The Orville: New Horizons Is Back And Fans Cannot Get Enough Of Its Electric Sheep

The Orville is back and better than ever with all sorts of new newness. New aesthetics, new crew members, new aliens, new tragedies and triumphs to flesh out, and even a new little tramp stamp, New Horizons, courtesy of Hulu.

As the episode opens, we see the Orville ship getting the last of its repairs and upgrades completed. Its understandably anxious crew is trying to regain a sense of physical/emotional security while getting back into their daily work routines. Dealing with the past trauma of the Kaylon attack is one thing, but to still have Isaac on board is causing additional stress and making everyone relive the fear and panic from the battle every single day. That is until ensign Burke decides to have a sit down with Isaac and tell him exactly what everyone is thinking and feeling about his presence aboard in the starkest, most spiteful language she could and while Isaac cannot feel feelings the data point that her malicious rant became also became the backbone of another deadly, misguided decision.

Mark Jackson as Isaac and Kai Wener as Ty Finn The Orville: New Horizons “Electric Sheep” – Episode 301

After an emotionally charged altercation with Dr Finn’s oldest son Marcus, Isaac decides that he has collected enough data and surmised that the crew would be better off without him and so he kills himself, going so far as to leave a recorded suicide message detailing important information about the ship’s engine and core upgrades that the engineering crew might miss without his help. It’s incredible just how well the writers used an unfeeling alien robot to reflect all the emotional responses that someone who is about to commit suicide experiences and conveys.

Once it become a near certainty that Isaac is no more, the emotional temperature of the crew seemed to change. Everyone’s anger seems to cool, except for Charly’s and unfortunately for her, it’s discovered that she is the only person on board capable of bringing Isaac back, and unfortunately for everyone else, she wasn’t interested in playing robot Jesus. In the middle of all this, we see Clair and Ty struggling with their own grief which leads them both to the simulator to bring Isaac back in their own ways. For Ty, it was a physical representation of Isaac and for Clair, a memory. It was amazing to see the powerful performances this storyline brought out of everyone, but especially Clair’s restaurant scene. Absolute magic.

Kaylons are why we can’t have nice things. Seth MacFarlane as Captain Ed Mercer and Adrianne Palicki as Cmdr. Kelly Grayson

And as if the above going on wasn’t enough drama, the crew finds themselves caught off guard by a lone Kaylon ship that is hell-bent on finishing the job it started months prior. Thanks to some quick thinking and being in close proximity to a very hostile gas giant (they’re very, very moody) The Orville lives to see another day, but without Charly’s help, Isaac most certainly wouldn’t. It would take someone who had previously felt the same level of hatred for Isaac that Charly still currently had to make a simple plea and vocalize a painful realization that both of them could relate to and yes I’m being ambiguous because you really need to watch it. Words alone cannot fully convey the weight of this scene, much less the entire episode.

Photo courtesy of Hulu

Even after a multi-year hiatus, the freshman episode was well worth the wait. Electric Sheep is poignant, deep, and relatable on so very many levels giving fans a lot to discuss and digest for days to come. The new look and new score are breathtaking, the new cast fits in seamlessly and it does not feel like the show has missed a beat. The Orville: New Horizons can be streamed here on Hulu and here on Disney+.

New episodes drop every Thursday.