Orphan Black 2.10 “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”

NOTE: There are gonna be a LOT of spoilers here, as well as speculation.

First, my apologies for not having a full review of Episode Nine online. I’ll be covering it some in this episode and in a full Season Two review coming later.

I am writing this immediately following my viewing of the season finale, “By Means which have Never Yet Been Tried.” Suffice it to say, a lot happened in this episode and I wanted to get a review/response while it was still fresh in my mind.

“My name is Sarah Manning and this my unconditional surrender.”

This episode started with an absolutely frenzy. Before the title sequence was a series of rapid cut scenes of Sarah’s interrogation and her argument/discussion with Siobhan. The pace slowed down just a bit after the title sequence, but the tension built by the opening was palpable right up to Sarah’s rescue and escape.

I think we can add a second rule to to Clone Club, “never underestimate Kira.” We’ve seen her do things that indicated maturity and cognitive abilities that seem to be well beyond that of a normal eight year old. As of this episode she is probably no more than a day or so removed from the bone-marrow extraction, but she doesn’t show any signs of pain or discomfort from such a serious surgery. Her extremely rapid healing system seems to be at work again. She also flawlessly picks the nurses pocket and plays a vital role in her own rescue when she calls Cal.

“She had the best care, you took it away.”

Alas, poor Delphine. I had long faulted Cosima for being blinded by her love for Delphine. After Episode Nine I revise my opinion. I think Cosima willingly turned a blind eye to Delphine’s monitor status, but Delphine seems to have legitimately let her feelings for Cosima get in the way of her monitor duties. Sadly, that made her the perfect pawn for Rachel. However, it also meant that Rachel underestimated Delphine, which would prove to be a painful mistake. Delphine being duped was a pivotal part of Kira’s abduction, but it also proved to be a pivotal part of Kira’s rescue. Kira’s call to Cal kicked off the activities outside of DYAD and Delphine took care of the activities inside. Arguably, Rachel’s hubris led her to assume that Delphine would just accept her reassignment to Frankfurt and remove her from the equation. If Rachel hadn’t been quite so flippant she might have realized that keeping Delphine in play at any level would leave a huge vulnerability. Instead of leading to the downfall of Clone Club, Delphine was able to become the catalyst for their reunion.

“A lot has changed since I came back in.”

Quite a few loose ends and diverging plotlines were drawn together for this episode. In some cases, older plotlines spawned entirely new angles. This would be the case with the return of Paul. We know that Paul was essentially an indentured servant for DYAD in exchange for covering up the “friendly-fire” incident while he was in Afghanistan. We also know that he and Siobhan began working together shortly after he was appointed Rachel’s monitor/lover/toy/slave. We haven’t seen much of him since turning over Duncan to Rachel.

It seems odd that, after having been out of the military for a while with Afghanistan hanging over him, he was able to return to the military, become involved in Project Castor and rise in rank to Major in a relatively short time. However, that actually creates fewer questions regarding Paul and more questions regarding Siobhan, since it seem that Paul’s destiny changed drastically after meeting with her.

“This is project Castor.”

Alarm bells went off in Episode Nine when we learned that Mark was AWOL from the military. Earlier this season Mark told Paul that he didn’t have any military training or background. Not only was that a complete misdirect from Mark, but based on the reveal of Project Castor, we now have to wonder what Paul might have known at the time. Was Paul questioning Mark to gauge Mark’s level of awareness or did he legitimately not know? Furthermore, what does Mark know and how did he get mixed up with Henrick and Company??

As an aside, Mark was not initially supposed to be the male clones. According to an interview with the show’s creators, the original idea was for Mark to be killed off earlier in the season. However, the character made such an impact on the story that they decided to keep him around.

The creators also note that the introduction of the male clones was a deliberate choice and it opens up the puzzle quite a bit.

“Now we’ve got two sides. We’ve got the LEDA side — the female clones — and the Castor side — the male clones. They’ve been operating without knowing anything about one another. But now, because Paul was deep undercover for the military, the boys know a hell of a lot more about the girls than the girls know about the boys.” Graeme Manson, co-creator of Orphan Black

The quote notes that Paul was deep undercover inside the military, and we know that he was acting as Siobhan’s behalf. Also, during Cal’s chat with “Swan7” the other person, most likely Marian, tells Cal to ask Siobhan about “Castor.” So, again, we’re left wondering exactly what Siobhan’s role is in all of this, and how she knew about Project Castor.

