Orphan Black S01 E07 – Heads or tails.

Previously: Allison suspected Donnie of being her monitor, so she tortured him in her craft room while hosting the neighborhood potluck.
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Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner

Lorraine: Sarah and Cosima are video chatting. Sarah is freaking out because Paul has been called in by Olivier and she hasn’t heard from him since. Cosima is cosima-ing, rolling a joint while telling Sarah that everything is totally fine because Paul is on their side. Trouble is, Sarah isn’t so sure Paul is on their side. He could be ratting them out at this very moment.

Sweeney: Cosima’s nonchalant attitude about serious shit is like Orphan Black’s much more intelligent version of the Aria shrug.

Lor: A+

Segue Magic to Paul, sitting in a chair across from Olivier. He’s being filmed as Olivier asks questions about some statements Paul made, dating eight months back. Paul says they already went over this, but Olivier ignores him and asks what Paul meant when he said that Beth wasn’t acting like herself. Paul says Beth was abusing pills and asks why this is being taped. Olivier again ignores him and continues his questioning.

Back at Beth’s, Sarah is telling Cosima to stay away from Delphine. Cosima thinks she needs to be able to engage with her monitor.

Um, exactly.  It was all downhill from there.

Sarah (and the show) continue to brush that off, though, and instead Sarah mentions Alison’s example in a line of super clunky exposition. Alison’s absence this episode explained (enjoy that couple’s retreat!), Cosima says she’ll approach Delphine in a more logical way, and Sarah laughs at her. Cosima says that her situation is different because Delphine doesn’t know that she knows. In other words, “I’m the one that’s monitoring her.” Sarah doesn’t buy it and once again asks Cosima to stay away from Delphine, at least until she knows if Paul is ratting them out. Cosima offers a non-committal, “whatever,” before asking if they have anything new to be paranoid about. Sarah hopes not.

Sweeney: Cosima’s also hundreds of miles away from all the highly murdery elements of their clone struggles. Nobody has been tortured/dismembered in her immediate vicinity. It gives her a very Aria-like sense of security.

Lor: Cut to Helena, who is not technically a new thing to be paranoid about, just a kind of forgotten thing. The cameraman is instantly disoriented. Helena really throws him off his focus game. Creepy Tomas is stroking her hair and wiping her down with a sponge. Helena comes to and asks where she is, but all Creepy Tomas tells her is that she’s getting stronger.

DNA and SCIENCE and a NEAT-O SCREEN SAVER.

Post-credits, Sarah and Felix pull up next to Paul’s SUV. Paul was meeting Olivier at this underground club. Sarah reiterates what a mess she’s in, because even is Paul isn’t ratting her out, the tests these people ran could tell them she isn’t Beth. Cosima said their medical tests should be a match, but Sarah doesn’t believe her. Felix has done his fair bit of Google searching too, and everything he’s read says the same thing. Genetic identicals should mean genetic identicals.

Cut to Art bark-asking, “identicals?” It seems that the blood Helena left all over that bathroom and the blood of the Jane Doe (Katja) are the same. Art thinks someone made a mistake but the coroner is confident that is not the case. They try to run through a few more possibilities, including DeAngelis suggesting that some with access may have tampered with the sample. The lieutenant scraps all that and tells them to go back to the beginning and run everything again so they can try to get an ID on Jane Doe.

Once the coroner and the lieutenant are gone, Art tells DeAngelis that Beth would never mess with evidence. I’m sure that’s absolutely true. Unfortunately for them, Sarah Manning would (and did). Additionally, the killer herself was walking around the police station for a little bit, so all these, “YEAH AS IF.” comments are especially amusing.

Sweeney: It’s fun getting to be the smug audience! Guys, are you even watching your own show? No? Oh.

Lor: Well, I guess that explains it.

Club of Questioning. Sarah’s patience has run out, and she wants to go inside, but Felix says that would be stupid since she might be recognized. Plus, clubs are his scene. But first, he has to freshen up his eyeliner. I admire Felix’s commitment to carrying eyeliner around. There have been too many times in my life when I’ve thought, “SHIT. I look like a mess. Some eyeliner would help.”

