Skip to contentPhysical Address
304 North Cardinal St.
Dorchester Center, MA 02124
By Jonathan Klotz
| Published
The Orville it may have originally been marketed as a Star Trek parody of the masters behind it Family GuySeth MacFarlane, but by the time the third season finally aired in 2022, it had long since evolved into one of the best sci-fi shows of the decade. “Twice in a Lifetime,” the sixth episode of Season 3, proved that a series that includes a discussion about aliens urinating in the pilot can reach the emotional highs of most shows ever. To this day, fans debate the ending of the episode and whether our heroes really made the right decision.
Twice in a Lifetime
“Twice in a Lifetime” is a pivotal Gordon (Scott Grimes) episode that serves as a sequel to The Orville Viewpoint for season 2, “Lasting Impressions.” Back then, Gordon created a holographic program based on the information from a phone placed in a time capsule in Saratoga Springs, New York, back in 2015. The woman, Laura Huggins (Leighton Meester), becomes the woman of Gordon’s dreams , and he falls in love with his digital pastime but eventually lets it go.
The second time, instead of falling in love with the digital version of Laura, Gordon is sent back in time thanks to the Aronov Device again nesting with the time stream. Abandoned in 2015, Gordon searches for the real Laura Huggins, meets her, falls in love again, has children with her, and gets to live his perfect life. The Orville, on a mission to rescue Gordon before he destroys the timeline, lands in 2025, where Ed (Seth MacFarlane) and Kelly (Adrianne Palicki) confront their navigator.
Act of treason
The Orville really hit its stride when the stories started to focus on the characters and less on playing around with sci-fi tropes, but here, under the watchful eye of producer Brannon Braga, the man responsible for some of Star Trek: The Next Generation best episodes, it’s a perfect mix of both. There is no true villain in “Twice in a Lifetime,” and the climax is an intense debate between Gordon, trying to argue for this perfect life, and Ed and Kelly, insisting that the timeline must be preserved.
Given how the second season finale works out, it’s ironic that Ed and Kelly take the stance they do, especially as Gordon explains that he spent three years alone in the desert, avoiding all connections with people to help keep the timeline intact. It would have been a different series if Ed and Kelly eventually won over Gordon with an excellent, logical argument about the needs of the masses. But The Orville is constructed differently, and the real answer is treacherous, heartbreaking action.
The Orville is refueled and ready to jump through time again, going back to 2015, before Gordon meets Laura, and picks him up from the desert after only four months away, and this version of Gordon is happy to be back. 2025 Gordon went back to his family, hugged them, told them he loved them, and enjoyed a few moments before they were all wiped from the timeline when 2015 Gordon was brought back to the year 2422. There, Ed and Kelly explain to 2015 Gordon what really happened, how he found Laura, and how he lived his ideal life in the past.
No One Is Right And No One Is Wrong
There are a significant number of The Orville fans who see Ed and Kelly as villains for robbing Gordon of his perfect life and then telling him about it so he feels the loss all over again for the first time when they return/turn to the right time . Considering their past timeline adventures, which changed the future twice, it feels hypocritical and cruel to do this to Gordon.
Seth MacFarlane has gone on to record interviews and appearances since, in his opinion, we never saw the life that Laura would have had if Gordon had not appeared in the past. Was her life better, or did Gordon’s arrival change her future and take her down a very different path? The worst part about MacFarlane’s character is also what he does The Orville so good, in the sense that it’s right, but it feels wrong, and that moral dilemma makes the series so interesting years later.
There are other chapters of The Orvilleespecially the two parts of “Identity,” which is a favorite, but nothing hits as hard as “Twice in a Lifetime.” Gordon, the comic book character who covers up his insecurities with alcohol, rarely got the spotlight and when he did, Scott Grimes made sure he acted the hell out of every scene, and as a result, gave one of the best to us. sci-fi time travel episodes ever made.
