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Orphan Black: Clutch of Greed

“Is Sarah Manning finally ready to behave?”

Most gruesome episode of Orphan Black ever? From Helena’s needle-licious exit to the way the episode ended, I was pretty grossed out all the way through.

Besides grossed out, I’m also annoyed at Kira. I mean, ok, she’s a kid, she has to be given some slack but Jesus kid you picked a rotten time for a tantrum. Couldn't she have at least mentioned in the car that she has no intention of running away so everyone was a little more prepared? I find her faith in “Aunty Rachel” extremely disturbing. I get that she wants to know what’s wrong with her or whatever but she’s a child certainly she doesn’t get to make major, future-altering decisions by herself.

Their actual escape was classic clone club shenanigans. Sarah shows up as Rachel to whisk Kira away before the actual Rachel could grab her. One quibble. Sarah’s facial injuries disappeared completely. They didn’t look covered up with makeup, they were gone. I feel like the makeup department could’ve done better there. Unfortunately, Ferdinand spotted Sarah and then followed her straight to MK. His murder of MK was gross on several counts. First of all, the stomping to death was just…shudder-inducing. Secondly, the way he was talking to her, calling her Rachel, was so supremely creepy. He even said himself MK’s costume made it possible for him to get revenge on MK and Rachel at the same time. Understandably, after this Rachel kicks him to the curb. I wonder if we’ve seen the last of him.


The less that gets said about Helena's escape the better. That needle. I mean yikes. I’m so happy that we’re returning to find out what makes clone children unique. You’ll remember in season one that Kira was hit by a car but survived and there was something on her scan that intrigued the doctors. Now we find out that one of Helena’s babies healed itself after being impaled by a tree branch. Is that what happened to Kira? Why would the children of clones have special healing abilities? Is this related to PT Westmoreland’s longevity? What about Kira’s psychic abilities?

Speaking of Westmoreland, this week saw Cosima meeting with the man behind the curtain. I wish it had been more than one short scene. There’s something not right about this fellow. Could he be a clone? Like instead of one man who is a hundred and whatever years old there’s been a series of clones? I liked the shoutout Darwin got and there was also a mention of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Westmoreland is surely a mystery worthy of Sherlock Holmes. Actually, thinking about Neolution and Sherlock Holmes together reminds me of “The Adventure of the Creeping Man,” a story about a man who inadvertently injects himself with monkey DNA and becomes a sort of were-monkey, taking on monkey traits and abilities at night. Maybe Doyle was inspired by Westmoreland’s experiments? Maybe Westmoreland has been injecting himself with tortoise DNA and is in fact a were-tortoise. It’s Orphan Black. It’s possible.

Bits and Pieces

Rachel’s hair looked really, really wiggy.

Quotes

Rachel: “Milk or lemon?”
Sarah: “Kira. Now.”

Sarah: “Shove it up your bleached ass.”

Felix: “Who do you think invented sneaking out of this house?”
Sarah: “I did.”

three and a half out of four were-tortoises (I had to take some off for the ick)

sunbunny

6 comments:

  1. It's Orphan Black. It's possible.

    LOL. Great review, sunbunny.

    I think this was my least favorite episode of OB, and not because of the gross-out. What they did to MK was so extreme and unnecessary. God! This is a show that puts women at the center, that discusses the violence that women suffer and how they fight back. So I assume that MK's death will be avenged eventually, but still... It was too brutal and uncalled for.

    Another problem I had: the episode span around in circles and sacrificed a character for nothing. In the end, Kira wanted to go with Rachel. It makes sense, of course she wants to understand why she is different. It's time Sarah starts to trust Kira's sixth sense. But I agree with you, Kira needs to calm down a little bit and understand (1) that auntie Rachel is not the best person in the world and (2) that her mom is only trying to protect her.

    Well, I did like the cliffhanger with S and Delphine, it was intriguing.

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  2. I hated this episode. I can't say if it's my least favorite episode of the entire series, as Lamounier put it, but I hated. I think it was completly unnecessary for MK to die - specially in the way that she died and how it came to be. Like Lamounier said, it was uncalled for.

    Part of me thinks Sarah should listen to Kira more. I know she is a child and calling Rachel "Aunty Rachel" is wrong, but she deserves some level of autonomy regarding her life and body.

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  3. This review and Westmoreland being a were-turtle were the best part of the episode. :)

    Yeah do the writers want us to hate Kira? Because she could have said she wanted to stay back at the school and save MK's life.

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  4. I usually came to this site for completing my watching experience with a well crafted review, and one thing I usually like about this site is the way people discuss a show with passion but never forgetting we are watching and talking about a fictional show with fictional characters. Something about the civilize way to discuss different ideas and respect other peoples' work is what drags me to this site. With this show and last reviews I feel sad to say that it is not what I usually expect from here. Any way, to each, his/her own. And as my mother always says, if you can not say something nice about something, better don't say anything. That being said, I`m enjoying the last season, and I`m missing to share this enjoinment in this site. Love, Cecile

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  5. Aside from being sad to lose MK and in such a brutal way, I was unhappy with this episode because of Kira, like a lot of other people. It seems to me that her gift for sensing what the clones are feeling ought to make her wary of Rachel, even if Srarah and the others trusted her.

    But I'm sad that this episode seems to have spoiled Sunbunny on continuing to review the show. I never felt the show became unwatchable, like the latter seasons of Heroes for example.

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  6. magritte, we're hoping at some point to finish Orphan Black. Especially since we're so close to the end.

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