Orphan Black 2.10

[selenak]

Itunes provides me with Orphan Black, but not Penny Dreadful, so until I'm at home again late this week, there are no Victorian Gothic dramatics for me.

Meanwhile, in Clone Country



Knowing Castor and Pollux are the Dioskuri - Leda's sons, just as Helen and Clytaimnestra were Leda's daughters -, I did expect a male clone to show up as soon as "Castor" was namedropped. I hoped it wouldn't be Paul, because I very much doubt the actor could carry it off, and wasn't sure whether Cal's actor could. Since the military as a third party in the clone project was heavily advertised throughout the season, I should have guessed that left Mark (who like Paul and the late Sammy is "ex" military), but I didn't until we gut again to Gracie marrying Mark, so it really was a surprise. And means we haven't said goodbye to Grace and Mark after all, and considering Helena has just been handed over to the military (why? though "what would armed forces want with an experienced unbalanced killer?" has no good answer), methinks she and Grace will meet again.

To go back from the ending: guessed Ethan Duncan was about to poison himself but thought he'd do it in a blackmail fashion, i.e. he'd die if Rachel didn't release Kira and/or Sarah. Then again, that would be too sci fi/fantasy-esque a poison, I suppose, Ethan Duncan not being a Centauri. Anyway, it was a very strong scene, and I am in awe again of how Tatiana Maslany played Rachel's reactions throughout, from trying-to-convey-in-charge-overlordism to the childlike panic at the end. Re: why Duncan killed himself - leaving the key with The Island of Dr. Moreau in Kira's possession - strategy wise it's questionable, considering that yes, Kira and through her the clones have the book, but in written form it can be stolen/handed over, whereas in his head it can't be extracted and maybe it would have worked better as a bargain chip. Then again, he did try that before drinking the poison. And most of all, it's both a devastating rejection of who Rachel has become - "Rachel, poor Rachel - you don't deserve me anymore" - and a way that means he won't have any longer to deal with it. The way out - for him, not for anyone else.

Cosima using science, imagnation and Kira to fabricate an emergency weapon for Sarah to use was awesome, if a bit dependent on circumstance (such as Rachel talking to Sarah in the first place, though I suppose Sarah could have used the pencil slayer against whomever was closest, hoping the distraction would be enough for her to escape). Its use also leaves open whether or not Rachel survived (and will show up next season with a Nick Fury style eye cap) - can one die from a pencil in the eye? (Am a laywoman who has no idea.)

Clone dance scene: pure fanservice, but efficient fanservice. Same for everyone welcoming Helena, since as opposed to Sarah, they didn't have contact with her and mostly heard about her killing the other clones. But I'm willing to handwave and declare Sarah described Helena off screen to Cosima and Alison so sympathetically that they're welcoming her. Note: Helena doesn't tell anyone she's pregnant. It did occur to me that either Helena or Grace might not carry the baby to term but will abort early on with the embryo stemm cells used to save Cosima, now that Rachel has destroyed Kira's bone marrow. (Or has she? She could have used fake tubes with ketchup in them and keeping the real bone marrow for herself, if not for Cosima, since she must know she might need it one day. Of course, that would be rational, and Rachel wasn't in a remotely rational state of mind in this episode.)

Marion having her own thing going, complete with eight years old clone: hmmm. Am not sure whether or not that contradicts everyone being so keen on Duncan's research precisely because they couldn't replicate the experiment. Though one in how many, eighthundred, is still very rare.

I'll have something more critical to say about the season as a whole in a few days because I don't think it holds together as well as the first one, but right now I'm still in a fannish mellow and don't want to harsh it yet.

Comments

[lilacsigil]

Yes, I though Duncan was a very realistic mix of selfish and altruistic - he wouldn't give up control to Rachel and told her she didn't deserve him (which is incredibly harsh) but at the same time had worked with her and was trying to save Cosima.

Mark was a big surprise, but I'm all good as long as it's not Paul! I think one Charlotte from four? eight? hundred pregnancies is not the kind of odds they can work with - imagine how much work they have to do finding a suitable potential mother who needs an embryo donation to be pregnant and then carrying it out! I also wondered if they might have had a limited number of embryos left from the original experiment rather than being able to create new ones.

I guess the pencil could have been used against the doctor as he bent over her, but Rachel got it instead. You can most definitely die from a penetrating eye injury because it goes straight to the brain (and she did look like she was having a fit) but eye reconstruction is also possible depending on the damage. She didn't pull the pencil out, that's a good start!

[nenya_kanadka]

Yeah, "You don't deserve me anymore" was hella harsh. It might be true--on the other hand, her father also literally designed her--but damn. Harsh.

[selenak]

Definitely. Also, not only did Ethan Duncan literally create her, but he did nothing (that we know of) to rescue her from Dyad when she was still a child and he was pretending to be dead. Rachel's present day decisions are her own responsibility, but how Rachel became who she is now is very much due to both Leekie and Duncan, so him washing his hands of her instead of trying to get through to her strikes me as the easy, cowardly way out.

