Wow. Is it safe to say that this was the best episode of the season? Because I haven't been this pumped up by an Orphan Black episode since Donny confronted Vic and Angela in the van. Finally, some concrete answers, some insight into why this clone conspiracy is happening in the first place, a major death that looks like it'll stick, and forward momentum in everyone's plots.
It was also an episode that was big on dreams and visions and symbols, so let's get down to it.
Well, let's start with Paul. The show never really knew what to do with Paul after the reveal that he was Beth's monitor and a Dyad mole, and there was some hasty retconning this season when he was reintroduced as a military mole within Dyad, searching for a cure for the Castor clones.
But to the show's credit, it's not lazy retconning. As convoluted as Paul's background now is, nothing we know about him has been flatly contradicted (for all we know, his story about killing six Marines in combat is still true) and the writers deliberately went back to plug that potential plot-hole from midway through season two in which Mark/Paul meet in the bar and show no indication that they know each other. Here the two have a conservation that establishes Paul at least recognised Mark, and was keeping cover.
For once Dylan Bruce's inexpressiveness inscrutability pays off, as I suspect there's nothing in his performance that suggests he either knew or didn't know who Mark was at that point. Basically, if you're going to retcon, make sure you cover your tracks, which Orphan Black did. It keeps me hopeful that one day this entire conspiracy plot will make sense.
In this episode, Paul reaches the line that he can't cross, learning that the Castor clones are deliberately passing on an STD and so (perhaps motivated as much by his love for Sarah as his guilt over Beth) arrests Virginia Coady and takes over the base.
In what feels like a lampshade hanging on his ever-changing loyalties, this comes after Sarah cries: "you're the worst of them, because I don't even know where you stand!" (that kinda reminds me of Storm telling Wolverine in the first X-Men movie: "at least I've chosen a side.") But it's topped off by a very cute shot of this:
Paul makes his play, helps Sarah escape and then sacrifices himself with a grenade in order to destroy Virginia's research. I was admittedly a little slow on the uptake when it came to Arlington, having written "Paul is so gonna die, but at least he managed to get the word out" on my notepaper, but of course Arlington (and by proxy, the military) never planned to send backup.
Still, it was an appropriate death for Paul. He stood up for what he believed in, he saved Sarah's life, and though I doubt that Rudy and Virginia are down for the count just yet, he at least was able to set back their research by a considerable margin. More beloved characters have died much shittier deaths than this one, and (on a more pragmatic note) this at least pares down the ever-growing cast.
***
So what plot relevant stuff did we learn this episode? That the Castor clones carry a contagious defect that gets passed from male to female via sex, affecting the former's brains and the latter's reproductive organs. In Gracie for example, it's caused her ovaries to atrophy, causing not only her miscarriage but preventing her from ever having children again. It was engineered and placed in the clones by someone who has yet to be identified, and Virginia has been trying to find a cure for the Castor boys while simultaneously using Sarah (and plenty of other young women) as unwilling test subjects.
It's all in pursuit of using the defect as a weapon, a premise that has about a million things wrong with it (from the idea that Virginia could track infected women through nothing but rudimentary contact details, to the logistics of how it could be realistically utilized as a weapon), but which may also have something to do with Sarah, Helena and Kira's remarkable healing abilities. Not only have they survived everything that's been thrown at them (cars, gunshot wounds, infected blood) but Kira at least seems to have demonstrated actual healing abilities when it came to her contact with Cosima.
This leads to an undeniable theme: that the Castors suffer brain damage while the Ledas lose the ability to reproduce; that the men spread the disease through sex, while the women (or at least three of them) have preternatural healing abilities. I'm... really not sure what to feel about this, or what the show expects me to feel about it. Is it that this engineer – whoever he or she may be – felt that the best way to control the clones was through their minds/ovaries depending on gender? Is that a reflection of the engineer's views on what is most valuable in men/women or simply the way he/she designed the weapon? And could the show get any more obvious with the evil penis/healing vagina comparison?
Whatever the case, it appears that the military is deeply invested in this project, for despite Paul's best efforts, Arlington sides with Virginia. I strongly suspect she and Rudy will survive the explosion – and neither of them seems even remotely interested in following Paul's last request and dropping the project, especially now that they know what Sarah's biology is capable of.
