A pretty good end to S3, I’d say.
Loved seeing Gordon’s sandwich show up months later. Loved the contrast between the doctor’s raucous bachelorette party and Isaac’s very boring bachelor party (even though he was wearing a tie, and I smiled to see Bortus as Elvis). Could’ve done without the near-naked Moclain sex chase in the woods, though. Yikes.
Got a little annoyed with the indecisiveness of the girl from Planet Twitter. Stay aboard or go home? Jeez, just decide already and stick to it.
Cool to see the Union fleet’s white dress uniforms (also very similar to Starfleet’s, in the late TNG era).
Ed’s remarks at the beginning of the wedding were very similar to Kirk’s, Picard’s and Adm. Ross’s in various ST weddings over the years, about a captain’s privilege to conduct wedding ceremonies. And see: RE: Are ships captains allowed to marry people at sea?
Bortus’s deadpan “All kidding aside” wedding toast was truly cringeworthy, but Gordon (no surprise) then heartwarmingly rose to the occasion (hilarious that he’d earlier agreed, without hesitation, that he was more upset about Isaac turning to Bortus to give the toast, than he had been about the Kaylon invasion of Earth). And nice to see Alara again!
The Prime Directive has certainly been discussed quite a few times in the various incarnations of ST over the years, but never as powerfully or viscerally, I’d say, as Kelly showing a world left in ruins after advanced tech was introduced by the Union and war - perhaps inevitably - broke out.
Best line, by LaMarr: “This is a goddamn weirdass place we work in, let me tell you.” And the Captain, looking pensive, just sipped his coffee for a (very funny) long time.
Here’s more on a possible S4: Season 4 | The Orville Wiki | Fandom
TLDR: It’s possible, but the Orville’s exec producer insisted the show “is absolutely not cancelled. Absolutely not. That is definitive.”
I foresee, if there is a next season (and I hope there will be), there’ll be an episode in which, kinda sorta like TNG’s “The Measure of a Man,” someone challenges the validity of a marriage between a machine and a flesh-and-blood person.