by Kevin Ranson:
Orphan Black Recap: “Endless Forms Most Beautiful”
Original Air Date (BBC America): Saturday June 1, 2013
Season 1 Episode 10
I have been a lousy swimmer right from the start – my DNA almost drowned in its gene pool.
Sarah packs a bag for Kira with Fee in the room, telling Kira not to tell anyone that the bag is packed and ready to go at a moment’s notice… not even Mrs. S. Looks like Sarah is getting ready to run again, this time with Kira in tow.
Sarah binds Helena up in the basement. Against the better judgment of Mrs. S, Sarah introduces Amelia to Helena. Mrs. S finds a photo in Amelia’s things, then hides it from Kira. Moments after Kira voices her thoughts that something bad is about to happen, Art and Angela burst into Mrs S’s place with a bunch of other cops to arrest Sarah. At the precinct, Art tries to get the truth out of Sarah, even to the point of threatening Kira and Fee. Fee tries to work his charms on Angela – and fails miserably.
Dr. Leekie pays Alison a house call, offering her an agreement to let her be in exchange for certain concessions such as a bi-annual non-invasive check-up; he even claims to be lifting her monitor immediately as an act of good faith. Shortly thereafter, Dr. Leekie appears to offer Cosima – just arriving by bus back in Toronto – a similar deal, even inviting her to work with them since she has a vested interest in the health of all the clones. Cosima hides the fact that she coughed up blood moments earlier. Is she suffering from the same sickness that afflicted the German? Moments before Sarah finally tells Art the truth, a stranger claiming to be a high-powered lawyer named Daniel Rosen springs both Sarah and Fee from custody.
At a downtown office, Paul meets with Sarah, making him look very suspect. Dr. Leekie’s “boss lady” turns out to be another clone named Rachel. She offers Sarah the same deal as Alison and Cosima: twenty-four hours to accept protection and mutual disclosure “top side” – and that includes Kira, too. The clones gather at Fee’s place to discuss the offer; Alison is considering taking the deal the most. Sarah tells Fee she’s going back to Mrs. S; Fee says he’ll “catch up.” Hmm… more on that speculation later.
Alison notices the “for sale” and “sold” sign across the street at Aynesley’s; still assuming she must be her monitor, the two argue until Aynesley accidentally gets a scarf stuck in a garbage disposal and begins to choke. Alison could easily turn it off, but she doesn’t, watching silently as Aynesley apparently dies. Uh oh… maybe Helena isn’t the only psychopath in Clone Club.
Art and Angela confront Vic, who himself is in therapy trying to get over Sarah – so of course the cops are asking about her. Vic give them the address of Alison, and Art and Angela are baffled over yet another Beth Childs lookalike. Back at Fee’s place, Cosima hides the fact she’s spitting up blood just before Delphine arrives, claiming she want to help Cosima… and that Leekie is lying all around. Delphine explains that the data Leekie gave Cosima is missing the synthetic tag that is differentiates the clones. Cosima theorizes that a clue to their origins may be hidden there as well.
Amelia meets with Sarah at Paul’s flat, but Amelia discovers too late that it isn’t Sarah – just as Helena stabs her in the stomach. The real Sarah comes home to find Amelia’s blood; Helena calls Sarah to a secret location to meet up with them. Back at Alison’s place, Donnie makes up with his wife, while at Fee’s place, Delphine and Cosima find the genome tag and use Cosima’s ID number as a decryption key.
Sarah arrives at Helena’s location to find Amelia barely alive; she give Sarah the picture Mrs. S found and says it’s her foster mother. Is Mrs. S the female scientist in the picture? What is Project LEDA? Helena attacks Sarah suddenly and brutally, but she can’t kill Sarah – but Sarah has had enough and shoots Helena dead. With both her birth mother and crazy twin sister deceased, Sarah calls Rachel to make the deal and be done with all the running and hiding.
Confident she has her life back, Alison signs and sends the clone agreement to Rachel. Donnie kisses Alison and goes for a jog… and takes a detour into Leekie’s car – Donnie has been Alison’s monitor all along! Paul meets Sarah in the elevator on her way up to meet Rachel; he take the time to confess exactly what mistake he made in Afghanistan that the Neolutionists have over him. Cosima calls Sarah in the elevator that the code has been cracked: it’s a patent. All the clones are stamped property. “This organism and derivative genetic material is restricted intellectual property.” Cosima confesses to Delphine that she’s sick.
When the elevator doors open, Paul and Sarah aren’t there. An email arrives from Sarah blowing Rachel off; Rachel makes a phone call telling someone that they “know what to do.” Sarah arrives back at Mrs. S’s place – hey, where’d Paul go? – only to find the house ransacked. Both Mrs. S and Kira are gone…!
“Orphan Black will return in Spring 2014.”
So, my speculation? Kira’s bag was packed; Fee disappeared after saying he’d catch up. Could he have slipped in and stole Kira away to a secret location before Mrs. S could? Maybe Mrs. S isn’t really as bad as Amelia suggested; after all, if she knew who and what Kira was already, why wait for Sarah to ever come back, or why not destroy the photo? Can you really patent a human being, and do clones actually have any rights at all if they are truly manufactured humans? And what do we call fans of the show?
You have ten months to speculate, Cloners!
Season One drops on DVD/Blu-ray Jul 16, 2013…!
Were you watching? Have a theory? Just love or hate something? Leave a comment!
Kevin A. Ranson is the author of The Spooky Chronicles and the upcoming vampire thriller The Matriarch. He also the creator/critic for MovieCrypt.com and the “ghost writer” for its horror host Grim D. Reaper (often seen skulking around horror conventions). Find him on Facebook, on Twitter @KevinARanson, and his author blog at ThinkingSkull.com.
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