Felix struts into the club, but is immediately told that “Neolution” is a private club. The bouncer doesn’t seem to be budging. A woman with silver hair and one white eye comes over, and Felix makes up a story about having traveled all this way to party at Neolution before his death. Freaky Leekie Lady looks unconvinced until Felix drops Olivier’s name. Freaky Leekie Lady [FLL] says that if Felix is dying, he’s clearly never heard of Neolutionism.

FLL leads Felix through the club, as he yells at her that he’s intrigued by all this augmentation and neolution business. He asks if everyone in the club is a Neoloutionist, and FLL says they have all kinds: We’ve got techno-progressives, body mod, bio-hackers… Felix says it all makes for a very handsome crowd. He asks if Olivier has any modifications and FLL laughs and says he has no idea.

Downstairs in the questioning part of this club of questioning, Olivier asks Paul when the last time he slept with Beth was. Paul lies, “three days ago.” Olivier wants to hear a little more about that, specifically how he would describe the sex. Paul is hesitant at first, but replies that it was “passionate.” Olivier thinks that weird, considering Paul had previously described Beth as a “cold fish.”

Paul says it’ll be easier for him to help if he knows what’s going on. Olivier tells him that someone is killing their subjects. I guess Sarah forgot to tell you about that part, huh?

Sweeney: I get that Sarah’s still reluctant to trust Paul – she’s not sure if he’s going to sell her out to Olivier. That’s fair. What I don’t get is why the, “Also one of the clones is trying to murder us,” part is left out. She already knows that Crazy Clone isn’t working with scientists, so how could it negatively affect her if she told Paul?

Lor: Murder Lighting Warehouse. Tomas asks Helena why she didn’t kill the imposter and she tells him that Sarah is different. They have a connection. Tomas says that connection is nothing. Sarah is just another one of Helena’s “fingernail clippings.” (Ew.) Helena shares that Sarah told her she wasn’t the original, that all the clones are the same. She looks brokenhearted. She looks like a brokenhearted murderer, I should say, which is a little different. Tomas knocks a cup of water from her hands and asks how she could possibly believe such a thing. She cowers, falls against his chest and asks for forgiveness. No wonder the cameraman never wants to focus in this poorly-lit warehouse. Not a fun thing to watch.

Neolution. Felix is dancing. He spots Paul and abandons the dancing to follow after him. Paul exits through a back door, and when Felix follows suit, Paul pounces, demanding to know why he’s following him. Sarah runs over to break this up and explain that Felix is her brother. Paul doesn’t want to talk right outside of the nefarious club, and instead tells Sarah to meet him at “home,” sans Felix.

Tomas is washing Helena’s feet (a religious symbol, as Jesus washed the feet of his disciples), as he tells her that their task is now more difficult since Beth killed Maggie Chen. Helena says it’s also more difficult to find the clones. Tomas suggests using Sarah to get to the others, and Helena admits that she does want to see Sarah again, earning her a hair pull. He warns her that “it” will say anything to save itself. Before leaving, Tomas hands Helena a razor and tells her to find the imposter, bleed her for information, and then kill her. Helena uses the knife to make another cut on her back, hints of pleasure written on her face.

Oh, so the Murder Lighting Warehouse is actually a Murder Lighting Boat. We see it now, in full, as Helena exits it in her signature green parka.

Sweeney: It was hard to tell, what with all that murder lighting. I guess secrecy is kind of the point of murder lighting.

Lor: You’re giving an A+ performance, murder lighting. I never knew a thing.

