Alara reconnects(?) with her family.
When her strength begins fading due to the low gravity of the ship, Alara must return home to Xelayah to re-acclimate. And deal with her less than supportive parents and a home invasion mystery.Tropes in this episode include:
- Big Eater: Tharl, the interim head of security, comes from a species that has two esophagi, and as such they can "just pound it."
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Cambis and Floratta act like humble folks when they introduce themselves to Alara and her family, but are later on revealed to be murderous and revenge-seeking sociopaths.
- Bittersweet Ending: Alara has gotten her strength back and Dr. Finn has figured out a way for her to maintain it while aboard the Orville, but chooses to stay with her family on Xelayah.
- Bizarre Alien Biology: Tharl's species has a second esophagus on the outside of their bodies.
- Body Horror: Ed's suit to withstand the gravity of Xelayah is damaged, and his legs are crushed before he can get back into the safety field.
- Buffy Speak: Tharl's a man of few words. When Ed talks about how highly recommended he was and how good his references are, Tharl sums it up like this:Tharl: My last captain had a total boner for me. Not a boner-boner. A professional boner.
- Call-Back:
- Alara's sister brings up the Orville's journey into 2D space.
- Alara's last gift to Mercer is a jar of pickles, referencing his love of that phrase when asking her to use her strength.
- Calling the Old Man Out: Alara's very bitter toward her father for never accepting that she joined the military, and she is not at all shy about calling him out for his condescending attitude.
- Casting Gag: Robert Picardo and John Billingsley both played doctors in Star Trek.
- Chekhov's Gun: The first time we see Ed use the gravity suit, we see that it has a timer on the forearm; he can spend about an hour walking around Xelayah. This is foreshadowing for when the suit is damaged and that time frame becomes much more limited later on.
- Condescending Compassion: This is Alara's main issue with her father. He is nothing but frank about learning difficulties and attempts to help her from that perspective, believing that it was best to be realistic about her problems instead of encouraging her to succeed in spite of them. He realizes his mistake at the end of the episode.
- Cool Big Sis: Solana can be. Of Alara's whole family, her sister is the only one who's interested in, and supportive of, Alara's work. She also offers to accompany Alara when the latter wants to investigate a suspicious situation. On the other hand, it's implied that she’s proud of her sister for having overcome being "less evolved." A back-handed compliment for sure.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: The theory that Cambis and Floratta's late son proposed was that a certain vaccine was responsible for a medical condition in children, a theory that the Xelayan scientific community in general and Ildis Kitan in particular proved to be complete bullshit and the result of shoddy science. This situation resembles pretty closely the real world anti-vaxxer beliefs.
- Fingore: The entire hand, in this case, courtesy of a pot of boiling sauce. Barely averted later when Cambis almost slices off Solana's finger.
- Handicapped Badass: While still struggling to readjust to the gravity of her homeworld, Alara tackles and takes out Floratta, and leads Cambis into a trap.
- I Choose to Stay: Despite all the chaos of the trip home, Alara eventually realizes she misses home, and leaves the ship to stay on Xelayah.
- Imagine Spot: Alara briefly imagines herself happy as a girl riding along the beach on the back of the eevek her family encounters near their vacation home.
- Just in Time: Mercer is dragged back into the shuttle with just seconds to spare before his gravity suit fails, though his shins are crushed by the gravity thanks to those portions of the suit losing integrity before the whole thing goes.
- Kick the Dog: Cambis forces Ildis to scald his hand in boiling sauce just to torment him. He then prepares to slice off one of Solana's fingers, even after Ildis agrees to do what he says, just to continue causing pain.
- Kryptonite-Proof Suit: Mercer wears a gravity suit which allows him to walk around normally in Xelayan gravity. In the climax, Cambis damages it with his blaster, leaving Mercer paralyzed by the gravity and with three minutes before the suit fails completely.
- Meaningful Echo: Early in the episode, Alara tells her father how she wished that just once, he had told her, "You can do it," even if he didn't believe it. Near the end, when he's unsure about his ability to go rescue Ed, she tells him, "You can do it, Dad. You can do this."
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The Xelayan creature Alara's sister shows her, the eevek, looks like a cross between a horse and a parrot with long curved horns and a long lizard tail.
- Mood Whiplash: The episode looks like it's going to be a fairly low-key family drama, right up until Cambis pulls out a pistol and pleasantly suggests that Ildis stick his hand into some boiling sauce.
- My God, What Have I Done?: Alara's father has one of these moments when he realizes Alara's true worth as a person.
- Ildis: I don't know you! ... I never even tried to know you... I'm so sorry that you got me for a father.
- Put on a Bus: Alara leaves the Orville to stay with her family.
- Revenge: Cambis and Floratta want to force Ildis to issue a retraction of his critique of their son's work, as being outed for his shoddy science drove their son to suicide.
- Scenery Porn: Xelayah has long been described as the most beautiful planet in the universe, and the crew's arrival certainly bears that out.
- Shout-Out:
- Bortus tells Alara that he has bet on her victory in a sporting activity, in an episode that ended up being the actress's last regular appearance on the show, a situation quite similar to the departure of Tasha Yar on Star Trek: The Next Generation.
- The vaccine that Ildis and Cambis debate is called the Melloran vaccine, which is possibly a shout-out to Melora, the Lightworlder from the Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode of the same name, who like Alara had to choose between a career in Starfleet and her home.
- Tharl has a tube which connects his nose to his stomach, in an up to eleven version of the Star Trek franchise's (or at least the TNG-era shows') unusual fondness for creating aliens whose noses connect to their chins — one of these being Fallit Kot, the Big Bad of the aforementioned "Melora".
- Silence Is Golden: Alara's departure has no dialogue, just music as she says goodbye to everyone.
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome:
- Like Earth's astronauts in space, extended exposure to Earth-normal gravity has caused Alara's body to acclimate to the reduced gravity through reduced bone density and muscle mass. She has to return to Xelayah before the changes are irreversible.
- Like with those astronauts, Alara's recovery is not instantaneous upon returning to her native gravity. She spends most of the episode in a wheelchair and is able to function for only a short time in a crisis through sheer force of will and adrenaline.
- After Ildis is forced to stick his hand in boiling liquid, for the remainder of the episode, he has horrific, and clearly painful, 2nd degree burns.
- Having just lost a valuable teammate, the crew of the Orville is understandably finding her replacement a bit difficult to adjust to, as evidenced by their clear discomfort at him eating lunch on the bridge.
- Like Earth's astronauts in space, extended exposure to Earth-normal gravity has caused Alara's body to acclimate to the reduced gravity through reduced bone density and muscle mass. She has to return to Xelayah before the changes are irreversible.
- Terse Talker: Tharl, Alara's replacement while she's gone. He doesn't say much, and what he does say comes off as completely flippant of everyone and everything around him.
- The Unfavorite: Alara's parents are clearly proud of her brilliant older sister, Solana, while they challenge all of Alara's choices and insult her intelligence.
- "Well Done, Daughter!" Girl: Played straight. Alara's barely there for half a day before she lashes out about how her father never respected her decision to join the military.
- You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: Invoked by Alara, who knows that Cambis and Floratta will kill them once they've gotten what they want.
