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selenakOrphan Black 2.05:
Last week I was a bit dissappointed that Helena ran just straight past Art (though it was the right thing - she was escaping, no time to stop for the cop!), so I was thrilled this week brought us priceless Art and Helena interaction after all. And may I say: Art still trying to get to the bottom of all things Maggie Chen (which of course now has new and additional relevance), underscoring how deeply his profession within him goes, was great. Also, the show does a good job of reminding us that for all her childlike mannerisms and inherent pathos due to her horrible upbringing, Helena should never be underestimated - her manufacturing herself a handcuff escaping tool while bamboozling Art with her eating habits was masterful. (Though undoubtedly she was actually hungry.) Also, Sarah immediately alerting Art to the "Felix getting framed for death of cop" situation was the kind of sense making thing lesser tv often ignores, not to mention that Art and Sarah pursueing Helena gave me nostalgic flashbacks to their team ups last season when Sarah was playing Beth. And then we got the Sarah and Helena scene, which was terrific and may have made me sniffle. Okay, show, I totally cave: you've earned Helena's survival now.
This was also the episode where after the backstory addition last week we got in person fleshing out of Rachel, who intrigues me more and more. There was really a lot to unpack in this episode, and Rachel's attachment to her foster parents the Duncans (introduced last week via video tape) was the least of it. There's the whole monitor business. She was always aware of being monitored because she was always self aware as a clone, but the way she treats Paul, which, yes, was partly about getting back at Sarah but I think would also have happened in a Sarah less world says such a lot. It's all about control; in addition to objectifying him sexually, that handling of his head was also the deliberate parody of a medical examination, which is, of course, what monitors do with their subjects. I wouldn't be surprised if Rachel while being consciously okay with a life time of being monitored (from which she also profits financially and directly) subconsciously lashes out that way. And yet her reaction to Daniel's body, her closing his eyes indicate she was actually attached to him. Then there's apparantly a behind the scenes power struggle with Leeky going on, with him deferring to her in her presence but not behind her back. She says he raised her after the deaths of the Duncans as her guardian and has trouble handling both their now reversed position in the Dyand hierarchy, i.e. her outranking him now, and his attachment, but Leeky doesn't come across as particularly attached to Rachel to me. He's also grown smarter in handling Cosima; offering the treatment without pressing her about Sarah actually gets him a conversation with Sarah.
Though that was majorly due to Sarah needing to make a deal in order to help Felix. Poor Felix. Finally trying to get back to his own private life without any clone connection, and he promptly gets used as leverage against Sarah by Paul and Rachel. Incidentally, for what it's worth, and given the final scene, I think Paul decided to make both Rachel and Leeky thing he's working for them and playing them against each other, but not for some Dyad Institute infiltrating reason as much as for looking out for number one (and then also Sarah, but not anyone else, and not Sarah above himself) reasons.
While we're at past love interests in Sarah's life: more hinting that something is up with Cal by showing the gun in the van to the audience. Now I realise owning a gun isn't that unusual in the US, but the show doesn't only get filmed in Canada but is actually supposed to be located there, isn't it?
Swan Man: with a name like "Project Leda", there had to be one. That Dr. Duncan isn't so dead after all is interesting news, together with the fact that the fire which ostensibly killed him and his wife also destroyed the original clone genom and research, and that part of the Dyad Institute's frantic monitoring process is an attempt to reconstruct the original template that allowed the human cloning process. Incidentally, I think long term wise the aim was probably about healing abilities, see Helena's and Kira's superfast healing (we don't know whether or not Sarah has a similar heightened healing factor because she's never been injured that seriously on the show), and possibly also gruesome organ harvesting a la Never Let Me Go, but if the Dyad Institute as of now isn't able to repeat the original experiment, i.e. clone more people, it's no wonder they are so eager to keep/get the still existing clones under their control. Can't market something which can't be repeated as yet. At a guess, Dr. Duncan may have staged that fire himself (and his being alive might mean his wife being, too?) because the long term implications of his experiment started to become real to him. Though in that case one would think he's have faked little Rachel's death, too, instead of leaving her to the institute and Dr. Leeky, though maybe he simply was looking out for No.1, too, and wanted to go into clone business for himself?
