Previously: Helena had a dream that broke everyone’s heart and Sarah pretended to be Rachel while Allison pretended to be Sarah.
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Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis
Jessica: We start right about where we left off last time. Dyad’s Dr. Nealon comes down to the cell where the Mustache Castor Clone freed the Scarface Castor Clone in the previous episode. His face doesn’t really register the “oh shit!” reaction this scene requires as he makes a phone call to report the escape.
Hotel room somewhere. Scarface Castor Clone (ok he’s sticking around for now so I’ll use his real name– Rudy) (M: Really? Huh.) enters the room with a stumbling, giggling girl. Ominous music sneaks in the background as they move toward sexytimes. She turns away for him to take off her coat, and we get a blurry image of Mustache Castor Clone (Seth) in the background taking the coat and answering her question and it’s super creepy. But when she turns back around it’s Rudy.
Marines: I had to rewind just to makes sure. My commentary was basically, “DEAR GOD IS THAT MUSTACHE?” It was indeed.
J: Me too! Background mustaches are never good.
Sexytimes commences between her and Rudy, but then suddenly there’s too many hands and she’s like WTF? Seth has appeared to join them and Rudy is all “no big deal, we’re brothers” and she looks understandably terrified as we go into the credits.
DNA AND SCIENCE AND NEAT-O SCREENSAVER.
Sarah, Kira and DAARIO NAHARIS– sorry, Cal– are walking down the street. We get some explanation about why Delphine won’t be in this episode– off to Europe for her, the lucky lady. Cal wants to show Kira and Sarah a house that he bought. Kira runs around all excited and Sarah’s wondering how he pays for it, and he’s all, don’t worry about it. She doesn’t though, so it’s fine. I push aside my intense desire for them to be a happy lovely family so I can focus on recapping this correctly.
Marines: Being a Snark Lady is hard work; PLEASE, WE WANT THEM TO BE A HAPPY FAMILY.
J: Back at the motel room, Seth is sleeping his hangover off on the couch and Rudy wakes him up by spitting water on him. It would be a cute brother moment if the first scene hadn’t happened and we knew they weren’t terrifying creeps.
A knock on the door, and Paul enters. He brings a suitcase inside and comments on Rudy’s escape. “I met Sarah Manning,” Rudy says, which gives Paul pause. He’s surprised that she seemed to be part of Dyad. “Does that seem right to you, her working with Dyad?” Rudy asks, and I can’t help but think of this.
Mari: A+
J: Rudy says he’s asking because he doesn’t know Sarah the way Paul does, and then leers at his brother Seth so we know he’s still being a creep. Good, because I wasn’t sure if that had changed in the last 3 seconds. Seth looks much more intimidated by Paul than Rudy does.
Paul conducts tests on Rudy and Seth, looking at an image of their eye while giving them logic puzzles. Example: “Some pigs are predators, no predator is a pet, conclusion- some pigs are not pets” to which Seth/Rudy answer “true” or “false.”
Then Seth hesitates to answer one of them and Paul gets all intense and Rudy looks worried. Seth eventually answers correctly and Rudy says he’s just tired because of all the drinking last night. Paul gives them extraction orders, separating to different pickup points. Rudy doesn’t want to go because they don’t have “the original sample” yet, but Paul says they must follow orders. “Does that come from Mother or from you?” Rudy asks. Paul says again to follow orders.
Felix’s Frisky Flat. A shirtless Felix opens the door to an awkward Scott. He does a medical checkup on Cosima. Though she’s currently responding well to the treatment from the material they got from Kira’s tooth way back when, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will continue to work. She could still get worse. Scott wants to get her back to the lab, because even though they don’t trust Dr. Nealon, he’s actually good at his job. He also wants a meeting with Cosima shortly. Felix is sassy and it’s wonderful and we cut away from him too soon.
Mari: I love the new Clone Phones, though. It’s like a seasonal rite of passage.
J: Suburban soccer field. Alison is watching her opponent for school trustee give an interview to TV cameras and waxes poetical on how she could beat her in the race. Donnie says she can consider a campaign after he figures out what he’s doing financially, but in typical Alison style she’s charged ahead and is ready to do battle. Donnie says they might even need to sell the house and she brings up the fact that they buried Dr. Leaky in the garage and he’s like, hey maybe talk about that a little quieter in public? He tries to get Alison to do a fist bump but says “fist me” and yeah.
Segue to THE MOST ADORABLE GAME OF FAMILY FLOOR HOCKEY in Cal’s new place. Sorry, I just love it when they’re a tiny normal family.
