As they navigate a delicate negotiation, the crew are shocked to discover a Kaylon residing in peace with an organic being, and more so when they learn how this came to be.
Tropes:
- Agony Beam: The "upgrade" introduced to control the Kaylon is a remote that causes them to collapse in pain.
- A.I. Is a Crapshoot: And in this case, the people building the AI knew full well what might happen, but rolled the dice anyway. To wit: Yan, the CEO of the company who conceived and designed the Kaylon, realized that the only way to make them useful was to give their AI matrix the ability to adapt and learn, meaning that he knew they might gain sentience and start rebelling against their owners. His backup plan of installing pain chips only worked until the Kaylon decided they'd had enough of being a mistreated Servant Race.
- Ambiguous Situation: It's hinted, but not actually confirmed, that K-1 — the Kaylon seen in the flashback scenes — may have become Kaylon Primary. Apart from the obvious connection between their names, they share the same voice actor and it's implied that K-1 was the first Kaylon to turn against his masters, which would likely mean that he inspired others of his kind to do the same and that they came to view him as their leader.
- Asshole Victim:
- It's hard to feel sorry for K1's owners, even though he murdered them in their beds.
- Timmis himself feels extremely guilty for all the organics the Kaylon killed after earning their freedom, since they did it out of paranoia that all organics would behave as their creators did given the opportunity. However, he honestly feels killing their creators was the only option available to them, even with his ability to feel empathy allowing him to reexamine those events from a new perspective.note
- Bittersweet Ending: It's a Sliding Scale depending on the plotline. In the Janisi plot, the "ease them into it" plan goes fubar, but Ed and Kelly are able to salvage the negotiations with the Janisi and get them to accept a Union embassy. The emotion modification for Isaac turns out not to be permanent, but Claire realizes the robot may have come to love her in his own way; he also manages to reconcile somewhat with Charly. Talla and LaMarr unfortunately get the short end of the stick: they decide it's impossible for them to pursue a sexual relationship because she might accidentally kill him in the act, and break up.
- Boldly Coming: LaMarr and Talla get hot and heavy in this episode. Although their lovemaking is passionate, it results in LaMarr experiencing serious injuries due to Talla's strength.
- Boom, Headshot!: K1 uses his newly-fashioned weapons to headshot the parents before doing the same to the kids.
- Breather Episode: Of a sort. The flashbacks to the Kaylon builders are dark, and there is an emotional plotline present, but the rest of the episode more-or-less could fit in with the first or second seasons, as there is also levity and comedy elements present as well.
- Call-Back: The Janisi are introduced after being first mentioned in "All the World is a Birthday Cake". Having encountered them on her last posting, Talla briefs the senior staff on this species.
- Censored Child Death: When K1 kills the adults, the Kaylon shooting through their heads is shown in closeup, and the camera lingers on the dead bodies. When K1 kills the children, the scene is shot from a distance, and we don’t actually see the children getting murdered.
- Continuity Nod:
- "Ensign" Mercer wears an orange Engineering uniform. He had been established as having worked in that department in the comic story Launch Day.
- The planet on which Timmis was found is the site of a base which was abandoned by the Navarians.
- Cut Himself Shaving: LaMarr blames his sex injuries on an intense training program, not wanting to admit their actual source to Claire.
- Dead Guy Junior: Dr. Villka named her Kaylon companion "Timmis" in honor of her dead father.
- Diplomatic Impunity: One of the Janisi females tries to impose her own culture's customs on Ed, demanding to take him as a mate.
- The Dog Bites Back: The Kaylon were treated as nothing but slaves even after it was clear they had achieved sentience and simply wanted to be recognized as equal citizens. Instead, their creators released an "upgrade" that gave their owners the power to torture the Kaylon into compliance, which quickly evolved into said owners using it for nothing but their own amusement. After all that, is it really a shock that the Kaylon fought back so harshly?
- Double Standard Rape: Female on Male: Averted. When one of the Janisi takes a liking to Ed and declares she's going to use him for the night, the Orville crew object on his behalf. When the Janisi woman insists on having him, they decide the deception has gone too far and are forced to immediately drop the charade, instead of slowly easing them into it as initially intended.
- First-Name Basis: Claire invites Isaac to call her by her first name instead of "Doctor".
- Five-Second Foreshadowing, and Flashback: The aliens featured as the creators of the Kaylon have the same skin coloration, head shape, and basic eye color as the Kaylon themselves, before K-1 is even revealed. Later, in another instance, one could be forgiven that the scenes with K-1 were about an odd alien race in the present day finding a Kaylon and repurposing it as a servant, as there is no other indication that it takes place in the past. note What foreshadows that these events are flashbacks, and the precursor to the events of "Identity", is the introduction of the Agony Beam device created by Yan, the inventor of the Kaylon servants, which was abused by the builders to torture the Kaylon, and was the catalyst for their uprising and rebellion.
