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Orphan Black: Transgressive Border Crossing

“They’re coming.”

Another week, another perfect episode of Orphan Black.

We’re only two episodes into the season, but so far it’s been the best since season one and that is seriously saying something. Going backwards with the mythology to fill in gaps was such a good idea. We’re learning so much. See, Lost? This is how you do it. You raise questions and THEN YOU ANSWER THEM. Yes, I’m still bitter.

I try to avoid all spoilers for this show (including trailers), so I didn’t know if Beth’s appearance last week would be a one off or not. Happily, the Beth flashbacks continue but this week take backseat to the chronicles of Sarah Manning.

We begin as we left off last week, Sarah and co. getting the hell out of dodge after a warning from M.K. Siobhan, Sarah, Kendall, and Kira took off, leaving Cal to fend for himself and Kira quite annoyed at having to leave her father. Kira, sweetheart, it’s not your mother’s fault he’s busy on Game of Thrones. After burning down the house (remember, the Neolutionists are after Kendall’s DNA) they abscond to safety back to the one place the Neos know to look for them. Yeah, okay, it’s not the greatest plan, but it’s where the story is. What else could the show possibly do?

So, Sarah’s back on the trail of Neolution and that means, in her words, “going back to the beginning.” Which means Beth and Paul’s flat. Once again, Sarah sets to searching her sestra’s apartment, this time in search of clues instead of cash. She’s also replaced Felix with Art. They found the camera, artfully (I’m sorry) hidden by Beth in the days before her death and are looking through security footage featuring Beth nearly shooting Paul and Beth mysteriously leaving the house in a blonde wig. Before disappearing into the night, she put on makeup and did her hair in a bun, in what can only be an intentional answer to my question of why Beth looked so fancy at her suicide. So happy to know the writers read my reviews. And have a time machine. For once, I’m sure OB will provide us answers to what she was doing before the end of the season and maybe in the next episode. Killing Detective Duko is the obvious theory, but with this show, who knows?

I just can't praise the show enough for going back and answering lingering questions we’ve had since season one. Like, what the heck is in Kira? In season one, Kira got hit by a car and was rushed to the hospital where the doctors found…something…in her abdomen and then assured Sarah she was miraculously going to be okay. Is that something in her abdomen the same something that’s apparently in Sarah’s cheek? And what, for the love of God, is it? That video of it attacking its host was horror movie scary.

Felix is back and is finally getting to do something other than errands for clone club. He’s looking for his birth family. Sarah didn’t react to this news in a great way. Felix is her rock, the one who is always there for her, the idea that he’s doing something that has the potential to take him away from her, physically or emotionally, is too much for her to bear right now. She should have been supportive, yes. It didn’t even occur to me how hard it must have been for him to find out that Sarah was related to Siobhan and that Sarah ending up with her was an intentional design. Felix must feel left out by all this.

Speaking of not reacting well and feeling left out, Alison is having an issue with Helena’s happy news of twins. She can hardly be blamed. It has to be hard, being unable to have kids as you watch your genetic identical give birth to a litter. Helena’s habits are also driving her a bit up the wall. Apparently, she never puts anything away and stashes food everywhere. Like a psychotic squirrel. Donnie’s gentle reminder that she’s just trying to emulate Alison because she admires her was sweet. Donnie and Helena are so great together. I loved Helena pretending to be “Mrs. Hendrix” in order to get medical care. Well, how else were they going to do it? I don’t know much about Canada’s healthcare system but I doubt you can show up and say ‘Hey I’m a serial killer from Ukraine, one of about a dozen clones being hunted by an international group of weirdos and I’m pregnant. Please take care of me.’’

Cosima and Scott have headed down the Rabbit Hole to start their own secret lab/marijuana farm under a comic book shop. That’s just really cute, I’m sorry. Not much Cosima this week, but she is still sick. The gene therapy they were supposed to have developed from Kendall’s DNA hasn’t worked and she’s getting sicker. Also not helping is her worry for Delphine, whose fate remains unknown. Interestingly, Shay wasn’t even mentioned. Is she gone now? Dyad apparently is. According to Scott, all their coworkers have been fired or transferred and Dyad is out of the clone game. Too neat of a resolution, yes, but I do appreciate the closure. What about Ferdinand and Topside, though?

The show gets full marks for me for producing a focused episode that was thrilling, surprising, and most of all, answered questions.

Neolutionist Bits and Proleathean Pieces

It is established that it has been approximately six months since the first episode.

Helena being pregnant with twins makes total sense thematically (duality) and biologically (she is an identical twin herself).

This week, M.K.’s scarring is mentioned as is the fact her accent is “Scandinavian.” My Helsinki theory is still on the board.

Clone Quotes

Alison: “Shiitake mushrooms, Felix!”

Donnie: “She’s changed her hair, obviously.”
Helena: “Because it was too ugly.”

Alison: “That’s different. Helena’s trained to kill people. We’re manslaughterers!”

four out of four Beths

sunbunny, who is probably not played by Tatiana Maslany

2 comments:

  1. That photo you chose is seriously gorgeous, sunbunny. I love the way her face is framed, the placement of her fingers.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Tatiana is amazing, she is the small screen's Meryl Streep. When Helena, Alison, or any of the clones is in a scene, I totally forget that they are played by the same person. The only unbelievable clone for me was the transgender one. I'm liking this season, it's nice to see Hunky Paul again and I hope we get more Beth and what happened before. Felix's attitude was too abruptly changed. He seemed to go from the clone cheerleader to disinterested bystander awfully fast.

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