Mari: It feels kind of evil on the show’s part, though. Like, don’t ever stop, but also, “I see what you are doing here.”
The fun is over too soon though when Sarah’s clone phone rings. It’s Art! He got a call from that poor girl from the cold open, who I’m somewhat surprised to learn is still alive. She reported the incident and a security camera showed footage of the two careless clones, and Art recognized them because he saw Mark at the Prolethean ranch. Sarah wants all his intel on those two guys and they plan to meet. She says goodbye to Cal. He begs her to stay but Sarah is intent on her mission to save Helena. Cal says he would do anything for Kira and they kiss.
Secret scary military facility. A bunch of guys drag Helena into a room, put her on a table and straight up start waterboarding her. It looks awful, but then a woman comes in and stops them. She’s the same woman who was chain smoking in front of the monitor watching Helena’s box in the last episode. She informs them that Helena’s pregnant, learned from the blood test results. Smoking Lady helps her sit up and introduces herself as Dr. Virginia Cody. “I know it doesn’t seem like it, but I’m very happy to meet you,” she says. But Helena’s still choking from the waterboarding so, not too focused on new people or remembering names at this point, I’d bet.
Mari: She’s not even planning on her eventual escape and perhaps murdering of all these people, but SOON.
J: Siobhan’s house. Felix is mothering her, making tea. She’s still all beat up and I have to give them credit for making her look and act like she actually was beat up, not magically cured with some tasteful cuts and bruises like in most shows.
Mrs. S wonders if Sarah will ever forgive her for turning Helena over to the military and can’t bear the thought that neither Kira nor Sarah is safe despite her efforts. Felix gives her a pep talk, telling her she can still help. He gives her her own blue clone phone and tells her “you don’t get to sit this one out.” Good job Felix!
Mari: This was so sad to see all the fight out of Siobhan, but also, props to the show for going there. Not only is she she beat up on the outside, but she’s taken plenty of hits that understandably have left her internally reeling.
J: It was definitely a change from her usual badass attitude, and very realistic. The character development on this show is excellent.
Dyad Institute. Cosima is spinning Scott in his chair while they wait for Dr. Nealon to show up. Scott complains he gets motion sick and as someone who hates spinning, I feel he has a legitimate complaint. I just love how playful and nonchalant Cosima is despite this obviously important and potentially dangerous meeting. It’s so her.
Scott’s idea is that if they had the original genome, they could solve all the clones’ medical issues. He asks if it was really destroyed or if that was just a lie. Dr. Nealon says unfortunately it is lost. The Duncans were originally working with the military on the Leda project. Then they came over to Dyad. For the clone experiments they sourced two subjects– a female and a male. As it turns out, those original subjects were related– brother and sister. I feel like they want this to be a bigger reveal than I felt it to be. It didn’t feel like such a stretch to say the originals were siblings. But maybe this will become more significant, in a “we’re all clones AND related so don’t shoot me” kind of way.
Mari: There is an emphasis on the relationships the clones have with each other, amongst their own selves, so to see that extended is neat, but yes, they throw it out there super casually.
J: No one knows who the original Castor and Leda were. Dyad assumed the Castor cloning attempts had been unsuccessful, which is either a lie or an incredibly naïve assumption on Dyad’s part.
Meanwhile, Art is finishing interrogating the girl from the beginning scene. He tries to reassure her but she says she’s not convinced they won’t hunt her down again. Sarah appears and pretends to be police detective Beth Childs. The girl tells her what happened and says she thought she was going to die. The guys wrote down all of her identification information and stole a piece of her hair, which is some serial killer type shit. “Sorry you had to go through that,” Sarah says. “Yeah, me too,” the girl replies. Art puts her in the car to take her home, and tells Sarah not to barge in on him like that again. She tells him about the Helena situation and why she’s doing this. Art says the girl told him that both Seth and Rudy had the same tattoo — a two-headed horse on the left forearm.
Mari: I had so many feels for this woman whose name I never caught as she looks at Art dead in the eyes and says that since she consented to Rudy, surely it wasn’t rape. He can’t even answer and UGH.
J: Yes, this was a pretty heavy moment, and the show didn’t back down from it.
Suburban landscape of This Is Totally Not Weeds. Teenage drug dealer meets with Alison and Donnie (who is predictably terrible and awkward, in a supposed-to-be-funny-but-isn’t-that-much kind of way). Alison proposes that she buy his drug business.
Meanwhile, at a remote-looking outdoor location, Seth is presumably waiting at his extraction point. He’s not looking good, muttering about the logic problem he failed during Paul’s test (“some doctors are rich”). The screen goes all white like it did when he was beating up Siobhan, and he punches a car window.
