2x10 Blood of Patriots

[6.4/10] This is another perfectly acceptable “Off-Brand TNG” outing from The Orville. The balance between a potential peace treaty with a longtime enemy and the morality of turning over a human POW who’s escaped the is the kind of moral thought experiment that Star Trek fans love. There’s added complication of the fact that Malloy has a personal connection to the POW (whose name is Orrin), and the mystery of whether or not he destroyed several Krill ships using only a shuttle, as they claim.

It’s all fine, and the show goes through the motions with all of this. The fact that Orrin definitely did is overly telegraphed, which makes the reveal not particularly shocking. Likewise, anyone who’s seen Firefly knew that his daughter, Leyna, was the key to how he was able to accomplish such a destructive feat, even if it turns out she’s not really his daughter. And the explanation isn’t terribly satisfying, with a deus ex machina “It turns out the mute daughter has explosive blood” twist that comes out of nowhere and is based on Dr. Finn just happening to recognize what’s up without any prior setup.

Part of the problem is that the show elides the real moral conundrum here -- would you turn over an innocent man to save billions of lives? Instead, it makes Orrin obviously guilty of what he’s accused of, and while there’s still plenty of ethical considerations in the “Would you blame a guy whose family was killed by this enemy for wanting to destroy them after twenty years in one of their prison camps?” department, the show centers everything on the “We’ll turn him over if he’s guilty” issue, and there was little doubt in my mind he would be.

I also wasn’t especially compelled by the personal connection between Malloy and Orrin either. It’s something we’re more told than shown, and the performances don’t necessarily feel lived in enough to make up for that. I like Malloy getting a dramatic storyline and having an episode hinge on him, and there’s compelling material in the form of his loyalty to a man who saved his life and has suffered unspeakable things versus his duty as a Union officer. But the execution is just not successful enough to fully realize those ideas, especially in the writing department.

To the same end, there’s not a lot of juice in the Mercer/Malloy relationship to justify the wrinkle of Mercer being jealous of Malloy’s friendship with Orrin. Despite the two being nominal best friends, we see Mercer spend way more tie with Grayson in the show, so it’s another “tell rather than show” sort of thing. Their bond hasn’t been built up enough to justify the kind of sentiment The Orville wants to wring out of their closing moment together.

The mystery also doesn’t do much for me, since again, a lot of it’s either obvious or out of nowhere, and detective Talla doesn’t really seize on much to crack the case. It’s another “here’s a pile of exposition to explain it” bit, and Malloy’s ploy doesn’t work terribly well as a fakeout.

On the whole, this one is fine. The prospect of peace with the Krill is a big thing to hang in the balance, and even at its worst, this episode is thoroughly competent as it dutifully hits the beats for this kind of story. It just never rises above that level.