Orphan Black S01 E10 – Solid Hunches

Previously: Dr. Leekie offered to leave Sarah alone if she gave him Helena, but Mrs. S talked her out of it because Helena is actually not just a fellow clone but also her twin sister.
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Endless Forms Most Beautiful

Sweeney: After the previouslies show us Sarah trying to process the, “HEY THE GIRL WHO TRIED TO KILL YOU ISN’T JUST YOUR CLONE BUT YOUR CLONE TWIN!” bomb, she’s tucking her sleeping daughter into bed. Downstairs, Sarah’s getting ready to let her biological mother see said crazypants. Mrs. S isn’t sure that any of this womb-providing and womb-sharing constitutes good reason for the serious endangerment of this little get-together, but Sarah’s not hearing any of this. Sarah and the bio-mom head to the Basement of Don’t Go In There: Canadian Edition, where Helena is tied to a post. Bio-mom pulls Sarah aside to say that she needs to speak with Sarah somewhere privately so that she can share something with her. As soon as Helena catches sight of this black woman claiming to be her birth mother she starts laughing because she’s crazy and racist. Always a classy combo.

Upstairs, Mrs. S is rummaging through the biological mother’s shit, because they exchanged an intense look on their way down the stairs. She finds a photo of two scientists and freaks out, but Kira comes down before we get a good enough look to confirm whose in it. Kira’s up because she’s afraid something bad is going to happen again. A solid hunch, kid.

Lorraine: There’s a crazy racist tied to a pole in your basement. A solid hunch, indeed.

Sweeney: Downstairs, Helena is pleased with the news that she and Sarah are sisters. Sarah sasses that she doesn’t want to be her sister and it’s almost cute! Sisters have those moments, girls. Totally normal. The human cloning, secret adoptions, brain washing, and murder are a little less common, but, you know, everybody’s got their own journey.

Lor: What’s really cute is that you can find sister feels in pretty much anything. Resume talent, I say.

Sweeney: Sister feels are lurking everywhere, Lor. Even in scenes filled with crazy murder music+lighting and crazy murdering sisters. This precious little family scene is interrupted by the cops pounding on the door upstairs.

Sarah panics but ultimately gives herself up. Downstairs, Helena is making good work of the wooden post that, in addition to keeping her prisoner, has important house-holding-up duties. Kira watches as her mother is hauled off by Art.

DNA and SCIENCE and a NEAT-O SCREENSAVER!

Traumaland’s One True Police Station. Art confronts Sarah in an interrogation room, and is filled with all the feelings as he saw footage of her watching his former partner committing suicide and going straight for her wallet and also now knows that she spent weeks deliberately obstructing an investigation. Art tells her that Felix is in custody for abetting and that Sarah’s silence is going to make Kira’s life really lonely. Sarah says he wouldn’t believe him and he tells her to try him.

Lor: I’ve always wanted to use this phrase in real life (TRY ME.) but I’m afraid that’ll mean I’m on the receiving end of some crazy ass news. For now, I’ll just giggle when I hear it on TV.

Sweeney: Alison’s Abode. She’s wearing pink workout gear and following along with a tape. It’s adorable. I love cutting between Alison and Sarah scenes because they highlight the scope of what they’ve done with the unique and awesome characters.

Less awesome is when she’s interrupted by the doorbell. It’s Dr. Leekie and he’s come to offer her a deal. At first she tells him off, noting all the illegal shit that they’ve been up to and adding that she just wants to be left alone. Leekie slides a contract in front of her, insisting that this is exactly what this contract will do – protect her family from Helena while also guaranteeing that she’ll be unmonitored. They ask that the monitoring be swapped out for voluntary testing twice a year. He plays to fears founded in what she already knows – Katja’s respiratory problems and Helena’s mental instability – as hooks. Leekie tells her to look it over and adds that as a gesture of good faith her monitor has been lifted. “She has?” Alison asks. Leekie doesn’t correct that pronoun, but that doesn’t mean shit.

OTP Station. Deangelis tells Felix that lying about that corpse was a felony. He tries to hit on her, but she shuts it down quickly by noting that he’s clearly gay. She calls to get him a really shitty public defender.

Elsewhere, Cosima is getting off a bus and hacking up blood like Katja. (L: NOOOOOO!) Shortly after, she’s confronted by Leekie telling her not to be alarmed and offering her a ride to her hotel.