His phone rings, distracting him from his car punching. It’s Rudy, who’s not at his extraction point and says he’s not returning to base. We see that he’s actually entering the building of Felix’s Frisky Flat and my heart rate increases. “I know you’re glitching,” Rudy tells Seth. He says he has no choice but to find the original sample. Seth is scared and doesn’t know what to do. Rudy breaks into the flat and says he’s going to finish the original job.
Mari: I’m so sad that after all this time, no one has looked into a security upgrade for the Frisky Flat.
J: They should at least have a security camera there or something.
Cosima, back in her lab, is talking to Sarah on the clone phone. In mythology Castor was a warrior and horseman, and Sarah learned the horse tattoo stands for military special operations. Cosima calls them “the perfect ghost soldiers.” Sarah’s still worried about Helena. Cosima suggests getting Mrs. S to contact Paul, and while Sarah claims to have no interest in doing that, it seems that Cosima might convince her to do so after all.
Secret Military Facility. Helena is being given the same test that Paul and Rudy took, with the logic puzzles. The soldier administering the test uses mangoes as an example, and the scorpion spirit animal makes a comeback. It’s all, mangoes? I love mangoes! Where are the mangoes? and anyone who has ever been hungry in math class can relate. Helena thinks it’s a good idea to ask about the mangoes, frustrating the test giver and the Castor clone in military fatigues who’s watching the whole thing. When he snaps at her, she turns and says the most amazing thing— “I met your brother. He’s ugly.”
Fortunately, Dr. Virginia appears to intercede and take Helena away. Helena has a quick tiff with the scorpion spirit animal and then goes on a walk with Virginia. She appears to be in a desert, with adobe type buildings all around, plus guys with guns in guard towers and such (I’m not good at military terms and descriptions, folks). Virginia likes it because she can smoke whenever she wants. (M: I guess that’s one job perk…?) Helena asks if the Castor clones are Virginia’s “babies” and she replies “they came to me when they were very young.”
She gives Helena some food and we get to watch her shovel food into her mouth in that special Helena way. Virginia tries to tell her that Sarah sold her out, but Helena doesn’t believe her.
Rudy rifles through the Frisky flat, and comes dangerously close to the bookshelf, but doesn’t find anything.
Siobhan’s house. Felix answers the door to Sarah and warns her to go easy on Mrs. S because she got all beat up last episode. Siobhan tells Sarah that she can’t reach Paul, and Sarah’s like, ok then I’m out. Mrs. S tries to tell her that setting up a life here with Cal isn’t safe, but Sarah doesn’t want to hear it. Mrs. S plays the Kira card, saying it’s dangerous when they don’t know what the enemy wants. She says a similar situation was what caused her to go on the run with Sarah and Felix when they were kids.
Boring Weeds ripoff plot line. Teenage drug dealer hands over his trunkful of drugs to Donnie and Alison, who pay him $32,000 cash for the whole deal. Blah blah.
Mari: I love Alison but this whole thing is so disconnected right now.
J: Cal’s house of improbable dreams. He’s unpacking dishes in the kitchen, but hears something suspicious and goes outside to investigate. There’s nothing outside, but Paul with a gun is waiting inside. He asks Cal why Sarah is working with Dyad, but Cal isn’t talking. Paul threatens, but Cal still isn’t impressed. Paul brings up Cal’s weapons design history, saying it got him rich, but implies that Sarah doesn’t know about it, calling him a “war profiteer.” Cal asks where Helena is, but Paul says the deal for Helena was supposed to buy Sarah “time and space” but she’s not taking it. If she continues to push, Paul threatens that it will end badly for everyone involved.
Felix’s Frisky Flat of Oh No an Intruder Watch Out! Kira and Sarah enter, unaware of the danger. Kira asks if they’re going to move in with Cal, and Sarah says she thinks that would be nice. Kira wants to sleep in the blanket fort. Sarah goes to run a bath while Kira goes into the fort. Neither of them hear Cal calling on the clone phone. (M: Don’t put the clone phone on vibrate!)
Kira crawls into the fort and moves a sheet aside and RUDY IS IN THERE HOLY CRAP and he’s got x’s painted on his eyes, like Felix’s painting of Sarah. Kira looks terrified and we move to Sarah calling for her to come into the bath. She walks into the living room to see Rudy with a gun holding onto Kira.
Sarah begs him to let Kira go, and tells her daughter it will be ok. Rudy wants to know if she has Duncan’s research. Specifically, tissue samples. Sarah doesn’t know about those but he threatens Kira.
