Orphan Black: Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method

June 6, 2015 4:12 PM - Season 3, Episode 8

Rachel bargains for her freedom. Helena and Gracie work with the Hendrixes, and Donnie takes Kellerman to task.
posted by Pendragon (31 comments total)

Ooooh, new clone! and next week looks to be a return to good old fashioned Helena, as well.
posted by pjern at 10:12 PM on June 6, 2015 [1 favorite]

What kind of monster would threaten a man's cat? Good question!

I could wish the end-of-episode previews weren't so spoilertastic.
posted by Coaticass at 1:46 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Actual serious make-up question about Helena - at first, I assumed the reddish patches around her eyes was artifice, like the bleach and dark roots with the perm, but she's been shown to be able to dress up and to bathe thoroughly, then unbathed and imprisoned, and she still has those red panda eye patches with very fragile looking skin. I'm wondering if that's because she's gone through some health issues - the STD infections, the horrible testing or something else - that left her fertile (which is something AFAIK, that no-one except the "Amish" girl knows - and oh that embrace and the question and forgiveness of being family - an aunt in spirit.)

Is it just a make-up touch or something more meaningful?

Also, I keep expecting Rachel to stab someone else with a pencil the way she glares at them up all the time.
posted by dorothyisunderwood at 3:46 AM on June 7, 2015 [4 favorites]

Something about Rachel reminds me of Leo at the end of Twin Peaks; I keep expecting to learn she's been faking for a while and see her suddenly gut someone.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:09 AM on June 7, 2015

I loved scott's room, they discuss it in After the Black episode 8.
posted by Pendragon at 5:19 AM on June 7, 2015

Are we supposed to know who the woman that was observing Rachel being operated on was? The one that says "Thank you, Alan" or something along those lines? Only the back of her head was visible in the shot, and I'm not sure if she's someone we've seen before or if it was just a quick tease of someone whose identity will later be revealed (the "who" of Beth's question to Sarah in the episode 6 dream sequence, maybe?).
posted by Kosh at 6:12 AM on June 7, 2015

Was that the Castor logo on Krystal's notebook? If so, is it safe to assume that's not a coincidence?
posted by plastic_animals at 6:18 AM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Poor Denise! Indeed, no one should mess with someone's cat. I loved when they were all sympathetic about that at S's.

I also totally laughed when Donnie refered to Gracie as "the Amish girl."

I wasn't quite into the depiction of Krystal. I thought that her mannerisms, particularly the tightness around the mouth, were too close to Allison's and instead they relied on her boobtastic costuming.
posted by TwoStride at 8:43 AM on June 7, 2015

I loved how appalled everyone was about the threat against Scott's cat, too. I could barely watch the scene with Rudy, I was too worried the show would go there. Murder and maim all the people? Sure, I can somewhat handle watching that. The kitty, though. Eeep.

I've been (rather smugly) assuming all season that Dr. Coady was secretly Susan Duncan, but now I'm jumping to the conclusion that the woman at the end of the episode is actually Susan. Closed Captioning said she had a British accent, but I couldn't really tell. She escaped (or orchestrated?) the fall of Leda for the sake of Castor, maybe?

I just hope we hit the top of How Far This Conspiracy Goes soon, though.
posted by mixedmetaphors at 9:13 AM on June 7, 2015

Really sad to see Krystal treated as "disposable," but I've been expecting them to bag and/or organ farm a "lesser Leda clone" for awhile now (I assume all Castors are automatically treated that way, except for maybe Rudy and Mark).

Kristian continues to blow me a way with his performance as Donnie. When it was first revealed that he was a monitor, I was stunned because he just emanates such haplessness. It's like he's in on the joke that the rest of the world sees his life as, and is OK with pushing those boundaries as far as they'll go -- sort of like when a woman plays the "dumb blonde" card when she's really anything but to her own advantage (see: Krystal).

