The Orville

[Darth Wedgius]

By the 25th century, science has advanced and no longer determines sex by who lays the eggs but by whether or not they'll stop to ask for directions.

OK, they should be "hermaphrodites." But they could have hermaphrodites with mostly male characteristics and hermaphrodites with mostly female characteristics, and I could see people just saying "male" and "female" most of the time.

Why have two sexes, both capable of reproduction within each sex? Because their world is so rough that it helps prevent extinction bottlenecks. If a group needs to evacuate one area because of vulcanism / floods / giant zombie turtles and a small population escapes, they have many more genetic combinations available to re-establish a population.

[CharlesPhipps]

Mind you, Moclan genetics is clearly more complicated than they claim.

It's an actual plot point that they lie to their people and each other to enforce conformity about their male identity.

[Sir Will]

Yeah, something's up.

[CharlesPhipps]

It was a nice bit of foreshadowing if intended.

"Mochlans are all male."
"Really?"
"Yes, only 1 in 50 Mochlans are born female."
"Wait, hold on, that's 2% of your population. That's not an insignificant number at all."
"Yes, 2% are reported female and are made male."
"Reported female?"
"Yes, we are all content with male-male relationships. Except for the deviants. They are attracted to women."
"How big a percentage are those?"
"This interview is over."

[Sir Will]

Like, they said 1 female every 75 years. If it's that rare, how old is Klyden and what are the odds a former female would then give birth to the only other female for 75 years?

[Deledrius]

Like, they said 1 female every 75 years. If it's that rare, how old is Klyden and what are the odds a former female would then give birth to the only other female for 75 years?

That's the publicly-accepted statistic. I took the episode as saying this was fabricated and the number is much higher. As for the second part, it's not unreasonable to think genetics play a role here. Heck, if the real statistics are 1:1, it stops being weird at all that they might have a female. And even if it's not, assuming that valid, fertile pairings can still be male-male on their world, then a female-male one might be more likely to produce a female. Certainly as part of the light-science-fiction type of environment the show takes place in, this is sufficient.

[CharlesPhipps]

Like, they said 1 female every 75 years. If it's that rare, how old is Klyden and what are the odds a former female would then give birth to the only other female for 75 years?

Bortus laid the egg.

[PerrySimm]

No, Isaac! Bad Isaac!!

[jadenova]

That explains why the Kaylons look humanoid.

[Zoinksberg]

All ally against the Krill, admiral? I think you better be calling the Krill to come save your butts.

I really wonder if they have it in them to not hit the reset button on this. The timing is impressive if they don't, with all the character development they gave Isaac this season it would be a bold move to double down on it all being a part of his programming. Every episode told us that he is an emotionless being, but showed us things we want to believe are hints at there being more to it. Will they really see this through, or back out in some way?