The Orville 2.11

Lasting Impressions

The Orville transports a time capsule that includes a mobile phone from 2015. Gordon and John help to unlock the phone. They watch one of the videos that was saved on the phone. It belonged to a woman in her mid to late-20s names Laura.

Gordon becomes curious about Laura. He wants to know more about her so he takes the phone to the simulator and has it make a simulation that uses all of her messages, videos, and vocal recordings to recreate her and her world.

Bortus discovers cigarettes in the time capsule. He has the food syntheziser make him more cigarettes. Bortus and Klyden start smoking and are soon addicted to cigarettes.

Gordon steps into the simulation and meets Laura. He falls for her and goes back to see her. He even invites Ed, Kelly, John, and Talla in to a game night that Laura has. Gordon starts to develop real feelings for Laura. His friends are not okay with what he's doing and let him know in no uncertain terms, especially Ed and Kelly.

Gordon keeps going back to the Laura simulation until he learns that Laura has gotten back together with Greg, her boyfriend. Gordon is heartbroken. He tries changing the simulation by eliminating Greg but that modifies Laura in ways that make him unhappy.

Gordon learns to accept that he can't have Laura. Bortus and Klyden struggle with their addiction to cigarettes. They finally get over it with some help from Claire.

Thoughts

I didn't feel good about the path that Gordon started down when he copied the data in the phone and has the computer create a simulation of Laura's life. I didn't see it ending in a good place. I was very annoyed by how hard Ed and Kelly came down on Gordon for having a relationship with a simulation of Laura. He eventually learned his lesson. They should have given him some latitude. It was a lesson he needed to learn himself.

I loved the humor that was injected into the cigarette smoking plot thread. 

This was a solidly good episode. I liked both plot threads but for different reasons.