******SPOILER ALERT******
Star Trek references - This episode was directed by Brannon Braga. Robert Picardo, who played Ildis Kitan, played the Emergency Medical Hologram in Voyager, Deep Space 9, and the movie First Contact. He also played Lewis Zimmerman, the EMH's creator, in Voyager and Deep Space 9. Molly Hagan, who played Drenala Kitan, played Eris, the first Vorta seen in Deep Space 9.
The Orville passes through a large and powerful plasma storm, which causes severe damage throughout the ship. In Engineering, a bulkhead falls on Lieutenant Harrison Payne's legs, pinning him. Chief Engineer Steve Newton calls for Alara's help because she would be strong enough to lift the bulkhead. When Alara arrives in Engineering, she is briefly frozen by the sight of a huge fireball. When she regains her composure, she sees another bulkhead fall on Harrison, killing him.
After Harrison's funeral, Alara takes out her frustrations on the Holodeck, pummeling a punching bag into dust. She believes that Harrison's death is her fault. She goes to Ed and offers her resignation. Ed rejects her resignation, telling her that, sometimes, a crewmember will die from a situation beyond our control. Ed offers her leave time.
Alara calls her parents, Ildis and Drenala. They want Alara to come home, believing that a military career is beneath her. Drenala tells her about an incident when Alara was 8 months old - a large fire erupted in their kitchen. Alara had forgotten that traumatic incident (lacunar amnesia).
On Deck C, Alara sees a clown, who knocks over Alara, runs away, and vanishes! Now she believes that she is going insane, so she wants Ed to relieve her of her duties immediately. But Ed and Isaac find that the security logs detected the clown. Surprisingly, the sensor logs indicate that the clown is human. Ed orders his officers to (a) search for the clown on all decks, (b) set their laser pistols on stun, to capture the clown alive, and (c) be prepared for thrown pies, seltzer bottles, and balloon animals. In the Shuttle Bay, Alara and Bortus find the clown, who attacks Alara and takes her weapon. Alara regains it and shoots the clown. However, the clown had reset the weapon, so he is incinerated.
Kelly, who is with Alara, steps through a door and into a massive vortex. Alara saves her, but they believe that it was a hallucination. They join Ed in consulting with Claire. Then Bortus says that he found an alligator on board and "crushed" it. Ed and Claire agree that the officers' minds should be scanned. Alara is first. However, Claire restrains her in ultra-strong metal cuffs and prepares to fillet her like a fish! Alara frees her right arm and tosses Claire across the room.
In the Brig, Claire talks and acts like a psycho-killer, warning of dark terrors lurking in infinite shadows. In the Briefing Room, Kelly theorizes that the plasma storm broke the barrier between reality and imagination. Suddenly, there are dozens of tarantulas in the room. The officers leave, and Ed grabs a laser pistol, but, suddenly, the tarantulas vanish. Ed decides to take the Orville back to the plasma storm, hoping that a second encounter could end the insanity. He also orders every crewmember to carry a weapon.
Alara and Gordon see a spider the size of a Clydesdale come out of an elevator. They shoot it, but the lasers have no effect. They run, but the spider catches Gordon and eats him. Alara escapes, but now no one is responding to her. The Orville is deserted as she approaches the storm. In Engineering, Alara finds Isaac, but, suddenly, he attacks Alara. As Isaac's 'eyes' turn red and he threatens Alara, she grabs a laser rifle and shoots him. The ship's computer warns that the inner hull has been breached. As Alara runs toward the Shuttle Bay......
We see that Alara is in a Holodeck program created and run by Isaac. Ed, Kelly, and Claire also observe Alara. Ed tells Isaac to shut down the program, believing that Alara has had enough. However, Alara had invoked Directive 38. This allows the Security Officer to override all of the Captain's orders and protocols (in case the Captain becomes insane or drunk or stoned or......). Therefore, Alara must go through the entire program.
Alara enters a shuttle, but Isaac puts in front of the bay doors a container of combustible compounds and ignites it. Alara flies through the fireball and out of the ship, then sees the Orville destroyed by the storm. Then the program ends, and Alara wonders what happened.
Every incident from the clown to the end was part of the program. Alara asked Isaac to create that program so she could test herself to the limit. At Alara's request, Claire performed a short-term memory erasure. The various dangers in the program were suggested by the officers. Alara apologizes to Ed for invoking Directive 38. But the experience proves to Ed and Kelly that Alara Kitan is more than qualified to be Chief of Security.
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