- Foreshadowing: Bortus openly wonders why The Union would consider an alliance with a race as bigoted as the Janisi, which is ironic considering that his own people are at least as discriminatory, and are members of The Union. In the next episode, the Moclans are finally expelled from The Union.
- Gory Discretion Shot: K1 murdering the children is shot in such a way that the two are obscured by the wall around the open door.
- Here We Go Again!: A few characters lampshade that handling the Janisi is like dealing with the Moclans' close-minded ways all over again, but they need the allies.
- Hidden First Act Parallel: Subverted in that all the present-day plot threads involved in the episode, starting from the post-teaser act, all parallel each other and have to do with love and/or sacrifice:
- John Lamarr and Talla initially want to continue their relationship, but find they are not compatible because they cannot physically love in a safe way. (At least not one that keeps John in one piece, and without injury.)
- When the talks break down with the Janisi, Kelly is able to find a personal similarity in marriage fidelity betweeen the two groups, suggesting that there is common ground, and that if the Janisi want to ally with the Union, they need to give up a bit of cultural prejudice.
- When Isaac discovers that he is too advanced for him to consistently keep his emotional programming, Isaac initially wants to go through with the procedure to downgrade his neural circuitry out of "love" (or rather, what he has learned as his own version of love) for Claire. However, modifying his neural circuitry to do so will require the scientist who developed said procedure to erase his mind, essentially starting from scratch. Conversely, out of consideration and love for Isaac, Claire decides to reject the procedure.
- Hope Spot: Ed and Kelly make a final entreaty to the Janisi delegation in an attempt to show them that gender equality has its merits. This manages to move the needle in the right direction, as the Janisi express willingness to accept a diplomatic visit and continue talks about forming an alliance.
- Hypocrisy Nod: Hearing that the Janisi treat men like second-class citizens, Bortus asks "why would we ally with such a closed-minded society?" Everyone else in the room bites their tongues but give him some significant looks. While Bortus is far more open-minded than most of his society, the Moclans are actually members of the Union (not just allies) despite being even more discriminatory than the Janisi.
- Somewhat averted since it is Bortus making the statement, and by this point he has indicated very strongly that he does not agree with his society's misogyny.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Timmis's view of the Kaylon exterminating their creators. While he regrets that the situation came to the point that it did, he feels that the Kaylon were justified in their actions and sees it as more of a slave uprising than a mass genocide.
- Idiot Ball: Invoked by the Janisi when they find out the crew have been lying to them about men treated as second-class citizens in the Union. As they put it, why would they trust any alliance founded on deceit? The crew has to admit they had a point.
- Irony: LaMarr points out how he and Isaac are experiencing relationship difficulties with their significant others that oddly complement each other. Isaac can satisfy Dr. Finn sexually but is incapable of emotions, while LaMarr and Tala have a strong emotional connection but can't have sex without LaMarr getting badly injured. He jokes that put together, the two of them would have the perfect relationship.
- Jerkass Realization: Hearing of how the Kaylon creators openly took glee in abusing the Kaylon gives Charly the understanding that blaming Isaac for the actions of his people makes her no better than the Kaylon blaming all organics for what their creators did.
- Kids Are Cruel: After K1's pain receptor was installed, his owners' children started using it to torture him, purely for their own amusement. He ended up killing them along with their parents.
- Lady Land: The Janisi treat men as second-class citizens; only women are allowed in leadership roles. The crew has to play along, with Kelly acting as Captain with Talla her second in command, and Ed and Gordon playing at being meek servants.
- Literary Allusion Title: The episode title comes from the poem "The Witnesses" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow.
- Ludicrous Precision: Isaac tells Claire that she is 11.35 minutes late for their dinner.
- The Main Characters Do Everything: Charly (the ship's navigator) pretends to be Chief Engineer and is in way over her head, instead of the far more logical choice: recurring character Lt. Jenny Turco (who works in Engineering).
- Man of Steel, Woman of Kleenex: Inverted (woman of steel, man of Kleenex). LaMarr breaks his arm and a rib in bed with Talla. It turns out to be only the latest of several sex-related injuries with her that he passes off as a "training program." They keep trying, but after further bouts leave LaMarr looking like he just went through a brutal boxing match, they finally both accept that they need to break up for his own health.
- Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: The Kaylon turned on their creators because they were treated as tools and constantly tortured, even after it became clear they were sentient beings.
- Mood Whiplash: During LaMarr and Talla's breakup scene, the camera starts with a close-up of Talla sobbing as she comes to terms with the fact that she and John can't be together... and then it zooms out to show John looking like he's just gone a dozen rounds with a heavyweight boxer. They have a serious, heartfelt conversation about their feelings for each other, and then John spits out some teeth and limps off to sickbay again.
- "Not So Different" Remark: Ed and Kelly manage to partially salvage talks by telling the Janisi about how Kelly cheated on him but he would still trust her with his life, since Janisi culture permits polyandry but not polygyny. This convinces them to at least allow a female Union diplomat to visit their homeworld.
