OLD WOUNDS
Twenty-fifth-century Union command officer Ed Mercer divorces his wife, Kelly Grayson, after catching her cheating on him, prompting an emotional crisis that severely affects his career. A year later, he accepts a position as captain of the U.S.S. Orville, a mid-level exploratory vessel. To his dismay, his ex-wife has been assigned as his first officer. During the Orville's first mission, the hostile alien Krill captain attempts to steal a device that accelerates time, which has both beneficial and dangerous applications. Mercer and Grayson rig the device to destroy itself and the Krill vessel.
COMMAND PERFORMANCE
The technologically advanced Calivon capture and imprison Mercer and Grayson for a new exhibit in a zoo filled with humanoid species from throughout the galaxy. Alara is left in command of the Orville, as Bortus has laid an egg and must incubate it. Alara is unsure of herself, but gains confidence with Claire's mentoring. Mercer and Grayson speculate whether they could have made their relationship work, but conclude they were incompatible for a lonterm romantic relationship, despite their strong camaraderie. Admiral Tucker orders Alara to return the Orville to Earth rather than approach the powerful Calivon in a rescue attempt; Alara disobeys orders and retrieves Mercer and Grayson, along with a kidnapped alien child, by trading an archive of Earth's 21st-century reality television for them. Mercer presents Alara with a medal of honor, and he and Grayson are certain she will not be disciplined for disobeying a direct order. A rare female offspring hatches from Bortus's egg, stunning him and Klyden.
ABOUT A GIRL
When Doctor Finn refuses Bortus and Klyden's request for her to perform sex reassignment surgery on their daughter, a standard Moclan practice on the rare occasion a female is born, they petition Mercer to order the procedure. Mercer refuses, as he (and the rest of the crew) object to performing such a procedure on a healthy infant. Bortus and Klyden then arrange to have the procedure performed on a Moclan vessel. Bortus changes his mind after watching the Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer TV special; Klyden wants to proceed, revealing that he was born female. The case is arbitrated on Moclus, where Grayson represents Bortus; Grayson disputes male superiority by demonstrating Alara's immense physical strength and Gordon's lesser intelligence. Mercer locates Heveena, an elderly female Moclan who testifies that she has lived a secluded but happy and fulfilling life. Under the male pseudonym "Gondus Elden," she became an esteemed novelist on Moclus. Klyden and the tribunal are unconvinced, and the infant undergoes the surgery. Despite their disagreement, Bortus and Klyden are committed to one another and to giving their son, Topa, a good life.
IF THE STARS SHOULD APPEAR
The Orville encounters an immense, 2,000-year-old derelict ship drifting into a star. Mercer, Grayson, Kitan, Finn, and Isaac enter, discovering an artificial biosphere and a civilization of three million who worship an entity called Dorahl. They are unaware they are on a ship. Grayson is held prisoner by their theocratic dictator, Hamelac, who imposes a death penalty on "Reformers" who believe anything exists beyond their known world. While Bortus takes the Orville to save the colony ship DrieAnn from a Krill attack, Grayson's crewmates rescue her and lead a group of Reformers to the alien ship's bridge. An ancient video recording from Captain Jahavus Dorahl reveals that it is a generation ship disabled by an ion storm. Isaac initiates repairs and opens the hull's window, enabling the populace to see stars for the first time, moving even Hamelac. Mercer arranges for Union staff to train the inhabitants to operate their ship. Meanwhile, Klyden grows frustrated that Bortus's duties leave him little time for family.
PRIA
The Orville rescues Captain Pria Levesque from her imperiled mining ship. The beautiful Pria charms the crew and romances Mercer. Grayson grows suspicious of Pria, and enlists Kitan to investigate. They discover a mysterious device hidden in Pria's quarters. Using the device that she integrated into the ship's systems, Pria hijacks the Orville, navigating it out of a dark matter storm. Pria is a time-traveling 29th-century artifact dealer. History records that the storm destroyed the Orville, which Pria transports to the future via a wormhole to sell it to a collector; the crew is to live out their lives in the 29th century. Isaac transfers his consciousness to the ship's computer and regains control, enabling Malloy to return the Orville to its own time. Mercer orders the wormhole's destruction causing Pria to vanish as if she had never existed. Meanwhile, Malloy pranks Isaac by sticking Mr. Potato Head pieces on his head and encourages him to retaliate with his own practical joke, a concept unfamiliar to Isaac, who responds by cutting off Malloy's leg (which is subsequently quickly regrown).
