Review: ‘Orphan Black’ Season 3, Episode 2, ‘Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis’: Things Get Personal
Amber Dowling
Cloning Around
With
Sarah desperate to track down Helena and refusing to blow Dodge until she can
figure out a way to keep everyone in her life safe, she relapsed into something
of a fantasy world with Cal this week. Although the dream to settle down and be
a happy little family with their daughter was swell, the Castor clones had
other thoughts on the subject when they became equally desperate for a whole
new set of reasons. Watching Sarah and Rudy strive for the same things — to
keep those in their lives safe—while treating each other as the enemy was
frustrating, but it also started laying down the foundation for the ultimate
clone-on-clone-on-clones scene we just know is coming up at some point this
season.
Science Class
With Cosima on the mend and Scott attempting to
figure out what is making the clones sick in the first place, the illness from
Season 1 is no longer as threatening to these characters as it once was. Still,
we were reminded through this new duo’s sleuthing that the search for the
original genetic make-ups of Castor and Leda continues to be a priority in
everyone being able to live happily ever after. Turns out, that’s something the
male clones need too, thanks to what looks like some faulty wiring.
A Little Dance
Party
We’ve had a lot of sex scenes to date for a series
about clones, but none of them have been quite as disturbing as the borderline
rape scene involving Rudy and Seth in the hotel room. Thankfully the scene shut
down before things grew out of hand, and we later learned that they didn’t
actually have sex with that girl, they just took some of her hair and scared
her. It said more about how close those “brothers” are than anything else. The
real question now is, were they physical twins like Helena and Sarah? Or just
clones like everyone else?
Power Move
Over in suburbia, Alison and Donnie were faced with
serious financial problems, which of course led them to make yet another rash
#TeamHendrix decision: to take over Ramon’s drug business and sell prescription
pills to the other soccer moms. In their heads, not only does the move give
Alison the voter base she needs to run against Marci Coates (guest star Amanda
Brugel), but it also guarantees income for the couple. Apparently they were
secure enough to spend their entire retirement savings on it, which clearly
won’t work out so well in the long run. Not to mention the fact that Alison was
an addict in the first place and probably shouldn’t even be around that stuff.
We’re Drowning
Just
when we thought the stuff between Rudy and Seth was as terrible as the episode
was going to get, John Fawcett and Graeme Manson introduced us to
water-boarding, “Orphan Black” style. As Helena was put through the
military “stress test,” her mental decline continued. That much was proven when
the talking scorpion returned, spouting wisdom about mangos. On the bright side
it led to audiences meeting a new ruthless leader, one Dr. Coady (Kyra Harper).
The doc displayed plenty of maternal instincts (including stopping the
aforementioned water-boarding upon learning of Helena’s pregnancy), and showed
that she’s playing a dangerous mind game with the unstable clone. How much of
those crazy hypnotizing machine tests she’s behind remains to be seen, but it’s
pretty obvious we shouldn’t trust her.
A Male’s
Perspective
While killing Seth ensures that the “glitching”
mystery remains a secret for now, his sudden death also feels like a missed
opportunity. It would have been fun to see more of that Rudy/Seth dynamic going
forward and explore their relationship rather than having it end so abruptly.
Instead, we’ll now see how that death affects Rudy going forward, and whether
he’ll actually kill someone from the #CloneClub like Cal who gets in his way
next time. No wonder Sarah finally sent Kira away. We all know that should have
been the mum’s immediate response when this first all went down.
Tatiana Who?
Sure, Ari Millen and Tatiana Maslany did more than
their share of this week’s heavy lifting, but there was something comforting
about watching Felix play nurse to a broken Mrs. S. The scene was an episodic
highlight; not only did it remind us of the show’s first season roots but it
reminded us that sometimes the show’s best scenes are the ones in which there
is no clone camera work at all.
Running on Empty
Oh Paul. We almost forgot about you. He was also
back in fine force, showcasing his ability to use that lie-detector, glitching,
brain-washing machine thingamajig. Speaking to the aforementioned point,
another highlight was the scene between Paul and Cal, in which it became clear
that both her former and current lovers have Sarah’s best interests at heart.
And here we thought Paul was just a bad guy that we loved to hate. Naturally
it’s more complicated than that when sex is involved.
Lab Results
With two episodes down there is still a lot of
ground to cover and characters to explore, and only eight episodes left in
which to cover it all. Although we were treated to another fast-paced episode
this week, the clone conspiracy world is rapidly expanding and more questions
are being raised than answers given. With the return of Mark and Gracie next
week, Cal on the run and an “in the wild” standoff between Castor and Leda
under our belts, hopefully we can get back to answering some origin questions
next week.
Quote of the Week
“We’re brothers. We were taught to share.” – Scar
Runner Up:
“You don’t get to sit this one out. None of us do.”
– Felix
Runner, Runner Up:
“Now we find Helena and we finish this shit.” –
Sarah
Grade: B
“Orphan Black” airs Saturday at 9pm ET on Space and
BBC America. Next time: Mark returns and truths emerge.
