Orphan Black S01 E02 – Curiouser & Curiouser

Previously: Sarah watched someone who looked just like her commit suicide, so she stole her identity before meeting another woman who looks just like her, right before she got shot in Sarah!Beth’s car. It was a rough couple days.
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 Instinct

Sweeney: The episode begins where the last episode ended. Sarah pulls over to answer the pink phone. A girl on the other end of the line is annoyed that Beth was MIA for so long (and it’s going to be a whole lot longer still, girl). Sarah is freaking out as she answers that she did meet “the German” and then watched her get shot right in front of her. Just to kick this off with Tatiana Maslany flail: her voice is sort of stilted right now because, of course, Sarah’s having a hard time processing and focusing on the accent. I wrote that about two seconds before Sarah does, in fact, slip as the girl on the other end of the line confirms that it means that someone is definitely trying to kill them off. Phone!girl tells Sarah!Beth that she needs to dispose of the body and collect hair and blood samples.

Roll credits. Lor said they seemed like a cross between Fringe and House credits, but I don’t really know those shows so all I see is a super high end screen saver. (L: Legit.)

After the credits it’s night time and Sarah is digging a hole for The German. (Traumaland’s second insta-dead pink haired German girl) The hole digging is inter cut with shots of Felix’s apartment where everyone gathered after her fake funeral. Vic drunkenly says that at least Sarah had love and Felix takes a break from smirking at the absurdity of this situation (/hating Sarah for making him have all these people in his home) to say that Vic’s “love” would be reason enough for her to jump. Vic jumps on Felix and starts choking him until someone pulls him off.

Before rolling the body into the ditch she dug, Sarah takes a moment to check her pockets. She finds a hotel key and an ID for Katja Obinger. After she starts burying her we cut to Sarah at a self-serve car wash scrubbing the car out and calling about getting the windows replaced.

Lorraine: Everything I’ve ever learned by watching TV and movies is telling me this will never work. Sarah Manning should’ve watched more TV.

Sweeney: More life-saving advice from The Snark Squad. You’re all welcome.

Felix’s Less Frisky More Dramz Flat. It’s the following morning and everyone but a shwasted Vic has gone home. He tells Felix he wants to get to know Sarah’s daughter and Felix rightly tells him there’s a not a chance in hell that’s happening, what with him being an abusive drug dealer who Sarah ran away from. Felix finally shoos vic out of the apartment.

He’s still stumbling around the hallway when Sarah gets to the top of the stairs with just enough time to duck and hide. Once Vic is gone she lets herself into Felix’s apartment. She asks why the hell he had a wake and he says he did it to spite her because he was angry. Sarah wants to know if Keira thinks she’s dead, but Felix isn’t sure what Mrs. S told Keira after Vic reached out to Mrs. S. They sit down and Felix notices that Sarah still has a lot of blood on the side of her neck. She tries to tell Felix she doesn’t want to talk about it, but, you know, you can’t just help yourself into someone’s apartment, covered in blood and expect to just not talk about it. Sarah reminds Felix about the birth certificates and explains that she met the German who is, in fact, another twin.

Lor: When you find a third one, I think they stop being a twin, Sarah.

Sweeney: Words are hard.

Sarah wants to get back to business. She wants Felix to assure Mrs. S that she is still alive to keep Keira from finding out. Her one bit of good news is that she has a briefcase of secret suicide money that she can use to run off with her daughter. She hands it to Felix who finds that the money is gone and has been replaced with Art’s business card and some files. Sarah goes ape shit and starts destroying Felix’s Frisky Flat. She’s really testing that foster sibling bond.

Lor: Especially since what set off this tantrum is her broke-ass status. Girl, you don’t have money to replace my shit. Quit it.

Sweeney: Felix gets her to focus on the contents of the files Art left behind. It’s all the info on Beth’s shooting of Maggie Chen. Sarah realizes that she has to keep being Beth until that’s resolved if she wants that money. She gets out her phone and Felix informs her that it’s 6am, but Sarah says he’s waiting for that call. Sure enough, he’s at his desk working already. 6 AM? What is this? Is that a thing? I don’t know what actual cops look like since we exclusively watch television with notoriously inept law enforcement. I have no comprehension of this thing that’s happening on my screen. Art tells her he was told to take his rookie by the hand and walk her through the hearing. He tells her to meet him at Fung’s at noon and hangs up. (Without saying goodbye!)

