Orphan Black S03 E05: Scarred by Many Past Frustrations

Holy Specimen! On last week’s episode of “Orphan Black,” Mark and Sarah found the original specimen buried in a small coffin. What will happen to Sarah now that she’s a prisoner of Team Castor and, who is that cutie that Cosima has a blind date with?  We’ll need to ask the scorpion.

Helena

If I were to lay bets on the clone that would come out of this series a survivor, my money would be placed on Helena. She may be the mad hatter of clones, but this kid is like a female version of “MacGyver.” She will find a way to escape. Every so often, a clue is given on why Helena is a survivalist. Imagine being kept at a convent where you were looked upon as an aberration of nature; imagine being beaten and neglected your whole life; imagine being locked in a broom closet for four months. Yep! Helena is a survivor, but she’s also the most vulnerable. She doesn’t know how to trust.

The bond between Helena and Sarah is strained. Helena has been told by the Castor soldiers that Sarah betrayed her. Nothing Sarah says will convince Helena of her loyalty because Helena is listening to her imaginary friend, Pupok the scorpion. Why is Helena squirreling away those pats of butter?

Dr. Coady isn’t sure that the Castor dead baby in a box will have enough DNA to find the cure for survivors Mark, Rudy and Miller. They’ll need to get the needed stem cells from Sarah’s blood via a method called apheresis. We no longer need or should be taking stem cells from embryos. Although the Castor clones think of Dr. Coady as a mother figure, there is nothing mothering about her. She is all business and the clones are considered expendable for the cause. Helena tries to warn Paul about this, but he doesn’t believe her story about why she put Parson’s out of his misery. That will change.

Breaking Program

Gracie has gone to Art for help, but Art doesn’t know the first thing about deprograming an escapee from a cult. But, there is someone who does and, although Felix and Mrs. S are not that eager at first to help, Felix goes all Tim Gunn to bring Gracie back from Amish mode. I love Felix and, Jordan Gavaris does such an awesome job playing the gay brother of Sarah. Although his part had been somewhat limited the first three episodes of this season, Felix is not one to stay in the corner for too long a period. Felix, when not running his own “Project Runway,” plays cupid for Cosima.

Shay

Cosima is meeting her blind date. She’s nervous and still hurting from the breakup with Delphine, but that will change after meeting Shay who is played by the very talented Ksenia Solo. If this young lady looks familiar to you it’s because she is a cast member of the popular, Lost Girl, a Showcase series seen on the Syfy channel. In “Lost Girl,” Ksenia has black hair and she plays the part of Kenzi the human sidekick of the not-so-human, Bo (Anna Silk). If Cosima and Shay look like they’ve hit it off right away, it’s because in real life, Tatiana and Ksenia have been friends since they were fourteen years old and were cast members in a Canadian series, renegadepress.com.

Conclusion

1,2,3,4,5 the amount of time it takes the guard to reach the cells holding Sarah and Helena. This episode focused on Sarah and Helena, two distorted sides of the same mirror image. Sarah had to win back Helena’s trust and, even took a brutal beating to get a pair of tweezers that Helena needed for her great escape. Did Sarah convince Helena that she didn’t betray her? We do find out why Helena was saving the butter. Think greased pig. I’ve said this many times, but it needs repeating. Tatiana Maslany is amazingly talented. This young actress has convinced all of us that Helena, Cosima, Alison and Rachael are separate entities. I don’t know how she keeps from getting confused, especially when her Sarah character has to pretend she is one of the sister clones.

Mark is in the infirmary healing from his wounds, but his explanation for why he destroyed his tattoo fell on deaf ears. Dr. Coady gives him a log book to record his sexual conquests. Why? Mark investigates the body of Parson and realizes that Helena told the truth. He is troubled by the log book kept by Seth. This log is more than a log book, it is a record of all the women the clones have had contact with and this meticulous record has hair samples to go with the names.

While Helena slips through the bars on her cell, thanks to the butter; Gracie passes out while partying with Mrs. S and Felix and, Art goes to visit Patty. Something is wrong with the ladies who have sex with the Castor clones and both Gracie and Patty are showing strange symptoms. Can the clone glitch be transmittable through sex? Is this why the boy clones keep a log book?

Helena makes a brilliant jail break, but leaves Sarah behind. Helena needs to stop taking advice from that damn scorpion. See you next week, my little clone club, and, be careful where you leave your DNA.