Orphan Black - From Instinct to Rational Control

This episode of Orphan Black pretty much started out where the last one finished up.  With the uneasy alliance of the Clone Club and the remnants of Topside taking their first baby steps together.

But that isn't the only thing going on.  

Running parallel to this was MK's effort to avenge the Helsinki massacre, Rachel's plan to escape Susan Duncan and as we were to find, Alison's effort to penetrate the fertility clinic.  As all things in Orphan Black, most of these efforts are beginning to dovetail or are just about to.


Dovetailing

MK's particular efforts run toward revenge rather than research.

Hardly a scene with her in it goes by without a reference to Niki.  MK is especially driven to exact her revenge on Topside.  So much so, that she is keeping a hitlist on her computer.

Marion Bowles was featured front and center and then X-ed out.  I'm not sure we ever got a resolution to Marion's fate but perhaps she was simply written out of the show because Michelle Forbes became unavailable.  I would have liked to see Marion's fate but I guess we'll have to leave it up to our collective imaginations.  (Hmm, knowing OB I bet it was pretty grim.)

Ferdinand got a digital box of his own and some serious dovetailing begins here.  (In fact, later on, Sarah wonders why MK is surveilling her.  This is why Sarah.)

We catch up with Scott and Cosima whose efforts are part of the Sarah's quest for Maggot-bot removal.  They are in receipt of Leekie's head and in a light comedic touch they remark how Alison's freezer bag is both practical and fashionable.

God, those little details are so great.  Here we are chewing our fingernails over Sarah's plight but let's not forget what great taste Alison has!  (Not to mention her color coded files later on.)

Some serious work needs to be done however so Cosima gets to cutting out the worm from its nodule.  Fortunately, there is no explosive effect from the worm as keeping it at cool temperatures helps disarm it.  Just another bonus for keeping Leekie's dead body in your garage!

We catch up with Alison where she has been noshing with old pal Sarah Stubbs from their choral days.  As fate would have it Alison is spotted by Trina from the Neo club.  Alison dutifully reports this encounter to Sarah.  

Sarah dutifully gives Alison a tongue lashing.

This was a bit unfair on Sarah's part.  She reminds Alison to start "pulling her weight" but Sarah is more than frantic about the worm in her face than worrying about hurt feelings.  Alison has been doing her part including harboring Helena and getting the chilled maggot-bot to Cosima.

Focus Sarah, you're not the only one taking risks.

Speaking of Helena.  She is making a baby collage when spotted by Donnie.  (And making a mess of the living room.)  Unfortunately, Donnie took this opportunity to school Helena on how sad things are for Alison in that she can't have children of her own.  This will have repercussions later.


Research and Reproduction

Donnie and Felix arrive at the fertility clinic posing as would be parents.  (Donnie is trying a little too hard to channel his gay side.)  It's great to see Felix as part of the team again.  When we first heard him volunteer to help Alison I thought, "Great, Batman and Robin are getting back together again."   Fee and Ali made such a comedic couple.

As it turned out, Fee and Donnie can bring the hilarity too.  They even bicker like a couple!

The most hilarious part was reserved for Alison and Donnie though.  Donnie couldn't get properly motivated to make his "donation" and had to get in contact with "Air Italia".  Even as I type this I can't help but laugh as they started teasing each other in their faux Italian.

Its a wonder how effortlessly Tatiana swings from one character to another.  In fact, during that "After the Black" episode, her double recounted how it was difficult for "Tat" at first and second nature it is now.  Amazing.

Ali gets in a little field ops of her own (take that Sarah) when she sees another old pal in Portia Grossman.  It's here where she makes the discovery of the "Brightborn Treatment" the significance of which will become pretty important later on.

Elsewhere in the repercussions department, Helena is burying her eggs in the Hendricks family garden.  Donnie's little faux pas from earlier on is resonating now and Helena has decided to leave.

This is too bad because Alison, Donnie and Helena rival the Marx bothers when they are together.  Perhaps it is for the better though as this will allow Helena to go back into assassin mode.  I know she doesn't want her twins to follow in her footstep but as a free agent she may be more effective in maybe watching Sarah's back, stopping Ferdinand or rescuing Rachel.

Out resident pirate is making some startling discoveries about Charlotte and I feel it may lead her down a dark path.  Will Helena end up rescuing someone else from the Terrarium?  (Yes, that is a flash theory.  Helena will grab Charlotte and leave Rachel to her own devices.)


The Dovetailing Sarah Front

Everything starts to come together when Sarah hooks up with Dizzy.