OTP Station. Art sets Beth’s phone down on the table and plays the recording Sarah made about how Art is the only person she trusts to figure this whole thing out. He switches to pleading, asking Sarah to help him and help Beth. Sarah starts to tear up and gives a long-winded explanation of how there is a reason for all this DNA madness, but stops short and tells him he has to promise to protect her and her daughter. Art promises to do this if that’s what she needs. Sarah’s crying and just as she’s about to confess, a lawyer comes in and says that Sarah will be leaving now and she’s escorted out.

Lor: Maximum dramatic entrance, A+ lawyer.

Sweeney: Freaky Leekie Limo. His offer to Cosima is a little bigger: employment with Dyad. His show of good faith? A hard drive containing her complete sequenced genome and the promise that her employment with them will leave her with the freedom to study herself and the others unfettered.

Dyad Mystery Building. Sarah’s lawyer escorts her and casually mentions that they got Felix released. This reminds me of all the pointless conversations ELJ used to write in cars because it was unfathomable to her that people could arrive at a destination without some contribution to the farcical excuse for a plot. This is kind of the opposite of that, in that it feels super random that this information was not conveyed on the ride over. Whatever. Upstairs, Sarah finds Paul waiting for her, saying that she left him hanging with Leekie who still has that whole blackmail thing on him. Paul also has that whole I-know-all-about-your-illegal-experiments counter-move, though, yeah? Mutually assured destruction? Paul says that he can only help her from the inside and she should listen to what they have to say. She doesn’t think she has a choice.

Sarah walks to the other end of the floor alone. It’s a really weird floor. It’s stark and empty except for the random placement of intense decorative blue-ish lights. Clear across the floor from anything that needs illuminating. Just, you know, casually placed about for fun backlighting on the creepy scene to follow. And that creepy scene begins when Sarah reaches the has-a-person-and-desk-in-it end of the weird illuminated expanse of nothing. That person turns around and is…yet another clone. This one has a short blonde bob. Her name is Rachel Duncan and she demands that she and Sarah will come to terms.

Lor: Helena also had some weird decorating/lighting sense, so maybe it’s genetic. 

Sweeney: After a Not Break, Rachel tries to outline the terms. Sarah counters that maybe she should embrace the clone thing by going on Oprah. Rachel reiterates the Dr. Leekie line about how they’re not the enemy and Helena et al are. Sarah says if Rachel really wants to help she can start by explaining what the fuck the clones exist for and Rachel pushes the contract towards her, saying that disclosure is defined there. “We want your trust and you want precious answers that cut to the core of who you are. But above all, I know you want to make the right choice for Kira.” The music takes a really murdery CRASH turn at the mention of Kira’s name. The creepy noisemakers know what’s up. Rachel says that the forces behind Helena will never stop and the most important thing in this is protection for her and Kira. Sarah says she’s not interested and Rachel tells her to take 24 hours to think about it.

Felix’s Frisky Flat. Alison is on team SIGN IT! because this is an offer of protection but Sarah said it felt more like a gun to the head. Felix reminds Sarah that Helena is now loose again, which is a point in favor of protection.

Lor: It’s strange because the scientists haven’t actually shown that they are capable of protecting anyone. Signing into the contract is believing that they can, though Helena was previously picking off monitored clones.

Sweeney: YUP. Sarah’s already informed them that Beth murdered Maggie Chen to protect the clones and then went insane. Or was probably already losing her shit by that time. In either case, the scientists have failed to demonstrate much in the way of aptitude in the way of protecting the clones. I didn’t know this at the time of writing the draft, but now that I’m responding to comments I can also say that this is also a point worth revisiting in the next episode.

There’s a knock at the door and Sarah goes to let Cosima in. Things are awkward with Sarah and Cosima at first, but Cosima tells her that she should have listened about Delphine and then they hug and it’s very sweet and a much more legitimate moment of clone-sister feels.

Cosima tells the others about her offer, adding that she’s seriously considering it because understanding their own biology is hugely fucking important for them. Cosima backs Sarah’s hesitation, though, noting that if Kira is the first thing that Rachel mentioned then Kira might be what Rachel is truly after. If Kira is the first child of a clone then she’s scientifically unclassified and potentially a bigger prize than the others in that respect. Alison wants more details on Rachel. Sarah’s biological mother conveniently mentioned to her that she knew something about a child raised by Neolution (thanks for that helpful, random tidbit!) meaning that Rachel was raised self-aware.

Alison says that being free of monitors and knowing her kids are safe is, for her, reason to take the offer. Sarah and Cosima are taken aback, but assure her that it’s her choice and they won’t judge. Cosima gets a text from Delphine, who has just arrived in town as well. Felix calls her a needy bitch. Sarah sees herself out, headed to Mrs. S and tells the others that they can make their own choices but she wouldn’t trust anybody.