Between last week's simpering "Mr. Chubs" jabs from Alison's WASP-queen mom and now getting into a fist fight with Alison's druggie ex-boyfriend, his tenacity just wins me over more and more. That "I may be a bitch, but I'm ALISON'S bitch and you're just a stupid dropout" scene was so satisfying! As soon as I realized they were going to scrap, I yelled "Look out dude, Donnie might accidentally kill you" at the TV.

Since Rachel appears to have worked out not just an escape strategy but a winning move for herself in the larger machinations going on this week, I'm hoping for an eventual showdown between her and one of the more volatile Castor clones -- perhaps Rudy? -- to see which clone brand's survival instinct ultimately wins out.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:30 AM on June 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

Also, I should state that my current theory is that someone, somewhere wanted to create a clone army that could be activated and/or weaponized for some nefarious purpose or other, and that the creators of both the Leda and Castor programs were ordered to find good genetic candidates that were as similar as possible of each gender for testing purposes -- hence the originals being brother and sister.

The Castors have been given all the traditional advantages and training you'd expect for a weaponized human: extensive military training, integration as a group, a single point of leadership (Dr. Coady) and what appears to be a common goal. Interestingly, they all appear to be monitored by her or monitoring each other -- a woman's in charge of the male clones.

The Ledas have been given unique families and are mostly unaware of one another's existence, allowing them to develop traditional community-building skills and explore their femininity and sexual wiles without outsider interference, yet almost all of their monitors are their romantic partners (and mostly male, at that) except for S and Delphine. They've bonded strongly with each other when discovered and are hesitant to harm or kill one another, even in past eps where it seemed unavoidable (e.g., when Helena was specifically coming to assassinate Sarah and didn't shoot her, etc.).

I don't have a coherent theory yet on the final outcome or goal the Leda and Castor programs are both working towards, but I think "let's see which gender makes for a stronger cloning candidate in pursuit of Goal X" has a lot of potential.
posted by Unicorn on the cob at 9:47 AM on June 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

I just hope we hit the top of How Far This Conspiracy Goes soon, though.

Given that OB has been renewed for a fourth season, I'm betting on even more layers to the onion.
posted by Thorzdad at 1:56 PM on June 7, 2015

I'm glad we were all, "Don't hurt the cat you [insert favorite insult here]." I would have been very upset had they gone there, or even had they hurt Scott in any way. Scott is off limits as far as I'm concerned. He has no stake in either Leda nor Castor other than wanting to help his friend Cosima get better and learn more about the science. I did love how his gaming friends were all geeked out about the cloak and dagger of getting Rachel out of Dyad though. That was a bit of good comedy relief amongst the thrill ride.

How many episodes are left in this season?
posted by patheral at 4:39 PM on June 7, 2015 [1 favorite]

Two more episodes to go.
posted by plastic_animals at 4:57 PM on June 7, 2015

I really love cats and all, and Denise was beautiful, but I was horrified to realize that Scott was going to give up the book that quickly. I mean, human lives? For a cat?? Really? But then I realized that even after Rudy killed the cat he wasn't about to just stop and go home without the book. That Scott would be next and that basically Rudy was leaving with the book, either with Scott and Denise dead or no one dead. So it was smart of Scott to just give it up before all that had to happen.
posted by bleep at 7:58 PM on June 7, 2015 [3 favorites]

OB's writers would never kill a cat. If only because the ensuing Twitter server meltdown would result in some very expensive lawsuits...
posted by prismatic7 at 4:05 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I've been trying to piece together exactly who was in on what machinations in that episode, because I feel like the clues are there but I can't get it all together. Here's some of what I've been mulling over:

Arlington guy said he needed something from Coady. He also asked "where's Rudy." So Coady must have provided Rudy for Arlington's use in obtaining the book.

Arlington said he had a source inside Leda. Judging from the file Delphine gave Cosima at the end of the ep, it seems likely that source is Shay. But Shay went straight for Dr Moreau and glanced at the pages once--pretty thin, if that's supposed to be her undercover detective work. But what other prior knowledge could she have had that would have led her to that book? Was she working with Rachel?

How does Rachel know about Krystal, and that Krystal's monitor is dead? I guess Nealon told her? What would Nealon's motivation be for double-crossing Delphine? She outranks him, no?