Cal enters the apartment building, where Seth stops him from going up the stairs. Cal sees the horse tattoo and attacks him. Seth pulls out a knife and holds Cal at bay.
Mari: I keep expecting Cal to whip out some Daario Naharis moves and it never happens. C’MON CAL.
J: I KNOW! He was surprisingly ineffective.
Upstairs, Rudy says he won’t leave until he has the tissue samples. The scenes cut between each other — Sarah asking Rudy about Seth and what he does to protect him, and Seth downstairs with the knife, starting to glitch again on the question of rich doctors.
Seth falls to the ground and starts screaming. Rudy hears this and jumps to his feet, dragging Kira with him. Sarah tries to stop him but he points the gun at her. She tells him that she knows his brother is sick and begs to have Kira back, because she doesn’t have the original genome. He pushes Kira back to her and leaves, running after Seth. Sarah slams the door shut behind him.
Mari: Episodely reminder that Tatiana Maslany is a beast. She broke my heart with her begging.
J: Rudy runs down the stairs and confronts Cal standing over Seth. Cal drops the knife and swears he did nothing. Seth continues to scream on the floor, so Rudy fires two bullets into his chest, startling Cal. Rudy goes to his knees, cradles Seth’s head and tells him to “go easy” and that he loves him. Seth dies.
An enraged Rudy points the gun at Cal, but doesn’t shoot for some reason, instead walking away.
Mari: Don’t even care to question it. #DaarioLives
J: Oh, I’m fine with it, believe me!
Mrs. S’s house. Sarah is helping Kira pack a suitcase, telling her she’s going to have an adventure. Kira is going on the road with Cal, away from the danger. Sarah is staying to help Helena and the other clones. Sarah asks Felix if she’s doing the right thing and he encourages her that she is in fact a good mom. Sarah kisses and hugs Cal goodbye. She kisses Kira and promises she’ll “put a stop to this” so they can be together. Kira hands her a folded paper bird. They hug and she leaves, waving while walking out the door.
“So what now?” Felix asks. “Now we find Helena and we finish this shit,” Sarah says. Her plan is to go to the Castor clone they know — Mark the Prolethean.
Anonymous crappy hotel room. A sleeping Gracie wakes and reaches out for Mark in the bed, but he’s not there. She gets up and goes to the closed bathroom door. He tells her to go back to sleep, while inside he takes a blowtorch to his horse tattoo.
This is an interesting ending, because it sets up the course for Sarah. It also takes a strange step, in that it brings us away from Sarah as she’s been through most of the show, especially the beginning. In the first season, even the first episode, she’s seen connected with Kira. At that time she was trying to get back to Kira, to connect with her again and take on the role of her mother. Now she’s sending Kira off — granted, for her safety, but still, out of sight out of mind — though you could argue at the same time is taking a kind of motherly role towards her sisters, Helena in particular. I don’t know, there’s lots to think about.
Mari: I feel like this show is doing its best to pace everything fairly, even with the million plot lines it has going on. So far, so good as here we get to spend time with the Castor clones and really adjust to where the season is heading. I’m curious what will continue developing for the Castor clones because all I can feel for them right now is, “EW.”
That slowing down faltered in places, though, specifically for me in the Alison sub-plot. Like I said, I love her, but this storyline isn’t quite doing anything for me yet.
Finally, as sad as I am that Sarah and Kira are being separated, if this means the end of Kira and kidnapper bait, I’m all for it. Tatiana can sell the crap out of those scenes, but that doesn’t necessarily mean we should see one every other episode.
J: True, that plot point does get tired after a while. It will be nice to see the relationships between the sister-clones continue to build, particularly with Sarah and Helena.
Next time on Orphan Black: Sarah hunts after Helena and the original genome in S03 E03 – Formalized, Complex, and Costly.
I'm a chronic book nerd and love storytelling in all forms. I'm particularly excited by the rise of the television show as an art form with long, cinematically beautiful plots and complex character arcs (I also watch cartoons). My travels in the past handful of years have led me through three continents and most recently landed me among the majestic mountains of Colorado. Some day I will compile all my travel journals/blogs into one place. Some day. Until then, you can find me with craft beer in hand, ready at any moment to deeply and passionately discuss survival tactics for the zombie apocalypse.
I'm a 30-something south Floridan who loves the beach but cannot swim. Such is my life, full of small contradictions and little trivialities. My main life goals are never to take life too seriously, but to do everything I attempt seriously well. After that, my life goals devolve into things like not wearing pants and eating all of the Zebra Cakes in the world. THE WORLD.