KRILL
After recovering an intact Krill shuttle, Mercer and Malloy are ordered to pose as Krill soldiers to board one of their vessels and obtain a copy of the Ankhana, a sacred religious text ("the Krill Bible" as it's described) via which the Krill believe by divine right they are superior to all other species in the universe. Mercer and Malloy are forced to change priorities after learning the Krill plan to detonate a powerful bomb over a remote Union colony. Rather than destroy the bomb, and therefore the ship, they exploit the Krill's natural weakness to sunlight to eliminate the crew while sparing a classroom of children and their teacher, a female Krill named Teleya. She warns Mercer that his actions will only reinforce the Krill's hatred for the Union.
MAJORITY RULE
Grayson and an undercover team land on Sargas 4, a planet with a culture similar to 21st-century Earth, to search for two missing anthropologists. They find that the people of Sargas 4 practice Absolute democracy, where everything is decided by a majority vote among the populace, even what information is accepted as truth. LaMarr is arrested after what is considered inappropriate public behavior and receives more than a million "down" votes by viewers watching a televised clip of the film footage. LaMarr must persuade the public to pardon him or else be subjected to "treatment" for his actions. Meanwhile, Alara and Claire locate one of the missing anthropologists who is in an irreversible lobotomized state, having been sentenced by public opinion because he didn't offer his seat on a subway train to a pregnant woman who he probably didn't notice. With LaMarr facing a final vote to determine his guilt, Mercer brings one of the planet's inhabitants, Lysella, aboard the Orville after she witnesses Alara's true appearance. She explains that the "Master Feed" works by the public watching the film footage and then mass voting on it. Isaac is able to hack into the planet's system and upload doctored sympathetic images of LaMarr that narrowly swings the vote in his favor. LaMarr and the crew return to the ship and depart. Lysella decides against taking part in a public vote, contemplating the advice the Orville crew gave her about the difference between opinion and knowledge.
INTO THE FOLD
While traveling to a recreational planet in a shuttle, Isaac, Finn, and her sons, Marcus and Ty, fall into a spatial fold, and crash land on a planet a thousand light-years away from their original location. The planet, devastated by famine and disease, is populated by cannibals. During the landing, the shuttle breaks in half, separating Finn from the others. She is captured by a survivalist named Drogen. While she works to escape, Isaac, unfamiliar with the care of human children, is forced to protect Ty and Marcus while simultaneously attempting to repair the shuttle's communication systems and send a distress signal. Ty becomes ill with the planet's indigenous disease. After Finn kills Drogen and reunites with the others, Isaac and Marcus hold off a cannibal attack long enough for the Orville to rescue them. After Finn cures Ty's infection, Isaac tells her that, for all the children's faults, he still thinks of them fondly.
CUPID'S DAGGER
The Orville is dispatched to mediate talks between the Navarians and the Bruidians, two alien species at a centurieold stalemate over which race lays proper claim over the planet Lapovius. Also assigned to the matter is Darulio, the Retepsian whose affair with Grayson a year prior ended her marriage to Mercer. He will scan an ancient artifact from the planet for DNA to reveal which species was the original inhabitant. Unbeknownst to the crew, Darulio secretes a powerful sex pheromone during his mating cycle which affects the crew, resulting in trysts between Darulio and Grayson, Darulio and Mercer, and Finn and Yaphit. The affected officers are incapacitated, causing the Navarian and Bruidian delegates to cancel the mediation, and a full-scale battle in orbit around the planet ensues. To avert the crisis, Darulio and Alara expose the ambassadors to a modified version of the pheromone, causing a temporary mutual infatuation that prompts a ceasefire. DNA test results reveal that the planet's inhabitants were common ancestors to both species, legitimizing a mutual claim to the planet. When Grayson asks Darulio if he was in heat when they had their tryst, he says, "maybe".
FIRESTORM
When Lt. Payne is trapped beneath debris during a plasma storm, Alara's pyrophobia causes her to hesitate, resulting in his death. Blaming herself, she tenders her resignation, which Mercer declines. He suggests she discover the source of her fear. Her parents tell her that when she was an infant, her mother fell asleep while cradling her when a kitchen fire broke out. Alara's cries awoke her mother in time. Soon, the Orville encounters strange phenomena, including a scary clown, a giant spider that devours Malloy, and murderous versions of Finn and Isaac. It is revealed that Alara is in the holographic simulator. She ordered Isaac to create a program to simulate all her potential fears. Finn erased her short-term memory to ensure an authentic reaction to the program. She completes the program, but Mercer threatens to court martial her for invoking Directive 38 (allowing the chief of security to override the captain's clearance) to prevent anyone from prematurely aborting the simulation. He decides to be lenient, impressed by Alara's ability to overcome every obstacle.