OTP Station. Art is telling Deanglis that their Jane Doe’s ID is Katja Obinger which places her under federal jurisdiction – which is why the case was pulled out from under them and presumably floated up to someone in Dyad’s pocket or some such nonsense. Art decides that they can still get to the bottom of the Sarah Manning situation since he found a known associate: Vic the Dick.

Lor: Police investigations: yet another reason you should associate with less people.

Sweeney: Indeed. Do you really want to add to the list of people for whom you might one day find yourself as a known associate? The only way to prevent that is to do less associating.

Vic the Dick is at a meeting of some sort, telling his story to a group about how his addiction and shitty-person-being led to someone faking their own death to get away from him, losing a finger, and finding himself confronted with “the business end of a nail gun.” Art and Deangelis lurk on the edge of this meeting.

Alison’s Abode. Homegirl is taking out her recycling when she notices a For Sale sign with a SOLD sticker on it over at Ainsley’s place. Alison goes over to banter with Ainsley, who says that Chad’s got an apartment and she got a great offer on the house so she’s primed and ready to get her kids the hell out of this toxic environment. Alison’s very smug and gloaty about all of this, but Ainsley tells her to GTFO. Alison’s not ready to leave it at that, though, and follows Ainsley into her house, demanding the truth. She says that Leekie came to visit her. Ainsley has no idea what she’s talking about and says that the only truth there is that her best friend screwed her husband and now she’s moving. Ainsley pulls gifts from Alison out of a box, including a homemade felt Angel, which Ainsley throws down the garbage disposal.

Ainsley pushes it down with a wooden spoon while ranting that Alison turned this around because she’s barren and jealous. I’d call that a low blow, but, you know, slept with her husband, so it’s fair game. The fates don’t agree, though, as Ainsley’s scarf gets caught in the disposal. Ainsley calls for Alison to help. She goes to the switches to turn off the disposal but then decides not to, leaving Ainsley to choke to death on her scarf. When Alison realizes what she’s done, she freaks out and runs home, wiping her prints off Ainsley’s door and closing the garage door behind her.

Lor: We’ve seen a few of these moments from Alison already, where she commits to some insane, ballsy moves, all under this layer of nervousness. Her little freakout afterward might almost distract you from the fact that she just watched a woman choke to death, just like it colors the fact that she beat the crap out of her husband. Alison is kind of crazy.

Sweeney: At a minimum she’s “kind of” crazy. Maybe a little more than “kind of.” It’s interesting, though, that she seems to have been driven crazy by the clone thing, and living in a world of unknown possibilities. Helena’s crazy came from an abusive childhood. Beth’s issues, it would seem, are the byproduct of feeling overwhelmed by everything she did know. Alison’s SNAP moments are all tied to the idea of having large, unidentifiable variables. This ties back to her willingness to sign. It doesn’t matter that the scientists have demonstrated little ability to back these claims: the mere promise that all the variables will be removed is enough for her. The twice yearly testing is NBD because its a known quantity. Alison’s willing to take that leap of faith because it’s the only way she can see to make herself feel in control of her life again, however misguided that feeling may be.

Vic the Dick’s Assholes Anonymous Meeting. Art and Deangelis threaten Vic with an outstanding warrant, telling him that they’ll leave him alone if they can provide useful details on Sarah Manning. He happily acquiesces, saying that the last time he saw Sarah she was playing housewife in the suburbs.

Segue Magic to Alison, clutching her wine as she stares at the contract. She takes a break from that to start cutting stuff out of a magazine and cuts her finger. She goes outside and stands on the porch staring at Ainsley’s house. While she’s anxiously doing that, Art and Deangelis spot her from across the street. Deangelis quickly realizes that this is not Sarah Manning but yet another person entirely. Her “you’ve got to be freaking kidding me,” reaction is priceless. That’s more or less how the clones all felt about the continued appearance of other clones.

The actual Sarah Manning is packing bags with Kira, who says she’s not worried about Helena because she’s not a real monster. Sweet, sweet child. YES, YES SHE IS. Sarah says that they’re going away and she can’t tell anybody, not even Mrs. S.

Downstairs, Mrs. S is sitting anxiously with her gun beside her. Sarah says that she’s off to meet Amelia, her biological mother. Mrs. S anxiously tells Sarah to mind Amelia because while she may be her biological mother, she didn’t raise her. Sarah says that she knows that Mrs. S did. She says nothing more, though, and Sarah leaves.

