(explosive music) - [Shane] Waiting for new
episodes of the Orville leaves most of us in a state of longing that begins to border on agony. (yelling in union) What has our favorite crew been up to while we've been waiting? Did Ed and Kelly have an afternoon delight in their on and off against status? - Oh, no. - [Shane] Did Yaphit make
another pass at Dr.Claire? - Oh my god! - [Shane] Did Bortus decide
to grow his mustache back or perhaps he went full neckbeard. - Bortus, wished that you
would remove that thing. - [Shane] Did John and Gordon
open a store for jackets with an extra zipper? - Nah, nah, I always
go with one more zipper than you're comfortable with. - Oh. - You know what it says? - What? - Boom. - [Shane] it's been a long time and we have a lot of questions. While watching the final two episodes of season two recently, it was
fun watching the crew travel through time and correct
the dystopian future they had found themselves in. And this ending got us
thinking about episode five of the first season of the Orville during the show called Pria, - You can call me Pria.
- Pria. - [Shane] Time travel
stories can be so fun. But when you try to
break it down logically, it just hurts your brain. Season two ended with
everything making sense. But the Pria episode in season one did not wrap things up neatly. It actually created a
complicated situation that will have you scratching your head. - Well, you wanted something to do. - [Shane] So if you love the Orville, get ready for some brain teasing fun while we break down the Orville paradox. You won't wanna miss this episode. And if you haven't already
subscribed to our channel, please do so now and give
us a thumbs up if you want more amazing revelations
about your favorite shows. Also click the notification
bell to never miss an episode because YouTube
is a fickle mistress. - It's a fickle thing. - [Shane] And make sure you
stay tuned until the end to see how to get this awesome Orville
inspired graphic design from the amazing artists at mixedteas.com. Let's be honest, time travel in movies and TV is usually messy. There is always some
paradox that becomes obvious and you have to suspend your disbelief and just hang on for the ride. And when it's over instead
of really trying to break it down, you just shake your head and move on with your life. But every once in a while, a
time travel story gets stuck in your head and you just can't move on. And this is what happened
to us after Pria. Guest starring the amazing Charlie Theron, Ed and the crew must switch
from a rescue mission to saving the very existence of the Orville in time. The episode is fantastic. When it was over, we did
the typical head shaking and we wrote most of it
off as Sc-Fi mumbo-jumbo, involving quantum
mechanics and time travel, obviously out of our league. But it was one of those nagging episodes. It just kept coming back to us and coming up in conversation. But we couldn't quite put
our finger on what it was. As we mentioned before after the season two
finale wrapped up neatly, the light bulb went off and Pria suddenly needed to be revisited. There was something that
happened in that episode that continued to impact
the rest of the show. But let's get back to that in a moment. During the episode, the
Orville changes course to save a minor who crashed lands
her ship on a comet, that's heading into a blazing sun. - Set course and engage quantum drive. - [Shane] The Orville
manages to save captain Pria and everyone lived
happily ever after, right? Well, not so much. - Your voice just got really
high pitched just then. - No, it didn't.
- Yeah, it did. You were like, yeah!