Lastly: the Prolethians, American branch, gain even more in creepiness when we see how they punish Grace for Helena, comlete with the sewing up, err, stapling of lips (someone in the script writing department apparantly likes their Norse tales?) and the threat that if Helena can't be recaptured, she'll have to serve as bio mother to the clone fetus in development. It did occur to me that we haven't learned yet how the Prolethians come into existence and found out about the clones in the first place. Given that Helena knows about the Swan Man and hails from the Prolethians, Ukrainian branch, I do wonder whether Dr. Duncan after faking his death tried to create a movement to take the Dyad Institute down via allying with some religious fundamentalists, which quicklly went completely out of control and become its own developing monster so that he had to make his getaway there was well...
Elementary 2.24:
This one had the problem that the "who's the mole" part of the plot wasn't a question at all - I mean, it was glaringly obvious it had to be Mycroft's handler from the get go, and to watch our regulars catch up dragged - and the show's usual compensation for weak/mediocre cases of the week plots, character interaction, often felt disconnected from each other. I mean, yes, we had the ongoing Holmes and Watson plot of Sherlock trying to first passive aggressively maneouvring Joan into staying and then coming out with an undisguised honest plea. Which was responded to by Joan equally honest, and I continue to appreciate that both the show and Joan make it clear that her desire to have her own living space has nothing to do with not enjoying the work or not wanting to be friends anymore, that she wants both, but, as she puts it to Sherlock, also wants more than being a satelite circling Sherlock, for which she needs her own space. But then we get the ominous scene of Sherlock getting a hidden drug parcel out of the hiding place and into his jacket after overhearing Joan still hunting for a new apartment after the case is settled, and seriously, if next season he falls off the wagon because she moves out it would be a world of DO NOT WANT because I can't see how that would be resolved without Joan having to move back and thus being emotionally blackmailed into doing so. Then again: I'm 70% sure it's supposed to be a red herring and he'll fight extra temptation for a while but ultimately won't pull a Gregory House on her.
Then there's the Mycroft plot resolving itself. Now I've read a complaint the season is all about Mycroft, which isn't true - I think Mycroft was in five or six episodes of 24, and when not present wasn't talked about, as opposed to, say, Irene/Moriarty last season - but certainly the final run of episodes put a heavy emphasis on Mycroft, and the problem there is that this means the key character movements in wrapping up the plot connected to him where all made by him rather than by our two regulars, and the show, precisely because it tried to keep the mystery of "villain or not?" going, hasn't given the audience enough reason to care about Mycroft by himself. It's Mycroft who makes all the moves in the relationships with both Joan and Sherlock. (Except for Joan first breaking things off because of the deception and then reconciling because she found out the backstory of his MI6 return, and for Sherlock figuring out Mycroft got framed and deciding to protect him despite his massive resentment.) They're both in a position to respond to what he does rather than doing things of their own. Now I actually liked the scene with Mycroft and his handler, which offered an intriguing glimpse at an altogether different story going on in parallel, one, as mentioned in an earlier review, with massive Le Carré borrowings, with Sherrington's massive class issues as a reason for both his betrayal and his targetting of Mycroft as a symbol of upper class rich privilege. It also was an illustration that for all of Sherlock's goadings, Mycroft has both the requisite smarts to track down Sherrington on his own and the ruthlessness to deal with the situation. But the problem is that nothing of this is connected to the ongoing story of Sherlock and Joan (beyond the fact that Mycroft is Sherlock's brother).
Mind you: the scene with Sherrington showing up to question/threaten Joan and Joan outsmarting him by arranging for dozens of witnesses to his intimidation attempt via skype technology (what a nightmare for a spy!) was terrific and may have made a spy plot worthwhile.
Not sure what to make of Sherlock's asking to join MI6 in the final scene, though, because I can't see how the show's format would encompass regular spy plots.
Trivia: the "lazy" etc. quote if I recall correctly is actual ACD from The Greek Interpreter, the story introducing Mycroft Holmes.
Last week I was a bit dissappointed that Helena ran just straight past Art (though it was the right thing - she was escaping, no time to stop for the cop!), so I was thrilled this week brought us priceless Art and Helena interaction after all. And may I say: Art still trying to get to the bottom of all things Maggie Chen (which of course now has new and additional relevance), underscoring how deeply his profession within him goes, was great. Also, the show does a good job of reminding us that for all her childlike mannerisms and inherent pathos due to her horrible upbringing, Helena should never be underestimated - her manufacturing herself a handcuff escaping tool while bamboozling Art with her eating habits was masterful. (Though undoubtedly she was actually hungry.) Also, Sarah immediately alerting Art to the "Felix getting framed for death of cop" situation was the kind of sense making thing lesser tv often ignores, not to mention that Art and Sarah pursueing Helena gave me nostalgic flashbacks to their team ups last season when Sarah was playing Beth. And then we got the Sarah and Helena scene, which was terrific and may have made me sniffle. Okay, show, I totally cave: you've earned Helena's survival now.
