Orphan Black 4.08.

[selenak]

In which Team Leda regroups and starts striking back, and while most of that is cool to watch, the show also indulges in a certain cliché involving hero-centric morality I could do without.



By which I mean the one where when the good guys torture the bad guys, it always works. Because this to me is one of the most dangerous ones, for obvious rl reasons, going all the way to Abu Ghraib people mentioning watching 24 and seeing Jack Bauer as a role model. This isn't exploring moral shades of grey, it's doing gratitious short cuts. Say what you want about BSG and its flaws, but one thing I thought it always handled well was the torture aspect. Because whenever our designated heroes tortured someone, it didn't work. It never got them what they wanted. (Two of the most memorable incidents: Kara tortures Leoben on Adama's behalf in season 1. Not only did this not get Kara the information she wanted to have, it sparked an obsession with her in the Leoben model which had awful consequences for her. The other example: Adama and Roslin torture Baltar mid season 3. Again, it didn't get Roslin the information/confirmation of Baltar's guilt she was after - she wouldn't get this until a season later in quite different circumstances -, and again, the only thing this confirmed was Roslin and Adama - who offered to make Baltar disappear forever in the very same epsiode - being in free fall on the morality scale.

Meanwhile, it's not that anything that happens with S, Duko (btw, every time someone said his name I kep thinking of the Star Wars character Dooku and imagined him being played by a younger Christopher Lee), Sarah and Art was out of character. We've seen Siobhan use torture tactics before (two words: hands; desk), and she had motivation. After all that Duko did, and the threat he poses, I can also Art writing him off (especially since an arrested Duko would either get free again because corruption or, if he actually was getting processed, could spill the beans and implicate Art - who has done more than enough to get fired and prosecuted himself - as well; when Art restaged the death of Maggie Chen, he started crossing lines and hasn't finished yet). And Sarah certainly wouldn't deny her foster mother her revenge. So far, so all in character and logical. But what's bothering me is also what's bothering me with a lot of Helena related stories, i.e. the sense that the show just wants to me to think "cool, that guy so had it coming, torture him some more before executing him, S!" because there is good torture (done by characters we like) and bad torture (done by characters we don't), and ditto for good murder and mad murder. And that's not sitting well with me.

Everything else in the episode, though, was fine. They pulled a classic red herring with Alison - who even ever so subtly played the role of Judas in the staging of Jesus Christ Superstar we've seen -, but see, Judas is actually the hero of that musical, and I could see the reveal coming while not minding it a bit. The black humor of the opening sequence - Donnie in prison, trying to act according to all the clichés he's familiar with until coming face to face with the Neolutionist - was great. Speaking of familiar tropes, I also enjoyed Adele getting to be the flaky lawyer with the surprise competence.

Mika rejoining the team and hooking everyone up via hacker skills because she's got the Clone disease was also an ic way to bring her back despite her paranoia. Mind you, given that she shows no signs of being behind the glitches in Rachel's bionic eye - a guess one commenter last week had which I loved - I'm still lost for an explanation as to why Rachel keeps getting Swan visions via said eye. Now complete with the late (OR IS HE) Ethan Duncan. I have to say, if Ethan faked his death a second time I'm crying foul, much as I enjoy Rachel's ongoing winning streak in "who's got the most messed up family?" competitions. Otoh maybe he somehow programmed something into Rachel, either via genetics or mental conditioning in her early childhood, that's accidentally getting accessed by the bionic eye and will help her.

Mind you, I can understand why Scott and Cosima refuse to work with her. Scott felt sorry for Rachel last season and got played by her like a boss (and not just in D & D), which almost landed Crystal in a perma coma. And Cosima has reason to remember Rachel's hate for the lot of them. (It still, even at this stage, would be a non-surprise if Rachel found a way to get back to the corporate throne that involved killing all the other Leda clones off and cheerfully agreed.) Hooray for emotional continuity! But as a viewer who is safe from her, I can say that Rachel at this point might just have become my favorite clone, or at least the one whose story I'm most avidly following. And I fully expect her to take on Evie (but not really on Susan Duncan's behalf, on her own). Rachel manoeuvred her way from helpless clrippled prisoner of Delphine to Moreau's island, she can come up with something suitably scheming to outflank Evie. As Ira says, passion helps.

Lastly: I do hope Evie has a better motive for wanting to get rid of Sarah and the other self aware Leda clones than just not liking clones, and I'm reasonably confident that she has because of the way the show itself pointed to the flimsiness of that in Duko's outburst.

Comments

[wee_warrior]

Evie wanting to get rid of the Ledas because she hates clones makes no sense at all, since in her "You're Fired!" conference call with Susan, she specified that the "naive" clones - i.e. the ones like Crystal, who don't know what they are - will be left alone, that they don't want a second Helsinki. She is only going after the ones who are awakened, so to speak. The reasons could be myriad from eliminating a considerable threat to destroying Susan's lifework, but right now I wonder if this is about the worm Cosima stole.