[selenak]

Good point about the limited number of embryos left and the odds.

"As long as it's not Paul" probably is an universal agreement :) . The number of expressions this particular actor seems to be capable of...

Duncan and Rachel: agreed.

[nenya_kanadka]

I was really surprised at Duncan's suicide, though I did realize something was up as soon as the tea--with which he had been obsessed in an earlier episode--showed up.

I assumed the pencil was for the doctor. Cosima couldn't've known Rachel was going to show up to gloat. I guess this means the Duncan side of things is totally out of commission now? Unless, like Helena last season, she does survive.

Charlotte!! I'd heard there would be a new clone for this episode, but wow. It's clever of the writers to show us baby Rachel for a while so we are familiar with that face and accept the actress as tiny!Maslany as soon as she appears.

I'm delighted we'll get more Michelle Forbes (I assume) next season, but really creeped out that she's keeping one of the Castor clones in her basement or whatever. I vaguely get the sense that she might have traded Helena for him? Which, even a few episodes back, Sarah might have been in favour of, but after clone club dance party I think Mrs S is right that Sarah will never forgive her. Which makes me really sad because I hate watching the strain on that relationship. Meanwhile Marian is just casually calling Siobhan "your mother." Which she is.

Mark has the creepiest face. I had just gotten around to shipping him and Gracie, and sort of trusting him, and suddenly clones! Mad imprisoned clone freaked me out more than Helena at her craziest, tbh.

I wonder if now that Castor has a Leda clone and vice versa, someone is going to try making them have babies together. Of course, Helena's already pregnant...

Cosima and Kira with the book was the cutest thing. (Also clone party. The four different kinds of dancing! Fanservice and I loved it.) It emotionally satisfies me to think of Cosima having the information about her own genetic key, now--not even Delphine, or Rachel who is also a clone but also fucking the others over, but Cosima. And Kira who clearly will be in Harvard by the time she's twelve.

I think you're right that season 2 didn't hold together as well as season 1. Don't get me wrong, I enjoyed it. But I felt like they could have cut a few plot threads and dug deeper into the others and it would have been more solid. Oh, well. Lots of space for fanfic, and they didn't (thank God) kill off Cosima, and maybe they'll get their second wind in season 3.

(I don't want to wait another whole year! *moans*)

[selenak]

See, I had forgotten he insisted on taking the tea along when Sarah and Siobhan took him with them! Now that - that he had the means of suicide always with him, just in case - says a lot about Ethan Duncan. And even someone as experienced as Mrs. S. wrote it off as dotty excentricity.

I think the writers deliberately left Rachel's fate up in the air, but considering Helena's survival, my money is on her surviving as well (minus an eye). Over at lj someone observed the Doylist reason for this particular event probably was so Rachel won't be able to impersonate another clone again, i.e. the audience and the clones themselves won't have to wonder in future episodes whether Sarah/Alison/Cosima/Helena are really Rachel in disguise.

Marian didn't get on top of the Dyad hierarchy by being nice and ethical, so despite her helping Sarah out, I'm not surprised per se she has a clone in the basement (in addition to fostering one). It hadn't occured to me that she may have traded Helena for him and that was the point of handing Helena over to the military, but that makes sense. And yes, they may try to find out whether clones can recreate with each other, since no one knows Helena is already pregnant (but banks on her being fertile, since Sarah is and they're twins).

Cosima having the information: I know what you mean about emotional satisfaction. Once Cosima is No Longer Dying, which I hope will be soon because they can't drag that out another season, I wonder whether we'll get an ethical dilemma storyline, i.e. will the scientist in Cosima be curious enough to see whether she could recreate the original experiment or will her own life experience keep her back?

[jesuswasbatman]

I am pretty sure that Helena deliberately left the bottle of frozen embryos at Felix's flat knowing that they could be used to save Cosima. Although using frozen embryos for that purpose would make the show really controversial in the US.

Let's hope Ari Millen is as versatile as Tatiana Maslany. Although he has been very good as Mark. (Just realised that this gives a whole new meaning to Paul's conversation with Mark in the bar, if he's always been a mole for Castor in the Leda project.)

[selenak]

Would Helena even know - given whom she's be raised by - that stem cells from embryos can be used this way, though?

Hopefully they've cast Ari Millen specifically with versatility in mind, given that the reveal must have been planned. Re: Mark's and Paul's conversation, quite. Though one thing: given that Paul really seemed to have had no idea that Beth was a clone, and that Sarah wasn't Beth until half of s1 had passed, how does that square with his ultimate employer? Or do we assume Paul didn't return to the military until after things went sour for him at Dyad?

[jesuswasbatman]

Yes, I think that if they are trying to suggest that Paul has been working for Castor all along, it's a retcon too far in terms of complexification, and something that you can't really get away with in the age of DVDs and online distribution.