“I’m very impressed by you Sarah, you and your mother.”

Marian references Sarah’s mother on two different occasions. It’s just not clear which mother she means. Based on her relationship with Siobhan and how she references her relationship with Charlotte, it seems likely that Marian was talking about Siobhan. However, it’s also possible that she meant Amelia, albeit for reasons we don’t yet know.

Apparently Marian works in the belly of the hydra, for a company known as Topside. It occurred to me that her appearance, the fate of Leekie, and Rachel’s ascension almost echoes what Rachel had done to Delphine. It appears that Marian worked to position Rachel, manipulating her, to remove Leekie, while gaining Rachel’s trust, giving her the freedom to pursue her own agenda while Rachel was busy running DYAD. At the very least, Marian’s arrival set Rachel off on a descent into madness, culminating in a pencil to the eye courtesy of Scott, Cosima and Kira.

“Don’t despair my dear, don’t despair.”

Ethan Duncan is a brilliant man. Sadly, he knows that this makes him more of a liability than an asset. Therefore, in order to prevent further abuses, the likes of which he saw at Project LEDA and, possibly, Project Castor, he takes his own life. It does seem like the choice to commit suicide was a last resort. He doesn’t actually drink his poisoned tea until after Rachel refuses to treat Cosima. Unfortunately, his fate is sealed when Rachel attempted to leverage Cosima’s life to get what she wanted. There have been theories that Rachel is not the original Rachel Duncan, but a clone who has taken Rachel’s identity. Seeing her interact with Ethan and her claims about not being able to remember being loved by Ethan and Susan seem to lend credence to the idea. On the other hand, Ethan seems to recognize her straight away and would be very difficult to fool given his level of involvement with the project. To that end, it seems more likely that Rachel is Rachel and the cold-nature she has as an adult is a result of the influence of the Neolutionists. This point was driven home for me when Duncan uttered his last words, telling Rachel that she no longer deserves him.

This scene was wonderfully done and the contrast of the old video footage with the current events actually said more than the dialogue. The images of young Rachel showed just how much has changed between then and now, as well as layed the groundwork for the introduction of Charlotte at the end of the episode.

We also have an idea of why Ethan left his copy of Island of Dr. Moreau with Kira. Doing so meant that the notes for the cipher would not die with him. It does seem that Cosima now has the cure to her disease in her hands.

“After bar fighting, he had to go to war and become a tow-truck driver.”

As usual, everything about Helena is amazing. From the wicked smile she gives Felix when she lies about burning down the farm to the crazy thrashing that passes as dancing with her other
“seestrahs.” Interestingly, I feel like there is a degree of similarity between Rachel’s rapid loss of humanity, becoming a one-eyed out of control monster, and Helena’s growing humanity, from a wild animal-like killer to a member of a family. It was pure joy to finally see all of Clone Club come together (also, it was quite a testament to the technical crew when we saw all four clones dancing around each other in a single scene). Unfortunately, this season didn’t end much better for Helena than the first season.

On one hand, we at least know that Helena is alive. On the other, we have no idea where she is going nor how long she will survive (but, it is Helena, so she’ll almost certainly break out and burn the place down). Once again, we see the hand of Siobhan, with regret and sorrow, but making the play to have Helena removed from the game. Depending on where the aircraft takes her, is it possible that Jesse will make an appearance with the military? What are the chances that their meeting in the bar was anything but chance??

So, after 10 episodes and a massive season finale, here’s what we know:

• Marian has adopted the only surviving recently successfully cloned children.
• Cal knows a lot about DYAD.
• Rachel will probably be sporting an eye patch next season.
• Ethan Duncan is actually dead this time.
• Cosima has Duncan’s notes from the novel, potentially leading to a cure.
• Helena has been abducted by the military.
• Siobhan is working for ???? and his a lot more pull than we might realize.
• Mark is a clone from Project Castor.
• PROJECT CASTOR! MALE CLONES!!

I’ll be doing a full review of the entire season to map out what we knew and what we now know. Needless to say, the First Rule of Clone Club holds firm: “Whatever you think you know, you’re probably wrong.”