HERE THERE BE SPOILERS

If this season’s third episode “Mortality Paradox” was a disappointment, the fourth episode “Gently Falling Rain” was anything but. The episode brings back Teleya from first season episode “Krill” and does a beautiful job exploring how the events from that episode would change Teleya, galvanizing her from being a teacher to serving in the Krill military. The gruesome deaths of her shipmates radicalized her, and “Gently Falling Rain” takes a good, long look at what it looks like when a demagogue comes to power.

Plot Ahoy!

On Earth, the Union hosts a Krill delegation and invites them to see a production of “Little Orphan Annie,” which doesn’t exactly go over well, seeing as the sun is deadly to the Krill. Nonetheless, both the Union and the Krill delegations feel comfortable in concluding their negotiations for a peace treaty between their two peoples. The only potential issue is the upcoming election, which High Chancellor Korin believes he will win handily. He therefore invites the Union delegation, including the Union President Alcuzan to sign the treaty on Krill, in its capital city.

Once on Krill, Korin and his supporters discover that the election is not going as well as they’d hoped; they’re losing key districts to the new firebrand, Teleya, who’s running on a “Krill Supremacy” platform. Flabbergasted, Korin watches as the expected votes do not manifest, and he loses the election. He calls for a recount, but the Circle of Clerics ratifies the election. Soldiers flood the room and capture both Korin and the Union Contingent. In space, the Krill begin firing on the Orville, and Kelly orders the ship to jump to quantum.

Back on Krill, soldiers bring Ed to Teleya, and he pleads with her not to reject the treaty, but Teleya remains firm not only in her decision not to sign the treaty but to execute the Union delegation. They discuss Teleya’s life after she escaped Union custody, and Ed begins to realize that Teleya has radicalized. After she tells him that she had Korin executed, Teleya orders soldiers to take Ed back to his cell, but the soldiers cover his face with a dark cowl instead. They begin to sneak him away from the Chancellor’s building and through the city.

However, as they pass through a market, other Krill begin firing on the soldiers, eventually killing them. These new Krill take Ed to a small, out of the way location where they introduce him to Anaya. Ed learns that she is his daughter with Teleya, and he speaks with her without revealing his identity as her father. He speaks with the Krill moderates, and they determine that he has to go back and convince Teleya to soften her stance because an alliance with the Union will be necessary to keep the Kaylon at bay. Ed agrees.

He returns to Teleya and informs her that he knows about Anaya and tries to play on her potential affection not only for him but for Anaya. Teleya remains unmoved, and Ed asks her why she kept Anaya. Teleya takes him to a facility where couples who have aborted a fetus are forced to speak to a simulated version of the child they would have had. Ed watches as the mother breaks down into tears.

They return to the building where the other Union delegates are being held prisoner, and Teleya has them all brought to the balcony where the Krill below scream for their blood. Teleya draws the same dagger she used to murder Korin and promises the people Justice. However, two Krill soldiers lob flash grenades onto the platform before Teleya can do much more than stab Alcuzan. The soldiers then sneak the delegates away and to the Orville, revealing that they are LaMarr and Dr. Finn in disguise. They escape the planet and navigate the battle between the Union forces led by Admiral Ozawa and the Krill planetary defense systems.

They make it back aboard the Orville, and the survivors jump to quantum to flee Krill space. Back on Earth, Admiral Halsey tells Ed that they can use Anaya as a trump card to prove that humans and Krill can coexist, but Ed refuses, worried for his daughter’s safety. Ed and Kelly look out on a much darker future than the one for which they’d hoped.

Analysis

In case you somehow missed that the Orville is as political as the franchise from which it so lovingly takes its inspiration, “Gently Falling Rain” is a stark reminder. Teleya’s rise to power mirrors the rise of radical conservatism. Mercer’s discussion of Krill disinformation campaigns hits a little close to home for anyone who remembers “Fake News,” and Teleya’s platform is all about Krill purity and supremacy. Even her stance on abortion is meant to drive home the episode’s message, which is that this movement is dangerous and can even jeopardize the interests of its adherents.

Bringing Teleya back is an interesting move. When we met her, she was a teacher whom Ed spared after killing the rest of the crew because the Krill plan to use a superweapon to annihilate Union planet Rana 3. Ed means his gesture as a kind olive branch, but Teleya rejects it out of hand. In “Krill,” it’s a bit hard to disagree that Ed’s actions weren’t horrific, even though his actions and those of Gordon Malloy saved an entire planet’s population. From her perspective, however, Ed has betrayed her and their burgeoning relationship and murdered her shipmates and the parents of the students she taught. As a radicalizing event, it’s a good one.
However, none of that history excuses Teleya’s decisions to reject the pact with the Union and murder her predecessor. The episode implies strongly that Teleya’s government will be perhaps lethally intransigent, and it will use Avis to justify the violence. Teleya’s ascension therefore represents a step backward for the Krill.

All of the designs in the episode support this perspective. Krill is dark. The statue of Avis is terrifying, and everyone tends to dress in dark, muted colors. The Krill themselves seem overly homogenous to the point that it’s easy to conflate who’s a moderate and who’s a radical. On the other hand, everything about the Union is bright and colorful. Alcuzan himself is even bright blue, and their delegation includes at least three different species. Even at the end, Kelly and Ed have their emotional moment as the sun rises. The imagery here is far from subtle in the best Trek tradition.

I do wish we’d had more time to pick at the Krill disinformation campaign and Teleya’s stance on abortions, but I think “Gently Falling Rain” makes its point very well while also offering us a new, compelling villain. I am very much looking forward to seeing what Supreme High Chancellor Teleya has in store for the galaxy.

Rating:

Four and a half quantum drives

1. You may or may not have recognized Alcuzan as Bruce Boxleitner of Babylon 5 fame. Some of us also remember him from Scarecrow and Mrs. King.
2. I wish we’d gotten more time with Anaya. I’m not overly convinced that MacFarlane carried that sequence as well as it needed to have been.
3. Good to know Broadway still exists in the far flung future.
4. I’m loving Victor Gerber’s Halsey.
5. Senator Speria Balask may be Lisa Banes’ final role as she passed away not too long ago as a result of a hit and run accident.
6. I love that Anaya means “Gently Falling Rain.” The entire episode really is about her when you think about it.