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Orphan Black: From Instinct to Rational Control

“Who’s the science now, bitch?”

For the first time ever, an episode of Orphan Black has left me cold.

Maybe it was the episode’s intense focus on the implant, maybe it was Sarah’s unfortunate (yet in character) bad decision making, maybe it was the scene where Donnie masturbates into a cup.

I think at least part of it is the revelation that Mika is not on the side of the sestrahood, which is…disappointing. Sooner or later we had to run across a clone not interested in helping her sisters solve their collective mystery but her relationship with Beth led me to believe she would be a powerful ally in the fight against Neolution, instead of happy to leave her sisters twisting in the wind. Part of this is because of Sarah’s less than stable, less than kind treatment of her. I find myself wishing that Cosima was the one in contact with M.K., not Sarah. And what about Cosima? She and her illness have been completely pushed to the side by the discovery of the implant in Sarah’s cheek and I find myself angry at Sarah and even the show, a bit, for making this so vital and so urgent. In case you’ve forgotten, Cosima is dying, yet all she’s been spending her time on is this worm thing. While I am interested and appropriately revolted by the implants, they seem to have become the show’s primary focus which feels distinctly unbalanced and incredibly not cool. The show has so many balls in the air, why are they only concentrating on this one?

M.K., it turns out, is a Helsinki survivor and her intensive investigation of Neolution has had a purpose: revenge. Yes, it turns out her entire operation was based on her desire to find the man who killed her friend Niki, along with 37 other people. A man, unfortunately, Sarah introduces her to. Mika/Veera takes her revenge on Ferdinand, nearly blowing him up and stealing almost four million dollars from him. And then, she’s gone, evidently uninterested in helping Clone Club more than she already has, undoubtedly influenced by the stalwart belief that she is dangerous to be around.

I got my wish of Mrs. S mediating between her kids. Sarah’s still seriously hurting over what she sees as Felix replacing her. Him rushing off to help Alison certainly did nothing to alleviate that feeling. Sarah, though. What the hell is she thinking? Is she even thinking? Trusting a random guy she met in CLUB NEOLUTION is idiotic. Her single-minded desire to get this thing out of her cheek has blinded her to the other, very real dangers in her life. Again, as I said last week, this character flaw has been established before so it’s not an issue I have with the writers. It’s just frustrating to see her make so many bad decisions over the course of a single episode.

Everything else and everyone else was treated as background noise to Sarah and M.K. Helena packed up and left the Hendrixes?! That was sort of an incredibly major thing that got two tiny scenes. As for Team Hendrix’s investigation, it was cute to see Donnie and Felix playing spouses but the less that can be said of everything else that happened at the doctor’s, the better.

I thought, foolishly, that Trina being pregnant when Beth met her was a coincidence. Nope. She told Alison she was “a carrier” and something tells me she didn’t mean anything to do with the implants. I mean, shouldn’t she have had a baby with her at the coffee shop? She didn’t. Bright Born was one of the bright spots (ha) of the episodes. Working more conspiracy-y stuff into the mythology is always okay with me. What’s up? Are they attempting another clone experiment? I kind of doubt it would be that simple but I’m curious to find out.

The only part of the episode that didn’t feel awkwardly subsidiary to Sarah was Rachel and Charlotte. Susan supposedly lets Rachel choose whether they should attempt to treat Charlotte or let her die and use the data they get from her to save the rest of the clones. Rachel makes the cold, calculating decision to let her die. It’s unclear, however, whether this is what she actually wants or she was just trying to placate her mother, possibly in an attempt to get Susan to offer her more trust and freedom. Unfortunately, Susan has discovered the secret Rachel to Charlotte to Ferdinand information pipeline, which can mean nothing good. I just wish somehow they could know that Ferdinand was in contact with Sarah; that they could communicate that Charlotte is sick and if they all worked together they could save her and Cosima. Can’t we all just get along? How horrible will it be if Cosima manages to get cured while her little sister dies, unbeknownst to her?

Neolutionist Bits and Prolethean Pieces

A bit of a nitpick, but the OB wiki (which includes information from the comics) lists the six Helsinki clones as Ania, Sofia, Justyna, Fey, Femke, and Jade. No Niki. Any comic readers have insight on this?

I wonder if Felix was hurt when Donnie said he didn’t have any gay friends. Doesn’t Felix count? Aren’t they friends?

Clone Quotes

Ferdinand: “Rachel’s a foodie too and only a fluffy frittata will she abide.”

Helena: “I’m not in the crafts room.”

Sarah: “He saved my life.”
Ferdinand: “That’s true! That’s a good point!”

two out of four Veeras

sunbunny, who is probably not played by Tatiana Maslany

3 comments:

  1. The wiki listing about the six Helsinki clones from comics is wrong.
    Ania was killed by Helena before Helsinki and before they even decided to go to the press in Helsinki.

    Currently in Helsinki according to the comics: Veera, Niki, Jade and Justyna.
    Sofia was trying to get to Helsinki but hasn't arrived and it's kind of implied that she won't make it to Helsinki (the taxi driver, who is probably someone following Sofia, passed the airport in Odense, Demark).
    Fay and Femke are in Amsterdam, Netherlands and were asked to come to Helsinki by Niki but weren't in Helsinki by the end of issue #4 and according to the show they died in a car "accident" in Amsterdam.

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  2. Had flashbacks to the "Eve" episode of the X-files. The spokeswoman's speech about the fertility clinic reminded me of Dr. Sally Kendrick. The X-file clones were all psycho, though. Sarah is acting very weird. It's like the implant in her cheek is clouding her judgment. Donnie and Felix were fun at first, then yuck. Too much information. Helena come back! So sad her scene with her tank babies.

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  3. Nonny - Thank you so much for clearing that up! I keep meaning to try out the comics but I still haven't gotten around to it yet.

    Mallena - The idea that the cheek implant is affecting her judgement is something that hadn't occurred to me! Wouldn't that be creepy?

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