'Orphan Black' reveals more of the clones' dark history
Orphan Black giveth, and Orphan Black taketh away.
In "From Instinct to Rational Control,” we were introduced to a new clone, but unfortunately she's been dead for a long time. And to make matters worse, by episode’s end, two other clones were MIA, too.
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There were some crazy revelations and pairings -- hello, Felix and Donnie as fake lovers -- with all roads leading back to Susan Duncan, the maggot bots, and a whole new world of Neolution that could be more frightening than DYAD.
Buckle up, Clone Club. It’s time for the latest edition Keeping Up with the Klones.
Sarah
Who knew that Ferdinand would become Orphan Black’s comic relief? After he was brought to the safe house, he puts on an apron to make a frittata, cracking an equal amount of jokes and eggs.
His mission is simple: find Susan Duncan, rescue Rachel, and run away with her. He’s desperate for Sarah’s secret source -- MK -- but leaves her to do her thing without intervening.
Sarah then goes to meet up with Dizzy and, hopefully, MK. Over a computer screen, Sarah tasks MK with learning how to remove the implants and trace Rachel’s location from the secret note. In exchange for this, Sarah wants to meet MK in person.
Sarah ends up spilling the beans about the Clone Club to Dizzy, and they break into MK’s trailer together. There, Sarah finds a picture of another clone, Niki, with MK, and newspaper articles that clue her in about their involvement in Helsinki and Niki’s death. Dizzy is able to break into MK’s system and find out she’s been tracking her every move, with the hope of luring Ferdinand into her revenge plot.
MK
At the meeting, MK tricks Ferdinand by beaming in via a Skype-esque chat (while wearing a sheep mask, naturally), so when he sits down in front of the computer, he’s immediately wired to a bomb.
She then enters the room from behind him.
MK then recounts her time in Helsinki, and Ferdinand realizes she’s the only clone who escaped the purge; her real name is Vera. One side of her face is scarred up -- and so is her heart. She tells him that Niki was her only friend, and he gassed her family and burned Niki alive.
Obviously, like in any revenge fantasy, MK douses him in gasoline and is ready to set him on fire when Sarah barges in. Although MK doesn’t end up setting him ablaze, she makes him transfer his $3.7 million to her and says adios to Sarah, the clones, and Ferdinand, even though Sarah tries to make her stay.
Sarah’s last attempt to get her to stay? Giving her the news that the maggot bots have gene editing and can be changing her DNA, so she needs help.
The news, however, doesn’t phase MK, and she leaves.
Helena
Helena and Donnie have a heart-to-heart about how jealous and upset Alison is because she couldn’t have kids. Instead of talking it out, Helena decides to bury her dead babies in the liquid nitrogen tank and move on with her life -- alone.
“Goodbye Family Hendrick,” she says as she hoists her bags and leaves their house.
Come back, Helena!
Alison
When Alison is out to breakfast, Trina -- the formerly pregnant Club Neolution girl that knew Beth -- comes up to her and freaks out, because she thinks Alison is Beth.
Trina tells her to back off and then mentions a place called Lifespring Fertility Clinic, so Sarah tasks Alison with investigating there -- alongside Felix and Donnie, who have to play couple Douglas and Julian.
One of the episode’s craziest moments is when Donnie is having trouble giving his sperm sample -- the naked men in Bad Puppy magazine just didn't do it for him -- so he calls Alison and she pretends to be a stewardess joining the Mile High Club with him. Keepin' it classy.
Meanwhile, Alison ends up spotting an old friend, Portia, who had just as much trouble getting pregnant as she did, and with some waterworks, she discovers Portia used “bright born treatments” with Dr. Bosch.
Bickering couple Douglas and Julian use their insider sleuthing skills to find out what the program is all about.
“Making the world a better place, one baby at a time” is their creepy slogan, and they focus on making healthy, strong babies with Neolution-like tactics.
Cosima
Cosima and Scott aren’t see much, but she drops a classic line when they operate on Dr. Leekie’s severed head: “Who’s the science now, bitch?”
They were definitely working hard behind the scenes, though. Fairly quickly, they realize that the maggot has a synthetic core, glows green in the dark, and could be a gene therapy system that could change Sarah’s DNA.
Rachel
Rachel may have a heart under there, but she’s not using it to its full capacity. She tells Ira and Susan that Charlotte needs to be treated with immunosuppressive therapy, but then backs off once she realizes Charlotte probably can’t be saved.
“The data is invaluable, more valuable than her life,” she says, effectively deciding that Charlotte will die so they can do research on her later. After this decision, Mama Duncan drops a big bombshell: She has the note Rachel gave Charlotte to send to Ferdinand.
“You're right to think of the future,” Susan says ominously.
Now that Cosima has figured out that Sarah's maggot bot provides gene therapy, should it be taken out?
Based on the way it murdered someone else, it doesn't seem worth the risk. Now that Ferdinand is penniless, it seems like the right time to use him and his contacts to get to the core of Sarah's problems, and hopefully track down MK again. She was invaluable help.
Also, Kira may be in hiding right now, but we need to talk about those creepy visions she saw. That seems like the next terrifying thing the clones will have to tackle.
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Sandra Gonzalez was a Senior Television Reporter at Mashable. A Texas native, she spent almost four years in New York City before leaving the land of superstorms for Los Angeles, where she was introduced to these terrifying things called "rolling earthquakes."Previously, she was with Entertainment Weekly, where she wrote about every show that could fit into her perfectly crafted TV schedule and anything ever touched by Shonda Rhimes.You can reach her at [email protected] or on Twitter @theSandraG