Beth’s Apartment. Sarah thinks Paul is out but he’s just shadow lurking, waiting for her to come home. He’s pissed because they had sex for the first time in months (you know, under false pretenses making it awfully rapey, but now the show’s telling us it’s OK because, see, it had been SOOO long since he had gotten any! It’s not, but whatever show.) and then she disappeared only to turn up in the morning with an alibi about being at the station all night even though she’s suspended. Beth’s suspension is really convenient for Sarah. It gives her a lot of time to run around and do all of her personal investigating and minimizes the amount of time she’s required to be Beth.

Paul asks why Beth’s been dressing like a “punk rock ho” and Sarah snaps, telling him to say it again, in her British accent. He doesn’t catch it and she recovers quickly, telling him she’s just got shit to do right now. Paul helpfully backstories for the audience that he thinks that the shooting was killing Beth and he’s spent the last several months checking her breathing and worrying that she’s mixing her meds. He’s decided that he’s going back to his friend’s for a while and at first Sarah is a little too OK with it, before she remembers to be appropriately dismayed. She holds that together as she watches him leave.

Lor: Now minimizing the time she has to be Beth EVEN MORE!

Sweeney: Thanks, people in Beth’s life, for being as absent as possible!

Felix arrives at the home of Mrs. S and finds Keira outside, asking if he has seen her mother. Mrs. S comes out and sends her upstairs so that she and Felix can talk. As she makes tea, she says that she “knew it was too good to be true,” which is a really gross way to describe the news that a suicide didn’t happen. She says Sarah’s too tough for that, as if that makes the comment any better. Felix says that he helped Sarah stage a funeral to escape Vic because Vic’s a dick. True. Mrs. S (who I can’t see as anything other than Queen Catherine from The Tudors watching her back as that hussy Margaery Tyrell moves in on her philandering husband) thinks Keira and Sarah should stay separated. She says she would gladly go through all the nightmares Sarah put her through all over again solely because Keira is a gift and she doesn’t think Sarah knows or appreciates that. Felix spots Keira lurking around the corner. She asks when her mommy is coming home. The answer: when Mrs. S says Sarah’s ready.

We see Sarah doing some quick prep work in her apartment before she meets Art at Fung’s. She insists that the money is from her and Paul’s joint savings account that she cleaned out, not a payoff. She was going to leave town, but didn’t because she knew she had to handle the shooting first. Art is still suspicious, but makes her walk him through the details again. She explains, inter cut with shots of her learning all of this for the first time back in Beth’s apartment. Beth chased a perp they were after and lost sight of her. Maggie Chen was also wearing black and reached for her phone. Beth thought she was reaching for a weapon, so she shot her. Art corrects that she needs to not crack under pressure so that they don’t find out that Art is the one who put the phone in Maggie Chen’s hand in order to cover for her. He adds that he’s going to hold onto the money until she’s cleared.

Felix’s Frisky Flat. He assures Sarah that Keira knows she’s still alive. Sarah tells Felix that she has to go through the hearing to get the money back. The pink phone rings and Felix asks if it’s The German. She says it’s definitely not her and also that she’s pretty sure that investigating the twins is what drove Beth to off herself. Felix thinks she shouldn’t answer, but Sarah does anyway, because otherwise we wouldn’t have a show. The girl from before wants to know if Beth got the German’s briefcase like she told her to, but no, she did not. Phone!girl tells Beth she’s got to get the briefcase now and that she’ll call back at midnight. Then she hangs up without saying goodbye. This is full blown epidemic, you guys.

Felix wants to know who that was, but Sarah’s not sure. He assumes, based on the additional birth certificate from the safety deposit box, that it’s Alison. He’s floored that Sarah really plans on going to that hotel, but Sarah’s curiosity must be satiated. If you are not a naturally inquisitive person, you probably can’t be the protagonist of your own show. I like the way this whole scene emphasizes how much of that is part of Sarah’s actual personality. Not that suddenly discovering you have identical twins wouldn’t make anyone curious, but it’s nice that the show has Felix here offering the, “Hey, you just said this drove someone to suicide, so maybe don’t?” perspective.

