Orphan Black 3.09
Jun. 14th, 2015 11:09 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakAka the one where they visit London.
...and there's fan service in the form of Maria Doyle Kennedy getting to sing. Not that I dissaprove, but that was why the scene was there, wasn't it? By strange coincidence, I had caught some old episode from The Tudors a few days ago which reminded not only that MDK had played Katherine of Aragon there but also made me finally recognize Ferdinand (James Frain played Thomas Cromwell in The Tudors).
The big reveal of the London part of the episode was that Castor and Leda don't have one original donor each but hail from the same original source, a woman who absorbed her male twin as an embryo, and who turns out to be Siobhan's mother. I'm in two minds about this because I'd rather not have Mrs. S. biologically related to Sarah (and the other clones) at all, for thematic reasons, I prefer their bond to have nothing to do with genetic connection. Then again, the relationship is so established by now that the genetic connection makes no difference and it does clear up S isn't the original donor herself, which the fact she shares the black hair with them sometimes made me wonder.
Otoh I'm entirely cool with the Leda and Castor clones as siblings because of the embryo absorbing reveal. Between Warren Ellis inventing Charles Xavier's embyronically absorbed twin sister Cassandra and Stephen King using the concept for The Dark Half, I actually was familiar with the phenomenon. No opinion on the UrLedaCastor the ex prisoner and spectacularly alienated mother of Sioabhan yet, because that was too short a scene to judge.
Speaking of reveals, in another subplot, we find out that Gracie, not Shay, was the mole, and Gracie did it to save Mark. This makes sense and is fairly played (Gracie asking whether Mark, too, has the life expectancy of a may fly without the Duncan code cracked in retrospect was a big hint), not to mention that it saves Shay's life. (The trailer at the end says so. Alas the trailer also says Cosima is going to kiss Delphine again. Yup, they definitely entered NOTP territory for me.) Of course, Shay may still get a reveal of her own that's Castor unrelated, but in this episode she came across as innocent, understandably creeped out as hell at Delphine but still brave in the face of this. Character wise, probably the most interesting aspects of this is this: Cosima may not have known exactly what Delphine would do (or would have done had Cosima not given her the information that Shay wasn't the mole), but she must have had a pretty good idea, and she was willing to throw Shay to the wolves in this regard on the mere suspicion. She could have confronted Shay herself. She could have asked some of other clones for help. But she went to Delphine and Dyad, knowing what means Dyad had employed in the past.
Meanwhile, chez Hendrix: Helena and Donnie turn out to be wonderful on screen together. (I stand in awe of the producers figuring out new and thrilling dynamics for Tatiana Maslany & actor she's been working with since eons - last week it was the Felix and Krystal scene, this week it's Helena and Donnie.) (And smarmy Jason is furtherly revealed as unworthy of Alison when it turns out that he used his fight with Donnie as a reason to withdraw protection from the Hendrixes from his evil drug overlords, whereas Donnie is willing to be ridiculed and menaced in order to get Helena's embryos back for her.) Also, methinks Helena has ended the drug dealing subplot here (unless the writers decide otherwise) by killing the drug lords after they threatened the Hendrix children. At any rate, like last week I continue to be happy about the Helena-living-with-the-Hendrixes idea fixing the problem of separateness of this subplot. I think these scenes may even have been my favourites in the episode. Go show!
...and there's fan service in the form of Maria Doyle Kennedy getting to sing. Not that I dissaprove, but that was why the scene was there, wasn't it? By strange coincidence, I had caught some old episode from The Tudors a few days ago which reminded not only that MDK had played Katherine of Aragon there but also made me finally recognize Ferdinand (James Frain played Thomas Cromwell in The Tudors).
The big reveal of the London part of the episode was that Castor and Leda don't have one original donor each but hail from the same original source, a woman who absorbed her male twin as an embryo, and who turns out to be Siobhan's mother. I'm in two minds about this because I'd rather not have Mrs. S. biologically related to Sarah (and the other clones) at all, for thematic reasons, I prefer their bond to have nothing to do with genetic connection. Then again, the relationship is so established by now that the genetic connection makes no difference and it does clear up S isn't the original donor herself, which the fact she shares the black hair with them sometimes made me wonder.
Otoh I'm entirely cool with the Leda and Castor clones as siblings because of the embryo absorbing reveal. Between Warren Ellis inventing Charles Xavier's embyronically absorbed twin sister Cassandra and Stephen King using the concept for The Dark Half, I actually was familiar with the phenomenon. No opinion on the UrLedaCastor the ex prisoner and spectacularly alienated mother of Sioabhan yet, because that was too short a scene to judge.