Beth’s townhouse. Paul wants to go over what Sarah knows and starts with, “there’s nine of you.” Sarah objects; there is only one of her. It’s a funny distinction to make this side of pretending to be someone else and boning him under those false pretenses. But it’s still a true distinction. Paul corrects himself and Sarah confirms: nine clones so far. She claims to have only met Alison, meaning she isn’t ready to expose her connections to Cosima or Helena yet. Paul wants to know who else, besides Felix, knows about Clone Club and Sarah lies again: just Alison. Paul next asks about Donnie, having seen him tied to a chair and hot glue gunned. Sarah explains about Alison suspecting him of being a monitor, but Sarah doesn’t think it could be him. Paul is on Team MMMMHMMM. OKAY.

Sweeney: Paul knows what’s up. I bet he reads our recaps.

Lor: Taking over the questioning, Sarah asks if Olivier is onto them. He doesn’t answer, but does say that Olivier shared that someone is killing the clones. Sarah tries to look shocked and claims to know nothing about this development.

Olivier instructed Paul to keep a close eye on “Beth.” Paul asks if Sarah’s not the least bit frightened that someone is out to get her, and Sarah says she is, but at least it isn’t him. Paul relaxes a bit, and we the audience understand that while Helena is a threat, Paul became the more current threat. Maybe he gets that now too. Anyway, Sarah needs to go visit Kira and Paul suggests she take his car, in case someone is watching or tailing her.

But Paul parked in the underground garage, which is exactly where you shouldn’t be if someone is trying to murder you. In fact, I’m going to make this Official Snark Lady Life Advice: if someone is trying to murder you, do not park in underground garages. You’re welcome.

Sweeney: Word. If Paul was really looking out for Sarah, he’d have escorted her down to that murdery parking garage.

Lor: And so, of course, Helena is down there waiting for Sarah.

Sweeney: There’s a weird music shift here, too, adding to Helena’s excitement to have lunch with the special clone. It was a fantastic choice.

Lor: We cut to a diner where Helena is loudly slurping some Jell-O. There are many cleared plates on the table, and I’m going to just assume that those are all Helena’s. A girl cannot live on water, religious undertones and Daddy issues alone, am I right? Helena tells Sarah that she dreamed they were friends. Sarah’s all, “YEAH NO,” but Helena says they will be, because she’s seen it.

Helena wants to know Sarah’s name, but Sarah says their “friendship” isn’t there yet. Sarah asks if Helena is Russian. She isn’t. She grew up in the Ukraine, in a convent. Sarah asks if the Ukrainian nuns were the ones who made her kill Katja and the others, but Helena says they were the ones who saved her from abandonment. Helena wants her knife back, the knife Sarah calls the “flying fish blade.” Helena admits that she’s supposed to kill Sarah too, but Sarah spared her life. Sarah wants to call it even and go their separate ways, but Helena says they will never be separate.

In a sudden movement, Helena pushes her boot up against Sarah’s leg, across and under the booth. She demands the names of the other clones in exchange for her life. Sarah, just as quickly, jabs a knife against Helena’s leg, telling her to move her foot or get stabbed. Helena looks under the booth at the knife, wide-eyed. She scoots back up in her chair, picks up a pen, and writes a number on a napkin. Sarah has until midnight to call that number and give her the names, or else she’ll become first on the hit-list. Helena grabs another piece of pancake and leaves.

Art is reexamining all the evidence. DeAngelis complains that “Beth’s” paperwork is a mess, and the results of the fingerprints they ran on the Jane Doe aren’t even in there. Art suggests they run them again, and DeAngelis gets excited because apparently the morgue is fun for her.

Sweeney: Ew.

Lor: In his office, Olivier gets a call from Dr. Leekie, mid taxidermy project. There’s a problem. We cut to Leekie’s hotel room where he’s looking at some test results. Beth isn’t Beth. Olivier asks which one she is, and Leekie says it isn’t his concern. They need to bring her in.

Sarah is leaving the diner and already updating Cosima about her meeting with Helena. Sarah promises not to give them up, but Cosima says maybe she should. Maybe she should come clean to Olivier, since they are a probably-super-expensive experiment, and the people in charge don’t want to see them get killed. Cosima is trying on different dresses during this conversation. She starts to tell Sarah about Dr. Leekie and neolution, which is a term Sarah recognizes. Neolution is the name of Olivier’s club. Cosima thinks that’s interesting. More interesting is that rumor has it, Olivier has a tail.

