If this episode didn’t make you love Alison Hendrix, nothing will.
“Entangled Bank” is by far, the least Sarah-centric episode so far. I really love Sarah, but it is time Cosima and Alison got a little more attention, don’t you think? Add to this Helena and Kira’s scene and the most cliffhanger-y ending we’ve gotten so far and you get a simply fantastic episode.
For no particular reason, let’s start with Cosima. Although Cosima is inherently lovable, she gets a little annoying this week. She’s defends Dr. Leekie and Neolution while talking to Sarah, despite her combativeness with Leekie in the last episode. Why not explain to Sarah that she has her doubts about the whole thing?
I’m not comfortable saying she’s the smartest clone (she’s not nearly as streetwise as Sarah), but she’s certainly the best educated of those we’ve met thus far, which seems to have given her the impression that she is the smartest and that hers is the only opinion that matters. She was warned off of her relationship with Delphine by Sarah, but completely ignored this advice. Don’t get me wrong here, guys, I love Cosima. But she’s not perfect.
What is Delphine’s deal? She seemed totally freaked out that Cosima came onto her, but then slept with her later in the episode. The easy answer is that she just did it to get a chance to go through Cosima’s stuff and find what Leekie needed. But before she told Leekie anything, she made him promise that Cosima wouldn’t be in trouble for investigating herself and her sisters. Plus, she did not tell him about Kira. Whose side is Delphine on?
In this installment of Alison’s breakdown, Alison decides that Ainsley is her monitor, seduces Chad, beats up Ainsley on the streets of suburbia, and gets some of Orphan Black’s most memorable lines (see quotes). Every minute Alison is on screen this week is gold, but particularly memorable are Alison and Ainsley’s girl fight and Alison’s “eff it” speech. We haven’t yet seen Alison as vulnerable as she was at Mrs. S’s and it was a pleasure to watch. I particularly liked the bit about how Sarah was the most normal clone. We started off the series believing that she was the screw up, but now it’s becoming increasingly clear she’s the most stable of her ‘sisters.’
Speaking of (in)stability, Helena finds out about Kira this week and bad things happen. In an absolutely beautiful scene, Helena and Kira talk in an an alley. Both Tatiana Maslany and Skyler Wexler deliver stellar performances. Kira clearly has Sarah’s strength. She’s not afraid of Helena and is even protective of her. It is the seven year old who comforts the adult. The scene between Kira and Helena drives home the point that Helena isn’t a villain. She’s broken. Something happened to her (not even she knows what) and the result is that Helena is violent and unstable, but she’s not a bad person. She’s just a person damaged almost past recognition.
Bits and Pieces:
I love Sarah and Felix’s relationship. It’s just so sibling-y.
Was it just me or did Leekie seem more interested in Sarah than the others when he was on the phone with Delphine?
It’s entirely possible to miss, but Helena gets the letter from Kira out of Sarah’s jacket. They switched coats in their escape from Neolution in the last episode.
Helena calls Kira “angel.”
I don’t know how they did the accident. Puppet? CGI? Whatever it was, they did a great job.
Quotes:
Felix: “Oh. Sorry. Couldn’t afford lattes for Bonnie and Clyde.”
Sarah: “Alison.”
Felix: “Oh, brilliant. Invite her too. Then maybe we can all cuddle up with Weight Watchers and Grey’s Anatomy.”
Alison: “Don’t worry. Everything is under control.”
Sarah: “Okay, now I’m worried.”
Sarah: “Shit, Fe. Cosima drank the purple Kool Aid.”
Felix: “Divorces do really strange things to normals, Sarah. They lose their fake happiness, they forget the way to the mall, and then they come downtown to find themselves.”
Mrs. S: “Two homicide detectives on my doorstep this morning quite convinced they’d found your body in a gravel quarry.”
Felix: “Who wants mimosas?”
Oh my God I love Felix.
Angie: “You’ve never seen her before?”
Sarah as Beth: “Yeah, yeah. In the mirror.”
Paul: “Olivier Duval. That’s a classy pseudonym, bro.”
Alison: “I bet you could bounce me like a ball.”
Alison: “Bad things have happened to me.”
Alison: “You say eff it. I tried to say eff it today and I blew up my whole life. I just wanted to say eff this. Eff you. And I effed it. I effed it all up.”
Helena: “How can you be Sarah’s daughter, child?”
More hints that the clones are (or should be) infertile.
four out of four epic beatdowns set to Meredith Brooks songs
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sunbunny, who is probably not played by Tatiana Maslany
Lots of good elements in this one. I loved the lead up to the street fight. Alison driving around and singing "I'm a bitch" was classic, and her later breakdown was great, too. I was also incredibly impressed with Mrs. S in this episode. The way she handled the arrival of the cops and responded to the assorted reveals was so unexpectedly cool and controlled. Not what you'd expect given the way this type of character usually rolls. She got about 1000 times more interesting to me all of a sudden. (Yea for Maria Doyle Kennedy!)
ReplyDeleteAnd that ending. Oh, that ending. I literally gasped out loud when that happened. Even though I was afraid something like that would happen when Kira ended up on the opposite side of the street. The way they did it still shocked and horrified me. It was so brutal. Even if I hadn't already been mainlining the episodes, you better believe I would have immediately started the next one.
Actually, I've been trying to take it slow but I just saw this one and I *have* to see the next one.
ReplyDeleteLoved Alison. Love. Singing "I'm a Bitch", beating up her Watcher, bonding with her sorta "mom", Mrs. S. I do love Felix, too, every scene he's in.
I got the impression (and I have *not* seen anything past this one) that Leekie didn't know about Sarah at all, and that was why he practically had his ears go up when Delphine mentioned her. As I mentioned before, it just seems odd that no one seemed to know about Sarah, and that Sarah is the only one who has a baby. And do the rest of them have alphabet names, A through H? Who am I forgetting?
That's a great theory, Billie, but we also have Katja. But there are no repeats of letters. Maybe there are 26 clones, each with a different letter name?
ReplyDeleteThat would certainly give Tatiana a lot of acting to do in future episodes. :) Yeah, I forgot Katja's name.
ReplyDeleteOn "Effects of External Conditions", Sarah asked Helena "what happened to you?". Here, Kira asked the same thing. Nice touch, writers.
ReplyDeleteColor me impressed with the little girl who plays Kira. That scene with Helena was glorious. I was as touched as I was on the edge of my seat, wondering if Kira’s sweetness would soften Helena or make her snap out of control and kill Kira. Helena is very unstable after all. So when Helena let her go and Kira started crossing the street, I totally echoed Sarah on the “Kira, no”. And then BAM! Like Jess, I gasped out loud on that one, even though I knew it was coming. The shot was so effective.
On the Alison front, I can totally relate to her on her lack of ability to say “eff it”. Hey, not everyone is streetwise like Sarah. I was still impressed, though, at how much she effed her life. It’s not the clones’ stuff that is making Alison paranoid, it’s the suburban life, and hats off to the writers for taking their scifi setting to make a critic on something so mundane. Neighbors can be very annoying monitors, after all.
This episode firmly established Alison as my favorite clone, and Mr. S. as one of my favorite characters overall, for the reasons Jess pointed out. You can tell the woman is tough and streetwise just like Sarah.
How dumb is Cosima, though? I can understand if she’s falling for Delphine, human feelings are a trick thing, but letting Delphine alone in her dorm room? Really? I hate it when writers make a character do something extremely dumb just because the plot demands, and on a show where the plotting is so tight, that’s very frustrating. However, Delphine not saying anything about Kira was interesting and an obvious sign that she has a heart. It kind of made me want to see more of her character, who I previously dismissed as boring.