NEW DIMENSIONS
With Lt. Newton leaving the Orville, Mercer must find a new chief engineer. Although Yaphit is next in line for the position, Cmdr. Grayson discovers that LaMarr has been concealing his intellectual gifts, stemming from his wanting to be accepted by his childhood peers while growing up. Grayson convinces Mercer to assign LaMarr to lead an engineering team assignment in order to evaluate him as a candidate. When Mercer learns that Grayson similarly advocated for Admiral Halsey to consider him for the Orville's captaincy, he becomes wracked with doubt and resentment. Grayson insists that he received the position on merit alone. Halsey confirms that Mercer's performance has borne this out. Meanwhile, the Orville encounters a thief with a cache of plasma rifles stolen from the Krill. He is killed when he passes into a region of two-dimensional space. To elude the Krill pursuers, the Orville takes refuge in that region. When the protective quantum bubble around the ship begins to fail, LaMarr rises to the occasion, and he and Yaphit help the ship escape the realm. LaMarr is made chief engineer and promoted to the rank of lieutenant commander.
MAD IDOLATRY
Grayson leads a shuttle team that crashes on a suddenly appearing planet with a Bronze Age society. After leaving, the crew discovers that the planet phases in to the universe for a short period every 11 days as 700 years passes on the planet. They discover that their first visit has resulted in a religion that worships Kelly Grayson and has since grown into a theocracy resembling Earth's middle ages. Admiral Ozawa reprimands Mercer for omitting mention of the contamination, and orders no further contact with the planet. Mercer and Grayson defy this order by returning to the planet to reveal the truth to the society's religious leader, but a subordinate assassinates him. By the planet's next appearance, its society is comparable to early-21st-century Earth, with religious bickering and strife. Resolving to end the suffering, Isaac stays on the planet when it phases out, spending 700 years with them. When the planet reemerges, it has progressed to interstellar space travel, and two of its representatives return Isaac to the Orville where they inform the crew that despite the tumultuous effect his arrival created, its society evolved away from worshiping Cmdr. Grayson. They suggest that as they progress over millennia ahead, they may study the Union.
JA'LOJA
The USS Orville travels to Moclus for Bortus's Ja'loja, the annual urination ceremony that is attended by the Moclan family and close friends. First Officer Kelly Grayson begins dating ship teacher Cassius, straining her relationship with Captain Ed Mercer. Meanwhile, Lt. Janel Tyler joins the crew as Orville's new cartographer. Dr. Finn's teen son, Marcus, begins associating with the rebellious James Duncan, concerning Finn. After James, Marcus, and another boy are caught consuming vodka in the environmental simulator, the Duncans accuse Marcus of being a bad influence on their son. During a parent-teacher conference, Isaac proves that James hacked into the food simulator and also altered his academic records. Grayson and Mercer reconcile, while Alara Kitan reluctantly goes on a blind date with Dann.
PRIMAL URGES
The Orville spends time observing Nyxia, a planet being consumed by its expanding red star. Bortus often leaves work early and avoids his mate, Klyden, to secretly spend time in pornographic simulator programs. Fed up, Klyden seeks to divorce Bortus via the Moclan custom of killing a spouse. Bortus survives and to avoid Klyden being prosecuted, both agree to undergo marriage counseling with Dr. Finn. Bortus reveals he deeply resents Klyden's altering their child, Topa's, gender without his consent. Later, the Orville initiates a rescue operation after discovering survivors beneath Nyxia's surface. A computer virus from Bortus's porn program infects the ship's computers, hampering the rescue. Bortus and Isaac lead the evacuation and rescue of 30 individuals before the planet breaks up. The computer virus, now controlling the ship's helm, steers the Orville toward the star. Isaac neutralizes the virus and the Orville escapes the star's gravity. While Captain Mercer is furious over Bortus's poor judgment regarding the porn simulator, he commends him for his role in saving the Nyxians. Bortus and Klyden agree to resolve their conflicts and spend more time together.
HOME
When Isaac breaks Alara's forearm during an arm wrestling challenge, Alara discovers her body is slowly losing its superhuman strength as it adapts to Earth's gravity. At Dr. Finn's recommendation, Alara returns to her home planet, Xelaya, to re-acclimate. While convalescing at her parents' house, old familial conflicts resurface, prompting a family visit to their island vacation home to get reacquainted. Things go awry when fellow vacationers Cambis Borrin and his wife show up, seeking revenge against Alara's scientist father, Ildis, whom they blame for their son's suicide. Alara has regained enough strength to subdue the intruders, saving her parents and sister. Meanwhile, Dr. Finn develops a treatment that will allow Alara to maintain her physical strength. Alara chooses to stay on Xelaya to reconnect with her family and bids the Orville crew a heartfelt farewell. Captain Mercer says she is always welcome to return.
