The Stakes Feel Real
At the start of season three, we met new character Ensign Charly Burke (Anne Winters), a traumatized survivor of season two’s war with the Kaylon—a race of robots intent on wiping out all “biologicals.” Gradually and begrudgingly, Charly came to accept Isaac (Mark Jackson), the Orville’s Kaylon crewmember. But in “Domino,” the penultimate episode of season three, Charly ended up sacrificing herself to destroy a weapon with the potential to exterminate all Kaylons in the galaxy—a selfless act that made Kaylon Prime, the robot leader, reconsider his rigid worldview, signaling a chance for a peace that had previously seemed impossible. Charly’s death felt earned, rather than a mere plot device, and though we did feel sorry to see The Orville’s most prominent lesbian character signing off forever, at least it brought her arc to a heroic conclusion. (And hey, a season four could offer a chance for even more diversity and representation among the characters!) It also underlined the fact that nobody is safe on this show, not even one of its main stars.