Cosima tells Sarah about how she went with Delphine to Dr. Leekie’s lecture.

 

Cosima’s wearing a plum dress. Sorry. Trauma dictated that I point that out.

Sweeney: RUINED.

Lor: Sarah, frustrated, says she’ll stay out of Cosima’s business and hangs up. Sarah throws the cell phone and calls Cosima a bitch. Cosima does the exact same thing. There’s a knock on the door and Cosima freaks because she isn’t ready. It’s Delphine, who quickly apologizes for being early. Cosima says she’s actually late. She’s always late, though, so she’s always sorry.

Sweeney: Story of my life right there.

Lor: Paul exits the bathroom in a robe and we only see him enough to see him leaning over a dresser. He comes out into the living room and points a gun, but it’s Olivier and Freaky Leekie Lady. They ask where his subject is and he spins a lie about being out at a girl’s lunch. Olivier seems to believe him, and breaks the news that his subject is not Beth. It’s an imposter. Paul asks if this is a test, something he asked Sarah when he figured her out. Olivier explains that the person killing their subjects looks just like Beth, and Paul plainly asks, “like a twin?” Because what else would it be?

Later that night, Helena breaks into Beth’s house.

Sarah sits with Kira at a piano, but her mind is a million miles away. Kira finishes her song and waves her hand in front of her mother’s dazed face. Sarah apologizes and compliments her playing, admitting that she sucked at piano. Hey, remember that one time we watched a movie about a piano teacher going on a murder spree? I’LL NEVER FORGET.

Sweeney: Nah, see, he was just misunderstood. He just wanted someone to show him how to turn those blue roses into tea.

Lor: It’s a fine skill, if it can impress the Mother of Dragons.

Felix takes Sarah’s place at the piano and it’s all a cute family moment. Mrs. S brings Sarah an album. We cut to a quick scene of Helena creeping around Beth’s, and then come back to Sarah and Mrs. S looking through her album. She gives some back story about how she ran a safe house in Brixton in the 1980’s. There is a bottle of whiskey on the table, and in a nice bit of continuity, it appears to be the same brand Paul has in the townhouse. The one he filled with smashed up pills. Sarah flip through pictures and Mrs. S points out a picture of a young man named Carlton. He used to sometimes bring her children to hide, and Sarah was one of those children. She became Sarah’s legal guardian. Right before Carlton was arrested, he begged Mrs. S to hide Sarah deeper. She took Sarah and Felix and ran. Telling the truth is super exhausting, so Mrs. S exhales and takes a swig.

Cosima and Delphine are having dinner on the top floor of a restaurant. Cosima decided on the plum dress. Bad things will happen. Downstairs, the hostess loudly greets Dr. Leekie. I wonder if he slipped her a $20 to yell his name. Cosima looks down is all, “oh my goodness. Dr. Leekie. What a surprise. Should I invite him up here?” Cosima just shrugs so Delphine goes after the doctor. It’s really great how NOT STEALTH AT ALL Delphine and Dr. Leekie are.

Sweeney: Guys, there’s a reason you hire professionals to do all the stealthy spy shit. Stick with the science.

Lor: At the morgue, Colin and the Coroner get out Jane Doe’s hand and re-fingerprint it. DeAngelis is way too excited.

Dr. Leekie joins the ladies, and not one to pull punches, Cosima announces that her dissertation is on, “epigenetic influence on clone cells.” I linked you to a very scientific Wikipedia article just there. You’re welcome again. Leekie says that’s fascinating and asks if either of them are familiar with his work at the Dyad Institute. He’s created a pluripotent stem cell line from human baby teeth. Cosima says he’s made a number of advances in cloning, and now he’s patenting emrbyonic stem cells? Leekie admits that he hopes to, though that isn’t public knowledge. It seems Cosima had been doing some digging of her own. That and she guessed the rest. Delphine is finally able to jump into the conversation, searching for a word to describe Cosima. “Cheeky,” Dr. Leekie offers, but it doesn’t entirely feel like a compliment.