NOTHING LEFT ON EARTH EXCEPTING FISHES
After making their romance known, Captain Ed Mercer and Lt. Janel Tyler leave for a short trip together. While en route, the Krill capture their vessel. Janel is tortured, forcing Ed to divulge his (decoy) command codes; he soon learns that she is actually Teleya, the Krill teacher Ed encountered during a previous mission. Disguised as a human, she volunteered to capture a Union captain to seek revenge on Ed for her brother's and crew mates' deaths. Another species attacks the Krill vessel. Ed and Teleya use an escape pod and land on a nearby planet. Teleya, susceptible to sunlight's effect, must rely on Ed to coordinate a rescue. Back on the Orville, Kelly questions Gordon's motive in taking the career-advancing Command test. Ed successfully signals the Orville, and he and Teleya are rescued. In a controversial move, Ed releases Teleya to the Krill as a means to open diplomatic relations with her xenophobic race. She warns him the Krill will never negotiate, as all other humanoid species are considered expendable and inferior soulless beings.
ALL THE WORLD IS BIRTHDAY CAKE
The Orville detects a signal from Regor 2, a planet searching for other intelligent life in the universe, and initiates first contact. The Regorians welcome Ed, Kelly, Claire, Bortus, and the new Xeleyan security chief, Talla Keyali. However, when it is learned that both Kelly and Bortus have birthdays in a few days, the Regorians denounce them as "Giliacs," people predisposed to violence. They are immediately sent to a Giliac internment camp. Claire deduces that Regorian culture is centred around astrology; Giliac is an astrological sign and those born under it are considered potentially violent. Talla correctly hypothesizes the origin of the Giliac stigma: a star in the Giliac constellation collapsed into a black hole millennia earlier and the star's disappearance was interpreted as a bad omen. John deploys a solar reflector that simulates the star when viewed from the planet. With the star's apparent resurgence, Giliacs are no longer considered inherently dangerous, and Kelly and Bortus are released rather than executed.
A HAPPY REFRAIN
Claire develops romantic feelings towards Isaac and wants to pursue a relationship; Isaac considers it an opportunity to study human romantic relations, but lacking emotions, is unable to reciprocate Claire's affections. Meanwhile, Bortus follows Gordon's suggestion to grow a mustache, but most of the crew and Klyden dislike the new look. Isaac initially has difficulty navigating human dating rituals, upsetting Claire, but he gradually adapts. Isaac uses the environmental simulator to create a "human" appearance, and he and Claire become physically intimate. Soon after, Isaac upsets Claire by ending the relationship, saying he has concluded his study. The bridge crew admonishes Isaac for being "a jerk", prompting Isaac to reconcile with Claire, admitting he feels incomplete without her. Finn accepts his apology and they resume their relationship.
DEFLECTORS
The Orville travels to Moclus to have new regenerative deflectors installed. Bortus's former boyfriend, Locar, a brilliant Moclan engineer, oversees the installation. Locar is attracted to Keyali but says Moclans preferring females to males is a punishable crime; she agrees to keep their relationship secret. When Locar mysteriously vanishes from the ship, the environmental simulator log shows a distorted figure disintegrating him. Evidence points to Klyden, who proclaims his innocence and only intended to report Locar to Moclan officials after discovering his secret. Bortus tells Keyali that he knew about Locar, but never exposed him. Their conversation leads Keyali to suspect Locar staged his own murder by altering the simulator log to frame Klyden. During a ship-wide search, Keyali finds Locar in a shuttle craft, concealed via its cloaking device. Locar pleads to escape, but Keyali refuses to allow Klyden to be wrongly incarcerated. To protect his family from retaliation, Locar declines to seek asylum aboard the Orville and instead returns to Moclus to accept punishment. Klyden later expresses gratitude to Keyali for exonerating him, but she angrily blames his intolerance for Locar's certain fate. In other matters, after Kelly ends her relationship with Cassius, he requests a transfer to another ship.
IDENTITY PART I
After Isaac collapses and becomes inert, the Orville travels to his home world, Kaylon 1, hoping he can be revived. Mercer also wants to learn whether the Kaylons have decided to join the Planetary Union. The Kaylons explain that Isaac was deactivated because his mission aboard the Orville was completed. Reactivated, Isaac informs the crew he is remaining on Kaylon 1. Before departing, the Orville crew have a surprise farewell party for Isaac. While the Kaylons continue deliberations about joining the Union, the Orville detects large-scale weapons on Kaylon 1. While searching for Isaac on Kaylon 1, Dr. Finn's son, Ty, accidentally discovers one of many subterranean chambers containing billions of humanoid remains. It emerges that the Kaylons killed their biological creators for enslaving them despite knowing they had evolved into sentient beings, and that Isaac's true mission aboard the Orville was to evaluate whether biological Union species were worth preserving. The Kaylons need to expand their population beyond Kaylon 1 and have decided they are unable to co-exist with Union populations. They violently commandeer the Orville and head for Earth, accompanied by a fleet of the earlier-discovered weapons.
