IR TV Review: THE ORVILLE - NEW HORIZONS - EPISODE 6 (“Twice In A Lifetime”) [Hulu]
Like the season finale of “Strange New Worlds”, “The Orville: New Horizons” continues to surprise. With Episode 6: “Twice In A Lifetime” it takes into play again (like the season finale of “Strange New Worlds”, the notion of consequence and yet this one episode takes place also with a sense of recall. One of the best introspective episodes of last season was one where Lt. Malloy (Scott Grimes) recreated a woman's life off her cell phone which was left in a time capsule. It was one of those aspects like Minuet in a way in TNG; that dream that could never be completed. Jon Cassar (being obviously a fan of this kind of “Star Trek” lore) puts this in play as the writer of this episode while Seth McFarlane directs with a sense of subtlety. Without giving away too much of the gist of the ep, it revolves in the same ideal of where the audience at certain points knows more than one of the characters and their inevitability. The great thing about the writing here is that there is a realness even in the science fiction element. You understand why Malloy acts the way he acts and the hurt in both directions it causes even in its aftermath which is the heartbreaking part of it.
The way McFarlane, Palicki and Malloy play it later in the episode again rivals any competitor because they understand (especially in this season) the stakes. There is also a parallel subplot with Isaac and Charley (Anne Winters) which again moves the story while also exploring that dark underlying track of their interaction (which, while overplayed at times, works well). But the main gist of the episode is riveting especially in how it sets it up and pays it off. Interestingly enough, the beginning almost throws it off with a big battle sequence which the show can do but doesn't need to here. The simpler it works while still pushing these complex and yet singular storylines (“Two Topas” worked well as well) is what makes this season an improvement even more than last season. The key is to be able to keep this going at this quality and scale which, with McFarlane's other commitments and the casts' contracts up at the end of this season, might be bittersweet in what may be to come. But with episodes like this, the legacy is solid. A
By Tim Wassberg
