“From Unknown Graves” reveals the heartbreaking history of the Kaylon

It’s time for another weekly review of The Orville: New Horizons! Things are a little quieter on the ship this time around, but The Orville makes great use of the time to explore several important relationships as well as the origin of the Kaylon. Lots to talk about, so let’s get right into it!

As always, there will be SPOILERS for this week’s episode of The Orville: New Horizons beyond this point.

The Orville: New Horizons Episode 7 review

There’s a bit of a calm before the storm feeling on the seventh episode of The Orville: New Horizons. Unlike the past couple of episodes, which have tightly focused on a particular mission, “From Unknown Graves” follows a variety of plotlines with far-reaching implications for many of the crew members, set against the backdrop of a slow-burn diplomatic negotiation. It feels just right for the point in the story we’re at. It gives the emotional beats the time they need to breathe and settle.

The negotiation itself is a lot of fun. The Janisi have a matriarchal society that keeps men in subservient roles, so the Orville crew decides to pull a bit of a ruse in order to get in the room and negotiate a potential alliance for the Union. Ed (Seth MacFarlane), Gordon (Scott Grimes), Bortus (Peter Macon), and LaMarr (J. Lee) all switch to different uniforms and pretend to be lower-ranked officers, while Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), Talla (Jessica Szohr), Charly (Anne Winters), and Claire Finn (Penny Johnson Jerald) pretend to be the only high-ranking officers on the ship.

Beyond just providing some interesting moments for cultural commentary, this plotline also provides some great moments of comedic relief. A particular highlight is when Ed and Gordon come jogging out in their ensign uniforms to carry a veritable mountain of Janisi luggage to their rooms.

Ultimately, it comes out that the Orville crew has been lying. Things are saved at the eleventh hour by Ed and Kelly leveling with the Janisi and discussing their own personal relationship dynamic. It was a nice way to revisit the complicated beginnings of their time together on the show, when Kelly cheated on Ed, they got divorced, and then subsequently had to find a way to work together on the ship, although I will say that using Kelly’s infidelity as a way to find common ground with the aliens did feel like a slight stretch.

Regardless, this kind of honesty is something the Janisi appreciate, and they agree to receive a diplomatic envoy from the Union. I really like that the situation isn’t wrapped up nicely, but rather that the Orville crew just managed to open the door for future negotiations.

The origin of the Kaylon uprising

In “From Unknown Graves,” we finally get to see the events that led the Kaylon to wipe out their builders. The episode is peppered with flashbacks showing how the Kaylon were originally slaves used in a way that will feel familiar to fans of I, Robot or Mass Effect or any other number of stories involving robots gaining sentience and turning on their abusive masters. The Kaylon flashbacks go from slightly uncomfortable to horrifying as their makers gradually grow harsher with their robotic servants. By the time they install pain receptors in the Kaylon that allow them to basically be tortured, it’s hard not to root for the Kaylon’s eventual uprising.

This all ties into the present day when a landing party goes to the planet the Orville is orbiting, only to discover a Kaylon with a unique outlook on life. It turns out that this Kaylon, Timmis (who is the one featured in the flashbacks), has been modified by Dr. Villka (Eliza Taylor), and can now feel a full range of emotions. Villka’s prosthetic is amazing, it must be said; The Orville special effects department continues to be one of the best working right now.

Timmis’ full range of emotions means they feel an immense amount of regret for the way their race is attacking the biological races of the universe. They want to help. But before you start thinking that perhaps some sort of emotional lightbulb could go off for the Kaylon at large, “From Unknown Graves” makes it clear that’s probably not going to happen.

What does it mean to feel love?

The rest of “From Unknown Graves” revolves around a few relationships. The first is between LaMarr and Talla, who we saw get together during last week’s episode. Lee and Szohr have great chemistry and there is definitely a feeling that their characters would make a good couple…but unfortunately Talla’s super strength makes it complicated. LaMarr ends up with broken bones whenever they have sex.

The show balances the humor of this situation with LaMarr and Talla’s frustration. Both feel they have something special in this relationship, but over the course of the episode LaMarr ends up with a broken arm, fractures, bruised ribs, a broken hip, and more. It sounds more grisly than it is — the show effectively plays it for laughs — but it’s still tough because the characters want so badly for it to work out. It’s easy to root for them.

The episode leaves John and Talla in an ambiguous place, unclear if they’ll be able to continue their relationship after John is so beat up after one of their dalliances that his eyes are swollen shut and he’s spitting up teeth. Somehow that scene still manages to be really funny. Don’t ask me, I don’t make the rules.

The other relationship we spend a lot of time with is the one between Isaac (Mark Jackson) and Dr. Claire Finn. Theirs is one of the longest-running romantic arcs on The Orville, and it really comes to a head in this episode when Claire asks Isaac to undergo the same modification that allowed Timmis to feel emotions. Seeing how important it is to Claire, Isaac decides to give it a go.

At first, all appears to have worked out. The scene in the simulator between Claire and Isaac — where Isaac once again appears in his human simulated form — is a tearjerker. Seeing Jackson smile for the first time ever on the show is such a powerful moment, and the way both Isaac and Claire revel in the fact that he can now experience things like love and anxiety and excitement is beautiful.

Unfortunately, Isaac’s newfound emotions don’t stick. The moment where he realizes they’re gone, right as he dips Claire while the two dance, is heartbreaking.

It turns out that while Timmis was constructed by the Kaylon’s original builders, Isaac was built by other Kaylon. As a result, he has more modern hardware that is specifically designed to defend against tampering with his internal systems, including the one that needs to be modified for him to experience emotions. Dr. Villka could still make the procedure permanent…but it would require a total memory wipe.

He immediately volunteers to do it, if that’s what Claire wants for their relationship, which again is a pretty touching moment. But ultimately she turns him down, saying she’d be forced to choose between his heart and his soul, and that that’s just not a choice she’s willing to make.

The Orville: Bullet Point Horizons

• After hating the Kaylon for most of the season, Charly finally starts to come around when Timmis tells her about the original Kaylon uprising. Discovering they were slaves gives Charly enough pause that she decides to reconcile with Isaac. Their final scene together is a good one.
• I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: the effects on The Orville: New Horizons are top notch. It never ceases to baffle me how much better this show looks than the various Star Wars and Star Trek series we’ve gotten of late.
• The way the design of the Janisi ships vary from those of the Union is a nice touch.
• The Kaylon flashbacks really stand out in this episode. It was a crucial bit of lore for The Orville that has been teased for quite a long time, and the delivery was compelling enough that you leave with a much better understanding for the Kaylon’s mistrust of biological beings. The prosthetic design for the Kaylon builders was also very cool.
• Timmis and Doctor Villka reflecting on how the Kaylon builders came to be repulsed by their slaves’ “weakness” was fascinating. The Orville continues to mix the fun with the profound to great effect.

Verdict

“From Unknown Graves” is yet another solid episode of The Orville: New Horizons. It was stuffed with a bunch of different plotlines that gave many of the show’s major characters big things to chew over, and finally showed us the original Kaylon rebellion. It was a little less focused than the past few episodes and had less action, but that felt like what was called for at this point in the story. This was the calm before the storm. Only three episodes left!

Episode Grade: A-

To stay up to date on everything fantasy, science fiction, and WiC, follow our all-encompassing Facebook page and sign up for our exclusive newsletter.

Get HBO, Starz, Showtime and MORE for FREE with a no-risk, 7-day free trial of Amazon Channels