Nealon: "Delphine knew you had a copy" uh...?? How?

Are we supposed to know who the woman that was observing Rachel being operated on was?

This may be crazy but I kinda thought that was Coady. Wearing a wig? The voice sounded like hers, and clearly there was some kind of quid pro quo thing going on in her discussion with Arlington at the beginning of the episode.

But that would require that Nealon (Dyad) is in cahoots with Arlington (US military). Is it Nealon, not Shay, who is Arlington's contact in Dyad? But then, what was with the Shay folder that Delphine gave Cosima; and also how would Nealon have known anything about Dr Moreau?

I'm trying to figure this all out because I REALLY hope it actually does make sense when you understand it and that it's not just a lot of mysteries thrown together, LOST-style, that never really add up.
posted by torticat at 5:58 AM on June 8, 2015

Nealon: "Delphine knew you had a copy" uh...?? How?

Oh--just realized that was probably just a lie on Nealon's part for the benefit of Sarah, Mrs S, and Felix. Nealon was working with Rachel, so of course he knew about the copy, but he needed some kind of explanation for the others.
posted by torticat at 6:02 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

I'm a little confused about the end there, when the doctor told Rachel she was going to get a "prosthetic, perfectly matched" eye. At first I thought they were going to take Krystal's eye, but then eye transplants aren't really possible (right?). So was it just a bad juxtaposition of that line with the shot of Krystal? I know they had to show us Krystal so we could understand the switcheroo that happened, but I wasn't sure if it meant anything beyond that.
posted by Bunny Boneyology at 6:19 AM on June 8, 2015

Was I really the only one who saw the Portal 2 easter egg? I'm really curious whether it's just a standalone shoutout or if it actually leads somewhere.
posted by scalefree at 8:20 AM on June 8, 2015 [1 favorite]

Am I the only one who shouts at the television every single time Cosima and/or Scott communicates via video chat with the other clones outside of Dyad from inside of Dyad and then wonders how Dyad "knows" what they're doing, "Because you're using their satellites to communicate everything to everyone, you dumbass!"? Dyad is supposed to be a pretty sophisticated setup, there would be all kinds of security systems on the communications. Yet the clone club blithely just spills everything via video chat and expects Dyad to not listen in? It's so frustrating. The enemy doesn't even have to have a mole inside of Dyad. The clones are doing a good job of giving their information away for free.

Also, if Scot made copies of the book on Dyad's copy machines then it's perfectly reasonable to assume that Dyad knew about the book and that there were copies made. If he made them at home, then maybe not. If he scanned them and emailed them from anywhere within Dyad... I mean, it's not that difficult to figure out how Dyad knew there was a copy...

It would behoove them to think like criminals sometimes. I mean I expect more from Sarah since she started this as a grifter. Felix too.
posted by patheral at 1:48 PM on June 8, 2015 [3 favorites]

I'm relieved to hear that the kitty was okay because I looked away a lot in that scene.
posted by immlass at 4:17 PM on June 8, 2015

Also, it wouldn't be difficult for Rachel, and anyone working with Rachel, to figure out that Scott made copies of the book because he was showing copied pages to Rachel rather than the book itself. Why would he make only a copy of one or two pages? That wouldn't fit his character, and anyone who knew anything about Scott would kinda understand that. I'm sure that there's more than one copy. He seems the type to make a backup of a backup.

Plus, now that they have the translated pages -- if Rachel translated it correctly -- the clone club can totally cyper the rest of the book. They don't need Rachel anymore because they have enough to crack the code. Surely people as smart as Delphine, Cosima, Scott, or even Mrs. S with all of her intelligence training know that.

On a completely different note, I think the introduction of the romantic third wheel into Alison and Donnie's marriage was completely unnecessary. I don't like it, and the 180 turnaround of Donnie going from Alison's monitor to raging jealous husband who confronts a drug dealer who can obviously kick the shit out of him is just too much for me to swallow.