***
Over in Casa Hendrix – yikes. I wasn't entirely sure what I was watching there for a second, and by the time I realized it was the two of them twerking in their underwear (and not some weird music video) I was as bemused as Gemma.
Yet in an odd way, this whole endeavour has clearly spiced up their rocky marriage; not only by giving Donny a bad-boy rival, but also in the excitement of new money and illicit activities. And now they've moved onto the next step by offering Bubbles as a front – which means we're finally going to meet Alison's mother! I suspect her characterization will explain a lot about Alison.
Delphine is back, and is still very difficult to read. One thing we do know is that it was she who sent a photographer after Cosima and her date, which is a huge breech of privacy, and one in which the excuse "it's for your own protection" clearly won't wash unless she's got all the clones being watched.
Elsewhere, Felix goes to Rachel for information that quickly devolves into desperation and humiliation. It got pretty intense, to the point where I think even Felix was a little freaked out by what he did – though it finally gave Jordan Gavaris some decent material.
But the most important thing we take from this scene is that Tom notices the symbols in Rachel's art, which match up to those in Ethan Duncan's book. His research is finally coming back into play, and it provides the opportunity to integrate Rachel back into the plot.
Miscellaneous Observations:
The episode opened with a creepy dream sequence, one that accurately foretold (or at least revealed) what was happening to Sarah while she was unconscious. This is yet another example of the mystical – or at least the spiritual – at work within the show, akin to Helena's scorpion, Kira's healing powers, the appearance of Beth, and even Cosima's new holistic girlfriend. It would appear to be a steadily growing subplot in Orphan Black, and since we've dealt with military, science and religious factions, perhaps it's time to let spiritualism have its day.
For instance, how literally were we meant to take Sarah's second dream? Did she really have an outer body experience that involved meeting Beth? Whether or not, there were some interesting things said between Beth and Sarah, including "you took my life" (figuratively) and "I let you jump" (literally?) Sarah's feelings are all guilt when it comes to Beth, the sister she didn't know existed, and without whose death we wouldn't even have a story.
But it's her final words that really caught my attention, when she tells Sarah: "Stop asking why; start asking who." The ambiguity of the conversation reminded me of Buffy/Faith while the latter was in her coma, and like them, it felt that an important message was being imparted here. Namely, that it's time for Sarah to start asking who the heck is behind all this.
And who was the little girl who manifested in Sarah's dream, leading her to Beth? Obviously the actress is the one who played Rachel as a child, as well as Marion's current daughter, but we also know she could therefore also be any one of the Leda clones as a child, including Sarah herself. Whew. Perhaps she was meant to be all of them.
What do we make of these pictures on the fridge?
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| Kira's pictures of the extended family? |
I like that Helena and Sarah are allowed to have sweat-stains on their clothes, something you usually only see on male characters. Remember on LOST, when all the men were perpetually sweaty and the women were forever pristine?
I have no idea how eye injuries might affect the rest of one's body, but is it normal for Rachel to have trouble with speech and be consigned to a wheelchair? I get the feeling the answer is yes, if not simply because of the trauma involved in losing an eye, but I'm not sure. And seriously, no one at Dyad is the least bit suspicious that both she and Doctor Leekie have been "killed" in separate plane accidents within a few months (at most) of each other? Why did they have to fake her death?
I liked that Paul got Mark on his side by appealing to his love for Gracie.
So Helena eating Pupok means... she's gained mastery over herself? Or at least the voices in her head? I've never actually seen anyone eat their own spirit animal before.
And ultimately Beth was right. "We do terrible things for love." This was practically the theme of the episode, as Felix, Paul, Delphine, Sarah, Alison and Donny – they all do exactly this, for exactly that reason. Oddly, the only person who acts out of love without doing any "terrible" things (at least in this episode) is Helena, who goes back to help Sarah.
"It was never Beth I loved." Sniffles. Dammit Paul. I'm glad you made me like you before you died, even though that's actually a pretty shitty thing to say about Beth.
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