Orphan Black 3.10
Jun. 21st, 2015 06:19 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakSeason finale time!
It occurs to me this would actually be a reasonably good point to conclude the show as well. The surviving clones the audience is most familiar with have become a family and are at peace with each other. One season later, I can buy Helena's acceptance by the non-Sarah clones far more than I could in the last finale, delightful as the clone dance had been; now Helena has a new life with the Hendrixes, a job, even. You could also say she killed off the zealot-murderous (as opposed to protective-murderous) part of her old self with Rudy. Incidentally, that scene: at first I felt slightly disappointed because while Helena versus Rudy was a natural showdown -they are each other's counterparts -, it wasn't much of a fight scene, given that Rudy, as Helena observed, was already shutting down biologically. But then as the scene went on it became clear the point wasn't Helena defeating Rudy in a fight but her being there while he died and their conversation on the floor, which was both touching and utterly unsentimental. This is how you acknowledge the humanity of a villain while also not for a moment giving him a pass for the crimes he committed. (Although, when Helena said "no, you're a rapist" in reply to Rudy's "we're the same", I thought, well, I know it's not the same because Rudy took joy in it and did it multiple times, but Helena did something rape like at least once, in her method of killing Johannsen. Murdering a rapist - which Johannsen also was through all his violations of women's physical autonomy - by using his own violating methods on him is still rape.) The Castor boys have been paralleled with Helena the whole season (being raised as murderous tools by a brainwashing organisation), and that death scene was a great pay off.
The finale also mostly wraps up the entire Castor storyline although it's up to the writers whether Mark, the one Castor who formed an attachment outside the program and was able to leave, will indeed die (having decided to spend his last weeks with Gracie) with the rest of them or whether in exchange for his help he got some DNA samples and/or the promise that if he's still alive by the time Cosima finds a cure, he'll get one as well. Be that as it may, if the producers decide not to bring him back again, we can assume he and Gracie spend those last weeks in peace.
Alison's and Donnie's stint as drug dealers is also over, as I remarked last week, she won her election and has a legal and profitable business of her own. Sarah has found out how she came to be Mrs. S.' foster daughter and has reunited with Kira. Art and Scott have been integrated in the friendly family. Crystal has been saved. (BTW, Delphine noticing her nails - which are very unlike Rachel's - was neat, Crystal conveniently awakening at just that moment from a medically induced coma - how does that even work? - less so, but that's not much of an issue; I'm just glad Crystal is safe and awake now.) Rachel, after managing to get herself out of one imprisonment, has a family reunion of the most screwed up kind because that's how Rachel's life goes - and after wondering for most of the season whether Dr. Coady is Susan Duncan and then two episodes ago deciding the blond woman shown only from behind probably was, I knew this would happen, but that didn't make the opening of the episode - Rachel's dream of her childhood mixed with the nightmare of Ethan Duncan's suicide in front of her - and the tag scene, Rachel seeing Susan Duncan again who turns out to be the latest secret puppet master (more about this in a moment) - less effective. I nominate the Duncans for most dysfunctional family this side of Lost. Ferdinand can be an honorary member, since the finale made it clear his thing for Rachel is strong enough to supercede employer loyalties.
And then there's Cosima. Which brings me to the frustrating part of the episode. Firstly, re: Delphine's death, I would regard it as final, but see, Helena was shot by Sarah in the s1 finale just the same way and returned alive and sort of well, and as I said at the time, this makes me far less able to believe in the death of a regular character. Especially one who is half of a popular pairing. On the one hand, I had the impression the show didn't really know what to do with Delphine post season 1 and then decided in s3 to let her go dark side but for the greater good, except they couldn't really pull it off because if we're supposed to see Delphine nobly getting her hands dirty to save Cosima and the other clones (which is how Cosima seeems to see it in the finale), it not only reminds me of my least favourite Jack Bauer justifications but it also gives her "interrogation" of Rachel via physical pain and her near murder of Shay indeed the type of 24 gratitious violence that is only evil if a bad guy does it and okay if a hero(ine) does. Also, letting Delphine be shot by someone whom we don't see makes me wonder whether the show will make Shay a villain after all (complete with Delphine shot but not dead and returning to the show in s4, along with Cosima/Delphine), which I want less than ever. Because my largest problem with this remains that the show completly does not deal with what Cosima was ready to do. Yes, she was shocked when she heard was Delphine threatened to do to Shay. But that's a bit like Henry II. being surprised someone took him up on "will no one rid me of this troublesome priest", isn't it? Not to mention that ten minutes later, she was ready to write it off as Delphine doing what needed to be done for general clone protection. If all of this were meant to show a dark side of Cosima's own character, I'd see it as interesting character development, but I very much doubt it was.