Speaking of reveals, in another subplot, we find out that Gracie, not Shay, was the mole, and Gracie did it to save Mark. This makes sense and is fairly played (Gracie asking whether Mark, too, has the life expectancy of a may fly without the Duncan code cracked in retrospect was a big hint), not to mention that it saves Shay's life. (The trailer at the end says so. Alas the trailer also says Cosima is going to kiss Delphine again. Yup, they definitely entered NOTP territory for me.) Of course, Shay may still get a reveal of her own that's Castor unrelated, but in this episode she came across as innocent, understandably creeped out as hell at Delphine but still brave in the face of this. Character wise, probably the most interesting aspects of this is this: Cosima may not have known exactly what Delphine would do (or would have done had Cosima not given her the information that Shay wasn't the mole), but she must have had a pretty good idea, and she was willing to throw Shay to the wolves in this regard on the mere suspicion. She could have confronted Shay herself. She could have asked some of other clones for help. But she went to Delphine and Dyad, knowing what means Dyad had employed in the past.
Meanwhile, chez Hendrix: Helena and Donnie turn out to be wonderful on screen together. (I stand in awe of the producers figuring out new and thrilling dynamics for Tatiana Maslany & actor she's been working with since eons - last week it was the Felix and Krystal scene, this week it's Helena and Donnie.) (And smarmy Jason is furtherly revealed as unworthy of Alison when it turns out that he used his fight with Donnie as a reason to withdraw protection from the Hendrixes from his evil drug overlords, whereas Donnie is willing to be ridiculed and menaced in order to get Helena's embryos back for her.) Also, methinks Helena has ended the drug dealing subplot here (unless the writers decide otherwise) by killing the drug lords after they threatened the Hendrix children. At any rate, like last week I continue to be happy about the Helena-living-with-the-Hendrixes idea fixing the problem of separateness of this subplot. I think these scenes may even have been my favourites in the episode. Go show!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-14 07:57 pm (UTC)I'm not sure who should get the Unethical Scientist of the Year award, Duncan or Coady. Experimenting on prisoners vs experimenting on the hapless public, it's hard to say...
Concerning relatives: Maybe I'm seeing things, but I don't think Siobhan will remain the only one with a surprise connection to Castor/Leda. We had two instances of intense chain smokers and both were filmed the same way - Coady and Ma Baker. I'd not be totally surprised if they turn out to be... sisters or cousins, or something like that. It would give Coady's relationship to the Castors a nice twist, too.
Finally, does this mean, S is the Clones'... sister? Daughter?
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 06:30 am (UTC)Finally, does this mean, S is the Clones'... sister? Daughter?
Good question. I was going with "sister" initially, but that positions Kendall as the mother, and being the original of a series of clones is more of an older sister thing, so "daughter" would also be correct. Which is lovely irony, but I still wish there was no genetic connection!
no subject
Date: 2015-06-14 11:47 pm (UTC)Loving Donnie & Helena, intrigued by the Castor/Leda reveals, and with you on the Cosima + Delphine + Shay situation. I feel like the show is in a bit of a bind, with Cosima/Delphine starting out as such a popular relationship, but it's gone way past redeemable on Delphine's part, and it's making Cosima terrible by association.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 06:26 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 10:59 am (UTC)Also, Helena and Donnie are a great team! Helena really needs someone to unconditionally make her part of the family, and Donnie really needs protection from the bad guys.
no subject
Date: 2015-06-15 05:20 pm (UTC)Re: Cosima feeling seriously betrayed - I can understand that, too, and her life in recent months (years?) certainly encourages paranoia to the max. It was understandable to suspect Shay under these circumstances. But she did have options other than Dyad and Delphine. Moreover, Delphine didn't have enough information about Shay to justify going after her before. All Delphine had was the fact that Shay had been in the military. There was literally nothing else in that file (that we saw, and wouldn't they have mentioned this otherwise?) that raised alarm bells. Only in combination with Cosima seing the "Sarah" mention and the Moreau book/Castor attack event as further reasons for suspicion did it become serious.
Mind you, Delphine probably would have gone after Shay even if Cosima had just said "I have a bad feeling about her", because she WANTS Shay to be guilty, because of her jealousy. Which is another reason why Delphine/Cosima creeps me out so much right now. But still, like I said: the main point for me isn't what Delphine was willing to do, but what Cosima was, and I'm not sure the show is aware how serious this is.