This was also the episode where after the backstory addition last week we got in person fleshing out of Rachel, who intrigues me more and more. There was really a lot to unpack in this episode, and Rachel's attachment to her foster parents the Duncans (introduced last week via video tape) was the least of it. There's the whole monitor business. She was always aware of being monitored because she was always self aware as a clone, but the way she treats Paul, which, yes, was partly about getting back at Sarah but I think would also have happened in a Sarah less world says such a lot. It's all about control; in addition to objectifying him sexually, that handling of his head was also the deliberate parody of a medical examination, which is, of course, what monitors do with their subjects. I wouldn't be surprised if Rachel while being consciously okay with a life time of being monitored (from which she also profits financially and directly) subconsciously lashes out that way. And yet her reaction to Daniel's body, her closing his eyes indicate she was actually attached to him. Then there's apparantly a behind the scenes power struggle with Leeky going on, with him deferring to her in her presence but not behind her back. She says he raised her after the deaths of the Duncans as her guardian and has trouble handling both their now reversed position in the Dyand hierarchy, i.e. her outranking him now, and his attachment, but Leeky doesn't come across as particularly attached to Rachel to me. He's also grown smarter in handling Cosima; offering the treatment without pressing her about Sarah actually gets him a conversation with Sarah.
Though that was majorly due to Sarah needing to make a deal in order to help Felix. Poor Felix. Finally trying to get back to his own private life without any clone connection, and he promptly gets used as leverage against Sarah by Paul and Rachel. Incidentally, for what it's worth, and given the final scene, I think Paul decided to make both Rachel and Leeky thing he's working for them and playing them against each other, but not for some Dyad Institute infiltrating reason as much as for looking out for number one (and then also Sarah, but not anyone else, and not Sarah above himself) reasons.
While we're at past love interests in Sarah's life: more hinting that something is up with Cal by showing the gun in the van to the audience. Now I realise owning a gun isn't that unusual in the US, but the show doesn't only get filmed in Canada but is actually supposed to be located there, isn't it?
Swan Man: with a name like "Project Leda", there had to be one. That Dr. Duncan isn't so dead after all is interesting news, together with the fact that the fire which ostensibly killed him and his wife also destroyed the original clone genom and research, and that part of the Dyad Institute's frantic monitoring process is an attempt to reconstruct the original template that allowed the human cloning process. Incidentally, I think long term wise the aim was probably about healing abilities, see Helena's and Kira's superfast healing (we don't know whether or not Sarah has a similar heightened healing factor because she's never been injured that seriously on the show), and possibly also gruesome organ harvesting a la Never Let Me Go, but if the Dyad Institute as of now isn't able to repeat the original experiment, i.e. clone more people, it's no wonder they are so eager to keep/get the still existing clones under their control. Can't market something which can't be repeated as yet. At a guess, Dr. Duncan may have staged that fire himself (and his being alive might mean his wife being, too?) because the long term implications of his experiment started to become real to him. Though in that case one would think he's have faked little Rachel's death, too, instead of leaving her to the institute and Dr. Leeky, though maybe he simply was looking out for No.1, too, and wanted to go into clone business for himself?
Lastly: the Prolethians, American branch, gain even more in creepiness when we see how they punish Grace for Helena, comlete with the sewing up, err, stapling of lips (someone in the script writing department apparantly likes their Norse tales?) and the threat that if Helena can't be recaptured, she'll have to serve as bio mother to the clone fetus in development. It did occur to me that we haven't learned yet how the Prolethians come into existence and found out about the clones in the first place. Given that Helena knows about the Swan Man and hails from the Prolethians, Ukrainian branch, I do wonder whether Dr. Duncan after faking his death tried to create a movement to take the Dyad Institute down via allying with some religious fundamentalists, which quicklly went completely out of control and become its own developing monster so that he had to make his getaway there was well...
