The Orville: New Horizons: “Midnight Blue” is a moving, feature-length epic

It’s time for another review of The Orville: New Horizons! “Midnight Blue” is the eighth out of the season’s 10 episodes, and it ramped things up a whole lot as we cruise into the home stretch of the season. This was a mega-sized episode, so we’re going to get right into the discussion.

As always, there are SPOILERS below for the latest episode of The Orville: New Horizons.

The Orville: New Horizons Episode 8 review

One of the ways The Orville: New Horizons has really set itself apart from the show’s previous seasons is in just how cinematic and enormous the production feels. “Midnight Blue” is the most cinematic episode yet; at one hour and 27 minutes long, it is literally move-length. And considering the enormous events it covers, that feels warranted.

“Midnight Blue” once again centers Topa (Imani Pullum), Bortus (Peter Macon) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki), along with a familiar face from season 1: Heveena (Rena Owen), the female Moclan writer who went on to form a colony for other persecuted female Moclans. Apparently things have been relatively peaceful in the years since, but it’s time for both the Union and the Moclans to do their scheduled evaluation of the colony to make sure that no rules are being broken. Since the Orville has some history with the situation, it’s chosen to represent the Union. Bortus and Kelly serve as the crew’s eyes on the ground, and since Topa has never gotten the chance to meet another Moclan female, she eagerly volunteers to go with them.

You’re probably sick of hearing me say it by now, but the special effects on this show are just insane. The series outdoes itself in “Midnight Blue,” because aside from the incredible CGI, the episode also features quite a bit of on-location work at the female Moclan colony. It’s a great reminder that for as wonderful as visual effects advancements like Lucasfilm’s Volume (3-D digital soundstage) are, sometime there’s just no substitute for actual immersion in a real place.

The Moclan colony is beautiful, not just visually but also for how it lets the viewer see how this group of repressed aliens has thrived in the years since it was established in season 1. There’s a feeling that those events did a lot of genuine good for a lot of people.

One of those people is Heveena, who we last saw in the simulator during “A Tale of Two Topas.” Topa reacts about how you would expect her to meeting one of her idols, and Heveena is also pretty enamored with the young Moclan girl, who was pivotal in the formation of the colony even if she was too young to remember it. We also get our first somewhat hilarious reminder that Heveena has a deep and abiding love for the music of Dolly Parton; not only is she listening to “9 to 5” to help her get in the mood to write, she also has a shrine of Dolly pictures on her wall. And to top it off, the Renaissance Faire-style music that plays as the double full moon festival begins is an arrangement of “Jolene.” It’s a lot of fun.

But the good times can’t last. After being recruited by Heveena to help smuggle Moclan female babies to the colony, Topa is abducted by the male Moclan scouting party. From there, the episode kicks into high gear.

A diplomatic crisis and a rescue mission

After discovering that Topa has been abducted, the episode splits into two plotlines: one follows Kelly and Bortus as they track Topa down in hopes of rescuing her, while the other explores the political difficulties of the situation through Captain Ed Mercer’s (Seth MacFarlane) negotiations with the Moclans.

First, let’s talk about Ed. MacFarlane always had a big presence on this show, but I think it’s a testament to his savvy as a creator that he’s able to recognize when it’s more powerful to step back and let other cast members take the spotlight. Though we don’t get a ton of screentime with him this episode since it focuses so heavily on Topa and her family, what time we do get is really excellent. After an amazing discussion between Ed and Heveena, which includes the ultimate mic drop line of the episode when he warns her not to “advertise tactical opportunism as pious morality,” the female Moclan leader remains adamant that she can do nothing to help Topa because it will endanger yet more lives.

Rather than give up, Ed falls back on Heveena’s weakness: he invites her to the simulator, where none other than Dolly Parton herself comes onscreen to chat with her. Beyond just the immediate shock of actually seeing Parton appear in this episode, the scene is beautiful. Heveena is brought to tears and Parton is just wonderfully fun. In case you’ve forgotten, Parton’s music was not used as a gimmick in season 1, but rather as a metaphor for the type of struggle that Heveena herself was going through at the time. It makes the whole situation much more moving.

