You ever look at your social media posts from seven years ago and think, "ugh, I was such a trash person"?
Imagine those social media posts came and pestered you at your job all week.
A temporal mishap brings Kelly's past self from seven years ago to the Orville.Imagine those social media posts came and pestered you at your job all week.
Tropes:
- Call-Back:
- Gordon teases Kelly in the teaser about how she used to insist on ordering drinks for Ed, even when he's had enough. Later, Ed goes on a date with Past Kelly, and she does just that, over his objections.
- The teaser also has Kelly reference when Ed called at 9am the next morning to ask her out again, and she gently chides him for it. When Past Kelly is back in her own time, it's the morning after her first date with Ed, who calls at 9am, right on schedule.
- Isaac is expanding upon Dr. Aronov's temporal research.
- Coolest Club Ever: Past Kelly's program in the simulator is this. Practically everyone seems to be into it, especially Bortus and Klyden, since the thumping music reminds them of Moclan mating dances. Ed and Gordon, however, sit there, holding their drinks, and look decidedly uncomfortable.
- Drowning My Sorrows: Kelly does this while talking things out with Claire.
- Explosive Overclocking: In order to sufficiently power the time device, the crew has to run the quantum drive well beyond its limits, causing overloads on every deck.
- I Can't Hear You: The music is very loud during the party that Past Kelly holds. Ed and John shout about how they can't hear each other, and everyone they talk to thinks they're asking where the bathroom is.
- I Hate Past Me: Kelly is annoyed by her naïve past self, who has little respect for the things Kelly has accomplished and instead sees Kelly as having failed to accomplish what she set out for herself.Kelly: Every mature person has to make peace with the fact that they used to be dumber, but to have it thrown in your face every single day? Man, it sucks.
- I Need a Freaking Drink: Both Kellys express this sentiment when the full situation is explained. Present Kelly quips that the ship's synthesizer might not be able to make enough wine for both of them.
- Literary Allusion Title: The episode's title refers to Macbeth (Act 5, Scene 5).
- Loving a Shadow: A very strange variant. Ed decides to accept Past Kelly's advances, after the current Kelly confirms that they're over, and Ed interprets the turn of events as a second chance to make things right. Thankfully, it's not long before Ed realizes what a stupid idea this is.
- Shout-Out: Rest assured, the night this episode premiered, there were people on Twitter referencing Next Generation's "Second Chances" before the first commercial break was even over.
- Stable Time Loop: Subverted. It's thought that the reason Past Kelly doesn't remember the temporal shenanigans is because Dr. Finn successfully wipes her memory before she is sent back. However, when Past Kelly is sent back to her own time, it's revealed that the mind wipe actually failed, and Kelly remembers that her future with Ed is fraught with heartbreak and ugliness. So when Ed calls her, she chooses not to go on another date with him, and changes the timeline. The next episode shows the unfortunate ramifications of that.
- Stealth Pun: Yaphit dances in the simulated club by forming weird shapes with his body. You might say he's... pulling shapes.
- Technobabble: The explanation for Past Kelly appearing on the Orville, that when the ship encountered a gravitational wave it amplified the temporal field in an experiment that John and Isaac were working on, and brought her back because Present Kelly was passing by and happened to be thinking about her and Ed's first date.
- "The Reason You Suck" Speech: The Kellys give ones to each other. Current!Kelly chewing out how immature and unfocused her past self is, and Young!Kelly giving it right back when she points out that what she wanted in life was a husband, children, good friends, and captaining a starship as a distant fourth...and Current!Kelly has none of the above. Young!Kelly is upset over just how miserable her current self is, and Current!Kelly is pretty shaken as she hadn't realized it.
- Truncated Theme Tune: The shortened theme music and intro sequence debuted in this episode.
- Twist Ending: Past Kelly, back in her own time, gets the call from Ed the morning after her date, as referenced earlier. Only this time...Past Kelly: I just don't see us working out. I'm sorry. [hangs up on a very confused Ed]
- Would Rather Suffer: Ed would rather chew broken glass than discuss time travel logic.
