2x13 Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow

[6.0/10] Ed Mercer is the wooooooorst. Let’s start there. Assume for the sake of argument that Past Kelly wasn’t a younger version of Present Kelly. Assume that, instead, she’s just a twin sister that he’s never met before. Everything he does is still terrible.

Present Kelly has indicated she’s not interested, but that’s not a good reason to date your ex’s twin sister that you’ve just met, particularly when you still work with your ex and, for that matter, she reports to you. What a dick move and uncomfortable position to put Present Kelly in. And, to make it worse, this is once again Captain Mercer trying to date someone who’s his subordinate, which continues to not be cool.

Now throw in all the timey-wimey nonsense. That makes everything worse, because he’s not just dating a sibling, but dating a different version of his ex, with all the same memories up to a point. Nevermind the ethics of dating someone when you know the details of the next seven years of their life (or at least a version of them). It’s creepy and unethical, and why he’s not thrown out the airlock, or at least reprimanded by Union Command for it is beyond me.

Once again, we’re supposed to forgive all of this because Mercer is in looooove, and if Present Kelly doesn’t want to date him, apparently that gives him carte blanche to date someone who’s basically her time-displaced clone. His ultimatum that he won’t date Past Kelly if Present Kelly agrees to get back together with him is especially gross.

With that out of the way, let’s focus on the positives here. For one thing, I was really impressed by Adrianne Palicki here. Present Kelly and Past Kelly feel like very different people. Present Kelly is commanding; she’s confident; she’s direct, and she speaks in a lower tone with a stronger posture and presence. Past Kelly is a little more flustered, a little looser, someone who speaks in a higher tone (befitting someone younger) who sounds like she’s still figuring things out. There were honestly times when I forgot they were being portrayed by the same actress.

Some of that comes down to the craft of it. Palicki’s wig as Past Kelly is a little less than convincing, but it works as an instant distinguisher between the two. Beyond the hair, Present Kelly and Past Kelly are styled differently, accentuating the differences. In the same way, the camera and special effects team does a good job of composting them into the same scenes in a way that’s almost never distracting and almost always feels natural. All of that helps, and combined with Palicki’s performance, it really sells how great a distance there is between Past Kelly and Present Kelly.

There’s also a good theme between the two of them -- a chance to reconcile your younger self with your older self in a literal but still poignant way. The episode stops concerning itself with the practicalities of having one’s younger self on board pretty quickly, beyond the “Hey, maybe don’t tell embarrassing stories from our shared” past stuff. But there’s meat in the places they differ about their future.

Past Kelly reveals that she has three goals: fall in love, captain a starship, and change the galaxy for the better. She looks at Present Kelly falling short of those goals (in fairness, by a little at most), and says her “older sister” has made a hash of those goals. Likewise, Present Kelly looks down on her younger self for making foolish mistakes and not understanding what’s required to be an officer or the complexity of making a relationship work.

There’s some good nuts and bolts work between them, where Past Kelly comes up with a good idea on how to evade the Kaylon, earning her counterpart’s appreciation, and Present Kelly acts with poise and bravery on the bridge, gaining her younger self’s appreciation. It’s a little quick, but it works as a resolution to their emotional trajectory.

The problem starts with the Mercer material. His arc here is supposed to be thinking that he wants to start over with Past Kelly, back at a time when they were still in love, only to realize that he too has changed in the past seven years, and that he no longer makes sense with who Kelly used to be, and only cares for the person she’s become.

That’s not a bad lesson, but its dramatization is just awful, as he doesn’t need to court Kelly’s past self to learn it. And the beats about going to loud clubs is cheesy stuff (even if the Moclans dancing is hilarious). It’s a solid epiphany, but how Ed gets there is abhorrent.

Then there’s solution on how to get Past Kelly back to the past. First, they’re all pretty blasé about an experimental trip back to the past that’s never been tested before with a human life on the line. Second, they’re really blasé about wiping her memory, even with the possibility that it could cause brain damage. Last but not least, they just accept her, “We know it works, because everyone’s still here” explanation, despite the fact that they admit in the early part of the episode that they don’t know how the timelines and time travel work.

I do like the bittersweet note that it didn’t work, that she has her memories and turns down past Mercer, but it just makes the Orville’s crew seem like an even bigger pack of idiots for going along with it.

Overall, there’s a solid idea here about who we used to be versus who we become and a great bit of acting for two from Palicki, but it gets lost on some really abhorrent stuff with Ed and jumbled storytelling elsewhere.

Pretty weak episode that forced the final moment to be a big twist or else the whole thing would have been pointless. It is an interesting twist though. I was ready to pan this episode if it weren't for that moment, now I'm genuinely curious what the consequences are (there have got to be some consequences right? They're not just going to pretend like that's a new timeline?)

But the briefing room scene where they're going over the plan to send her back is full of holes
Problems:
* Sending her back would put extreme strain on the ship
* Wiping her memory might get brain damage

Solution: Commander Grayson is there, therefore the procedure worked and the crew should do the procedure.

Let's assume then that the young Kelly Grayson is the same person and she doesn't remember anything because she was successfully sent back in time and memory wiped without brain damage. But that doesn't mean the Orville survived the procedure that was required to accomplish that. What if the Orville was destroyed in the process (which is likely given the strain it put on the ship)? Then the whole thing is not a good bargain at all.