- No, it's all good. Well, what was the high
pitch?It'sfine. I got this. - [Shane] Find out Pria is
actually a time-traveling thief who trick the Orville into
changing course so she could save the ship from being destroyed
in the dark matter storm. Her plan is to kidnap the crew,
steal the Orville and sell the ship to the highest bidder
400 years in the future. - Say a ship like yours was destroyed. I prevent the destruction
then I take the ship into the future and I sell it
to the highest bidder. - [Shane] But before she
can complete the deal, her plan is discovered. Her explanation to Ed, Kelly and Alara is they would have died anyway. And if she let them go,
she'd be changing the future. - Ed, you're all going to die anyway. - Is Pria lying here? We don't know for sure
but as we watch she seems to have sincere feelings for Ed. And based on her body
language and her words, it appears she believes
what she is saying. All in all her plan is
ultimately foiled thanks to Isaac downloading
himself into the computer and Kelly beating the crap out of Pria. - As I am incapable of stuttering, I must conclude that you hear me. - [Shane] At the very
end captain Ed tells Pria by destroying the time
wormhole, he stopping her and others from time traveling
past, present and future. - As long as the wormhole exists, the quantum potentiality is open. But if we destroy it, we choose a path. - [Shane] Which is true
because once he destroys the wormhole, it won't be
there for a future Pria to use. - Which means that Pria
Lavesque will have no reason to come back into our past. - She makes a final plea calling Ed a- - A messed up guy who
can't get over his ex wife. - [Shane] But add blows
the wormhole into oblivion and Pria fades away "Back
To The Future" style. But old Biff "Back to the Future" style, not Marty on stage "Back
to the Future" style. (triumphant music) (gentle music) The thing you really need to
understand here is that both Ed and Pria fail to realize something. Ed feels safe that the
Orville wasn't destroyed but they've both overlooked
the fact that Pria was the one who saved them in the dark matter storm. And if she doesn't come back
from the future to do it again, Ed and his ship could have disappeared right there with Pria. So why didn't that happen? Luckily, Pria coming from
the future and causing the Orville to make a course
correction to rescue her is the reason the Orville was
destroyed in the first place. - We're receiving a
priority one distress signal from the Gatria star system. - It's right in our neighborhood. - Set course and engage quantum drive. - [Shane] So no Pria, no destruction and the Orville continues
along its merry way. But wait Pria came back because
the Orville was destroyed and we showed earlier why we
think she's not lying about it. Besides only crazy evil
people would pull thousands of people out of history not
knowing how it would affect her present timeline and
Pria isn't evil nor crazy. - Wow.
- Yeah. - [Shane] In fact Pria was
almost a universal hero here but we'll explain that in a moment. Okay, hold on to your brain here because this is about to get bumpy. But we promise it will all
make sense or at the very least you'll understand it
better than you do now. It's this final explanation
by Ed about what will happen after he destroys the wormhole
that things get confusing. - You wanna elaborate on that? - [Shane] Why did she fade away? Why do they remember her? If they are following the
back to the future rules of time travel, then
it's a single timeline. And if destroying the wormhole prevented her from coming back in the first place, then she couldn't save the
crew, which means they would die and wouldn't be able to
destroy the wormhole. So then she could come back and save them, which would allow Ed to
destroy the wormhole, which would again, prevent
her from coming back in the first place. Then of course she couldn't save the crew. They would die and they
wouldn't be able to destroy the wormhole and Pria couldn't
come back and save them so they could destroy the wormhole, which would prevent her from
coming back in the first place. Okay.Waitissilent. - [Shane] What we can understand
from this is Ed's action is creating a time paradox. Destroying the wormhole creates
a whole bunch of problems. And thanks to time travel
movies and TV shows, people have had to come
up with ways to classify these paradoxes based on
different levels of confusion. - Hot tub time machine. - [Shane] In this instance,
we all just accepted what happened because sometimes you don't have enough information and
you just have to accept it. But then the season two finale
confirmed something for us. When Claire gave past Kelly the shot and then promptly disappeared,
we have confirmation that the Orville universe is a back to the future style single timeline. If you remember in "Back to the Future 2", old Biff goes back to the past and gives young Biff the sports Almanac. When old Biff returns to
the future with a DeLorean, he disappears because the results of what he did erased him from the timeline. Which we find out changes everything in Marty's version of 1985. - Just wanna say one thing, God Bless America. - [Shane] A similar thing occurs
when Claire goes back into the past to make Kelly forget and go on that second date with Ed. Effectively that version
of Claire is erased and we assume our normal
Orville timeline continues on. This means we can apply the
same principle to what happened in the Pria episode, which
we thought was the case. But couldn't be certain since we didn't see Pria in her future. The events we've laid out thus far make the Pria time travel a
