overnights

Orphan Black Recap: Light ‘Em Up

Orphan Black

Mingling Its Own Nature With It
Season 2 Episode 3
Editor’s Rating 3 stars

Orphan Black

Mingling Its Own Nature With It
Season 2 Episode 3
Editor’s Rating 3 stars

Pastor Henrik took a sharp turn towards unbearably creepy last night, right into the land of Oh Hell Naw!

The last two episodes have been good, but they’re not quite keeping up with the frenetic pace of last season, where every episode was a new chance to physically dismantle someone in the name of finding out what this clone business was all about. It’s good backstory, and I feel like we’re building to something massive, but I also want to see way more people getting kicked in the face. Is part of it that Helena is out of commission? You could always count on her for some wild action, and now that she’s in recovery mode and Sarah is off the police force, that part of the show seems to have slowed considerably.

Sarah, Felix, and Kira were doing a pretty good job being “homeless in the country,” (a.k.a. sleeping way out in the middle of nowhere in the truck they stole) right up until they decided to make Kira the point man in a low-grade heist. It was sort of sweet to see them all in action; you got the impression that this sort of thievery was one of the ways Sarah and Felix survived and bonded during their foster years, and were now passing down a family trait. Smart as a whip Kira already knew what was up before they even stepped foot inside the country market, telling Sarah and Felix she knew they couldn’t use their credit cards “because they might track us.” Has Sarah even stopped for a minute to consider Kira’s superior abilities, or why every third thing she says is way too on point? It’s not like she’s a Firestarter or anything, but Kira definitely has some spooky magic happening within her. She’s not just a miracle because she was born to a clone.

Daniel is hot on their heels, so he gets to watch the Mark and Pastor Henrik roll up the bodies and light the Birdwatchers facility on fire. Didn’t Mrs. S shoot that woman she pinned to the table in the head last time? Her face was entirely intact when Daniel walked through the house, so maybe she shot her in the chest. He got what he needed before the Proletheans lit the house aflame, and uses the picture of Kira to track down Sarah’s whereabouts when he poses as a private detective. Daniel is living out every 5-year-old’s dream — every day is a chance to act out a new job (lawyer, private investigator, detective)!

Angie decided to take matters into her own hands after the “Shakira-haired look-alike” Helena went missing from the hospital, and Art wants no part of it. At least he says he doesn’t, but then he ends up creeping up to the Prolethean ranch and taking pictures of them working around the farm. Angie has the Stepford housewife thing down to a science, but the always intuitive Alison is onto her, even though she has to deal with the Donnie “C’Mon Morning Is My Best Time” Hendrix situation and is a functioning alcoholic and regular pill popper at this point. I feel for Alison — she’s filled with a Guns N’ Ammo-style rage that she has to temper all the time, both as a suburban mom and because of the contract she signed with Rachel. At the opening night of “Blood Ties,” she gets sauced while someone is singing the Meow Mix theme as a warm-up, and ends up falling off the stage as soon as she gets out there. Is she headed for another intervention? I kind of hope so — the last one was hilarious.

Sarah finds a cabin in the woods to crash in, one that has way too many huge windows for people who are supposedly laying low, and it just so happens to be owned by a man who startles them when he comes back later that night. Cal, the lost Avett brother, used to develop mini-drone pollinators to try to save the bees, and then his partner sold the technology to the military, so now he’s a Pinterest board sprung to life — a rich dude living on a farm in the middle of nowhere with tons of money for artisanal everything who just wants to be left alone. He’s also Kira’s dad, which we find out when Kira just flat out asks him right after they meet. “Nice to meet you; are you my dad or what?” Every single show needs a Kira so they can save time on exposition. I don’t think Cal was just a mark even though Sarah did steal from him, but it’s impossible to know her type. He seems pretty bitter about everything, but that doesn’t stop them from boning.

Cosima keeps plugging away at the medical side of things, and Delphine introduces her to the video diary of another clone, Jennifer Fitzsimmons, who died a few days earlier. During a really intense autopsy that had Cosima basically digging into her exact body, they found out that the polyps found in the uterus could be the source of illness for the clones, as well as the reason why the seemingly healthy ones can’t have kids. This show does a good job of avoiding the random punishment of women as a narrative device, but my feminist hackles are raised at the thought of the womb being the source of all illness. It makes sense, of course, but it also makes me wonder what Dr. Leekie and Project LEDA had in mind when they created a bunch of women who could never reproduce — everyone is treating the lack of fertility like a sad side-effect, but what if it was intentional, and the polyps and illness are the deadly side-effect to a much larger plan?

Felix is usually way too prescribed for my taste, but he had a genuine moment last night before he decided to leave, crying a little and telling Sarah that there was no place for him there as the tiny family tried to figure out how they fit together. I like that Felix shines a light on how Sarah negotiates family, but is still clearly trying to find his place in the world without her.

After Mark says some creepy things about Helena being “fer-tile,” everyone dresses in white, stands around her bed, and watches as Pastor Henrik binds himself to her in some old school cultish marriage ceremony, and then carries her away, totally drugged up and weak. What the actual fuck, dude — Pastor Henrik is going to impregnate her himself? Is that what his talk with Grace was about, how Helena has no soul but she has a purpose? Is that purpose some drugged up rape in the name of religious procreation? Because I am not here for that, at all.

Things got ugly when Daniel snatched Kira and used her as leverage to get Sarah to come out of the house, ending in a deadly shootout (R.I.P. Tom the cop). Kira got to Cal and Daniel took Sarah with him, only to end up in a major, passenger side-crushing accident.

Unanswered Questions

  • Is Daniel dead? If so, will the entire plot of the next episode be a camera focused on Rachel as she tries to shed a single tear?
  • Alison warned Cosima about Delphine, but is Cosima ever going to catch on that Delphine is playing the double agent role?
  • I still think Mrs. S is ground zero for Project LEDA, either as a clone mom or something more sinister. Last week, commenter jillianarly said they think Mrs. S might be the original, and commenter whodat12 said they “don’t think it’s an accident that she and Sarah (and the others) look so much alike.” Mrs. S is still the biggest mystery for me this season.