In Da Club Office. Olivier is telling Paul that Beth is dead. He asks who Sarah is and Olivier fills in some blanks, including the fact that he believes Sarah is the one killing the other subjects. Perhaps Sarah is a clone they didn’t know about or lost track of? A clone with no monitor? Why would they suspect her or why is she beyond their control? Paul keeps asking questions about Sarah, but gets no answers. Instead, Olivier asks him to prove his loyalty. He lays out a few photos of Paul. The last one is of Paul in uniform, on his knees and under guard. If Paul helps Olivier, “Afghanistan goes away.” He is free of whatever debt he owes these people. Paul asks for his phone.

Fancy Meeting You Here Dinner. Leekie encourages both woman to apply for the Dyad, but Cosima doesn’t think so.

They do put experiments on the cover, though, right? And maybe that’s what Dr. Leekie meant all along, and Cosima just called his bullshit in more ways than one.

Sweeney: It’s the first time she got defensive with him too. The realization that this asshole was making light of the fact that her whole life has been a giant experiment got to her, just a little.

Lor: Felix and Sarah get ready to leave and Mrs. S says she understands Sarah’s need to look into her past, but she’d like to be informed. It may still be dangerous. Sarah admits that she thinks it is, and Mrs. S says she can keep Kira safe like she once kept Sarah safe. They hug it out.

Sarah watches as Felix takes Kira upstairs when she gets a call from Paul. She cautiously answers it and he greets her with a, “hello Beth.” It’s a clue, a clue! Sarah cautiously asks what’s up, and he says he needs her to do something. “They know you’re not Beth. Run!” Olivier and Freaky Leekie Lady pounce on Paul and knock him out with a jab of a needle to the back of the neck.

We cut to Felix and Sarah arriving at Neolution. Felix is kind of concerned that they are here when Paul clearly said to run, but Sarah can’t leave him. Fee wonder if she’s going to fess up to Olivier, but Sarah admits she has an even worse idea.

Beth’s house. Helena is chatting up a photo of Paul.

 

The call is from Sarah, and Helena wants to know if she’s ready to give her names. “Olivier,” Sarah offers, but Helena says that is not the name of a sheep. Sarah’s all, “sheep?” and Helena clarifies. “Baaaaaaaaaa.” Catching on, Sarah says it’s even better. Its the name of the shepherd.

Neolution. Sarah and Felix head back to the door through which Paul exited when they were here before. Lucky for them, a couple leaves and they are able to catch the closing door. Sarah hands Felix Art’s business card and tells him to call Art and explain everything if she isn’t back in 15 minutes. Plus, she charges him with keeping Kira safe. He tells her not to die, because her first funeral was agonizing enough. They share a look.

Sarah roams around the Club Basement (of Don’t Go In There) until Freaky Leekie Lady finds her. In Olivier’s office, he’s smacking Paul around, demanding to know who he’s working for and why he would cover for Sarah. “Is she that good?” FLL leads Sarah into the room and Paul’s all, “yeah. This isn’t running.” Sarah says she doesn’t do run. I mean, not like, recently at least.

Sweeney: LOL, right? Sarah, I know a lot’s happened, but a mere seven episodes ago, running was totally your thing.

Lor: Olivier leaves a message for Dr. Leekie to call him immediately. Sarah, meanwhile, puts a comforting hand on Paul, and perhaps still drugged up, he leans his head into her. It’s pretty sweet, especially if you forget how they founded their relationship with deceit and rape. Whatever their (gross) relationship was before, they’ve both decided to be there for each other here, first with Paul warning Sarah, and now with Sarah coming for Paul. This physical bit is an expression of all this, “in it together” stuff.