predestination paradox. This basically means when a
person travels back in time, they become part of the past
events and may have even caused the initial event that
caused them to travel back in time in the first place. Yeah, it's clear as mud
but the moment Pria took the Orville off course
she created the event that made her come back in
time in the first place. And yes, it's confusing. And that's why we call it a
paradox because how could she cause the event to happen before actually going back and causing it? But wait, hold the phone. This version of Pria was actually created as a result of her time travel. So that wouldn't make it
a predestination paradox. Now we are talking about
a bootstrap paradox. Yes, a bootstrap paradox
occurs when an object or piece of information sent back in
time becomes trapped within an infinite cause effect loop. In which the item or person no longer has a discernible point of origin. Who comes up with this stuff? - And so one has to ask the question, what if was one of the extra terrestrials? - [Shane] Bootstrap example
would be the Terminator. John Connor is created because
he sent Kyle Reese back in time to protect him
and make it with his mom. This has to keep happening over
and over for John to exist. So basically he is creating himself. Pria in the same way is
created when she travels back in time and causes the
destruction of the Orville, which then becomes the
reason she goes back in time. But wait, Pria disappeared at
the end, which ended the loop, which means it can't fully be
a bootstrap paradox either. And since it doesn't fit into
either paradox comfortably, we'll just make up our own and call it a reverse predestination
bootstrap paradox. Yeah, I got that figured out. (ceiling shatters)
(eerie music) - Nevermind about that. - [Shane] Besides understanding what sort of mind-bending time paradoxes
we are dealing with on the Orville, after watching
a second season of the show, Pria has unveiled new things to us that really make you think. First, let's go with the obvious. Now that Pria is gone, Amelia
Earhart and many other ships she stole from history will now be crashes or disasters instead of
mysterious vanishings. Assuming she wasn't also the
cause of why those other ships were destroyed in the first place. And if that is so that
means that instead of all those people living 400 years
into the future, lost to time. Now they're just dead,
not a happy ending there. Maybe what Pria was doing wasn't so bad. If those ships were truly doomed, then she was actually saving people. And remember when we said there
was something that happened in this episode that continued to impact the rest of the show? Pria failing her mission actually has bigger implications on the universe. It doesn't appear that Pria
comes from a future where the Kaylon overtake everything, which means taking the
Orville into the future could have stopped the Kaylon
attack from happening and potentially saving countless lives. The Pria episode was
also when the prank war between Isaac and Gordon happened. Isaac's humiliation during the
Mr.Potato Head practical joke was part of the Kaylon judgment on humanity and a
catalyst for their attack. - Isaac was repeated
demeaned and degraded. In one case his cranial
shell was disfigured by prosthetic appendages, Mr.Potato Head. - [Shane] If Pria completes
her mission, it will change what happens between the
Kaylon and the union. Isaac does not complete his mission and send the humiliating
reports to his leadership. If Isaac never returns, the Kaylon don't make
a judgment on humanity. And perhaps the synthetic
beings never attack the union or at the very least
the attack is delayed. And if that is the case, the Orville will not be
there to save the day, which would be devastating to the union. - Deactivation complete. - [Shane] So it's possible
more people lost their lives as a result of the Orville
breaking the time loop. But hey, that's a small price to pay for this amazing addition to
science fiction history. Now, hopefully we've
scratched your Orville itch. - I am very pleased. I do not want this to end. - [Shane] And everyone
has a better understanding of how time travel works
this fun new universe. - This is insane. - [Shane] Now that the wormhole is gone, the Orville is in charge
of its own destiny. Let's hope future episodes
of the Orville give us the same type of fantastic
episodes that not only entertain our brains but twist
them up a bit as well. What do you think of the Orville paradox? - Sweetness. - [Shane] Would you like
to see more stories like this from Ed and the crew? Let's talk about it in the comments below. Also check out this cool
Orville graphic design at mixedteas.com and get
20% off your purchase by using coupon code The Podcast, the link is in the description below. Also make sure you head
over and subscribe to the podcast unleashed for
discussions, updates, clips and other special videos. Click on the link below. Until next time. - Singles. Do you feel them?
- I do. - We must have more. - [Shane] Don't want the show
to end become a podcast member by hitting the join button
to get exclusive content, including special member live
streams, Discord privileges, behind the scenes access and so much more. Click join and let's hang out. (thrilling music)
We need no longer fear the banana.
I need to go back and start watching seasons 1 and 2 again soon!
Crossing my fingers for more weird sci fi concepts and less relationship drama
They'd better hurry up before Seth needs a walker.