The crew are selected to escort a Union delegation to the Krill homeworld. In the face of the Kaylon threat and with the Supreme Chancellor set to be re-elected, a peace between humanity and the Krill is in reach.

Until Teleya (Michaela McManus) seizes power. Suddenly, the delegation are war criminals, the ship is under attack and Ed finds himself face to face with the last person he ever expected to see: his daughter.

Brannon Braga and Andre Bormanis always swing for the fences and like anyone, don’t always make it. Here, they do. The massive events of the episode really do feel like the ‘every episode a movie’ feel the press for the series was full of. We go from a flotilla of guest appearances from familiar admirals to a literal flotilla of Union ships as Kelly leads a fleet who slug it out with the Krill while a frantic rescue mission careens around the sky. This whole sequence may be the best thing the show has done. From the public execution, that actually begins, to John (J. Lee) handbrake turning the shuttle into the Orville’s hangar in the middle of a colossal firefight, the episode just doesn’t stop. It’s fun and scary and big in a way that very other shows can do.

If this was all we got, it’d be fun. As it stands we get this massive cathartic sequence at the end of an increasingly tense deep dive into Kaylon culture, a meditation on election fraud and the best work Seth MacFarlane has done on the show this season. Ed’s desperate, instant love for his daughter isn’t played as schmaltzy so much as a man whose lack of focus has often defined him seeing things clearly. There’s a great scene between Ed and Kelly (the always excellent Adrienne Palicki) where they discuss what’s happened. They’re both traumatised, both just barely lived through what surely must be the opening salvo of a war the Union cannot afford and yet… they’re both calm. Ed has a star to steer by. Kelly, like all good Number Ones, knows to back up the Captain. And in this case, buy him breakfast. It’s been read in some quarters as the reignition of their relationship but I don’t read it that way. Rather, it’s two soldiers relishing the last bit of calm they’ll have for a while. Or at least, it’s that for now. There’s a lot of the season still to go.

But the episode is owned wholesale by Michaela McManus. Teleya, introduced in Season 2, is the perfect foil for Ed because he is genuinely the villain in her life. The actions he and Gordon take in ‘Krill’, which is one of the worst hours of the show to date, are awful but the way they’ve resonated has only ever got more impressive. Ed is Teleya’s villain origin story and Teleya has done awful things to get where she is. But all those awful things start with Ed killing her family and the way the two are tied together feels complex and untidy, horrific and grounded. It’s a great dynamic, McManus is excellent here and MacFarlane brings real depth too. I suspect we may see Teleya again before the season is out and if it’s as good as this appearance, Ed’s in for a horrific time and we’re in for a treat.

Verdict: The first episode since the season opener that feels like its earned its run time and uses every minute of it to tell a complex, difficult story that’s definitely due another chapter or two. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart