“The trapped and confined nature of the episodes adds to a growing sense of horror, as each clone is confronted with a different aspect of the horror genre.” – Jonathan Raeder
Season two of Orphan Black has done an admirable job of splitting up Clone Club, separating each clone into multiple storylines, none of them particularly optimistic. The trend escalates in “Governed As It Were By Chance,” in which clones are trapped in their own worst nightmare. Cosima’s health is rapidly deteriorating, and she knows full well what’s going to happen to her; she’s seen it for herself. Alison failed in her big performance, is trapped in rehab with women who openly display their armpit shaving habits, and is at risk of losing her children to her own lying monitor. Helena is experimented on, drugged, and only barely manages to escape the confines of the Cult Ranch, and Sarah is relentlessly pursued by Daniel and caught up in a conspiracy that stretches out far beyond her and has already snared her (innocent?) baby daddy, Cal.
The trapped and confined nature of the episodes adds to a growing sense of horror, as each clone is confronted with a different aspect of the horror genre. Alison is trapped in an institution (not literally but for her it’s essentially an insane asylum); Cosima’s own body is turning against her; Helena is involved with a creepy invasive cult; and Sarah seems to be in a straight-up slasher. She’s tied up and about to lose an ear when her torturer is brutally killed by her own crazed Ukrainian serial killer twin sister she thought was dead. The fear and darkness has been growing this whole season, but there hasn’t been a moment in this show as terrifying as a bloodied, knife-wielding Helena — dressed like the killer bride from hell — stumbles onto screen, her infamous screeching motif blaring suddenly. Sarah, tied up and now seeing what must amount to a blooded, vengeful ghost, screams with a stomach-curdling sense of real palpable fear, which morphs into a sense of profound disturbance as Helena hugs her, blood and all.
Cosima, in the midst of what Felix hilariously terms a “transgressive lesbian geek spiral bound to end in tears,” confronts her own rapidly approaching mortality. She’s been prone to coughing fits in the last couple episodes, but it’s never seemed this bad. She speaks with a catch in her voice, barely holding back the urge to cough until she’s alone. Cosima’s role in the show is often just to spout exposition, but it makes sense in this situation. If she doesn’t find out information, if she doesn’t collect the evidence and understand why she’s dying and how to reverse it, she’s gone. The show can afford to lose and gain clones whenever they want to because of Tatiana Maslany, if we’ve yet to have any of the major clones die. Here’s hoping Cosima won’t be the first.
Alison’s storyline seems to be the only one not immediately wrapped up in the mystery of Leda and the nature of the clones. Her guilt over Aynsley’s death has bubbled over into a stint in rehab; it’s hard to think of anything worse for the uptight, composed Alison. She has to share space with “addicts?” She’s considered an addict? Now with the definite knowledge that Donny is her monitor, Sarah and Cosima’s other distractions, and her awful catastrophe at her musical, she’s left with no one but Felix, and he can only visit every so often. Maybe purifying her head from all the drugs and alcohol will leave Alison steeled for action against Donny and by extension the Dyad Institute. There are not many more dangerous places to be in Orphan Black then on the receiving end of a truly angry Alison.
Cal is shaping up to be so convenient and nice of a person that it’s grown suspicious. He’s already a great father figure for Kira; he makes her a paper angel/butterfly, takes Sarah and Kira into hiding on the road, and throws aside his home and life just to keep them safe. It doesn’t seem likely that he’s actually evil or will consciously choose to give any of them up to their enemies, but his flash of recognition at the name of the Dyad Institute, coupled with Sarah’s likely unintentionally ironic assertion that he’s not involved in any of this, makes it seem all the more possible that he knows more than he’s letting on.
Meanwhile, inside the Cult Ranch, Helena awakes, drugged and unsure as to what happened to her but cognizant of the fact that Hank was involved. The last episode suggested that she was raped, but then the flashback hinted at some horrific form of artificial insemination. It turns out that the last disturbing option was taken; her egg and presumably Hank’s sperm have created life. It doesn’t seem like the Proletheans will abandon Helena completely, but they’ve definitely got what they wanted. What does it mean? Why can only Helena and Sarah have children? Mysteries still abound.
Finally, we come to the slowly unraveling mystery of Project Leda. Fans predicted that Leda referred to the Greek legend, and the show confirms the theory rather obviously. In the legend, Zeus takes the form of a swan and seduces (or rapes) Leda, after which she gives birth to twins, half god, half human. The twins obviously parallel Sarah and Helena; but what about the rest of the clones? At one point it the show it seemed as though Sarah and Helena were just twins that the rest were copied from, but this new information — plus Helena’s seeming regenerative powers — suggests that even these two are the results of an experiment, not merely the tools used for one.
Mrs. S is obviously somewhat deep into the conspiracy, as even her old friend and lover Carlton doesn’t know “what” Sarah is, and nor does he want to. It’s hard to tell whether the confusing nature of Orphan Black is a strong point or a flaw. We’re not quite sure who knows what, what we’re supposed to know, what we’ve been lied to about, what’s real, or even if anyone knows the truth. On one hand the mystery keeps us invested, but genre shows often stretch their mythology too wide and fail to provide adequate answers (or any answers at all). Hopefully Orphan Black will keep from that direction, and hopefully we’ll learn a bit more about the nature of the clones as Cosima’s research and Sarah’s investigation continue.
Tidbits:
– I’ve never been a huge fan of Helena, but the show has done a great job of making me actually care about her now. Of course she’s still a psychopathic serial killer, but she’s also so childlike and innocent, in a way. Everything she’s done was because of her twisted upbringing, and maybe with the positive influence of her sister, she can be reformed somehow. Maybe she’ll get to kill Hank as well. That dude is disturbing.
– “Brunch and Mimosas…well, maybe just brunch.”
– Wow, Mrs. S…wow.
– Do any of you watch Game of Thrones as well? I just noticed that Cal is played by the same actor who plays Daario Naharis in Game of Thrones. The guy has the “scruffy love interest” part down pat.