I must say, if MK is primaro number one hacker, then Dizzy is a close second.  He even manages to find where MK keeps her own personal Clone Cave.

 Sarah has some pretty mad skills of her own and they lead her to this discovery.

 
Some pretty serious dovetailing going on now.

The third leg of this investigation Cosima, chimes in with a telephone call. 


Theory update!

Okay, so now that the characters have caught up with my theory from last week we can expound upon this a little.

So, here, Cosima tells Sarah the maggot-bot is a gene-therapy delivery system.  Why would the Neos implant one in Sarah?  Scott told us last week it could act as a passive tracking system.  But he also said it could work as data collection.

It would figure they would want to collect data on Sarah because for some reason she is fertile and they would want to gather all the information they could on that.

Also, Sarah is free from the genetic defect that is bedeviling Cosima, Sarah and Charlotte and the Neos would be keen to gather info on that too.

Are the Neos and Duncan getting impatient?

Earlier, Sarah had come to realize that Charlotte "was the youngest subject to develop the symptoms."  This seemed to deflate her and may have caused her to have second thoughts. 

Susan Duncan reveals she has intercepted Rachel's last missive to Ferdinand.  

We seem to have some sort of power play going on here.  Now that Susan knows what Rachel is up to, she is leveraging Charlotte's value as a test subject in order to affect a cure for Rachel and by extension the rest of the clones.  Rachel has reached the same conclusion.

Has Rachel turned so quickly on her own "daughter" from last week?  

Rachel is pretty cold hearted and Susan may be manipulating that side of her.  But here is a thought.  Rachel may be feigning cooperation with Duncan and the Neos in order to buy herself time.  To give up Charlotte would be pretty harsh especially with the memories of the Duncan's abandonment of her in her own childhood.  With Rachel's lifeline to Ferdinand severed this play of "cooperation" may buy her some time to work out a new plan.

If we carry this a little further, MK ended up sparing Ferdinand thanks to Sarah's intervention.  Ferdinand may have a pretty good idea where Rachel is so he may still be able to carry out any plan to rescue her.  If not, Super Hacker MK may be able to track the now free agent that is Helena and send Helena on the trail of the Neos.

I hope she has some urgency to this angle because Ferdinand wasn't too thrilled with MK's "revenge fantasy."

The last part of my theory update would be the "Gene therapy as delivery system."   

Since Rachel has bought herself some time she can continue her work on a cure for the clone defect.  The cost of which would be the continued deterioration of Charlotte.  The Neos do have their worm in Sarah so if Cosima makes any advances they will become aware of it thanks to the maggot-bot's data collection system.  I'm not exactly sure they could get "real time" updates from Sarah but the passive nature of the maggot-bot tracking system may have to do.

Here's another angle to this over-arching theory.  What if the Clone Club can get the ever elusive MK to hack her way into the maggot-bot?  If Cosima can find a cure it may be up to MK to introduce it into the worm.  She maybe even able to find out reverse engineer the tracking and find out where Rachel is.  

Of course that works both ways.  Duncan and the Neos may be aware of any changes to their Worm.

Yeesh, that's a lot!


To re-cap

• The race is on from two different parties to affect a cure.
• The Maggot-bot could be used to deliver a cure.
• Time is running out on Charlotte
• Rachel is playing a double game
• Ferdinand will be after MK
• MK will be after Duncan
• All the parties are on a collision course!

 

 

Oh, and One Last Thing

 

 

We have the introduction Evie Cho and "Brightborn".  Sadly, this plot device or introduction will only serve to delay the two frieght trains that are the Neos and the Clone Club hurtling towards each other.

 

Too bad.

 

I know you can't resolve the issue of finding the cure to the clones so quickly or rescuing Rachel and or Charlotte.  That would end the season a little too soon.

 

But this better be interesting.  A third party involved in making the world better through children?  Seems we've tread upon this ground before.

 

 

 

Odds and Ends

 

 

 

 

I really should touch upon the Helsinki part of this story line.

 

Sarah discovers MK's relation to Topside's plan to expunge defective clones.   

 

 

 

Revenge is a dish best served cold!

 

It was a terrific interlude when MK had Ferdinand held hostage in Beth's old apartment.

 

 

 

MK revealed her scars left over from the purge and then her her face was reflected in Ferdinand's glasses.

That was pretty chilling and it showed how she had the upper hand on ol' Ferd.  She let him go however and that may prove a miscalculation on her part.

Or a clever plot point by the writers and validation for my theory.

I sure hope so.  See you next week!


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