- Out with a Bang: According to Talla, this has happened to several members of other species who attempted to have sex with Xelayans. LaMarr thinks it sounds like a good way to go.
- Origins Episode: The flashbacks establish how the Kaylon were treated as nothing but slaves by their creators, building to their rebellion.
- Personality Chip: The scientist Timmis was able to repurpose the Agony Beam chip inside the Kaylon later named Timmis to give him actual emotions. The Kaylon Timmis argues that he can use this to forge peace with his people by showing them empathy for organics. They attempt the same process on Isaac, but it doesn't last because, as a second-generation Kaylon, his systems soon adapt and reset the modification.
- Pet the Dog: Isaac initially rejects Charly's help with the engine calibration, bluntly stating she isn't smart enough for the task, but after she explains what she learned from Timmis, he changes his mind and accepts her offer.
- Pretty Little Headshots: Apparently, the species that built the Kaylon do not bleed when shot through the temple.
- Restraining Bolt: When they began to gain sentience, the Kaylons' builders chose to install an upgrade that would effectively torture them into complying with their orders. It worked for exactly as long as it took for the Kaylon to realize that a dead owner can't push the "pain" button anymore.
- Revisiting the Roots: Of all the New Horizons episodes released so far, this one harkens back the most to earlier seasons with more overt jokes and lingering gags.
- She Who Fights Monsters: The females Janisi claim that women took control of their planet because men used to rule we, and were violent and oppressive. They now make sure men don't gain power by keeping them subservient, controlled and deprived of basic rights.
- Shout-Out: The Kaylon rebellion plays out almost exactly like the Morning War between the geth and the quarians. The only differences are that the Kaylons' builders installed pain chips to try and subjugate their AI servants instead of just trying to shut them all down as the quarians did, and the Kaylon successfully exterminated their builders.
- Servant Race: The Kaylon were built as an entire race of servants by their creators. When they gained sentience and began to question their status, the company that designed them pushed out an upgrade that gave them pain receptors, allowing their owners to torture them into compliance with the push of a button. It didn't take long for the Kaylon to launch a full-scale insurrection.
- Status Quo Is God: One would think that Isaac would keep the emotional upgrade made possible by Doctor Villka, as character development, but nope, he's a second-generation Kaylon, and his circuitry resets the modification. They could modify Isaac's neural circuitry to that of a first-generation Kaylon to give him the emotional upgrade, but she would need to erase his memory. Claire decides not to go through with it for Isaac's sake.
- Subterfuge Judo: With one-sided knowledge on the side of the Orville crew.note The Janisi and the Orville crew engage in this when one of the Janisi delegates demands to take Ed as a mate. Kelly tries to use her authority to absolve all responsibility (i.e. She doesn't have the authority to let him go.), Claire tries to claim that men are not commodity objects, and Gordon tries to go in Ed's place, but each time the delegate is insistent and will not let up. This is what forces the crew to reveal the masquerade, angering the delegation.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: How else do you describe a race responsible for both the Kaylons' existence and, through treating them hideously, their hatred of organics?
- Yan, the creator of the Kaylon, knew all along it was likely they'd achieve self-awareness and grow beyond their programming, as it was the only way to make them adaptable enough to serve the function he envisioned for them. Unwilling to order a recall because it would tank the company, he instead introduced an Agony Beam "upgrade" that would force the Kaylon into compliance. This only made their owners needlessly cruel, and the Kaylon eventually learned to communicate with each other in secret and modify themselves, at which point they wiped out their creators in defense of their existence.
- The population of that planet, through their cruelty and mistreatment, made the Kaylon assume all organics were like this and decided better to simply wipe them all out than assume they could live in some sort of peace.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: Again, the female Janisi are this, given that they have taken away the rights of every male on their homeworld, believing that the male sex is inherently violent and desiring of supremacy. Males are not allowed to hold positions of power, drive vehicles, or vote. They've only recently been allowed to learn how to read.
- The Kaylon are revealed to be this, as their genocidal war against all biological life is rooted in (the robot equivalent of) fear of being enslaved and tortured again.
- Wham Shot: The episode opens on an alien family unboxing a new device. When the father hits the release mechanism, the front slides away, revealing a Kaylon. These are the creators the Kaylon wiped out.
- Would Hurt a Child: K1 kills his owner's children in their own beds. Then again, after the duo had gleefully tortured him for no reason than to laugh, it's hard not to say he didn't feel justified.
- Yank the Dog's Chain: Isaac undergoes the same process as Timmis to feel emotions, proclaiming his love for Claire... only to revert to his normal behavior after a few minutes. It turns out that because Isaac was built by other Kaylon, his more advanced neural net will reset the modification every time. The only way to make it stick would be to downgrade him to the same standard as first-generation Kaylon, a process that would wipe his memory. Claire refuses to let that happen, as she'd prefer Isaac retain his personality, which she fell in love with, even if it means he can't feel love for her in the same way.
