Orphan Black 4.01
Apr. 16th, 2016 07:11 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakReturn of the Clones. It's one long flashback time.
A few months ago, I provided a prompt to an lj/dw friend along the lines of what would have happened if Beth, not Sarah, had survived and become the main character at the very start. This episode wasn't that kind of AU, but it provided us with our first look at Beth not as acted by Sarah or dreamed off by Sarah, but as the main character of her own story, the last days of her life. And it's, as expected, heartbreaking. It also introduces a new clone (M.K., or did I understand this wrongly?), which I guess is another reason for it, and reemphasizes Neolution as the Big Bad.
There is one surprise/departure from what Sarah later pierced together about Beth, and that's the death of Maggie Chen. Since Maggie Chen later was revealed as part of the show's Evil Fundamentalist group, and an acquaintance of Helena's, Sarah assumed Beth had found this out as well and shot Maggie Chen on purpose. Instead, here it turns out Beth had no idea and shot Maggie Chen by accident, being on the run from the Neolution guys, and that the idea of having killed an innocent civilian was the last kick in the stomach.
But despite the grimness of Beth's life, there is the show's big appeal of human affection in this hour as well. We see it between Beth, Cosima and Alison, between Beth and Art, Beth and M.K., and it makes you long for an AU in which Beth had survived and could be with her sisters now. There's also a bit of nostalgia fanservice in the episode by bringing back dead guest stars due to the flashback nature, but not in a distracting way. Tatiana Maslany is great as usual, playing Beth just similar enough to Sarah-as-Beth to make it understandable Beth's colleagues and Paul didn't realise instantly this wasn't her but still subtly different. As for M.K., I'm bad with accents - was that supposed to be a French one? Anyway, am looking forward to learning more about her.
A few months ago, I provided a prompt to an lj/dw friend along the lines of what would have happened if Beth, not Sarah, had survived and become the main character at the very start. This episode wasn't that kind of AU, but it provided us with our first look at Beth not as acted by Sarah or dreamed off by Sarah, but as the main character of her own story, the last days of her life. And it's, as expected, heartbreaking. It also introduces a new clone (M.K., or did I understand this wrongly?), which I guess is another reason for it, and reemphasizes Neolution as the Big Bad.
There is one surprise/departure from what Sarah later pierced together about Beth, and that's the death of Maggie Chen. Since Maggie Chen later was revealed as part of the show's Evil Fundamentalist group, and an acquaintance of Helena's, Sarah assumed Beth had found this out as well and shot Maggie Chen on purpose. Instead, here it turns out Beth had no idea and shot Maggie Chen by accident, being on the run from the Neolution guys, and that the idea of having killed an innocent civilian was the last kick in the stomach.
But despite the grimness of Beth's life, there is the show's big appeal of human affection in this hour as well. We see it between Beth, Cosima and Alison, between Beth and Art, Beth and M.K., and it makes you long for an AU in which Beth had survived and could be with her sisters now. There's also a bit of nostalgia fanservice in the episode by bringing back dead guest stars due to the flashback nature, but not in a distracting way. Tatiana Maslany is great as usual, playing Beth just similar enough to Sarah-as-Beth to make it understandable Beth's colleagues and Paul didn't realise instantly this wasn't her but still subtly different. As for M.K., I'm bad with accents - was that supposed to be a French one? Anyway, am looking forward to learning more about her.
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Date: 2016-04-16 12:20 pm (UTC)M.K. is correct, although Beth also called her "Mika." I thought it was a French accent, too, but maybe she's French-Canadian?
Neolution Guy who was also working for the Police Union seemed very familiar, but I can't really place the actor.
The larvae, for lack of a better word, made me think of that early TNG-episode with the Trill-like parasites, who wanted to take over the galaxy. I guess these are something else, though.
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Date: 2016-04-16 12:53 pm (UTC)Re: Art, I don't think we've ever seen her before, but I seem to vaguely remember he did mention somewhere he had a kid (and a divorce). Or maybe I'm confusing canons.
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Date: 2016-04-16 03:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-17 03:46 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-16 10:48 pm (UTC)We get to see that Beth was such a mess, and her substance abuse common enough knowledge, that Sarah could have gotten away with a LOT before anyone got suspicious. Or, rather, more suspicious.
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Date: 2016-04-17 03:48 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2016-04-17 08:31 am (UTC)