Orphan Black 2.01 “Nature Under Constraint and Vexed”

NOTE: There will be spoilers.

At the end of the first season of Orphan Black there were a few, albeit very few, certainties for Sarah Manning:

1. Alison had sold out.
2. Cosima is dying.
3. Donnie is Alison’s monitor and, at best, is a bit of a dolt.
4. Rachel, another clone, is running point on recruiting Cosima and Sarah to join Alison as the corporate face of Dyad.
5. Kira and Mrs. S had been abducted by Dyad.
6. Helena was dead,
7. Most likely Tomas the Prolethian was also dead.
8. The Prolethians died with Tomas and Helena.

Most of these certainties would be proven wrong by the end of the Season Two premiere.  The first rule of Clone Club; Whatever you think you know, it’s probably wrong. The premier opens where last season left off, Sarah running after Kira and coming up empty-handed. She ditches the rain by ducking into a diner only discover that the Clone-Phone network is down, except for Paul’s number. However, when Sarah’s phone rings it’s Rachel, not Paul, on the other end. First Beth, then Sarah, now Rachel, it certainly seems like Paul has a type. “They’re not normal, they’re interfered with.”

A couple of decidedly NOT corporate guys walk into the diner and promptly inform the owner that his “just normal eggs” are anything but. The genetic purist cowboys (GPC #1 & #2) dispense with the pleasantries and turn their attention to Sarah noting her accent, “she’s got the lilt,” which serves as an indicator that she is who they are looking for. GPC #1 takes a seat and manages to confuse the issue of Kira’s whereabouts by telling Sarah that he can take her to Kira. Fortunately, Sarah realizes that things aren’t what they seem. Unfortunately, the diner’s owner takes a bullet in exchange for attempt to help. Thankfully, for Sarah’s sake, the owner goes down in a blaze of glory taking out GPC #2, leaving only GPC #1 to pursue Sarah. Sarah’s street-smarts, tenacity, uncanny observational skills, and a fire extinguisher help her make a relatively quick escape through a wall in the back of the diner. And, just like that, Sarah is running again; no rest for the weary. “My biology, my decision.” Cosima, in spite of her natural skepticism, is absolutely falling for Delphine’s act.  She repeatedly overlooks the cognitive dissonance caused by Delphine’s association with Leekie. Perhaps her fear of dying is impeding her ability to reason? You can almost hear the ambivalence in her voice when she, Sarah, Felix and Alison convene to come up with a plan for Sarah to invade Dyad.  She’s trapped between wanting to find a cure, wanting to find answers and wanting to just be a girl in love. I also can’t bring myself to believe that Cosima doesn’t know that at least one of the vials of blood that Delphine drew will land in Leekie’s hands.

“What’s with the balls of your thumbs? They’re so bouncy!”

I’m not sure who deserves more credit, Tatiana Maslany for the characters she plays or Jordan Gavaris for the way that he interacts with each of those characters. Fee and Alison frequently make up some of the lightest moments in an otherwise dark world. It’s interesting to watch Fee, who is partially nude and high as a kite, contrast against the suburban backdrop.  Somehow, his relationship with Alison seems so natural that the contrast further emphasizes how much Alison’s husband/monitor is out of place.  It’s saying something when Donnie’s t-shirt and briefs stand out more than the stoned party-boy dressed in bondage gear in the sewing room. “I’m not in control of the muse.”

Alison might be the most (ironically?) diverse of all the clones.  The first casualty of prejudice in Season One was assuming that she was merely a soccer-mom.  In actuality, she’s a soccer-mom, community theater performer, hostess, interrogator, insomniac gun-runner (whose genetics are property of Dyad).  She’s also very handy with pepper-spray and a rape whistle. Alison’s meeting with Ramon – the gun-supplying Econo-Mart employee with the buffet of contraband in his trunk- is almost every bit as amusing and insightful as the scenes between Alison and Felix. The amount of weird sexual tension coming from them is palpable, Ramon says “Mrs. Hendrix” like he means “Mrs. Robinson.”  Buying a gun in the suburbs has never looked like more fun, and this scene is as amusing as it is dark. I also have no idea what musical Alison is performing in, but the joy of watching her sing “wipe, wipe, wipe away the plasma” without cracking is boundless.  Apparently murder is also fun in the suburbs? “Am I right sailor?”

As an aside, am I the only one who felt like Ramon was channeling Captain Jack Harkness (Torchwood/Doctor Who)?

“She almost trusts me Ange.”

I refuse to believe that Beth’s former partner being named “Art Bell” is a coincidence.  I also suspect that his sudden wealth of knowledge regarding the Prolethians is actually not all that sudden.  Sounds like a perfect topic for Coast to Coast AM. Similarly, I can’t get past Aldous Leekie’s name. I’m certain that there are other clues that I’m overlooking which are not quite as obvious.

“To combine is to create, to engineer; divine.”

Sarah masquerading as Cosima (CoSarah?) was brilliant on many levels, not the least of which was Tatiana Maslany’s ability to convey that Sarah was masquerading as Cosima.  She could have easily fallen into playing the part of Cosima the same way that she always does, but she manages to make it clear to the audience that she is Sarah while maintaining the charade in her exchange with Leekie.  I’m not sure that Delphine knew before they kissed.  I’m also not sure Delphine is telling anyone the truth. It’s also interesting to hear Leekie describe the “moral responsibility” of he and his fellow eugenicists.  You’d have to posit a moral imperative in order to be blind to the atrocities of his work.  I also find his choice of words interesting when he claims to have helped “27,000 souls.” That particular wording evokes a sense of morality but also provides a subtle bit of context with regards to disembodied people, using substance dualism to draw a fine line between biological personhood and identity. So far our scorecard of Season One Certainties seems relatively stable:

1. Alison had sold out. – CHECK, kinda.
2. Cosima is dying. – CHECK
3. Donnie is a dolt.  – DOUBLE CHECK
4. Rachel is the face of Dyad. – CHECK, at least, she as far as the Asian Market is concerned

However, Rachel plays spoiler and we quickly found out that Kira and Mrs. S have NOT been abducted by Dyad.

• Kira and Mrs. S had been abducted by Dyad.

As a result, Rachel take a bit of a beating at the hands of Sarah and Paul makes his allegiances even more muddy.  Sarah flees to Art who shares his aforementioned new found Prolethian knowledge. No sooner are they mentioned than we hear the a familiar cacophony. “Excuse me, my sister shot me.”

Helena, looking bloody and a bit worse for wear, stumbles into a hospital followed closely by GPC #1 from the diner.  The camera pans to his oversized belt-buckle to reveal the familiar Prolethian logo. Updating the Certainty Scorecard:

• Helena was dead. SHE LIVES!
• Tomas the Prolethian is also dead. ???

The episode closes with someone combing Kira’s hair and having her pose for a photo in what looks suspiciously like a farm house.  Was GPC #1 telling the truth when he told Sarah he would take her to see Kira? The Prolethians are far from dead, which takes care of the final certainty. As a matter of fact, they have now taken on a much bigger role than was previously thought. Orphan Black has not only managed to put Sarah Manning in the center of a vicious tug-of-war, but it’s still hard to discern who is on what side.  It seems like the various sects are growing and passing a few people back and forth, as opposed to becoming more entrenched and delineated. At this point, the only person I’m trusting is Felix.