Felix’s Frisky Flat. Cosima’s coughing up blood in the bathroom. Felix notices something is off, but she swears she’s fine. With that, Delphine arrives. “Oh, well now I get it,” Felix says after opening the door.

Felix leaves them to chat alone. (L: Bless him and his constantly leaving his own place for the clones.) Cosima’s still pretty cold to her and wants to know why the fuck she’s there. Delphine says she came to prove that Leekie is a liar, noting that the mysterious differentiating sequence isn’t present on the fully sequenced genome Leekie gave her because he definitely would have scrubbed it. Cosima’s still pissed, but finally relents and tells Delphine her theory that the scrubbed sequence is a message of some kind. Another doctor watermarked his synthetic DNA. A big trust fall moment happens when Cosima lets Delphine look at her laptop.

Lor: I too get it, but I’m still team #MMMHMMMOKAY.

Sweeney: Always. With all the things.

Deception Sex Apartment. Amelia arrives and Sarah offers her a drink, except we an see the reddish-brown coloring under the eyes that screams HELENA and also note the fact that “Sarah” speaks in one-word sentences, because she has just enough presence of mind to know how little presence of mind she has. That’s got to be a special kind of hell. Amelia tells Helena-as-Sarah that she hates to dump all this bad news on her, but Mrs. S isn’t who she says she is. We don’t learn more, though, because Helena grabs Amelia’s wrist and asks how scientists could have put babies her in stomach. This gives her away, but this realization sadly comes too late for Amelia, who is stabbed before she even gets a chance to answer. She does manage to pull the wig off of her. The last thing Amelia hears is Helena telling her that Amelia gave her to “them” and, in effect, let them make her this way. Shit.

Lor: Helena had previously been playing the, “YOU’RE NOT MY MOMMY” card, so going back to the presence of mind here, her final words to Amelia acknowledge that okay, maybe yes, you are my mommy, but also fuck you for your part in making me “this way.” She at least realizes some part of the monster that she is.

Sweeney: A little later, Sarah arrives to find Amelia’s blood and the wig. Her phone rings and it’s Helena, telling her that they missed her and would like her to come join her.

Alison’s Abode. Donnie arrives to find Alison shaking and crying, saying that she’s a terrible person. He says that he is, for letting people into their home to “intervention” her. Also, you know, TO MONITOR HER BUT WHATEVER. He says that now they can put all of this behind them. Alison excitedly agrees and kisses him.

Felix’s Frisky Flat. Cosima and Delphine are getting closer. They’re caught on to their DNA ID tag, but Cosima has no idea how that information is encrypted and they’re running out of time. Delphine says that she has seen Cosima’s tag number many times and remembers it (creepdorable!) which gives them a starting point for solving the puzzle. Cosima is 324b21. That information hits Cosima a bit hard – she’s just heard herself effectively reduced to an utterly dehumanizing combination of letters and numbers. (Or a rather #meh shade of green.) (L: A+) She’s still Cosima, though, and decides to deal with her feels with more science, saying they need to run that through a decryption program.

In an actual murder lighting warehouse that is a warehouse and not a boat, Sarah’s got a flashlight and calls out to Helena. Helena doesn’t answer, but her soundtrack confirms that she’s nearby.

Felix’s Frisky Flat. Delphine is frustrated because none of their results make sense. Cosima then realizes that thirty years ago their computing would have been a wee bit simpler than some of what she’s comparing against. They’re trying to decode base pairings which are really two options, rather than four, as they had been thinking of it previously. Ergo, binary. Guys, I always get so stressed out about having to recap science. I don’t even remember the show in question, but I think I once wrote an entire paragraph of a recap that was basically, “AND THEN THEY SCIENCED SOME SCIENCE AND TOTALLY SCIENCED THE SHIT OUT OF SOME OTHER SCIENCE!” but I totally understood this conversation, whether or not I adequately recapped it! (Jokes: it was this.) I’m less concerned with that latter fact because I’m super proud of myself for understanding all of that sciencing. Of course, the fact that I understand makes me suspicious of whether this holds up to any logic level. Certainly this should all be beyond my sciencey comprehension.

Lor: I don’t know how understandable this science would be to the population at large, but that whole last paragraph was adorable so it’s really irrelevant. GOOO SWEENEY! YOU SCIENCED!

Sweeney: I SCIENCED AND I GOT A DESTINY’S CHILD DANCE PARTY ALL IN THE SAME DAY? AMAZING.

