2x03 Home

[8.1/10] A good chunk of “Home” doesn’t really need to be a sci-fi show. That’s a feature, not a bug. One of the things I always liked about Star Trek (which extends to this spin-off in all but name) is that despite its intergalactic setting, the franchise would consistently draw back to the personal and interpersonal stories within that firmament, not just content to exchange phaser fire with aliens and explore the anomaly of the week.

In that vein, Alara’s visit back to her disapproving parents, having come down with a sort of low-gravity illness as a Xelayan on a human ship, calls back to past Star Trek stories. It invokes Spock bringing Kirk and Bones to his home planet on The Original Series, T’Pol returning to her home on Vulcan with Trip in tow on Enterprise, and even Jean-Luc Picard going to his old family vineyard after a traumatic experience on The Next Generation. Each of these stories forced the Starfleet officers at their center to reconcile their lives in that role with their upbringing amid a different walk of life, and this episode follows that proud tradition.

We see Alara return to her home, where her parents and sister welcome her back and are plainly glad to have her home, but just as plainly view her as less-than. The last episode with her parents present made it clear that the Kitans look down on her father joining a military organization, wish that she would return to school, and view her as “slow” relative to the intellectual standards on Xelaya. Her returning to their care and being treated much the same reminds her why she left in the first place and reopens old wounds and reignites old disagreements between the family members.

But it also creates a chance for greater understanding and to turn over a new leaf. There’s some good kitchen sink drama material at play here, with Alara feeling like her family’s treating her as a failure, her sister voicing a “grass is always greener” dynamic between those brains and those of brawn, and clear feelings of inadequacy and comparison between Alara and her sibling.

There’s also an opportunity for Alara to prove why what she does is valuable and earn her parents’ respect. That comes when the friendly neighbors at the beachouse turn out to be a couple of anti-vax extremists who are seeking revenge on Alara’s dad, Ildis, because he discredited their son’s anti-vax paper, eventually leading to the son’s suicide.

It’s a nice motivation for the villains of the piece, creating an intellectual dispute that leads to a physical one, with parent/child underpinnings that mirror the ones between Alara and Ildis. Not for nothing, it creates an opportunity for two members of Star Trek’s fantastic pantheon of doctors to play opposite one another. John Billingsley (the friendly Dr. Phlox from Enterprise) is surprisingly terrifying as a grief-rage filled dad who wants to avenge his son’s legacy. For his part, Robert Picardo (The Doctor from Voyager) gives a strong emotional performance, laden with meaning and lived-in strife between him and his daughter.

By the same token, this is a great outing for Halston Sage as Alara. This episode puts a lot on her, having to sell years of resentments and family dynamics the audience hasn’t seen but nevertheless has to feel. She does so like a champ, showing moments of warmth, pain, determination, wistfulness, and courage that work whether she’s in the family drama facets of this episode or the tense stand-off parts of it.

To that end, Alara gets the chance to prove her worth and her mettle when she out-strategizes her family’s attackers and eventually neutralizes them using her quick wits and courageousness. The episode wrings plenty of suspense out of the hostage situation, and there’s even a nice urgency and ticking clock to Captain Mercer needing to be dragged back to the safety of the shuttle’s gravitational deflector, less he be “crushed like a grape” under Xelaya’s natural gravity. The show does a good job of setting up the wrist countdown, the nature of Xelaya’s gravity, and the other necessary elements to make that work. Plus, his leg getting crushed while the suit fails helps raise the stakes.

The escapade not only proves how capable and vital Alara has become since joining the Union, but puts Ildis in her shoes for just a brief moment to better understand the risks his daughter takes and the fortitude she shows every day. It leads to an apology, an admission that he doesn’t know her, and the chance for reconciliation. It’s true well-earned and well done.

The only part of this one I’m not crazy about is the attempt at comedy back on the ship with Alara’s temporary (I hope) replacement. Look, it’s always great to have Patrick Warburton on your show, but this external esophagus bro-type is more regular annoying than comically annoying.

I say that -- the other part I don’t like is that Alara leaves! With this sort of heartfelt goodbye, it doesn’t seem like a fakeout. I hope Sage just decided to pursue other projects, and it’s not because of behind-the-scenes strife, the type of which has unfortunately afflicted some Star Trek projects. She’s been one of the show’s strengths (no pun intended), and I’m sorry to see her go.

That said, they come up with a good psychological explanation for her leaving. She joined the Union Fleet because she felt like she didn’t have a place on Xelaya and she wanted to find a family that would accept her and respect her. Now that her biological family seems to understand and appreciate her, she feels she owes it a second chance. That makes a lot of emotional sense. The hugs goodbye are sweet, and the gift of a jar of pickles is an amusing keepsake given Mercer’s frequent catchphrase toward Alara.

Overall, this is another strong entry in a row for The Orville. I hope against hope that it doesn’t mean the permanent loss of the ship’s security officer given how much the character brought to the table, but if it does, this a mighty fine way for her to go out.