Elementary 2.24:
This one had the problem that the "who's the mole" part of the plot wasn't a question at all - I mean, it was glaringly obvious it had to be Mycroft's handler from the get go, and to watch our regulars catch up dragged - and the show's usual compensation for weak/mediocre cases of the week plots, character interaction, often felt disconnected from each other. I mean, yes, we had the ongoing Holmes and Watson plot of Sherlock trying to first passive aggressively maneouvring Joan into staying and then coming out with an undisguised honest plea. Which was responded to by Joan equally honest, and I continue to appreciate that both the show and Joan make it clear that her desire to have her own living space has nothing to do with not enjoying the work or not wanting to be friends anymore, that she wants both, but, as she puts it to Sherlock, also wants more than being a satelite circling Sherlock, for which she needs her own space. But then we get the ominous scene of Sherlock getting a hidden drug parcel out of the hiding place and into his jacket after overhearing Joan still hunting for a new apartment after the case is settled, and seriously, if next season he falls off the wagon because she moves out it would be a world of DO NOT WANT because I can't see how that would be resolved without Joan having to move back and thus being emotionally blackmailed into doing so. Then again: I'm 70% sure it's supposed to be a red herring and he'll fight extra temptation for a while but ultimately won't pull a Gregory House on her.
Then there's the Mycroft plot resolving itself. Now I've read a complaint the season is all about Mycroft, which isn't true - I think Mycroft was in five or six episodes of 24, and when not present wasn't talked about, as opposed to, say, Irene/Moriarty last season - but certainly the final run of episodes put a heavy emphasis on Mycroft, and the problem there is that this means the key character movements in wrapping up the plot connected to him where all made by him rather than by our two regulars, and the show, precisely because it tried to keep the mystery of "villain or not?" going, hasn't given the audience enough reason to care about Mycroft by himself. It's Mycroft who makes all the moves in the relationships with both Joan and Sherlock. (Except for Joan first breaking things off because of the deception and then reconciling because she found out the backstory of his MI6 return, and for Sherlock figuring out Mycroft got framed and deciding to protect him despite his massive resentment.) They're both in a position to respond to what he does rather than doing things of their own. Now I actually liked the scene with Mycroft and his handler, which offered an intriguing glimpse at an altogether different story going on in parallel, one, as mentioned in an earlier review, with massive Le Carré borrowings, with Sherrington's massive class issues as a reason for both his betrayal and his targetting of Mycroft as a symbol of upper class rich privilege. It also was an illustration that for all of Sherlock's goadings, Mycroft has both the requisite smarts to track down Sherrington on his own and the ruthlessness to deal with the situation. But the problem is that nothing of this is connected to the ongoing story of Sherlock and Joan (beyond the fact that Mycroft is Sherlock's brother).
Mind you: the scene with Sherrington showing up to question/threaten Joan and Joan outsmarting him by arranging for dozens of witnesses to his intimidation attempt via skype technology (what a nightmare for a spy!) was terrific and may have made a spy plot worthwhile.
Not sure what to make of Sherlock's asking to join MI6 in the final scene, though, because I can't see how the show's format would encompass regular spy plots.
Trivia: the "lazy" etc. quote if I recall correctly is actual ACD from The Greek Interpreter, the story introducing Mycroft Holmes.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 01:11 pm (UTC)Yes. I hope it's a red herring, too, but they played that card with Moriarty's capture.
I also hope we're done with Mycroft. So much of his character interaction, especially his romantic relationship with Joan, was told, not shown. And I hate that Joan forgave him when he said his deceptions were all to save Sherlock. That feels like emotional blackmail right there -- "We do it all for Sherlock!" Sherlock has grown substantially and he doesn't need surrogate parents, especially with Joan and Mycroft taking on the roles.
Orphan Black -- pure awesome, even when it trips up. I love how every single character is important and each has her or his own life, motivations, desires. Your thoughts on Paul are interesting; I can't figure out his motivations. Someone - Leakey? - had some dirt on him. Is that still motivating him? Everyone keeps asking him to be on their side: Sarah, Leakey, Rachel. He's spinning like a top. What does he want other than keeping ahead of the blackmail? And hurray, Helena! I like that she's not crazy-cakes-and-only-crazy-cakes, never to be more than crazy-cakes. She'll never be 'normal', but she could be more than a weapon, primed and aimed at the clones.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 01:59 pm (UTC)Orphan Black: complete agreement. Love the show.
no subject
Date: 2014-05-19 10:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2014-05-21 05:37 am (UTC)Oh, that's one smart thread connecting all of these! I like it.
(Well, I like all of your review, as ever. *g)
no subject
Date: 2014-05-21 05:55 am (UTC)