Murder Lighting Warehouse. These scenes are all taking place in spaces with very plot convenient lighting. In addition to the concrete industrial feel there are flickering fluorescent lights. Sarah finds Amelia, bleeding out but still barely alive. She tries to tell her to keep pressure on the wound, but it’s way too late for that. Amelia presses something into Sarah’s hand and whispers, “your foster mother.” We see that it’s the picture from before. On the back it says “Profs. REDACTED and REDACTED. Project LEDA. July 22, 1977.” Sarah can’t get any more out of her, because Helena pops up to introduce some red fire to really amp up the mood. With that, Amelia dies. Sarah yells at Helena for killing someone that she had been dreaming about her whole life. Helena says that Amelia separated them and spits on her.

Sarah says that Helena is nothing more to her than some crazy bitch wearing her t-shirt. Helena headbutts her and then starts choking her with a big metal chain. THIS IS ALL SO WELL DONE. THIS IS ONE ACTRESS. HOW IS THIS ONE ACTRESS?

Lor: Can you imagine Tatiana receiving direction? “And then you headbutt you and then you fall when you come over and choke you! IT’LL BE AWESOME.”

Sweeney: Helena monologues that the one little baby the scientists made split in two. She slams Sarah’s face into the same concrete post Amelia just died against, before saying that this means that Helena can’t kill her, just as Sarah couldn’t kill Helena. Sarah gets hold of a gun, though, and tells Helena that she’s already got a family before killing her. After a Not Break, Sarah has a moment by Amelia to feel all the feels, but just a moment, because she’s still got 99 more problems even though that bitch Helena ain’t one. (L: Another A+)

With about five minutes of episode left, it’s time to go nuts with the Clone Club Quick Cuts. Cosima and Delphine are at the Frisky Flat, just about solving the problem. Rachel and Sarah have a phone call, set to dramatic music. A bloodied up Sarah tells Rachel that she wants to know her daughter won’t have to live like that, which Rachel says that she can arrange. Alison’s signing her contract and faxing it off as an ambulance arrives for Ainsley. Rachel gloats a bit as she receives that first signed contract. Alison tells Donnie that her dead BFF is none of their business.

Sarah arrives at the mysterious Dyad building and sees Paul in the elevator. Paul tries to comfort her, but she’s not having it. He takes this opportunity to confess that he did bad shit as a private contractor in Afghanistan. He says that if she was born outside their control, what can they really have on her? Elsewhere in quick cut land, Cosima and Delphine have finally finished their decoding. Cosima calls Sarah to tell her not to make a deal because any promise of freedom is bullshit (duh) and that the mysterious sequence is a patent on their bodies. If everything they are, belong, and become could be claimed by Dyad, that could well include Kira.

Donnie goes for a run, as he told Alison he was doing. He gets into a black car with Dr. Leekie, telling him that they’re now back on track. The seven year itch isn’t easy – “she’s not easy.” Fuck you, Donnie. Fuck you.

Lor: I actually had forgotten about this development, though I guess I was constantly wary of Donnie for a reason. An added fuck you from me because, you know, fuck you.

Sweeney: Through super spy magic, Sarah and Paul manage to disappear from the elevator unexpectedly. (Or, like, they got off at a lower floor. Whatever. SUPER SPY MAGIC!) Sarah sends a slightly juvenile but still probably super satisfying email to Rachel: “UP YOURS, PROCLONE!” Rachel places a call to someone not revealed to us. “You know what to do.”

Cosima reads off the decoded text: “This organism and derivative genetic material is restricted intellectual property.” She tears up as she confesses to Delphine that she’s sick. They hug and there are just a lot of feelings.

Sarah finds that Mrs. S and Kira are both missing and the house has been torn apart. She runs to Kira’s open window and shouts her name into the wind. End season.

I forgot that’s how it ended and I’m super glad I waited a bit to recap this because I think it would have stressed me out too much to know I had to wait EVEN LONGER to find out what happens next.

This was a pretty fantastic resolution to the season – it tied up some of the big questions while introducing a new set of issues to carry us into the next season. WHICH I’M SO GLAD I GET TO START WATCHING IMMEDIATELY.

Lor: AGREED. Those quick cuts at the end were particularly brilliant for wrapping up AND setting things in motion. I don’t know who I’m most worried about at the moment, but I think it’s just best to summarize that it is not a good time to be a clone.

 

Next time: Sarah confronts Rachel in an effort to get her daughter back in Orphan Black S02 E01 – Nature Under Constraint and Vexed.