Orphan Black 2.03
May. 5th, 2014 07:07 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
selenakIn which we get an illustration of why it's not good to take your eyes of the road while driving (or letting someone else drive for you).
First of all, my unease/aversion re: Helena surviving instead of her story ending with s1 just reasserted itself mightily with the implication that she's about to get raped. Mind you, I really hope the show won't go there and that instead Helena will free herself, or possibly since they're setting up Grace the cult leader's daughter having issues about her that Grace because of said issues will free her in order to get rid of her. Also, Art is on the case, and it would be a fitting twist if the next clone he gets to interact with were the crazed killer he was pursueing in the previous season. But still. I can do without creepy religious cult leaders wanting to multiply on my tv, thanks a lot, and also without the redemption of murderous foe by victimisation of same trope.
On to more interesting storylines. Art should know better than expect Angie to stop investigating, since all the "you don't want to know, back off" talk didn't work on him last season, either. Having Angie try to go undercover in the suburbs in order to figure out what's going on via shadowing and befriending Alison might even have worked in olden times but not now with Alison justifiably paranoid to the max and thus immediately clueing into the fact Angie is lying. I was, however, impressed by Angie immediately coming clean when Alison confronting her instead of trying further lies and laying her cards on the table; she's a cop, a colleage of Beth's, investigating Beth's death. Unfortunately, since Alison has now a manslaughter-or-murder of her own hanging on her shoulders, this is not reassuring and if anything contributes to Alison's breakdown at the end of the episode.
As I expected, the Sarah, Felix and Kira road trip was cut short, but not before they talked about the Mrs. S. revelations (and good of the show to remember Mrs. S. is Felix' foster mother, too, and he has his own relationship with her, instead of letting him be shocked on Sarah's behalf), stole food at a gas station and ended up at Kira's bio dad's, which I think wasn't the actual cause but the trigger for Felix declaring his independence and leaving. We haven't really seen Felix angry at Sarah since the pilot, but she does tend to take him being there to help her for granted, and finding out just after he was ready to go on the run and leave everything behind for her that she's been lying to him (a lie by omission is still a lie, to quote Jean-Luc Picard) about just where they were headed, why, and about a key bit of her past would do it. Making it back just in time for Alison's community play (and her breakdown in same) means he can be there for her, though much as I adore the Felix and Alison friendship I'm not sure whether this changes Felix' helpmeet status (i.e.whether it's Sarah or Alison, they both need him to help them).
Which brings me to: Cal: I have no opinion yet, and didn't - which is an English vocabulary issue on my part - quite understand his backstory (he invented something with opticals which the army now uses against his will?). The actor reminds me a bit of Desmond in Lost.
Cosima watching the tapes of one of the dead clones who previously existed only as a name (in Beth's files) offered another amazing turn by Tatiana Maslany, creating Jennifer via those video monologues, but these were also great character scenes for Cosima, seeing potentially her own fate playing out on someone who looks like her and is, as she knows, genetically identical to her, and trying (mostly successfully) to approach it from the scientific angle, to learn from it, down to performing an autopsy on what could be her own body. You could see it wasn't easy for her, but she went through with it. It's also telling that the part of Jennifer's tapes that enraged her was knowing Jennifer's boyfriend must have been her monitor.
Lastly: no Mrs. S. this week, which is always a loss. Can't we cut the Prolethian cult leader story short (at least the part where Helena is in his power) and get more screen time for Siobhan?
First of all, my unease/aversion re: Helena surviving instead of her story ending with s1 just reasserted itself mightily with the implication that she's about to get raped. Mind you, I really hope the show won't go there and that instead Helena will free herself, or possibly since they're setting up Grace the cult leader's daughter having issues about her that Grace because of said issues will free her in order to get rid of her. Also, Art is on the case, and it would be a fitting twist if the next clone he gets to interact with were the crazed killer he was pursueing in the previous season. But still. I can do without creepy religious cult leaders wanting to multiply on my tv, thanks a lot, and also without the redemption of murderous foe by victimisation of same trope.
On to more interesting storylines. Art should know better than expect Angie to stop investigating, since all the "you don't want to know, back off" talk didn't work on him last season, either. Having Angie try to go undercover in the suburbs in order to figure out what's going on via shadowing and befriending Alison might even have worked in olden times but not now with Alison justifiably paranoid to the max and thus immediately clueing into the fact Angie is lying. I was, however, impressed by Angie immediately coming clean when Alison confronting her instead of trying further lies and laying her cards on the table; she's a cop, a colleage of Beth's, investigating Beth's death. Unfortunately, since Alison has now a manslaughter-or-murder of her own hanging on her shoulders, this is not reassuring and if anything contributes to Alison's breakdown at the end of the episode.
As I expected, the Sarah, Felix and Kira road trip was cut short, but not before they talked about the Mrs. S. revelations (and good of the show to remember Mrs. S. is Felix' foster mother, too, and he has his own relationship with her, instead of letting him be shocked on Sarah's behalf), stole food at a gas station and ended up at Kira's bio dad's, which I think wasn't the actual cause but the trigger for Felix declaring his independence and leaving. We haven't really seen Felix angry at Sarah since the pilot, but she does tend to take him being there to help her for granted, and finding out just after he was ready to go on the run and leave everything behind for her that she's been lying to him (a lie by omission is still a lie, to quote Jean-Luc Picard) about just where they were headed, why, and about a key bit of her past would do it. Making it back just in time for Alison's community play (and her breakdown in same) means he can be there for her, though much as I adore the Felix and Alison friendship I'm not sure whether this changes Felix' helpmeet status (i.e.whether it's Sarah or Alison, they both need him to help them).
Which brings me to: Cal: I have no opinion yet, and didn't - which is an English vocabulary issue on my part - quite understand his backstory (he invented something with opticals which the army now uses against his will?). The actor reminds me a bit of Desmond in Lost.
Cosima watching the tapes of one of the dead clones who previously existed only as a name (in Beth's files) offered another amazing turn by Tatiana Maslany, creating Jennifer via those video monologues, but these were also great character scenes for Cosima, seeing potentially her own fate playing out on someone who looks like her and is, as she knows, genetically identical to her, and trying (mostly successfully) to approach it from the scientific angle, to learn from it, down to performing an autopsy on what could be her own body. You could see it wasn't easy for her, but she went through with it. It's also telling that the part of Jennifer's tapes that enraged her was knowing Jennifer's boyfriend must have been her monitor.
Lastly: no Mrs. S. this week, which is always a loss. Can't we cut the Prolethian cult leader story short (at least the part where Helena is in his power) and get more screen time for Siobhan?
no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 12:15 pm (UTC)I think so; I'd have to watch again. He spoke quickly.
And I'm with you on the cult leader storyline. Interesting that the guy believes in science, but he's just another stripe of crazy. And the handfasting-leading-to-probable-rape ... bah.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 12:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 01:08 pm (UTC)I don't remember the exact wording used but I think he was working on technology for mechanical/drone bees to aid in pollination for areas where the bee population had dropped. He had partners in the business and somehow or other they forced him out -- I think it was implied there was a disagreement about whether to sell the technology to the military, and he did not want to do it -- and he was well paid but lost control of the eventual use of the technology. And Sarah somehow found out he was an idealistic do-gooder with a lot of money and stole from him (but not as much as she had initially planned to steal). I suspect there will end up being more to the story but I'm not sure yet who is lying.
I agree about the Helena plot; I think Grace will eventually help free her but I got the impression the rape was an accomplished fact by the end of the episode :-/
no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 03:30 pm (UTC)Thank you for the explanation re: Cal's history.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-05 03:33 pm (UTC)