 

Olivier admits that he’s never seen a clone in the flesh, and says she’s more beautiful in person. Paul tells Sarah that Olivier thinks she’s the killer. Sarah is quick to deny this and out Helena, the blonde, Ukrainian clone as the killer. Olivier ignores her and goes on about how exquisite she is. Sarah wants to know what his people want and he smarms, “the future.” Sarah replies that if they want to grow tails, that’s their problem. Olivier puffs up with a kind of pride, and asks if Sarah wants to see it. Sarah recoils put Olivier starts to undress anyway, all the while explaining that his tail has blood flow and nerve endings. THANKFULLY, his phone rings before he is naked. It’s Leekie. Olivier tells him he’s got the killer and Leekie instructs him to prepare her for travel. He’ll be there to collect her in the morning.

Freaky Leekie Lady puts a hood over Sarah’s head and ties her hands with zip ties. On the security camera feeds behind Olivier, we can see Helena enter the club. We watch as she finds Sarah and knocks FLL out. Helena doesn’t immediately remove Sarah’s hood. She instead chokes her, demanding a name. Sarah caves and agrees to give her one.

Olivier is still threatening Paul, who is not too subtlety staring at the security camera feed. Olivier looks behind him where he sees FLL knocked out, and Sarah still tied and sitting alone in the room. Olivier runs into the room and pulls off the black hood to reveal Helena. Olivier asks who she is and she says she wants to see his tail. She attacks Olivier and pins him down, repeating that she wants to see that tail. He lowers his pants a bit and it comes slinking out. NOT SO EXCITED TO SHOW YOUR TAIL NOW, ARE YOU BUDDY?

Olivier begs for his life and Helena says she has a message for his “master” from Tomas. She cuts off his tail and blood spurts out of the base of it. EW.

Sweeney: Yeah, can we just not with all this dismemberment? Here’s to hoping there are less severed limbs in S2! (If Game of Thrones taught me anything it’s that no, that’s not how season changes tend to work.)

Lor: Paul is watching all of this on the monitors. He also sees that Sarah, wearing Helena’s jacket, is coming for him. Once there, Sarah looks at the screens as well and admits there are few things she should’ve told him. “You think?” Paul asks.

Outside, Felix decides to make that call to Art. Felix hesitantly tells Art that he’s calling about Beth Childs. This gets Art’s attention, but before Felix can say anything else, Paul and Sarah make it back to the car. “Wrong number!” Felix says, before hanging up on Art.

Inside the club, Helena dances with Olivier’s tail.

 

I mean, I guess that’s supposed to be dancing. I also guess that if you are dancing with a human’s tail, you don’t much care how your dancing looks to others.

Felix’s Frisky Flat. Sarah, Paul and Felix are all drinking. Sarah tells the boys that she gave Helena her own name. Paul sets down his drink, grabs Sarah’s hand and looks at her, face full of emotion. Felix can see what’s going on and excuses himself out of his own flat to go get drunk alone. That’s a good brother. Paul starts talking about not returning to townhouse, but Sarah’s had enough of that for one night. Instead, she goes in for a kiss. And Paul kisses her back, knowing full well who she is. Joy.

Sweeney: Yay for fully consenting everybody-knowing-who-everybody-is sexytimes!

Lor: Back at Cosima’s place, Delphine is still talking about Dr. Leekie, but Cosima has had enough of that for one night. Instead, she goes in for a kiss.

 

Cosima can tell she read the situation wrong and is embarrassed. Delphine stutters and sees herself out.

Police Station. Art is leaving for the night, but DeAngelis stops him because they’ve got the results of the fingerprints back again, and there is a match. Art comes over to look and asks who Sarah Manning is. More importantly, why does she look just like Beth?

The episode started a bit weirdly with the exposition that Paul was missing and Alison was gone. From there, though, it settled and proved to be an entertaining and nicely paced episode.

It depends how much you are able to look in the Sarah/Paul storyline, but I have to give this episode credit for trying really, really hard to make you forget it.

 

 

Next time: Alison thinks she knows who her monitor really, really is and takes her vengeance in S01 E08 – Entangled Bank.