One of the fun things about making wild guesses about this show in my reviews is occasionally I get to say I told you so. Told you so.
Okay no, I didn’t predict that Siobhan’s mother was the source of the original genome for both Castor and Leda because she had absorbed her twin in utero and therefore had two cell lines. Because that’s crazy. But, Mrs. S is genetically related to her daughter which I had guessed. Depending on how you view the relationship between clone and original, Sarah is either sister or aunt or mother to her mother. Trippy.
I’m left wondering if this feels overly contrived or if Mrs. S’s connections to Projects Leda and Castor throughout her life make sense. Her mother is the original, which she didn’t know, yet she ended up adopting a clone? The odds of that are pretty much impossible, unless someone has been guiding her actions unseen. I did an Orphan Black rewatch before the season started but now I feel like, with this revelation, I need to do it again to understand things. I was going over my notes from the rewatch (Yes, I take notes. Yes, they’re color coded. You wanna fight about it?) and I wrote “Mrs. S has known all along.” I have forgotten what lead me to that conclusion or how I defined “all along” besides meaning before the series began.
Despite the holy shit moment at the end, a lot of the penultimate episode of the season felt like empty set up. At least as far as the London stuff was concerned. Yes, we got some beyond precious Sadler family bonding, but a lot of the show was heavy mythology building and Ferdinand skulking around in the shadows. The show is clearly gearing up for a Topside v. Delphine showdown in the finale.
Gracie, it turns out, was the mole. Shay was always a little too shady to be actually shady. As much as I love Gracie and don’t want her to leave the clone nest, I think it’s sweet that she did it for love and I was so happy to see her reunited with her hubby. Do they ride off into the sunset together now or will they return? If they are coming back, whose side will they be on?
The scene between Delphine and Shay was interesting. I don’t doubt that Delphine would kill to protect Cosima, although I’m glad she didn’t have to. What can Shay be thinking? With her limited knowledge of the situation, all she knows is that her girlfriend’s ex-girlfriend strode into her apartment with her impossibly long legs, made some batshit crazy allegations and threatened her. If I was Shay, I’d be running for the hills at this point. Cosima is adorable, but is she really worth all this insanity?
My favorite part of the episode was the Helena/Donnie stuff. They’re quickly moving up the ranks of my list of favorite OB duos. He was very concerned about getting Helena’s “babies” back to her, making that his first priority. His second priority was a highly unlikely refund from a drug lord. Really, Donnie? You think he’s going to give you a refund?
Then, of course, Pouchy’s niece or whoever she is had to do the idiotic and threaten children. In front of Helena. So, they’re all dead now. At least, I’m assuming. Helena’s not one to do things halfway. If she wants you dead, you die. We are left with one fun loose end in the Alison and Donnie become drug dealer story: Jason Kellerman. Will he follow his bosses to that big drug front in the sky or will he be smart enough to get out of dodge before Helena realizes his were the knuckles that damaged her baby ox?
Bits and Pieces
Rudy’s glitching, which means he’s dying. Excuse me as I shed a tear for the poor, murderous rapist.
It was awesome hearing Maria Doyle Kennedy sing.
Interviews have indicated that Delphine’s “friend” who tried to commit suicide was actually she herself.
Did Duncan’s synthetic sequences change the appearance of the clones or was that picture Sarah came across not Kendall holding baby Siobhan? Was it Siobhan holding a mysterious baby? Hard to tell.
Kendall killed Siobhan’s husband in either 1978 or 1981. Both dates were given. Or maybe the first was the date of the crime and the second the date of conviction. In any case, Kendall killed John Sadler.
Despite her Ukrainian accent and the fact that she murdered everyone, Helena still managed to be a more convincing Alison than Cosima did.
Helena was wearing the same jacket Alison wore when Aynsley died.
Clone Quotes
Helena as Alison: “I have a cold.”
Donnie: “Yeah, yeah. It’s one of those really bad ones that messes with your…syntax.”
Maybe the funniest line in Orphan Black ever.
Helena as Alison: “Did you threaten babies? You should not threaten babies.”
two and a half out of four murder jackets
sunbunny, who is probably not played by Tatiana Maslany
I think Kendall looks different to the clones even as a young woman because she is a chimera (composite of two genetic sets); depending on which parts are Leda and which parts are Castor, she would differ more or less from Castor/Leda. If, for example, her kidneys were Castor, it would produce more testosterone, and the different levels in hormones would affect the whole organism...
ReplyDeleteWell, I was shocked at this revelation! A part of me wondered if this was the moment that the show jumped the shark... We'll see.
ReplyDelete