Fans of The Orville may be surprised to discover the center romance of the show isn’t shared between Captain Ed Mercer and Commander Kelly Grayson but Ed and his best pal, Gordon Malloy.
The hit live-action series The Orville is a humorous sci-fi drama that takes great inspiration from the Star Trek franchise. Created by Seth MacFarlane, the series follows Ed Mercer, captain of the starship USS Orville and its crew. Serving as his second-in-command is Kelly Grayson, a Union officer and Ed’s former wife. While the two went through a bitter divorce, their relationship has slowly repaired while working on the Orville. In the course of the show’s several seasons, both Ed and Kelly have come to terms with the role they played in their marriage falling apart and accepted that they were both at fault. Though a reunion has been occasionally teased, for now the two simply remain friends.
While fans may be pining to see the USS Orville’s leaders rekindle their romance, it seems like Ed has a closer companion than Kelly ever was. In The Orville: Digressions by David A. Goodman and David Cabeza, fans get to see the alternate world set up in the episode “Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Tomorrow.” The Orville’s timeline has been changed as a result of a younger Kelly returning from the future and breaking off a potential relationship with Ed. Being turned down causes Ed to take the first ship assignment he can get, which gets him sent to the USS Watson. While serving as the ship’s second commander, Ed attempts to get his old friend Gordon a job, but he’s unfortunately turned down. However, when Ed becomes a commanding officer of the Epsilon Eridani Station, he hires Gordon as his Chief of Staff.
Ed giving a helping hand to Gordon mirrors a key moment from The Orville’s first episode when Mercer hires Malloy to be his helmsman when command of the titular ship falls to Ed. With a friendship that stretches back to their early days at Union Point, Ed and Gordon have always had one another’s backs, and it’s clear that whenever Ed has a bit of power, he wants to lift his pal up with him. These repeated instances may show that Captain Mercer has a deeper fondness for Gordon than he does his ex-wife.
The trials and tribulations of Ed Mercer and Kelly Grayson’s relationship is one of the first things to kick off The Orville. It’s understandable that the show and fans alike both seem to have a vested interest in seeing if the two can learn from their past and form a future together. But as Digressions shows, Ed and Malloy’s friendship has been a far more consistent and longer lasting bond than Ed’s relationship with Kelly. The two have a shared history and understand one another in a way Kelly and Ed have always struggled with. Ed knows that Gordon is a reliable, trustworthy person which is why he always lifts his friend up, no matter the timeline. Fans of The Orville might be banking on Ed and Kelly getting back together, but Mercer and Malloy have a bond that just can’t be topped.