What makes me suspec the show agrees with Cosima here is the way it uses Ferdinand to kill off Dr. Coady (off screen) . Sarah dealing with two threats - Topside and Castor - by playing them against each other is a Sarah thing to do, but Sarah is also someone who flinched when Helena killed those guards in front of her, and angsted an episode long whether or not to kill the Castor original. And it was clear Ferdinand would murder Coady and whoever was with her. Yet not only did it happen conveniently off screen, but it saved Sarah from having to kill someone herself (again), while not having to care if someone else does it for her, either.
Aaaanyway. All th is being said, I liked s3 more than I did s2, because the clone-clone interactions were far more frequent and better integrated (except for Alison during the first half of the season) . This even included dead clones, i.e. Beth. And there were some great new combinations for new scenes (standout scenes that come to mind for me being Donnie & Helena, Scott & Rachel, Felix & Rachel, Sarah & Mark, Cosima & Alison, Felix & Crystal) while old favourites (Sarah & Helena, Felix & Sarah, Sarah & Art) got good outings as well. And I'm okay with bringing the Neolotionists back as the Even Bigger Bad; should have seen that coming when Dr. Neiman promised Rachel a new prosthetic eye two epis ago. (Hello, human tails and other excentricities from season 1.)
Other observations:
- Kendall reporting that Ethan Duncan ranted about Dyad corrupting his wife is a retcon, but then, he's just the type to go for the Obi-Wan Kenobi approach to truth, i.e., that when he told everyone else they killed Susan, he spoke from a certain point of view. This makes Susan Duncan a female Anakin Skywaker/Darth Vader, of course, and Rachel dark side Leia. (Not dark side Luke, since Rachel grew up self aware and a princess.)
- due to the growth rate of children, they're soon going to have a problem with Helena staying magically pregnant but not showing while Kira already being far taller than she used to be
- I really liked Cosima's scene with Kendall; this was Cosima outside her love life being competent and convincing
- whereas our LedaCastor Original telling Sarah and Siobhan how things went down with Duncan and how this ensured Sarah ended up with Mrs. S. made me roll my eyes and the Victorian novel-ness of it all; I mean, yes, it wraps that lingering question up, but good lord, one moment it's "you're inferior" to a clone and the next "I wanted you to have at least a part of me, the best of me?"
- so...Cal brought Kira to Alaska? Antarctica? What?
It occurs to me this would actually be a reasonably good point to conclude the show as well. The surviving clones the audience is most familiar with have become a family and are at peace with each other. One season later, I can buy Helena's acceptance by the non-Sarah clones far more than I could in the last finale, delightful as the clone dance had been; now Helena has a new life with the Hendrixes, a job, even. You could also say she killed off the zealot-murderous (as opposed to protective-murderous) part of her old self with Rudy. Incidentally, that scene: at first I felt slightly disappointed because while Helena versus Rudy was a natural showdown -they are each other's counterparts -, it wasn't much of a fight scene, given that Rudy, as Helena observed, was already shutting down biologically. But then as the scene went on it became clear the point wasn't Helena defeating Rudy in a fight but her being there while he died and their conversation on the floor, which was both touching and utterly unsentimental. This is how you acknowledge the humanity of a villain while also not for a moment giving him a pass for the crimes he committed. (Although, when Helena said "no, you're a rapist" in reply to Rudy's "we're the same", I thought, well, I know it's not the same because Rudy took joy in it and did it multiple times, but Helena did something rape like at least once, in her method of killing Johannsen. Murdering a rapist - which Johannsen also was through all his violations of women's physical autonomy - by using his own violating methods on him is still rape.) The Castor boys have been paralleled with Helena the whole season (being raised as murderous tools by a brainwashing organisation), and that death scene was a great pay off.
The finale also mostly wraps up the entire Castor storyline although it's up to the writers whether Mark, the one Castor who formed an attachment outside the program and was able to leave, will indeed die (having decided to spend his last weeks with Gracie) with the rest of them or whether in exchange for his help he got some DNA samples and/or the promise that if he's still alive by the time Cosima finds a cure, he'll get one as well. Be that as it may, if the producers decide not to bring him back again, we can assume he and Gracie spend those last weeks in peace.