Parton doesn’t try to convince Heveena of anything — she’s just a simulation after all — but she does talk about her own life and experiences in a way that cuts through Heveena’s indecisiveness. And of course, the sequence ends with Parton picking up a guitar and playing one of her songs.

Ultimately, Heveena decides to confess to enlisting Topa before the Planetary Union. The Moclans demand that she be arrested for her crimes. And since there’s no proof that they abducted Topa, there’s not a whole lot anyone can do to fight them about it.

On the other side of all this are Kelly and Bortus, who go after Topa in hopes of saving her from her captors. The search leads them to a secret Moclan facility where we discover that Topa is being tortured (quite brutally — it was rough to watch) in order to get information about the underground female Moclan rescue efforts. Palicki and Macon have fantastic chemistry and the staging of the rescue is exhilarating, from the Mass Effect-style infiltration of the base to the shuttle dogfight to escape it. Bortus gets a terrifying moment where he lets loose on Topa’s torturer just moments before the other Moclan was about to kill her, tasing out his eye before Kelly makes him stand down. All in all, it was some of the most exciting action this season.

It all comes together when Bortus, Kelly, and Topa arrive at the Union negotiations at the last minute. With indisputable evidence of the horror committed against Topa, Moclus is expelled from the Union. And, quite beautifully, the female Moclan colony is inducted into the Union as a fully sovereign nation.

The episode ends with Bortus’ partner Klyden (Chad Coleman) returning to the Orville and reconciling with his daughter after storming out in a prejudiced rage during Topa’s transition episode. Knowing that she almost died was enough to finally snap him out of his hatred and remind him how much he loves his child no matter who she is. Reunited, Bortus, Klyden, and Topa sit down to one of her favorite dinners…with Kelly joining them, showing that all the bad blood between her and Klyden is gone as well. Even a Kaylon would have gotten emotional at the final few minutes of this episode. They were superb.

The Orville: Bullet Point Horizons

• Gordon (Scott Grimes) not realizing Topa has a crush on him at the beginning of the episode while every member of the engineering team shoots each other surreptitious glances was a lot of fun. And it came back around in a really powerful way when Gordon (who thinks of Topa almost as a little sister) is one of the few to speak freely against the Moclan delegation over how awful they’re being.
• The festival at the female Moclan colony is a stunning set piece, and I can’t wait to watch it again. From the music to the setting to the firefly-like Illuminites, it was a feast for the senses.
• There is a feeling this season that The Orville refuses to ever take the easy route when there is a more compelling story choice available, even if it means expanding the episode or including an extra set piece. It really adds a lot.
• It was nice to see President Alcuzan (Bruce Boxleitner) and Speria Balask (Lisa Banes) again in this episode.
• The treatment of Topa in this episode was horrific. The Orville proved here that it is not willing to shy away from darker sequences, from the Moclans’ sexist mocking of Topa to the literal torture of a child.
• I’m curious to see how the fallout of Moclus parting ways with the Union will play out in the season’s final two episodes. Admiral Halsey warned it would be a “messy divorce” since the Moclans are so intertwined with Union forces.
• Speaking of the political situation, despite the fact that this season began with the idea of everyone coming together to fight the Kaylon, it seems like the Union is losing allies left and right; first the Krill, now the Moclans. What does the mean for the season’s final two episodes, and the looming confrontation with the Kaylon?

Verdict

“Midnight Blue” might not have been the best episode of the season (I think “Gently Falling Rain” still takes that crown), but it was certainly one of the best. It felt more like a movie than any other episode yet, and from the special effects to the sweeping story, that feature-length runtime felt earned. When you factor in how much the events of this episode changed the political landscape for the series, it moved things forward in a huge way. And let’s not forget the cameo by Dolly Parton, which is sure to go down as one of the show’s most memorable moments. The Orville: New Horizons just feels unstoppable this season.

Episode Grade: A

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