I agree that the PTB don't really notice their double standard when it comes to violence committed by the heroic characters. Questioning Siobhan torturing Duko didn't seem to be the point of that scene at all - instead the narrative wanted us to question whether Siobhan would pull the trigger. That, on the other hand, seems like a somewhat artificial conflict from a narrative point of view: Duko knew too much and was way too powerful, while not really having any reason to help the Ledas and their allies over Evie Cho, so he had to die.

I didn't even recognize Ethan in Rachel's vision, but it makes sense that he would leave something in her brain for her to find (he did the same with The Island Of Dr. Moreau, which he only left to Kira because he was angry with Rachel. Obviously, he couldn't leave Rachel's brain to Kira, too.). From the way Ethan showed up, I wonder if it's some sort of recording? Maybe Rachel has to do something to get it to play correctly, and then she'll understand the message behind it. (I'm wondering now if it's about the founder of Neolution, because the swan showed up when Susan told Rachel about him. He could reasonably be the show's version of Zeus, given the god complex the higher Neolutionists usually seem to have. And maybe he wanted to create an "ideal mate" or something like that.)

Right now, I'm a little apprehensive that there are only two episodes left of this season and they don't seem to be even close to wrapping things up. Evie is a formidable adversary, but way too underdeveloped as a character for me to care about her, or what her potential endgame might be. The formerly pregnant goth girl may or may not be important, and hasn't shown up in ages. Same for Helena. Delphine might be lurking somewhere, too. Not to mention Kira's psychic powers. Maybe they can bring it all together, but so far, it mostly seems all very incoherent.

[selenak]

Yes, there's a lot to wrap up/tie together. I'm assuming that Delphine will show up as a reward to Cosima near the end in a cameo appearance, and that Kira's psychic powers will be a long term thing, i.e. not something that needs to resolved this season. Mind you, I suspect her ability to sense whatever the other clones are feeling might come in handy if/when Rachel at any point plans to doublecross Sarah, but that would actually be so predictable that I hope the show won't go there.

What I think needs/will be wrapped up this season: the thing with the bug. "Rewriting DNA" is such a vague goal - for what? That's something yet to be revealed and dealt with, and hopefully it will explain why Evie wants Sarah dead.

Maybe Rachel has to do something to get it to play correctly, and then she'll understand the message behind it.

Yes, that would make sense, in a sci fi way. I do wonder whether Kira's copy of Dr. Moreau will come in handy again. And/or Kira herself, but if the trigger were simply Rachel interacting with a child in a non-hostile fashion, her times with Charlotte would have done the trick.

Speaking of Charlotte, since she wasn't directly cloned from Kendall's DNA but from Rachel's, I wonder whether Kira can sense her as well?

[nenya_kanadka]

Ohhh, was Ethan Duncan in one of Rachel's swan-visions? I might have missed that!

Also concerned about what they'll be able to wrap up in two episodes. And want to know what happened to the pregnant goth girl! And how long has Helena been pregnant by now? And will anyone dig up the cryo-babies she left in Alison's back garden? Will they be a deus ex machina for the clone disease maybe?

[wee_warrior]

Don't know if you've seen this week's episode yet, but they manage to tie up quite a lot of these points!

Helena's cryo-babies being the key to fighting the clone disease totally makes sense. Would explain why they had her hide them in Allison's garden so prominently.

[nenya_kanadka]

I've been assuming that the swan-glitch was put there on purpose by whoever created/programmed the eye. I wouldn't put it past Susan Duncan to somehow have put some kind of...failsafe? of some kind in there. As much as Rachel is her daughter and she cares about the clones, she's shown herself to be pretty ruthless too. IDK what it does but I think the swan is just a symptom of the fact that they can control what she sees now to some extent.

S and Duko...yeah. I was weirdly more upset when Art kicked the crap out of Duko than I was when S started loading her gun, and I'm not sure why. Maybe because I accept a certain level of lawless violence from S, and love her anyway, whereas Art is more lawful good (literally!)? But the torture did bother me. I think there's a level on which she didn't care what the hell he said, she just wanted to hurt him. Whether that's better or worse than torturing him for information... :|

I'm worried about Cos going to the island, but glad they haven't given up hope. Using Leda and Castor cells to make a blastocyst feels pretty incestuous even if it's all test-tube. :P Meanwhile, even though I don't ship Cosima/Delphine I'm glad Delphine is alive (for Cos's sake) and that Cosima didn't do the thing with the robot worm.

Very much looking forward to Adele being a competent lawyer!

[selenak]

I don't think it was Susan Duncan who caused the glitch, since it's Ethan Rachel saw during one of the swan visions. And there would be other ways for Susan to make a point about control to Rachel, anyway; she already did when telling Rachel she intercepted the second message to Ferdinand, for example.

Well, incest is a theme of the season, but I know what you mean. :)

[jesuswasbatman]

Gradually working my way through the season, and I can say that the blastocyst subplot makes it clear that this is really not an American show. Because Sarah's issues are all to do with the intimacy of it and not "you want to create a baby human life and experiment on it!".

[selenak]

You know, fond as I am of Orphan Black - and I am, including liking the way it ended - , I find individual subplots are slipping my mind entirely, so when I read your comment, it took me a while and rereading my post before I recalled what you meant. But yes, re: the un-US-TV-ness of Sarah's reaction.