Orphan Black 5.02.

[selenak]

Still feeling listless (me, that is, not the series) and waiting for my enthusiasm for the show to come back.

The death of MK, for example, makes me neither sad nor indignant, and I had liked the character. I guess the Doylist point here was to clear the narrative stage so that in future developments no one gets to ask "but why don't they ask MK for help with this problem?", and remind the audience what a piece of work Ferdinand is. But it still feels gratituos in its cruelty; the death isn't about MK, it's to make a point about Ferdinand and his relationship with Rachel (as he says with his "two fantasies at the same time" comment, killing MK allows him to fulfill his revenge fantasy on Rachel without, you know, actually harming Rachel), while the dialogue nod given to MK's own backstory ("finishing Helsinki") only underlines the disconnect between the woman having her own agenda last season and this season's cannon fodder. And yet, I don't feel upset, as I would have in seasons past. I really hope this state of affairs passes, and I get invested again.

Ferdinand's current anger is mostly triggered by preferring Rachel the Bitch to Rachel-who-has-drunk-the-cool-aid. I'm with him in as much as I'm still waiting for the show to give me a better explanation for Rachel's volte face than "finally met a parent figure who validates her", and even that has to be extrapolated because we didn't get to see the scene in question. Was vaguely amused at Sarah's "we're not calling her Auntie Rachel!", though, and hope the Rachel and Kira scenes will be interesting, since the show robbed me of Rachel and Charlotte in favour of sticking Charlotte with Cosima.

Kira having had enough of running away (yet again), which never helped in the past, is understandable, though it makes the death of MK even more gratitous. Ira agreeing to spy on Rachel because she stabbed Susan vaguely annoys me not because it's implausible (for all that Ira and Rachel formed something of a bond last season, Susan as his mother/lover would always be his emotional priority), but because as with Rachel and Victorian ÜberCreator, we didn't see the relevant scene. Yes, last episode Felix told him to pick a side, but Felix' argument there was that Rachel left Ira out to dry in the hostage scenario, and Ira didn't reply, whereas by the time we see him again in this episode, he's already agreed to join Team Sarah & Co.

We do, however, get to see Cosima meet Dr. Moreau "Petey" the Victorian scientist, and, it appears, old pal of Arthur Conan Doyle, who promptly proceeds to tempt her with science. I'm all for Cosima having a temptation-by-science storyline this season, as opposed to one about her illness and/or love life, so I liked that scene.

Helena stabbing the doctor at the hospital: with Helena, I'm never quite sure how the show wants to take me her various acts of violence, because sometimes they're played as comic relief, sometimes as justified vengeance, and while they're entirely ic for someone with Helena's past, I've yet to emotional consequences that treat her violence as real in the way, say, even Paul's various shifting loyalties were. What I mean is: it's treated as quirky, with Helena's s1 victims like Katya or her and Sarah's birth mother never heard of again. Now this doctor may have been in league with the forces of evil (and given all that's happened, it's understandable Helena would think as much), but she could just as well be an entirely innocent woman who tried her best to help her patient, and yet what Helena does is presented as blackly comic.

Seems Alison will get another suburban comedy to play out. This is the last season, show, can't you once depart from the formula with Alison and put her in a completely new to her situation? I suppose I can hope her interactions with Arthur and his blackmailing partner of evil might give me that.

Comments

[chelseagirl]

Yes, I have been excited for the show to come back, but am not feeling it either. And what Helena did to that doctor . . . disturbing and a reminder that she's still feral, for all that the others have accepted her.

[selenak]

It's not that I think this is ooc for Helena, given her background and horrible life, but that the show has consistently shied away from actually dealing with Helena's dark side, because it's neat to have a ruthless killer at hand for the good guys when the show needs one. To wit: there's no point at which Sarah, or any other character, bothers to tell Helena that killing and maiming people is wrong. She's just not supposed to kill or maim anyone they care about. Also, at no point is Helena ever confronted by someone whose loved one she killed, in a hostile fashion. She killed Katya and several other Leda clones before the encounter with Sarah changed her, but in none of the seasons did a relation, friend or partner to any of these women show up to find out what happened to them, or to confront the one who did it. Because that might make the audience uncomfortable with Helena being completely embraced by the other clones as of the s2 finale. Just imagine, well, Cosima saying something like: "You know, I'm really sorry for what Tomas and his followers did to you, how they raised you. But you killed my friend Katya, whom I loved. We need to be allies because they're after us all, but I don't want to be friends because of this." Or, say, an (adult) child of the woman who carried Helena and Sarah to terms shows up, wants to know what became of their mother who risked all to warn Sarah, and is horrified to find out she was murdered and everyone is best friends with the murderer. The audience wouldn't like it because all sympathetic characters are supposed to be friends, and I get the basic impulse, but I'd still have appreciated it if the show had bothered at any point to give Helena something of an actual redemption arc, instead of bascially going "aw, she's such an adorable murder baby" with her.

[dhampyresa]

I wasn't a fan of the violence towards women in this episode :/

Felix's "Good Luck, ira" made me ship it?

So here for Cosima/SCIENCE OTP.

[labingi]

I haven't watched this show since the beginning of season 2, and I appreciate this little catch-up on what's happening (though I don't know some of the characters). Overall, the show did not grab me, though I was diverted pleasantly enough by the first season, and your write-up gives me the same general impression. I find it interesting without being compelling. Good point about Helena.