The episode “Electric Sheep” of The Orville handled some rather deep themes for a comedy show, including suicide. If you are disturbed by this please do not continue reading.
The first episode of season 3 opened with the large battle with the Kaylon, where several ships were destroyed and many were damaged. The losses were intense. We follow Dr. Finnâs oldest son, Marcus as he runs through the ship to get back to his younger brother Ty, all while the battle rages. As the brothers embrace watching the scene outside, Ty calls out to his friend Isaac as he walks in, but as he comes closer the normally blank robot face turns into a monster.
Marcus snaps awake⌠It was all a dream, no a nightmare.
The Orville is in space dock being repaired and refitted and some new faces have joined the crew, including survivors of the battle from other ships. When Chief of engineering Lt. LaMarr enters the science lab and informs Isaac that he will need him to step away so he can run a diagnostic, even though many consider the lab to be Isaacâs quarters. While displaced by the diagnostic Isaac goes to the mess hall, where when joining a table the occupants leave.
A moment later Ensign Charly Burke (new series regular Anne Winters), returns to tell Isaac about what happened to her best friend Amanda, in her previous posting on the Quimby. In their attempt to abandon ship, their escape pod hatch malfunctions and Amanda selflessly sacrifices herself to allow Charly to escape and survive. Charly blames Isaac for the attack, as he is Kaylon, even though he was deactivated at the time. Ensign Burke tells Isaac he deserves all the pain in the world.
When Isaac returns to the lab he finds someone has painted âMurdererâ on the wall. During the investigation Captain Mercer is informed by the chief of security that she has observed other harassment of Isaac. After investigation it was found that the graffiti was done by Marcus Finn. He has been having nightmares as we saw, and tells us about other kids on the ship having similar. It becomes known to Isaac how he is affecting the Finn family, who he was becoming part of before his deactivation.
Isaac wanders the hall seeing the reactions to his presence in the crew, and even looks out the windows to contemplate the cosmos. The scene fades to his return to the lab, where he dictates an engineering log, about several improvements that can be made to various systems, and signs off with, âI offer my best wishes to the Finn family,â followed by extending his tendrils into an EM device which he was assembling during the dictation. He then activates it, suicide. Even if the violence of the act is lessened by the science fiction aspect of a machine and a robot with just a surge, the subject still is heavy.
The Orville has always been science fiction, but this season brings on what it truly means. The discussion of political, societal and social issues, which has always been a hallmark of the genre. The script is very compassionate towards victims of suicide, the mental health issues that those who feel suicide is necessary must suffer, and the effect it has on those they leave behind. Through various methods the episode shows various views on the subject, some demonstrated through the view of various alien species. Many of these scenes were specifically without a score to show the emptiness without Isaacs presence. In earlier seasons his presence was the perfect foil and straight man for many jokes, due to his alien-ness and apparent lack of âhumanityâ.
The title refers to Philip K. Dick novel âDo Androids Dream of Electric Sheepâ, and maybe even though he is an âemotionlessâ Kaylon, we and the crew may never really know what is going through his mind, and possibly what dreams he has, maybe even electric sheep.
