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Previously: Sarah’s fist confronts Rachel’s face, Alison sings in a musical, Felix wears assless chaps, and some creepy man has Kira. And oh yeah — HELENA LIVES.
In all the excitement with the season premiere last week, I forgot to bring up the theme of the Season 2 episode titles. Last season’s were quotes from Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species, and Season 2’s are courtesy of Sir Francis Bacon.
Whenever I see these titles for the first time, I’m all, “DAFUQ?”, but they totally make sense after seeing the episodes. And this week’s tells us that “science without religion is lame; religion without science is blind”…
Clone Club Chronicles
Sarah and Art follow a lead on Kira’s whereabouts — a phone call to Uncle Felix from Monkey herself! — to a motel, where Kira was last seen with some man. While Art has a run-in with Daniel, Sarah gets abducted by a creepy man who elicited a very loud “OMG it’s the Grim Reaper!” from me. But in Not!Toronto, the Grim Reaper’s meat suit is named Ben, and he’s actually taking Sarah to a rendez-vous point with Mrs. S, QUOI THE QUOI!
Turns out, Mrs. S has been hiding out with her old friends, Brenda and her son Barry. Mrs. S had staged the scene back at her house, and I guess she had Ben take Kira so she’d have more time to do whatever she needed to do? But why Ben only brought Kira to the safe house after Kira made contact with Sarah is beyond me.
Anyhoodle, Mrs. S wants to put an ocean between Kira and everyone’s who’s after her. Sarah’s like, “SOUNDS GREAT. When do we leave??”, only to be told “You can’t sit with us!”; Mrs. S means to take Kira to the UK by herself. Sarah is so not cool with this, or with the Project LEDA photo that Amelia had and the accompanying warning re: Mrs. S. Mrs. S feigns ignorance, but her story is busted by Kira’s well-calibrated bullshit detector.
Sarah tries to sneak off with Kira in tow, only to get caught by Barry; he and his momslice totally sold out to the Proletheans. But Mrs. S pins Brenda’s hands to the dining table with cutlery and doles out matching mother-son shotgun blasts, allowing Sarah and Kira to get away and finally run off together with Felix.
Over at Aynsley’s funeral, Alison is completely channeling Holly Golightly, but her sartorial win is overshadowed by her catty former friends. Donnie’s being a supportive husband, so of course this is when Alison discovers his monitor texts. (Really, Donnie? You can’t be bothered to get a bright neon burner phone like everyone else? Do you even go here?)
This revelation has Alison SPIRALING; she can’t even give her full attention to her big musical! (And seriously, if the full musical number isn’t a DVD extra, the internet should REVOLT.) But she’s jumped to this conclusion about Donnie before, so she sets a trap for him… that, indeed, confirms it. Y’know, for someone that wouldn’t crack under hot glue gun torture, Donnie is TERRIBLE in the field.
Cosima accepts Dr. Leekie’s job offer, becoming a Clone Club double agent within the Dyad. She’s playing like Sarah’s a rogue lone wolf, but the Dyad must still suspect otherwise, right? It’s a total chess match, with both sides playing along since everyone’s getting what they want right now.
Cos is planning out her dream lab with Delphine, which quickly becomes a makeout sesh since everything that Delphine says sounds like an invitation for science-y sexytimes (see above), when they’re interrupted by Rachel. Ugh — way to box block, Rach!
In what I think is the first clone interaction without Sarah’s presence, Rachel gives Cosima the sequenced genomes for Katja and Sarah. The respiratory illness is believed to be an issue from the cloning procedure, while Sarah is a beautiful and unique snowflake and Rachel must know WHYYYYY.
Helena’s conked out for most of the ep, but she introduces us to Proletheans, old and new! Mark aka Dark Hair takes her to the Prolethean compound, where her zealot guardian Tomas has also taken refuge. Pastor Henrik is like, “Suuuure, mi casa creepy es su casa creepy!”, before Tomas gets Anton Chigurhed with a shot of compressed air to the head.
Felix Felicis
So much Felix goodness! Snarkily welcoming Art into Clone Club, painting his client Teddy (both of ’em in the nude, obvs), and restoring balance to Clone Club.
Felix also shines as Sarah’s brother and Alison’s confidante. (Cue my weekly “Felix is THE BEST EVAR. Why isn’t he real and in my life?!” spiel.) I’m going to miss the Felix and Alison subplot of the week when he’s on the run with Sarah and Kira.
Mrs. S’s Home for Peculiar Children
Like most of y’all, I’m hoping that Mrs. S is one of the good peeps, so I want to believe her “Everything I Do, I Do It For You” claim to Sarah. But that Project LEDA is some super sketchy shizz, and S confirms the clones’ (or at least Sarah’s) connection to it.
The obvi theory here is that Mrs. S was one of the scientists that created the clones, but she had a change of heart and decided to protect Sarah. Are her intentions as simple and pure as that? (Although this is Orphan Black, in which nothing is ever just simple.)
I’m also wondering why the man we now know as Mrs. S’s friend, Ben, was taking a photo of Kira. Did Ben, like Brenda and Barry, betray Mrs. S to the Proletheans?
And speaking of Kira — not to be too morbid, but I don’t think she’s long for this world. Just from a practical standpoint of casting a child actor, unless the show is stockpiling TONS of footage, or there’s going to be a huge jump in time at some point.
They Fought the Law
Art’s on the verge of suspension for taking Daniel into custody, but he’s more concerned about Angie Deangie’s obsession with the not-known-to-her-to-be-clones. No luck there, since Angie finds out about a fifth BethFace aka Helena, but not before Helena disappears from the hospital.
Neolution News
The Dyad Institute originated as a manufacturer of vaccines. (And nowadays, it cures people of afflictions like not having a tail.) However, the Dyad really needs to rethink its HR policies, if this is how it treats its employees.
I’m sure Rachel’s interest and bluntness just pertains to the whole Nature vs. Nurture aspect of the clones, but YOU TELL HER, COS. (Also, that dress is GREAT.)
Purely Proletheans
Led by Pastor Henrik and his wife Bonnie, the Proletheans are forty strong and they live together on a farm. (Just once, I’d like to see a cult operate out of a high rise.) Unlike Tomas and his self-flagellating ways*, this group likes faith AND science. Pastor Henrik studied at MIT, and the farm practices animal husbandry.
And maybe not just limited to animals, since Pastor Henrik seems mighty interested in Helena’s reproductive potential, given that she’s the identical twin of a fertile clone. Not gonna lie, I’m wondering if the Pros will try to breed her, yuck.
*It didn’t occur to me until now, what Helena’s scars reminded me of.
Stick to the Science, Geek Monkey
Another quirk of Helena being an identical twin: she’s a mirror. Her organs are on the opposite side than where they’re supposed to be, which explains how she survived being shot in the heart and Sarah’s to blame.
And because they’re identical: will Helena’s genome be SPECIAL and different from the non-Sarah clones, too? If so, why are they different? For some reason, after the first time I watched Season 1, I thought Sarah and Helena were the originals. That could still somehow be the case, but Rachel sez it’s not possible to obtain the original “robust” genome. Maybe there’s no original; they’re all entirely genetically engineered?
Next episode: The Proletheans want Helena to join their family, a new clone vlogs about her illness, Daniel looks for Kira, and Angie Deangie invades the ‘burbs!
