Orphan Black: Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method

“In Londontown we all fell down and Castor woke from slumber.”

Finally, everything is coming together. Alison’s storyline is now connected to something, Delphine is back, Rachel staged an exciting prison break, and…ditzy clone. Get excited people.

Krystal Goderitch is the end result of the writers having seen Legally Blonde far too many times. Let’s be real here, she *is* Elle Woods. Blonde, lover of pink, strict adherent to the rules of manicure maintenance, fond of plunging necklines…wait, I’m describing myself. Krystal appears to be unintelligent but, a quick search of her locker reveals that she is anything but. The word repeatedly used to describe her is “naïve,” meant to be a statement on her lack of knowledge about clones, but it really describes her in general just as well. She isn't as guarded as Sarah or Alison. She thinks nothing of spilling the details of her personal life to every client who comes in. Forget Castor and Dyad, Krystal seems like she would run into trouble in regular society. She’s so trusting she might have grown up in a literal bubble.

Felix finally gets his chance to go undercover and is amazing at it. His straight, Canadian persona was sort of mind boggling. I do wish he would stop flirting with people who are literal clones of his sister. It’s gross. At least they didn’t kiss. And I love that he dropped the act at the end to reassure her.

Rachel’s made her prison break this week and her plan was pretty awesome, comedically undercut to perfection by her less than high speed escape. “This is top speed.” Of course she wouldn’t leave herself at the mercy of Sarah for a second longer than she had to. Dr. Nealon finally showed his true colors. Sort of. Delphine thought he was working for her, Rachel thought he was working for her, but in reality he was working for…Coady? Right? That was supposed to be Coady? Anyway it was an excellent twist. I wonder if Rachel knows about Nealon’s affiliation with probably Coady or if she’s just blindly jumped out of the frying pan and into the fire in her panic to wrestle control back from Sarah.

Rudy reappeared to threaten Denise, Scott’s cat. Which is terrible and evil but funny when you really think about it. First Rudy had to find the cat, coax it out of wherever it was hiding, and then pose with it in his arms to be as sinister appearing as possible. How long was he sitting there holding Denise waiting for Scott to walk in the door? Did she scratch him? Did they bond? Did Rudy talk to Denise? Let your imagination run wild. By the way, Orphan Black, I sincerely appreciated the shot of Denise later in the episode completely unharmed. I worry about fictional animals.

I love how no one blamed him for folding like a cheap whatever that expression is. By doing so, he put all of them at extreme risk and set off a chain of events that ends up getting Cosima and himself unceremoniously fired. But everyone understood the actions he undertook to save his beloved pet. As Felix said so perfectly, “What kind of monster threatens a man’s cat?”

Who is the mole? Shay is the obvious choice (she went right for that book) but Gracie overheard Mrs. S, Felix, and Sarah talking about the book. Or is it someone else entirely? It theoretically could be Nealon, although that might be a little underwhelming. I can’t wait to find out and yet I’m terrified at the prospect.

Alison has turned Bubbles from a drug front into a drug front that is also a clone club jobs program. Helena and Gracie both find themselves with fun new jobs and a new place to live. Which, frankly, makes sense. The Hendrix home is, comparatively, ginormous. It makes much more sense to house the clone overflow there than in Felix’s loft or Mrs. S’s little house. Especially now that Sarah’s back.

There’s a lot of drama between the Hendrixes (Hendrices?) and Jason Kellerman and I find myself not caring about it at all. It’s clearly setting up something for the end of the season, but I find myself wanting to get their sooner rather than later. Jason is either going to be big trouble or in for big trouble and either way I see Helena being involved. Will he stumble across her in the back room and realize there’s more to his ex than meets the eye? Or will Helena revenge herself upon him for hurting her baby ox?

This episode contained what is now my favorite sans Sarah Helena scene. Her relationship with Gracie is…complicated. I mean Gracie literally tried to kill her. The way they interacted here was just sort of perfect. The entire time I was pretty sure that Helena wasn’t going to be aggressive towards Gracie. That “pretty sure” is important. As I said in my last review, Helena is, at any given moment, equally capable of hugging you or gouging out your eyes and it’s not always clear which one she’s leaning towards.

The way she talked to Gracie was so weirdly maternal. She told Gracie what her own mother should’ve said after the miscarriage: it wasn’t her fault. This scene seriously had me tearing up. Gracie calling her child “our baby” and Helena inviting her into her little makeshift family; it’s the stuff fluffy fanfics are made of.

Bits and Pieces

The internet informs me that fear of identical twins is called duomaieusiophobia. However you pronounce that, Krystal is in for a surprise whenever she wakes up.

Krystal’s pink notebook has the Castor symbol on the front.

Rachel applies lipstick before skyping with Sarah. Which is just so Rachel. She’s also managed to maintain her manicure flawlessly. Does Dyad have an in-house salon? Maybe Krystal can work there if she ever snaps out of her Sleeping Beauty thing.

Alison must’ve come out of the clone closet to her kids if she’s okay with them hanging around Helena. I would have loved to see that scene.

New clone! Polish. No name.

I loved Delphine confronting Scott and Cosima about their actions. She completely looked like an enraged mother while Scott and Cosima sat on the couch looking like guilty children.

Gracie is seen wearing Alison’s pajamas from season one. Helena is wearing one of her sweaters from a previous episode.

Clone Quotes

Krystal: “You can’t crush the human spirit.”

Donnie: “Alison, she’s crazypants.”

Rachel: “New accessories.”

Delphine: “I’m French, we enjoy lovers.”

Helena: “Sestra Alison has good taste…in men.”

Helena: “You have meat on your bones. You are strong like baby ox. This I like.”

Scott: “Please. Denise has feline asthma.”

Krystal: “My biggest fears are literally twins and clowns.”
Felix: “Clones?”
Krystal: “Clones? Clowns.”
Felix: “Clones. Clowns. No, clones are worse. Twins.”

Felix: “Krystal. [drops accent] Bloody hell. Look, darling, there’s only one thing you need to know.”
Krystal: “What happened to your voice?”
Felix: “Nothing. This is my truth voice.”

Donnie: “I may be a bitch, but I’m Alison’s bitch.”

three and a half out of four ditzy clones

sunbunny, who is probably not played by Tatiana Maslany

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Aww Helena was so sweet with Donnie and the kids. I don't think she'd ever hurt them.
Krystal is soo Elle. Great observation. Alas, poor Krystal.
So what's the deal with Shay? Guess we'll know soon.
Felix should stop flirting with clones and get back to flirting with dudes. Pretty, pretty please. Or do anything not related to sestra-care. I miss when he had his own life.