Kelly discovers something very surprising about John, and makes a choice that will change his career forever.

After the dismal ‘Majority Rule’, this takes another run at a LaMarr solo episode and it works so much better. In fact, along with ‘Into The Fold’ and ‘Pria’ this stands as one of the best episodes the show has done to date.

MacFarlane cleverly bounces the drama of the ship plot (a spatial anomaly which turns out to be a gateway into 2D space) off John’s struggle to reconcile himself with his intelligence and Ed finally discovering he got the job on Kelly’s say so. The first is a character study, the second is a moment of pure science fictional wonder and the third propels the show’s arc plot towards a better place than we could have dared hope 12 weeks ago.

The reason the LaMarr plot works is it’s exactly what ‘Majority Rule’ wasn’t; low key. John is happy with who he’s been and this episode finally sees him become happy with who he is. It’s not perfect, and this plot would have massively benefited from being spread across a few episodes but it works and works well.

Likewise the ship plot. There’s this lovely moment where the crew realize what’s going on where they all just… stop. The soldiers of a few seconds ago are replaced by explorers, struck dumb by the amazing thing they’ve found. It’s one of the show’s best moments to date and is purely science fiction as you can imagine.

Amazingly, even the Ed and Kelly plot works. This episode definitively moves them both on; Ed past his inferiority complex and Kelly past her guilt, in a way that feels sweet and real and deserved. Kelly’s ‘It was never the feather, Dumbo, it was you.’ in particular is a moment of real emotional weight that lands completely.

Verdict: By the episode’s end, John is in a different job, Ed and Kelly are on a different page and the show is on another level. A fantastic episode that deserves to be the gold standard for next season. 9/10

Alasdair Stuart