This was a bit of an odd duck of an episode. On the one hand, I can see the merits in having a more subdued, character-driven "day in the life" episode to introduce new fans to the cast and reacquaint existing fans with where everyone stands and what they are doing now. On the other, it wasn't exactly much of a hook if you're looking to bring in new fans with an exciting episode capitalizing on the big end of the regular season football lead-in.
The latter mentioned above is why we get a bit of a reversion and reintroduction of two of the recurring plots from last season: Ed's inability to get over the breakup of his marriage with Kelly and the sometimes inappropriate lengths he will go to as a result, but how he ultimately does the right thing to ensure that she's happy by helping her new boyfriend, and Claire's difficulties as a single-mother raising a typically temperamental new teenager with the blunt but useful assistance and observation of Isaac the android.
It feels like a bit of a step back in Ed's (im)maturity and relationship with Kelly, though I guess a new boyfriend might trigger that. However, his behavior is completely out of line as commanding officer and a former husband, even to a lesser extent when he ultimately tries to help out by tipping off Kelly's new boyfriend about her love of the band Journey and red wine. Yes, it's well-meaning and helps them reconcile after a fight, but it's also substituting the things Ed learned about Kelly instead of letting Cassius discover things on his own naturally, or develop new things they can share. I don't think it was Ed's intention (I think he was genuinely trying to help at the time), but it might serve as an unintentional reminder of his and Kelly's own relationship as she's dating Cassius.
On the flipside, the more of the Claire/Isaac budding relationship or friendship we get the better. They're great together and actually make quite an effective unconventional parenting team.
I didn't expect them to show Bortus actually pissing, but after the running gag of him only pissing once a year and all the build-up of the significance of the ceremony on Moclus, to just have him standing on the edge of a cliff with a satisfied look on his face was a bit of a let-down. I expected maybe not fireworks to erupt from his crotch, but something more shock and awe to impress the bystanders.
I liked the bits with Alara's and Gordon's dating troubles and Alara's blind date with Dann the big head man (recommended by Bortus of all people). Dann's terrible poetry failing to impress Alara but almost moving Gordon to tears was hilarious.
Michaela McManus, who previously played Krill teacher Telara in Season One's episode Krill, returns as a "new" (more on that in a minute) human character named Janel Tyler, a dark matter cartographer (call back to the episode Pria where Charlize Theron's Pria taught them to map dark matter) who just joined the ship and who is someone Gordon spends the episode intending to ask out before chickening out at the last second in a funny scene where he just walks around her table and decides not to ask. Ultimately she sits down at the bar next to a despondent Ed who's drinking his troubles away and strikes up a conversation, implying that a relationship may develop between them.
However, I am firmly convinced that McManus is not just a simple reuse of an actor in a new role like Trek has done countless times, but is in fact the surviving Krill Telara undercover as a human on a reconnaissance and possibly sabotage mission for the Krill, much like Ed and Gordon were on in disguise on Telara's ship previously, sparing her life and the lives of her students but killing all the combatants on the ship when they were left with no other choice to prevent the Krill from massacring a farming colony.
Her name, Janel Tyler, contains the name Telara within it. While it fits with her job description as a dark matter cartographer, she also immediately got acquainted with the navigation station on the bridge and perhaps either inserted a takeover virus or device or something to download their navigation plots and transmit them to the Krill. This is a big stretch, but she's involved in a "dark matter." She made sure to get close to Ed to form a bond with him, either to understand or manipulate him or both (this only applies if she's a double agent). If she's an infiltrator, she's using the exact same tactic Ed and Gordon used. Another stretch, but the repeated use of 'As Time Goes By' could refer to the shifting loyalties of some of the characters in Casablanca, and/or it more likely is just because it's one of Seth MacFarland's favorite songs to use and perform, and it fit the hopeless romantic theme of the episode.
Telara vowed that the Krill would have their revenge, but she also might be curious about Ed's decision to spare the children's lives and thus is taking the uncharacteristic Krill tactic of infiltrating the Orville instead of just killing them outright. Given the more upbeat and cooperative nature of the show, I anticipate that if my theory is correct she will ultimately come to realize that Ed, humanity, and the Union are not her enemy, and she will return to the Krill to try and end their holy war.
It was a good but subdued episode with some nice humor, but one that perhaps might have been better suited for mid-season rather than the season premiere where you're trying to attract new viewers by doing something that "wows" them. I'd give it a 7.5/10.