Lor: Excellent points. Sarah has proven to be naturally inquisitive and her own sort of resourceful. It makes sense that we are watching the story unfold from her point of view, and that she goes on to be the driving force of it in a lot of ways, because of these traits.

Sweeney: Sarah snags a hat and a furry vest from Felix in order to go with her Katja impersonation.

 

Dead Girl Hotel. Sarah beelines for the elevator, even though hotel staff is trying to stop her. Sassy music is playing, but it cuts out when Sarah walks into the room to find it utterly trashed. There’s a headless, scorched Barbie doll sitting by a bible which has a passage circled in red with “TRUTH” written by it. Sarah’s inspecting all of that, but the ringing phone breaks her out of her reverie. She tries to find the briefcase, but can’t and begrudgingly goes to answer the knock at the door. Hotel staff wants to chat with her at the desk. They entered her room due to a noise complaint and security check. They have an itemized bill for all the shit that got destroyed, including a sink.

She realizes that the case may have been left with the font desk, so tells the guy he has her card on file, so he should just charge it and move on. Another goes to get her briefcase while she pays for all the damages. It goes through because Katja apparently had mad money. Sarah got cheated, it seems! Except, you know, the twins with money are also dead. Bill paid, briefcase in hand, she’s ready to go. The man at the front desk asks how the city’s treating her and Sarah gets in a quick murder joke! “It’s killing me.” Aah, murder humor.

Sarah goes to the top of a parking garage somewhere in the city so that she can have the cool nighttime skyline going on behind her. She smashes the briefcase until it opens.

Lor: As she’s breaking open the briefcase, it seems that Tatiana Maslany truly hurts her hand. Maybe it was a planned thing, but it doesn’t appear to be, which is quite impressive, considering that the scene rolls on. She takes a quick look at the blood on her hand and keeps on.

Sweeney: I’d love to listen to episode commentaries to confirm/deny!

Inside the briefcase she finds identification, hair, and blood samples for a crap ton more of these lookalikes. There’s a piece of notebook paper with contact information for Beth and Alison who, it seems, lives not far away. The pink phone rings. Sarah explains that someone got to the hotel first and ransacked the room, but she did get the briefcase. She hesitates for a moment before deciding that shit has gotten to real to keep pretending she’s Beth with whoever this is. Phone!girl freaks out when it’s no longer Beth and demands to know who it is, and repeats The German’s riddle: “Just one. I’m a few, no family too. Who am I?” Sarah ain’t got time for that and so phone!girl hangs up.

The next day Sarah drives to the address she found for Alison. She sees a red minivan pulling out of the garage and follows it to what seems to be soccer practice. Two kids get out of the car, followed by Alison Hendrix, a suburbanite addition to the family. “Holy shit. A soccer mom,” Sarah gasps.

After a Not Break, Sarah watches Alison coach this soccer practice. She’s interrupted when her pink phone rings. She grabs a bag of oranges and ducks into a little trailer, asking another mom to take over. Sarah pulls up her hood and follows Alison in there. Alison freaks when she sees her, furious that she’d show her face in front of Alison’s children. Sarah tries to calm her down, but has to concede that Beth killed herself. Alison, who is incredibly high strung, freaks the fuck out. She paces around with a knife, saying that this is not possible because Beth would not do that. Sarah says she just wants some answers, like they who they are to one another.

Alison refuses, though, insisting that this is not her responsibility. She tells Sarah to get the fuck out and wait for a phone call. Before she leaves Alison adds, “Oh, and hide your ugly face on your way out of here.” Hilarious.

Lor: It reminds me of when I make “yo momma” jokes to my sisters. ‘Cause, you know. Same mom.

