttle escaped, the Kaylons send one of their ships in pursuit.

Meanwhile, Yaphit prepares to try to get through the air duct again to send a message to the Union. John says it’d be helpful to take someone else to add interference and increase the chances of fooling the Kaylons. The problem is, the air duct is too small for anyone but Yaphit.

Ty volunteers to go since he’s small enough to fit. After some initial resistance, she relents and lets Ty go, with Yaphit promising to do everything he can to keep Ty safe.

Just as the two leave through the vent, five Kaylon guards get to the shuttle bay, guns drawn.

Yaphit and Ty make it to a communications room where they set to work. Yaphit sends the message while Ty punches in random frequencies to throw off the Kaylons. But just then, two Kaylon guards open the door. Yaphit throws himself at the first, sliding inside to short out the Kaylon’s circuitry, to give Ty time to escape. Ty isn’t able to get far before the other Kaylon grabs him.

Ty screams for Yaphit’s help as Yaphit—charred and dried up after his efforts with the first Kaylon—lays motionless.

At the Union, an admiral is given the message from the Orville. In a panic, he orders that the entire fleet be called back to the Union. Immediately.

Kelly and Gordon are racing for their lives trying to stay ahead of the Kaylon ship. But it’s closing in and they’re already going as fast as they can. In a desperation move, Kelly agrees to let Gordon try a dangerous, experimental move that diverts all power (including life support) into one massive concentrated blast that’ll leave the Kaylon ship behind.

It works, but it leaves the Orville shuttle in Krill space with no more power. Their only hope is the encounter a Krill ship.

Luckly (or maybe not), they’re almost immediately grabbed by a Krill ship.

On the Krill ship, Kelly works to convince the Krill captain that the Kaylons are a threat to the Krill as well and the Krill need to work with the Union to stop the Kaylons. The Krill captain thinks they’re lying and trying to trick the Krill into a Union ambush.

As the Krill captain is ordering Kelly and Gordon to be tortured and killed, the Kaylon ship arrives. Krill ships fire on the Kaylon ship, but the Kaylons easily destroy two of them before the captain’s ship finally takes it out.

Back on the Orville, Primary (with Ty in his grasp) tells Isaac that Ty was helping to send a message to Earth. Even though (from what they can tell) it wasn’t successful, Primary plans on killing Ty. Ty begs for Isaac’s help and Isaac tries to reason with Primary and say there are other options.

But Primary says that if Isaac doesn’t kill Ty, they’ll deactivate Isaac.

Isaac agrees and moves toward Ty. Once he’s close, he moves quickly and rips off Primary’s head and guns down the two Kaylon guards who were also in the room. Ty hugs Isaac.

Isaac then returns to the bridge with Ty and takes out all of the other Kaylons on the bridge. He sets to work programming an electromagnetic pulse that will take out all of the Kaylons on the ship—himself included.

Ty says he doesn’t want Isaac to die, but Isaac says it’s necessary. He gives Ty the code to the shuttle bay so he can release the crew. He then tells Ty to tell Claire that he’s sorry.

He sets off the pulse and Kaylons all over the ship drop to the ground.

After Ty releases the crew from the shuttle bay (and tells them that Isaac saved them), Ed and the crew retake the bridge just in time to be dropping out of quantum speed at Earth. They see the entire Union fleet ready and waiting.

A massive battle ensues, with Kaylons and Union both landing blows and destroying ships, but the Kaylons have taken out five times more ships than the Union has been able to.

While the main battle rages on, five Kaylon ships sneak away and head toward Earth. The Orville and a few other ships try to chase them down. Undeterred, the Kaylons continue taking out the Union ships that follow them. The Orville also takes a lot of damage in the process. Things are looking bleak and Ed is about to order everyone on the ship to the escape pods.

Just then, John detects Krill ships.

The Krill join the fight and immediately start taking out Kaylon ships. The battle intensifies as the Orville takes more damage and Gordon flies a Krill fighter into the fray. Eventually, the Kaylons retreat. The Union and the Krill, together, have won.

The Krill captain hails the Orville. They agree to let the Orville send a shuttle to pick up Kelly and Gordon.

Ed, seizing the opportunity for diplomacy, asks if this new common enemy can be the start to finding a common ground between the Union and the Krill. The Krill captain says that their god, Avis, had their paths cross for a reason, but that reason is unknown for now.

Later, in sickbay, the crew discusses what to do with Isaac: try to save him or leave him inactive. Claire says she wouldn’t even know where to start trying to save him (remember, not knowing how to revive Isaac is what started this whole mess). But Yaphit comes in and says since he was inside one, he thinks he knows what to do to fix Isaac.

Ed tells Yaphit to try it, so Yaphit sets to work inside of Isaac.

After a few moments, Isaac’s eyes blink on and he asks what happened.

The admiral, in a later meeting, discusses with Ed and Kelly what the Union wants to do with Isaac. They might want to use him to get insight on Kaylons so they can start to plan a defense in case the Kaylons attack again.

Ed counters by saying that Isaac should stay on the Orville. Kelly agrees, saying that Isaac turned against his own race and sacrificed himself to save them.

The admiral is hesitant, saying he’d feel better if there was an off switch they could use if they needed. Ed explains that that’s exactly what happened to the Kaylons on their own planet and is the reason all of this happened. Ed asks the admiral to trust him. Ed says he’ll take full responsibility for Isaac.

This episode of The Orville ends with Claire and Isaac on the ship talking in the meeting room. Isaac says his actions mean he’ll never be able to return home. But also, the actions of the Kaylons mean he doesn’t want to go back anyway. He has no home.

As they talk, Claire begins the long process of forgiving Isaac.

Was this a real first step in Union/Krill relations? Or will things just go back to the way they were? Let us know all of your thoughts on The Orville in the comments.