In Review: The Orville (S3 – EP9) Domino

Synopsis: In Domino, The creation of a powerful weapon puts the crew – and the entire Union – in a political and ethical dilemma.

The Story

Following the events, we saw in last week’s show. The Moclan’s having been expelled from the Planetary Union have formed an alliance with Krill leader Teleya to share their resources. Meanwhile, Isaac and Ensign Charly Burke have come up with a weapon that can destroy The Kaylons. 

Having tested their new weapon. Admiral Perry puts it to the alliance that they use the weapon to destroy all the Kaylons. However, Captain Mercer says that it would be genocide and argues for a more reasonable approach like an armistice between Earth and Kaylon. In short, The Union promises not to use their weapon so long as the Kaylons cease their hostilities against Earth and other Union planets. This agreement works out for a short time. But then Admiral Perry throws a spanner in the works by stealing the weapon and taking it to the Krill. However, the weapon is useless to the Krill and the Moclan’s because only Charly and Isaac can disarm it.

Knowing how dangerous this weapon is. The Orville crew must work with the Kaylons in order to receive the weapon, but will this mission form the basis of a new alliance?

The Acting

We get some fantastic acting in this episode and one of the standouts for me was Ted Danson in his role of Admiral Perry. I’m used to seeing Danson in more comedic roles. So seeing him voice Admiral Perry’s conviction about destroying the Kaylons was a bit of a shocker for me to see.

We also get really strong performances from Mark Jackson and Anne Winters as Isaac and Charly. I really enjoyed the exchanges between them when Mercer was negotiating the alliance with the Kaylons to get the weapon back. But Charly’s final scene is particularly strong given the character journey that she has been on.

We also get a really good performance from Michaela McManus as Teleya who has a brilliant scrappy fight with Kelly toward the end of the episode, which has some pretty solid dialogue throughout. 

Overall

Domino was a strong episode that picked up the threads from previous storylines and rolled with them. It was great to see the Kaylon storyline get some resolution, but also quite interesting to see the Moclan’s going to the Krill to form an alliance as it changes the balance of power in the Orville’s universe.

We get some great action throughout as we see Gordon get a chance to show off his skills as a pilot as the Orville sends its small attack ships in to help with the raid on the Moclan moon to steal the weapon back. It’s also a sad episode as we lose a character who I was beginning to quite like.

Overall. Not quite as strong as previous episodes, but it is an episode that needed to be made to tie up some plot threads. With just one episode of the season left. It will be interesting to see where next week’s story goes.