Alison's and Donnie's stint as drug dealers is also over, as I remarked last week, she won her election and has a legal and profitable business of her own. Sarah has found out how she came to be Mrs. S.' foster daughter and has reunited with Kira. Art and Scott have been integrated in the friendly family. Crystal has been saved. (BTW, Delphine noticing her nails - which are very unlike Rachel's - was neat, Crystal conveniently awakening at just that moment from a medically induced coma - how does that even work? - less so, but that's not much of an issue; I'm just glad Crystal is safe and awake now.) Rachel, after managing to get herself out of one imprisonment, has a family reunion of the most screwed up kind because that's how Rachel's life goes - and after wondering for most of the season whether Dr. Coady is Susan Duncan and then two episodes ago deciding the blond woman shown only from behind probably was, I knew this would happen, but that didn't make the opening of the episode - Rachel's dream of her childhood mixed with the nightmare of Ethan Duncan's suicide in front of her - and the tag scene, Rachel seeing Susan Duncan again who turns out to be the latest secret puppet master (more about this in a moment) - less effective. I nominate the Duncans for most dysfunctional family this side of Lost. Ferdinand can be an honorary member, since the finale made it clear his thing for Rachel is strong enough to supercede employer loyalties.
And then there's Cosima. Which brings me to the frustrating part of the episode. Firstly, re: Delphine's death, I would regard it as final, but see, Helena was shot by Sarah in the s1 finale just the same way and returned alive and sort of well, and as I said at the time, this makes me far less able to believe in the death of a regular character. Especially one who is half of a popular pairing. On the one hand, I had the impression the show didn't really know what to do with Delphine post season 1 and then decided in s3 to let her go dark side but for the greater good, except they couldn't really pull it off because if we're supposed to see Delphine nobly getting her hands dirty to save Cosima and the other clones (which is how Cosima seeems to see it in the finale), it not only reminds me of my least favourite Jack Bauer justifications but it also gives her "interrogation" of Rachel via physical pain and her near murder of Shay indeed the type of 24 gratitious violence that is only evil if a bad guy does it and okay if a hero(ine) does. Also, letting Delphine be shot by someone whom we don't see makes me wonder whether the show will make Shay a villain after all (complete with Delphine shot but not dead and returning to the show in s4, along with Cosima/Delphine), which I want less than ever. Because my largest problem with this remains that the show completly does not deal with what Cosima was ready to do. Yes, she was shocked when she heard was Delphine threatened to do to Shay. But that's a bit like Henry II. being surprised someone took him up on "will no one rid me of this troublesome priest", isn't it? Not to mention that ten minutes later, she was ready to write it off as Delphine doing what needed to be done for general clone protection. If all of this were meant to show a dark side of Cosima's own character, I'd see it as interesting character development, but I very much doubt it was.
What makes me suspec the show agrees with Cosima here is the way it uses Ferdinand to kill off Dr. Coady (off screen) . Sarah dealing with two threats - Topside and Castor - by playing them against each other is a Sarah thing to do, but Sarah is also someone who flinched when Helena killed those guards in front of her, and angsted an episode long whether or not to kill the Castor original. And it was clear Ferdinand would murder Coady and whoever was with her. Yet not only did it happen conveniently off screen, but it saved Sarah from having to kill someone herself (again), while not having to care if someone else does it for her, either.
Aaaanyway. All th is being said, I liked s3 more than I did s2, because the clone-clone interactions were far more frequent and better integrated (except for Alison during the first half of the season) . This even included dead clones, i.e. Beth. And there were some great new combinations for new scenes (standout scenes that come to mind for me being Donnie & Helena, Scott & Rachel, Felix & Rachel, Sarah & Mark, Cosima & Alison, Felix & Crystal) while old favourites (Sarah & Helena, Felix & Sarah, Sarah & Art) got good outings as well. And I'm okay with bringing the Neolotionists back as the Even Bigger Bad; should have seen that coming when Dr. Neiman promised Rachel a new prosthetic eye two epis ago. (Hello, human tails and other excentricities from season 1.)
Other observations:
- Kendall reporting that Ethan Duncan ranted about Dyad corrupting his wife is a retcon, but then, he's just the type to go for the Obi-Wan Kenobi approach to truth, i.e., that when he told everyone else they killed Susan, he spoke from a certain point of view. This makes Susan Duncan a female Anakin Skywaker/Darth Vader, of course, and Rachel dark side Leia. (Not dark side Luke, since Rachel grew up self aware and a princess.)
- due to the growth rate of children, they're soon going to have a problem with Helena staying magically pregnant but not showing while Kira already being far taller than she used to be
- I really liked Cosima's scene with Kendall; this was Cosima outside her love life being competent and convincing
- whereas our LedaCastor Original telling Sarah and Siobhan how things went down with Duncan and how this ensured Sarah ended up with Mrs. S. made me roll my eyes and the Victorian novel-ness of it all; I mean, yes, it wraps that lingering question up, but good lord, one moment it's "you're inferior" to a clone and the next "I wanted you to have at least a part of me, the best of me?"
- so...Cal brought Kira to Alaska? Antarctica? What?
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