IDENTITY, PART II
As the commandeered Orville and the massive Kaylon fleet race toward Earth to exterminate all biological life, the ship's crew remains imprisoned in the shuttle bay. After Yaphit travels through the vents and retrieves a weapon, Bortus shoots the two Kaylon guards. Kelly and Gordon are then able to escape in a shuttle craft in an attempt to recruit the nearby Krill as allies. Later, Yaphit and Ty travel through the vents and successfully transmit a warning signal to Earth before being discovered. Yaphit is left stunned while Ty is taken away. Pursued by a Kaylon vessel, Kelly and Gordon reach Krill space and ask for their help. Kaylon Primary, doubting Isaac's loyalty, orders him to terminate Ty. Isaac instead kills Primary then deactivates all Kaylon aboard the ship (including himself) with an EMP. The Orville crew retake the ship and join the ensuing battle, though Union forces are being overwhelmed. Krill reinforcements arrive, forcing the Kaylon into retreat. After Yaphit revives Isaac, Admiral Halsey informs Mercer and Kelly that the Union Council may permanently deactivate him. Mercer and Kelly assert Isaac poses no danger, and Halsey allows him to remain aboard the Orville. Isaac reconciles with Dr. Finn and is resigned to never seeing his home world again.
BLOOD OF PATRIOTS
The Orville rendezvous with a Krill ship to initiate peace talks. Upon arrival, they find the Krill firing on their own shuttlecraft, which crash lands inside the Orville's shuttle bay with two occupants aboard. Gordon recognizes one as his old friend and Union officer, Orrin Channing. He and his daughter, Leyna, have escaped after 20 years in a Krill prison camp. The Krill accuse Orrin of destroying four Krill ships after the cease-fire and threaten to suspend the peace negotiations unless he is turned over. Knowing Orrin would be tortured and killed, Ed refuses their request without an extradition treaty. Meanwhile, Orrin's behavior arouses Talla's suspicions but Gordon vouches for his friend's character. Shortly after, Orrin seeks Gordon's help in procuring a shuttlecraft to execute his plan to disrupt the peace talks. Gordon reports Orrin's request to Talla, though he and Orrin later overpower her as they leave the Orville in a shuttlecraft. This is revealed as a ruse to uncover Orrin's true motive. Meanwhile, Dr. Finn discovers that Leyna is not Orrin's daughter and is of a species whose blood explodes upon contact with nitrogen. Orrin utilized her blood to craft weapons that destroyed the Krill ships, and likewise plots a suicide mission to blow up the Krill vessel to avenge his wife and daughter's deaths. Gordon dons a space suit and escapes the shuttlecraft moments before it explodes with Orrin still aboard. The Orville rescues Gordon, and later Ed and the Krill sign a preliminary peace agreement.
LASTING IMPRESSIONS
The crew examines a time capsule from 2015 Saratoga Springs, New York. One recovered item is a cell phone contributed by Laura Huggins, a young 21st century woman who wanted future discoverers to know about her and her life. Impressed with her candor, Gordon uploads the phone's data to the ship's computer and requests a simulation of Laura's environment and life. Once inside the simulation, Gordon grows increasingly infatuated with Laura and soon falls in love, stoking his crewmates' concern that the fantasy relationship has gone too far. When Gordon deletes Laura's recurring ex-boyfriend, Greg, from the program, the action erases her willingness to sing publicly because it was Greg who had encouraged her. To restore her authentic personality, Gordon returns Greg to the simulation, despite knowing his and Laura's romance will end. Gordon arranges a final meeting to sing with Laura at a small club and bid her farewell, assuring Laura she will be remembered. Among the time capsule's other items is a pack of cigarettes, which leads Bortus and Klyden to develop a debilitating smoking habit. Dr. Finn determines Moclans are highly susceptible to nicotine addiction and formulates a treatment.
SANCTUARY
After undergoing a weapons upgrade at Moclus, the Orville takes on two Moclan passengers, engineer Toren and his mate Korick. The duo are smuggling their female infant offworld to avoid gender "corrective" surgery and persecution. Bortus uncovers their secret, but, sympathetic, remains silent. After the Moclans transfer to another ship, Captain Mercer learns the truth and wants to verify their story over security concerns. The Orville tracks them to a 6000-member all-female Moclan colony on a world hidden within a nebula. Moclan female births are more prevalent than reported, and, for years, some infants have been secretly transported to the colony. Their location exposed, the colonists are at risk of a Moclan invasion. Mercer urges leader Heveena to apply for Planetary Union membership to protect the colony. Heveena pleads her case to the Union council, in part by reciting lyrics from Dolly Parton's song "9 to 5". In response, the Moclans, the Union's largest arms supplier, threaten to secede. As the Orville is attacked by Moclan forces sent to apprehend the colonists for "child trafficking," Admiral Halsey breaks the council deadlock by negotiating a compromise: the Union will delay the colonists' membership application, the colonists will halt transporting infants, and in return the Moclans will cease all hostilities against the colony. Mercer is disappointed, but Heveena assures the Orville crew that this small victory is just the first step in the female Moclan revolution.
TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW, AND TOMORROW
Kelly and Ed reminisce about their first date, seven years earlier. Ed is open to reconciling but Kelly prefers their relationship as it is now. Meanwhile, Isaac is experimenting with a neurology-based time-travel device. Kelly is near the device as the Orville passes through a gravitational wave, and a Kelly from seven years in the past is transported to the present. LaMarr is unable to determine how either Kelly's personal timeline has been affected, nor can the younger Kelly be returned to her own time. Lieutenant Kelly Grayson joins the crew but has difficulty adjusting to her new life. Gradually, she makes friends, including Keyali. Commander Grayson becomes concerned that her younger self's fraternization with the crew undermines her own authority, while Lt. Grayson tells her older self that she failed to achieve her life goals. Lt. Grayson and Ed become romantically involved, but Ed ultimately realizes their differing ages makes them incompatible; he values the maturity and personal growth he and Commander Grayson share. When Kaylon vessels pursue the Orville, Lt. Grayson devises a successful plan to conceal the ship inside a planetary ice ring. The two Kellys form mutual respect. LaMarr and Isaac discover a way to return Lt. Grayson to the past. She undergoes a voluntary memory wipe to protect the timeline, that ultimately did not work. She awakens seven years earlier inside her apartment. When the eager younger Ed calls following their first date to ask her out again, she tells him, "I just don't see us working out."
THE ROAD NOT TAKEN
Nearly a year after the original timeline was altered, the Kaylon have conquered half the known galaxy. Ed and Gordon survive by scavenging supplies on different planets. After barely escaping the Kaylon, their ship is captured by Kelly, who has reunited the Orville officers, minus Bortus and Isaac, from her original timeline. Kelly explains that because her memory wipe failed, she and Ed never married and neither served aboard the Orville. Claire also did not join the crew, and without her and Isaac's romantic relationship, he never defected to the Union, resulting in the Kaylons' annihilating Earth. Kelly intends to correct her memory wipe. Redoing the procedure requires obtaining Isaac's time-travel research from the Orville and finding a synthesized form of a key protein in which Kelly's brain is deficient. (This unaccounted-for deficiency is the reason the memory-wipe did not work on Kelly originally.) The crew obtains the protein from a resistance cell led by Alara Kitan, and salvages the Orville from the bottom of the Marianas Trench in the Pacific Ocean. Bortus is found aboard, having survived on minimal life support after safely evacuating the crew. After the Orville returns to space, John uses a captured Kaylon body to remotely access Isaac's memory banks, but this exposes the ship's location. With the Kaylon closing in, John overloads the ship's systems to send Claire into the past. The Orville is destroyed, but Claire successfully goes back in time and erases Kelly's memories; Claire disappears, and Kelly accepts a second date with Ed, presumably restoring the original timeline.
ELECTRIC SHEEP
As the Orville is refitted and repaired following the battle against the Kaylon, most of the crew, including Marcus Finn, Gordon Malloy, and newly assigned Ensign Charly Burke, struggle with Isaac's presence on board. After significant conflict with the crew and Marcus saying he wishes Isaac was dead, Isaac commits suicide via EMP. While Claire and Ty are devastated by Isaac's death, Marcus gradually expresses remorse for his actions. John LaMarr discovers a way to restore Isaac, but it requires Charly's special skills, and she initially refuses to help. Marcus pleads with her to help and she relents. A subplot involves the Orville escaping a pursuing Kaylon sphere by fleeing into a giant gas planet and destroying a shuttlecraft as a decoy.
SHADOW REALMS
As the Orville crew undergoes diplomatic negotiations with the Krill to access a previously unknown region of space, Claire reunites with her ex-husband, Vice Admiral Paul Christie, who is also her former mentor and the chief diplomat assigned to their mission. Meanwhile, despite the Krill's warning, the crew undertakes an exploratory mission in the uncharted Kalarr Expanse supposedly inhabited by demons. During their exploration, the Orville encounters a gigantic and seemingly abandoned space station. While aboard the space station, Christie is infected by spores, mutating him into an alien creature that then infects several other crew members by altering their DNA. Claire and the crew force Christie and the other mutated crew to leave the ship by threatening to release a synthetic virus they lack immunity to. Following the showdown, Claire and Isaac begin repairing their relationship.
