A brilliant Moclan engineer comes aboard to help upgrade the ship’s deflectors. But Locar is hiding a secret. One that will upend the lives of Talla and Bortus’ family.

The clash between Moclan and Union culture is set to be a big part of this season and this episode does a great job of starting to explore it. Kevin Daniels is great as Locar and his scenes with Kylden in particular are almost textbook Orville: social comedy combined with science fiction.

But it’s as the episode progresses that it starts to impress. His romance with Talla (and Jessica Szohr is also excellent this week), gets over the speed with which it develops through its sincerity. Moclan culture is one thing and trying to be another. That’s going badly and there are casualties. Locar is one of them and Daniels shows us exactly what his choices cost, while Szohr clearly welcomes the chance to play with her character’s previously established sense of morality and temper.

But the star here is the plot and the courage writer David A. Goodman shows in where it ends. Locar framing Klyden for his death, his own punishment and the way that the relationship with Talla plays out is the last thing you’d expect but it grounds the episode and adds some realism and even fatalism. The final scene between Talla and Klyden is where the episode lives; Klyden attempts to apologize and Talla tells him to keep away from her as we see Locar being tried. Moclan culture isn’t right or fair and it’s a bad fit for the Union. But for now, it’s all they have. No reset button, no tidy wrap-up. Just an impossible societal knot and the people tied up in it.

Verdict: This is complicated, multi-viewpoint issues drama and it’s exceptionally well done. The Orville has impressed this season up to now. Here? It soars. 10/10

Alasdair Stuart