One review I read thought that Helena might be a new "love interest" for Donnie, but I don't buy it. I think she was flirting with him to make him uncomfortable enough to leave the room so she could hide her vat of "babies". She sees Donnie as an extension of family through Alison, but I don't think she finds him attractive at all because she has a "boyfriend" whom I'm completely sure she intends on finding one way or another.
posted by patheral at 4:50 PM on June 8, 2015

Plus, now that they have the translated pages -- if Rachel translated it correctly -- the clone club can totally cyper the rest of the book. They don't need Rachel anymore because they have enough to crack the code. Surely people as smart as Delphine, Cosima, Scott, or even Mrs. S with all of her intelligence training know that.

Yeah, it was bugging me that they didn't figure that out immediately. If they don't figure it out at all, I am going to be super annoyed.
posted by amro at 5:43 PM on June 8, 2015

My guess is that's going to be a plot point, and that they'll have to seek out a cryptographer. We don't know how complex the code is, and Rachel only translated a little.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 5:57 PM on June 8, 2015

maybe the book uses multiple codes ?
posted by Pendragon at 3:29 AM on June 9, 2015

Mrs S tends to be more of a general contractor (unless you want a cup of tea or need someone stabbed or beat up, in which case she's more hands on)-- when she needs a passport, she calls a passport maker, when she needs a car bomb, she calls a car bomb maker. I expect her to call a cryptographer any minute now.

On another note, I am keeping my fingers crossed for Krystal. It would have been the work of minutes to take that eye out and lobotomize her to make the disguise complete, but that doesn't seem to have happened.
posted by Mogur at 10:43 AM on June 9, 2015

So I, um, totally missed that fake-Rachel at the end was Krystal. Makes sense in retrospect because we saw creepy-Dyad-doctor approach her after Felix left. But at the time I was more "huh, they did a switch, so who's that?"

Also, I am confused. Who orchestrated the whole extract-Rachel-to-Germany plot? Creepy-doc was in on it, clearly. Was Rachel also in on it (and thus playing Scott and Sarah to make the whole "get me out of Dyad's security so we can do the switch" thing happen) or is she now also a pawn in this game?

I'm betting on even more layers to the onion.

I'm hoping they manage to shuck a couple of layers along the way, because I'm finding it hard to keep track of.
posted by We had a deal, Kyle at 11:20 AM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I was really disappointed that the tech-savvy Scott and Cosima [although I guess not tech-savvy enough to avoid videoconferencing on Dyad equipment/networks] made just a single photocopy instead of a digital copy. OF COURSE you'd scan the thing, not put it on a photocopier. And the book is just sitting on a shelf in the lab? Even more annoying that the totally avoidable slapstick about the envelope last week. "Excuse me, Felix gave you the wrong envelope. Let me just swap these. Thanks!" Problem solved.
posted by chazlarson at 12:25 PM on June 10, 2015 [2 favorites]

I wonder if the selective lack of tech savviness is meant to be taken not so much as a literal fault but as a shorthand way of saying Cosima and Scott just aren't up to dealing with the nefarious deeds of Dyad and Topside. There was also that scene much earlier in the season where Cosima was spinning Scott around in his chair while they were waiting for Dr. Nealon. He walks in and like kids who know they just got caught they quickly straightened out and put on their serious faces.
posted by plastic_animals at 4:53 PM on June 10, 2015 [1 favorite]

I wonder if the selective lack of tech savviness is meant to be taken not so much as a literal fault but as a shorthand way of saying Cosima and Scott just aren't up to dealing with the nefarious deeds of Dyad and Topside.

You know, I'd buy that if it were just Cosima and Scott, but they're talking to Sarah and Felix, who know better -- I mean, wasn't it Felix who thought of the clone phones? same concept -- as well as the paranoid Alison, and one of them should totally be, "Are you calling from inside Dyad??? Are you crazy? Get the hell out of there before you call me with this. What the hell is wrong with you?" Or something like that.

Those were my thoughts whenever I watched those video calls anyway... But maybe I'm just paranoid.
posted by patheral at 1:34 PM on June 11, 2015