WARNING: This thread WILL contain unhidden spoilers for this episode and every episode before it. You are allowed to talk about future episodes of the series, but put ANY information that comes after this episode behind spoiler tags.
The Orville season 1, episode 9 "Cupid's Dagger"
Written by Liz Heldens, directed by Jamie Babbit.
The Orville is host to two rival species who claim the rights to the same planet. The Union sends an archeologist named Darulio (Rob Lowe) to the Orville to settle the dispute with a forensic analysis of an ancient artifact, not realizing that he has a checkered history with the Captain and Commander. With existing tensions between the two visiting races already running hot, the renewed tensions between Mercer, Grayson and their old acquaintance threaten to shatter an already fragile peace as people on the ship, one by one, start acting out of character.
Originally released: 9 November 2017
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What did you think?
All right, we've come to my least favorite episode of the entire series. We have a character throughout the episode who has for years been dosing the people around him with date rape drugs. The worst reaction this gets from anybody on The Orville is "Aww, come on, mate. That's a bit rude." There are zero consequences for any of it. This one plot point taints my feelings about everything else in the episode.
I'm not in the mood for any of the comedy material--in fact, it's even worse on a rewatch. On first viewing. you don't know about the serial date rapist until the reveal. On a rewatch, the foreshadowing is peppered in right from the start with Darulio insisting on a handshake with Mercer. The dramatic plot of the episode also ends up tied in to non-consensually dosing people. Overall, just very unpleasant stuff. Not a fun watch. I'd rather have "Majority Rule" on repeat for 24 hours.
It could maybe have been saved by those pheremones merely lowering inhibitions slightly and having them discover new things about themselves in a slightly comedic manner but they wanted to intimate kelly was blameless and just raped everyone instead