Honor (Moral Orel)

"Honor" is the 13th and final episode of season 3 of Moral Orel. This episode is the series finale as the last episode of the show. It aired on December 18, 2008. It was written by Dino Stamatopoulos & David Tuber. It was directed by David Tuber.

Plot
The episode begins with a brief flashback to the end of "The Best Christmas Ever", with Orel professing his absolute faith in God. A rapid-fire montage shows scenes of all the events since, culminating at Forghetty's with Clay and Coach Stopframe nearly kissing before being interrupted by Miss Censordoll. After seeing she and Clay make out, Stopframe leaves, vomits, and becomes angry and despondent as a result. Stopframe starts to see Clay's face everywhere in town and realizes he still has feelings for Clay.

Meanwhile, Orel's cast finally comes off, but he is informed by Dr. Potterswheel that he is going to be crippled for the rest of his life due to the shooting or maybe due to Dr. Potterswheel's incompetence in trying to heal it. A despondent Orel heads home, trying to find a way to talk to his father, he finds Clay drinking in his study, pretending to instead lecture the stuffed bear Orel shot about the Fifth Commandment in the manner of it being his "true son" ("Honor thy father and thy mother," or as Clay phrases it, "Honor thy father. Not mother, just thy father.").

Conflicted, Orel asks Reverend Putty for advice on how to honor his father, and Putty suggests asking someone who likes Clay as much as "women like jerks". Orel does not know who such a person could be, and the reverend directs him to Coach Stopframe.

Stopframe, meanwhile, has become completely apathetic towards everyone except Orel. After having a conversation, Orel and Stopframe begin to forge a father-son relationship over Christmas caroling, much to the chagrin of Clay, who has been trying to spend time with Stopframe. Clay eventually becomes so angered that he storms into the house and declares that he, Bloberta, Shapey, and Block are going caroling.

In the meantime, at Stopframe's apartment, Orel finds a picture of Stopframe and Clay and figures out the truth about Coach Stopframe's attraction to Clay. However, he still is depressed because he still cannot figure out how to honor his father. Stopframe points out that Clay did do one honorable thing: he created Orel. Clay bursts into the apartment and starts loudly accusing Coach Stopframe of using Orel the same way he used Bloberta to get to him. He makes several thinly-veiled attempts to declare his love for the coach, but cannot commit completely, outing himself to Bloberta and making her suggest the family should leave. Coach Stopframe tells Clay "it's too late" (for their relationship) after Orel tries to get his father to leave with the family, and the Puppingtons go home after Clay gives up on mending his relationship with Stopframe. As an impromptu gift, the stuffed bear is left behind at Stopframe's apartment.

The series concludes with Orel slowly morphing into an adult as Putty gives a radio address about family, noting that while most of the time we are simply stuck with them, occasionally a "miracle" happens and there is a family that truly loves one another. As Putty wraps up his sermon, we are shown a final scene of an adult Orel in his own home, happily married to Christina with two children—a girl, about three-years old, and a boy, about twelve-years old—and a puppy. With pictures on the wall of both Shapey & Block as adults wearing fireman and police outfits.

Episode tie-ins
Nesting: This episode (Honor) takes place right after "Nesting"

The Best Christmas Ever: This episode begins with a brief flashback to Orel's prayer at the end of Season 1.

Why It's Honorable

 * 1) Despite the fact that Moral Orel had ended too soon and could've seen another season, at least this episode brought closure to the entire series and ended the series on a magnificent note.
 * 2) This episode sees Orel and Daniel Stopframe at their best in the series for several reasonsː
 * 3) *In Orel's case, he is able to reflect and look back at how his father is not the man Orel thought he was when the series first aired. Not only that, but he is able to be happy and enjoy for once in a long time and has bonds with Daniel in a nice little montage. At the end of the episode, we are able to see that he has a happy life as an adult, raising a good Christian family consisting of his wife Christina (his crush seen in previous episodes) and two kids.
 * 4) *Daniel realizes Clay's true colors of how bad of a father he is to Orel and has a great bond with Orel and manages to break up with Clay after the fact that Clay had an affair with Ms. Censordoll.
 * 5) Orel proves that he matured completely by really proving that he no longer cares if Clay wants to punish or abuse him. He stands up and proves that Clay can do all he wants, it won't matter.
 * 6) The montage where Orel and Daniel bond is really fun to watch and it's rather satisfying to see since Orel has not experienced happiness in such a long time. His limp caused him to suffer depression and sadness. So it is rather nice to see some sense of enjoyment for Orel.
 * 7) Bloberta, Shapey, and Block are likable in this episode, as the former isn’t her usual strict self and cares for her children, and is understandably displeased when she finds out about Clay's affair with Daniel, and the latter two aren’t annoying and overused as filler like they usually are, and were just doing some harmless Christmas caroling.
 * 8) Several funny scenes such as Stopframe seeing other students look like Clay and the latter thinking that Daniel raped Orel with kindness.
 * 9) Fantastic Endingː As the years go by, we see that Orel has grown up and lives a great life with a family including Christina (his crush) and two kids. Overall, it is an amazing send-off to the series and ends the Adult Swim show magnificently.
 * 10) *Clay also gets a well deserved punishment in the end, after the way he's mistreated Orel and others throughout the series.

Reception
"Honor" was met with critical acclaim from critics and audiences who praised the episode as a proper ending to Moral Orel and ending the series on a high note. It received a 9.1/10 on IMDb, the third highest behind the Season 2 finale, "Natureː Part Two" and the Season 3 premiere "Numb".