Orphan Black S04 E02: Transgressive Border Crossing

On last week’s episode of “Orphan Black” we learned, through flashbacks that Beth was well aware of her clone sisters. She tried to help them, but the knowing was too much. We met a new clone, MK, who warns Sarah about a Neolution attack. Can MK help Sarah learn more about the worms and Neolution’s ultimate goal?

Mika

We can’t wrap our heads around this whole clone thing if we don’t give tribute to the first mammal to be successfully cloned. Dolly, (7/5/96-2/14/03) we were told, was the first, but God only knows how many copies of Dolly are out there right now snacking on meadow grass. There have been reports that scientists in Russia have successfully cloned a human, but it’s probably true. We are mammals too and the differences between the genomes of sheep and humans are pretty small.

Mika has, in just two episodes, won her way into our hearts and I love her use of the lamb mask as an inside joke about Dolly and the situation the clones now find themselves in. Mika is a wizard when it comes to hacking into Neolution’s records and her phone call to Iceland saved Sarah and her family from the Neolution army. But, Mika is afraid to come out of hiding which means Sarah will need to work hard to get the scoop from Mika.

Felix

Of all the characters on this show, the one who has been the most supportive of all the clones was Felix. Jordan Gavaris is such a talented young man and most of the time his character is coming out with witty sarcasm to break up the tension on the episodes, but not this year. Jordan plays his Felix in a somber mood in this new season. He’s been avoiding the clones and especially Sarah. What has changed since we last saw Felix on season three?

Maybe, it was Sarah and Kira leaving him behind to go to Iceland… or maybe it was the revelation that everyone is related to each other except for him. Felix is the outsider and it shows in the art that he’s working on. I have seen Felix in most stages of undress over the past three seasons, but on this episode, he was fabulously revealing.

When Sarah goes to visit Felix and learns that he is searching for his birth family, she’s not that excited or supportive. Instead of she drags Felix off to Club Neolution. After he sneaks her inside the club, she tries to find out the whereabouts of a pregnant woman that Beth met on a case. We are introduced to a new character named Dizzy (Joel Thomas Hynes) who thinking he’s talking to Mika, tells Sarah about the maggot bots and how they are implanted into unsuspecting victims.

Donnie

Kristian Bruun’s Donnie is another character that has been allowed to evolve on Orphan Black. Although on the first two seasons we were led to believe that he was Alison’s monitor; a spy, we realized by season three, that he was a big teddy bear who truly loved his wife… loved her enough to overlook the fact that she was a clone… loved her enough to commit murder to keep her and the clones safe. What, I considered one of the most touching scenes on tonight’s episode was the scene between Donnie and Alison and later with Helena as she gets her ultrasound.

 

While Donnie is comfortable with a very pregnant Helena living with his family, Alison is showing signs of discontent. Is Alison jealous of the buddy relationship between her husband and her clone or is she jealous of Helena’s pregnancy? Only two of the clones were able to conceive; Sarah and Helena, but Donnie’s reaction to seeing Helena’s babies moving on the ultrasound seemed so real, that I wonder where this story arc will lead. I’m really happy that Donnie is one of the good guys.

Rabbit Hole

I love the writing on this show. Did you expect anything else but an underground lab hidden in the basement of a comic book shop? Kudos to the set designers for making the Rabbit Hole look so damn cool. I love Scott, but can we trust him? I hope so because he has to help Cosima find a cure. How will Kendall admitting to Scott that she has leukemia play into Cosima getting a vaccine that will work? Does Mrs. S know if Delphine is dead?

Conclusion

I saved the most important part of this episode for last… Beth. We have seen in a series of flashbacks, the story of Beth leading up to when she jumped off that train platform, but it wasn’t until tonight that it hit home how overwhelmed Beth had become in trying to protect her and her seestras from the people who wanted to use and abuse them. Why did Beth put on that blonde wig? Art is trying to figure it out and so are we. Was she pretending to be Krystal, and if so, why?

Whose blood was on Beth’s hands? Beth is a mystery to us, but little by little, we are learning that although she used drugs and maybe disappointed Art many times, her heart was in the right place. She was trying to protect her family, the clones, from Leda, Dyad and Neolution. Everyone depended on Beth and the weight of caring became too much. When she hugs Mika goodbye, it hits us that she is walking out of that apartment and to her death. That hug between Mika and Beth was the second most touching scene in this episode

I gross out when I hear about people have a disgusting tape worm inside their gut, so imagine my reaction when Sarah learns that she has one of those maggot bots inside her. What did Frank and Roxie mean when they said, “No scar, it’s not her?” If Sarah has a worm inside her, does Kira? How about the rest of the seestras? What the hell is Neolution up to? Maybe Beth can tell us in another flashback. See you next week my little clone club and watch “After the Black.” It’s still not as good as the “Talking Dead,” but it’s getting there.