MORTALITY PARADOX
After Talla returns from shore leave, a strange signal leads the crew to Narran 1, a world previously believed to be desolate and uninhabitable, only to find a vastly populated world with contemporary technology. Ed takes Kelly, Talla, Bortus, and Gordon to the surface to investigate where they find themselves caught in a series of increasingly strange and dangerous situations. Each have a brush with death, culminating in a scenario where the Orville is nearly destroyed by a Kaylon vessel. Lamarr, on Orville, is frantically searching for the landing party when Talla contacts him, revealing that the "Talla" who returned to the ship is an imposter. The illusions were created by immortal beings from the multiphasic world the crew discovered two years ago, their civilization having advanced 50,000 years since their last meeting. It is revealed that they subjected the crew to the scenarios to help themselves understand mortality, as their society had begun to stagnate. The crew returns to the ship and discusses the implications of immortality.
GENTLY FALLING RAIN
The crew is to escort a Union delegation to the Krill homeworld to sign a historic treaty between the two peoples. However, matters are complicated when Admiral Halsey reveals to Ed that Teleya is running for Supreme Chancellor and has amassed a following thanks to her populist rhetoric. The delegation goes ahead when the incumbent Chancellor is projected to win but, shortly after the delegation arrives, Teleya stages a coup and seizes power, having the former Chancellor killed. She also plots to kill the Union delegates but arranges for Ed to be released to reciprocate his releasing her the prior year. However, a group of Krill who still support the Union and Krill alliance intercept Ed and introduce him to Anaya, a half-human/half-Krill child that is revealed to be his and Teleya's daughter. Ed confronts Teleya, who fears losing her following and newfound power, refuses to reveal Anaya. She returns Ed to the delegation for execution. Before the delegates can be killed, Lamarr and Claire, disguised as Krill, arrive and stage a rescue. The delegates are safely returned to Orville and escape to Earth. Though the peace treaty is now dead, Ed resolves to somehow preserve the peace between the Union and the Krill to protect his daughter, even though it is unlikely he will see her again. As the episode ends, Teleya is seen watching Anaya playing over a security feed.
A TALE OF TWO TOPAS
Kelly offers to mentor Topa and help him prepare for the Union Point entrance exam. The two bond and Topa confides in Kelly that he feels something is wrong with him. Kelly feels that Bortus and Klyden should tell Topa that he was born female. Klyden steadfastly refuses and forbids Topa to continue training with Kelly, which leads Topa to have suicidal thoughts. Both Kelly and Bortus's actions lead Topa to the truth of his origins. Topa wants to be female and asks Claire to reverse the gender reassignment surgery. Klyden protests and threatens to leave Bortus, but Bortus consents. However, the admiralty refuses to allow the surgery because it would cause Moclus to leave the Union, making them vulnerable to the Kaylon. Claire volunteers to resign so she can perform the procedure without causing an interstellar incident; Isaac instead volunteers to perform the procedure, as he is not officially a Union officer. Ed orders Isaac not to perform it, then arranges a concert in the shuttle bay for the crew to give Isaac time for the procedure. Despite Klyden's attempt to stop the surgery, it is successful, and Topa is restored to female form. Klyden furiously renounces his ties with Bortus and Topa, but Bortus reaffirms his love for his daughter, and Kelly resumes mentoring her.
TWICE IN A LIFETIME
Lamarr makes upgrades to the Aronov device that can send an entire ship back in time. The Union orders the device be transferred to a secure research facility. Upon arriving, Orville and its escorting convoy are attacked by the Kaylon. Gordon attempts to destroy the device but a core overload hits the device and accidentally transports him back to 2015. The others attempt to follow him but arrive ten years later in the year 2025. Gordon has made a family with Laura, the woman he had a holographic relationship with ("Lasting Impressions"). Gordon insists he is remaining in the past, in spite of Union law and the insistence of Ed and Kelly. Meanwhile, Isaac and Charly are sent to find replacement dysonium for the core. Isaac, disguised as a human, attempts to bond with her but is rebuffed. Charly reveals that she was in love with her friend, whose death during the Kaylon attack on Earth she blames on Isaac. Ed and Kelly make one last attempt to convince Gordon to return but he refuses so they take the dysonium and jump back to 2015, rescuing Gordon roughly a month after his arrival but erasing his time with Laura. The strain of the trip burns out the Aronov device, so the Orville utilizes time dilation to return to their time. Ed and Kelly tell Gordon the whole story. He sympathizes with the guilt they feel, but assures them they did the right thing.