Sweeney: This whole scene is amazing both in terms of how well edited it is – there are shots with both of their faces and it looks flawless, as if there were two actors there. – and in terms of the acting. We’ve just met Alison and while both characters have a fierceness to them, she’s a fundamentally different and unique character. The voices are subtly different, beyond just accents, and the way they carry themselves, too! Little things like how Alison stands very upright, while Sarah slouches. It’s such a credit to Tatiana Maslany that I often find myself convinced that it must be two different actors. Of course, the wardrobe/hair/makeup teams also deserve a fair bit of credit here too. Those people, the editors, all the behind-the-scenes people? There’s a lot of brilliance in this production and I’m making a point to say it now because from here on out it’ll probably just be a lot of TATIANA MASLANY, THO.

Sarah gets back into her car and gets a call from Art. The shrink ruled her unfit for duty, which means that the hearing is delayed along with Art returning the money. Sarah begs him to try to get her another appointment to try to fix this.

Shrink’s Office. Sarah!Beth tries to insist that she’s coping with the guilt and with seeing a cell phone and reacting gun, like the therapist said in their previous session. The therapist says that her mental state even before the shooting , coupled with her comments in the previous episodes about a sort of blackout, she can’t recommend Beth be cleared for duty. Sarah!Beth says that’s not going to work for her. She asks the therapist to read back to her the things she said – “glitched” – and notes it sounds like she was stoned. She flips through a notebook and reads off a list of the pharmaceutical cocktail this doctor had prescribed for her. The doctor insists that Beth was long pushing her with appeals for prescriptions. “I know. My bad. So I’ll just explain to the board that I shot this poor civilian after mixing up all your overlapping ‘scrips.” Sarah’s so good at this.

Lor: She put a lot of pieces of Beth’s puzzle together. She’s been collecting data. Good on her.

Sweeney: I love that she’s been so attentive.

Police Station of Occasional Actual Police Work. Sarah!Beth gets to have her hearing. She states her name for the record, Detective Elizabeth Childs, before we go into a commercial break because there’s nothing new for us to learn in this hearing.

After a Not Break, the pink phone rings. It’s Alison, telling Sarah that she can’t find a sitter for the night and, as such, will have to just have Sarah meet her at her house at 9 that night, now that she already knows where it is.

Outside the station Sarah!Beth excitedly discusses how well she did with Art. He doesn’t really do enthusiasm, and there’s no ruling yet. She says that Paul doesn’t know she took the money and would like to put it back before he finds out. Art says he’s not giving it back until she’s reinstated, because he’s looking out for her. But he says “looking out for you” in a way that’s more, “I don’t trust you even the tiniest bit.”

That night, Felix groans about being dragged out to the suburbs. He says he gets stress zits from being there. Sarah assures him that she just needs to handle this and then she’ll get the money and they can run off with Keira. She’s reluctant to tell him what’s going on in the house, finally conceding that it’s not The German, as she is dead, but rather an uptight soccer mom. She just needs him to wait in the car and be her backup so that that someone knows where she is. Felix is not comforted by this, but Sarah goes inside anyway.

Alison lets her in the back door. She’s got a gun and threatens to shoot her if she shows her face or wakes her children. I think that would run contrary to the point, girl. Sarah says she’s never known a blood relation but is not a fan of being Alison’s twin. Alison tells Sarah Snow that she knows nothing. Just then, another “twin” emerges from the doorway. She’s got dreadlocks and glasses and funky clothes. She’s the hip twin. Her name is Cosima and she was, in fact, phone!girl.

“Oh my god. How many of us are there?” Sarah asks. But the end credits cut her off, telling us we’re going to have to wait until next week to learn more. DUN DUN DUN.

I mentioned this last time, but for me that was the moment where I was all, “OK, YES. Must know more. Must watch all the episodes.” It was when my 1-2 episodes turned into staying up until 4am to watch All The Episodes.

I said it earlier, but it’s worth repeating: everyone on this show, from Tatiana to the whole production team, deserves enormous credit for how seamlessly they have her portraying multiple characters. It’s a neat premise to begin with, but that fact is a core part of what makes this show so incredible.  The writing is strong enough that I would enjoy it in less capable hands, but much of my high level love for the show is tied to how well executed they executed the same-actress-multiple-characters element.

Anyone who is watching along and didn’t immediately move on to E3 is an impressive creature in my eyes. Your will power is truly magical.

 

Next time: Cosima and Alison tell Sarah everything they know about their lookalike situation. Find out the truth on Orphan Black S01 E02 – Variation Under Nature.