“Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion is built on throwing off our predictions and keeping us in a near constant state of suspicion and confusion, one that Sarah and Clone Club are no doubt in as well.” — Jonathan Raeder
Well, that was certainly a confusing one, wasn’t it? First we thought Kira was kidnapped by the Neolutionists, then the Proletheans, then she wasn’t kidnapped at all, then she was almost kidnapped by the Proletheans, and now she’s on the run with Sarah, Felix, and an old pickup truck. First we thought Alison’s monitor was Donny, then Aynsley, and now she finally knows it’s been Donnie all along. He’s rather incompetent, isn’t he? First we thought Helena was an evil clone, then we learned she was Sarah’s twin, then we thought she was dead, then we learned she was alive, and now we find out she’s a mirrored image to Sarah — “a yin and yang sort of thing.” Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion is built on throwing off our predictions and keeping us in a near constant state of suspicion and confusion, one that Sarah and Clone Club are no doubt in as well.
Clone Club seems to be caught in a war between two powerful forces — the Neolutionists and the Proletheans – both of whom continue to be shrouded in mystery. Until this episode, we knew more about the Neolutionists: they created the clones, they have monitors watching each clone, one of them had a tail, one is named Aldous Leekie and is probably not a good person, and they have their own personal clone, Rachel Duncan. All we knew about the Proletheans was that Helena and Brother Tomas were connected to them and that they were a shadowy religious organization convinced that the clones were evil and deserved to die.
It turns out that Tomas isn’t really indicative of the new form of the Proletheans at all — instead they’re a surprisingly scientific-minded religious cult. Like most cults, they’re agrarian in nature and evoke a sense of farmland America, but also like most cults, they’re festering underneath. In yet another twist, at the end of the episode, their leader Hank and their bodyguard/assassin Mark kill Tomas even after promising him protection. They’ve evolved into a new religion for a new world, one willing and eager to engage with science and therefore, one that’s potentially far more dangerous.
On the other end of the spectrum, Cosima continues her attempt to use the Dyad Institute to learn more about the clones and her own illness. She confronts Rachel, who’s already begun to give her assignments and commands, although they’re ones she would have probably wanted to pursue anyway. Will we find out some more backstory about the clones’ biology in Cosima’s plotline? The show hasn’t really killed off any of its main good characters yet, and if any of them are on the chopping block, it seems like Cosima. But the very fact that she seems the most likely to die almost guarantees that she won’t. It’s the Orphan Black way.
Meanwhile, Alison continues to deal with the emotional aftermath of killing her friend, or at least sitting by while it happened. She finally — and quickly — discovers that Donnie is, in fact, her monitor and has been all along. Her life foundation, her family, has begun to crumble around her, and just when she reaches for support from her one good friend Felix, he’s unable to help her. The episode ends with a distraught Alison, at a loss for what to do, no doubt regretting her decision to sign into the Dyad’s help and no doubt willing to do something drastic.
If Orphan Black were like many other such shows, Kira’s kidnapping would have stretched on for at least a couple more episodes, or even as the central element of the entire season, but thankfully Orphan Black is more than willing to upheave expectations. Many viewers had suspected that Mrs. S could have been Sarah’s monitor or some type of villain, and while this episode flicks back and forth between supporting or disproving that theory, it ends with her decidedly on Sarah’s side, even with more mysteries in her past. Meeting the Bird-Watchers felt like the kind of friendly rebel group that so often appears in sci-fi stories, yet again they’re not what they seem. Mrs. S effectively kills two of her longest friends and allies in a tense and heart-wrenching scene, all to secure Sarah’s safety. Disillusioned with everything they worked to attain, the Bird Watchers had planned to sell Kira to the Proletheans, but they hadn’t counted on Sarah’s stubborn refusal to let anything part her from her daughter.
It’s hard to know anything in Orphan Black as the conspiracies, betrayals, and plot twists fire multiple times per episode. In lesser hands it could get hopelessly confusing or even annoying, but so far the show-runners seem capable of handling it. We’ll have to see if they can juggle the multiple plotlines and mysteries without letting any of them crash to the ground. It’s nearly impossible to guess where the story will go from here, but rest assured, it will probably be different than anything you might be able to think up.
Tidbits:
· Felix’s “I’ve seen where that hand has been” was easily the funniest part of this episode.
· Helena and Sarah are mirror images of other, very reminiscent of the opening theme in which everything is mirrored. For a second I thought that Kira’s regenerative powers were somehow in Helena as well, but it looks like the explanation for her survival was that her heart is on the wrong side. How poetic, right?
· There’s an interesting article circulating around the internet about how every straight male character in Orphan Black is incompetent and kind of terrible. It’s evidently an intentional decision by the show-runners to reverse the ubiquitous trend in TV to relegate female characters to just a few archetypes. I happen to really agree with the article and totally support it. Of course they’re all played by the same person, but the main characters of this show are all quite different and complex female characters. It’s refreshing.
· I’m finding that Orphan Black doesn’t lend itself incredibly well to episode-by-episode analysis; it’s far more reliant on building the pieces of the story over the course of the season rather than providing distinct narratives in each episode. I don’t mind it, though.