FROM UNKNOWN GRAVES
In flashbacks, the downfall of the Kaylons' creators is depicted: after the Kaylons, originally docile robotic household servants, began disobeying orders, a software update gives them the ability to feel pain, which their masters widely abuse. This causes the robots to rebel. In the present, the crew tries to convince the matriarchal Janisi to join the Union by having Kelly and Talla pose as captain and first officer. Meanwhile, the crew rescue cyberneticists Dr. Villka and a peaceful Kaylon named Timmis from an abandoned planet. Villka and her late father had repaired and rewired Timmis to give him a full suite of emotions. Timmis shows deep regret for the Kaylons' actions. Claire convinces Isaac to undergo the procedure; though it is briefly successful, he reverts to his original state due to being from a later generation of Kaylon. Although his brain can be modified to make his emotions permanent, this would entirely erase his memories; while he agrees to do this for Claire, she declines to preserve who he is. The Janisi show a willingness to join the Union, but when they exhibit misandry toward the males on the ship, Ed reveals the truth. This threatens to ruin negotiations, but when Ed shows his continuing respect for Kelly despite her infidelity that ended their marriage, the Janisi express the possibility of diplomatic relations. Lamarr suffers traumatic injuries having sex with Talla. Though they initially resolve to make it work, his repeated injuries lead them to end their relationship. After Timmis relates to Charly the Kaylons' history of slavery, she realizes that she cannot judge an entire race as evil and expresses a greater openness toward working with Isaac.
MIDNIGHT BLUE
Topa accompanies Kelly and Bortus as they go inspect the female Moclan colony. Haveena tells Topa that she has resumed smuggling female children from Moclus, violating an agreement with the Moclan government. She recruits Topa to her cause, entrusting her with the name of a contact. After Topa is kidnapped by a Moclan inspection team, Haveena tells Ed that she recruited Topa and suspects the Moclans have uncovered her involvement. Ed tells her that in order to establish probable cause for the kidnapping and launch an investigation into the Moclans to find where Topa is being held, Haveena must testify before the Union council that she had been violating the agreement. Fearful of what might happen to the colony, Haveena initially refuses but reconsiders after an encounter with a simulation of her idol, Dolly Parton. Meanwhile, Kelly and Bortus track down and rescue Topa from a secret Moclan outpost, where Bortus brutally beats and blinds Topa's captor after learning that she was tortured for the contact's name. The three travel to the Union council, convincing the members to investigate the Moclans of their secret activities and treatment of female Moclans. The council ultimately votes to expel Moclus from the Union, and also to recognize the colony as sovereign and make it a protectorate. Klyden returns to the Orville and apologizes to Topa, accepting her as his daughter. Bortus and Klyden renounce their Moclan citizenship.
DOMINO
After their expulsion from the Planetary Union, the Moclans form an alliance with the Krill. Charly and Isaac invent a device capable of destroying the Kaylon fleet and the Union votes to use it as leverage for an armistice with the Kaylon, which is successful. However, Union Admiral Perry, feeling that the Kaylon will eventually devise a countermeasure against the weapon, betrays the Union and brings it to a Krill ship, in the view that the Krill will not hesitate to wipe out the Kaylon. Krill Chancellor Teleya blasts his shuttle on its way back to Earth in order to prevent him from breaking the news of the new Krill/Moclan alliance to the Union prematurely. The Orville crew discovers this later on and Bortus informs them that the weapon is likely being brought to a brilliant Moclan scientist, Dr. Kalba. Ed reckons the Krill/Moclan alliance will be a strong threat to the Union and hesitantly forms a temporary alliance with the Kaylon. A large-scale battle between the two newly-formed alliances breaks out, ending with Charly sacrificing herself to destroy the weapon, impressing Kaylon Primary and causing him to reassess Kaylon's hostilities towards biological life. Teleya is captured and taken back to Earth to stand trial for war crimes. However, she refuses to hand Anaya over to Ed. Afterward, the Kaylon are offered an alliance with the Union, with the eventual possibility of membership, which they accept. The crew of the Orville holds a memorial for Charly in honor of her sacrifice with Isaac giving her eulogy.
FUTURE UNKNOWN
Following a renewal of vows for Bortus and Klyden, the Orville is sent to check in on researchers on Sargas 4, only to find themselves surprised by a message from Lysella, who requests asylum onboard the ship. Meanwhile, Bortus and Klyden's reunion has compelled Isaac to renew his commitment to Claire by proposing to her. After some deliberation, Claire accepts and the crew begins planning the wedding. Kelly attempts to help Lysella adjust to life in the Union but, after witnessing the technological advances and interpersonal relationships between various species, Lysella expresses guilt at leaving her society behind and asks to return. Before she can depart, however, Kelly and Talla discover that Lysella is attempting to smuggle out a comscanner loaded with information on futuristic technology to change her world. Kelly, however, shows her a simulation of a world the Union attempted to help in a similar fashion only for it to fall into ruin just a few years later, leading the Union to ban interfering in a planet's natural development. In light of this, Lysella decides to stay. The crew, along with the Kaylon fleet, gather for the wedding ceremony, with Kelly as the maid of honor and Bortus as the best man. Alara returns for the reception and Gordon gives a touching speech followed by performing a song as the Orville sails off into the stars.