The Orville Season 2 Episode 14 Review: The Road Not Taken

This The Orville review contains spoilers.

The Orville Season 2 Episode 14

“The Road Not Taken” begins with two masked humanoids trying to steal a big ugly looking microwave type device. The Kaylon busts them. The two thieves run away and narrowly escape. It turns out the thieves are Ed and Gordon and the microwave device is a replicator. Ed and Gordon then replicate a Twinkie. While they are enjoying the Twinkie, they are captured by a space scavenger. That space scavenger? None other than Commander Kelly Grayson.

One thing I left out in my last review was that at episode’s end, the younger version of Kelly Grayson, who came from seven years in the past into The Orville present, didn’t lose her memory when she went back to the past. She was supposed to not remember she went into the future so she would not screw up the timeline. But she did, and she decided not to date Ed. That was the last scenes in the episode and leaves viewers with a cliffhanger. What effect did that decision have on the future? In this episode, we find out.

Captain Ed said once he would rather eat chunks of glass than discuss time travel logic. That last paragraph demonstrates why. However, it is time travel logic that creates a crisis for this episode. Kelly’s decision caused the future to change immensely. 

Kelly really screwed up the future. Since she didn’t help Ed became a captain, he was not able to defeat the Kaylon, and so now the Kaylon have decimated the Earth and the Moon. Humans are on the run, and most of The Orville crew are now part of the resistance. Hmm, resistance? Sound familiar?

That is not the only thing that is familiar with this episode. The entire show is a homage to Star Wars. The outfits, music, pacing, a d shooting style are all Star Wars. The last episode got a little deep, not this one. This one was all swashbuckling to the core. The primary purpose of this episode seems to be fun. And fun it is.

further reading: The Orville Season 2: Fighting for a Funny Future

The mission for the characters this time around is to fix Kelly’s mistake. They needed to find the The Orville so they can configure Isaac’s time machine and send Dr. Claire into the past so she can erase Kelly’s memory of the future correctly this time. Confusing? That’s time travel for you.

The reason why Kelly didn’t go on the second date with Ed in this timeline was that she had seen the pain their relationship had given Ed and Kelly in the future. She wanted to try to avoid that pain from happening. Silly younger Kelly! That little change screwed all sentient life in the future. Her defense was that if you could correct the mistakes you made in the past, wouldn’t you? Those of us who have seen enough time travel shows would know better, but since her memory was not erased, she was bound to have trouble.

Some may be disappointed that The Orville decided to use a finale as a silly Star Wars-like adventure. Typically a finale is used to build some significant drama, tie-up some loose threads from the season, and leave us with a jaw-dropping cliffhanger. Not The Orville. They decided to have fun.

I enjoyed the “The Road Not Taken.” It was adventurous. There were many beautiful, cinematic space scenes, and, of course, humor — all the things we love about The Orville. 

Keep up with all of our coverage of The Orville Season 2 here!

Alejandro Rojas writes and blogs about science, entertainment, and the paranormal. Alejandro has spent many hours in the field investigating anomalous phenomena up close and personal. You can find him on Twitter here.