Orphan Black: The Redesign of Natural Objects

June 3, 2016 12:36 AM - Season 4, Episode 8

Sarah and Mrs. S question Allison's loyalty when she becomes terrified by Neolution threats made against Donnie. With Sarah distracted, Siobhan sneaks out to seek vengeance. Cosima and Susan Duncan work together in one last attempt to discover a cure.
posted by Pendragon (33 comments total)

They had me going for a moment there!! I really thought Allison sold Sarah out.
posted by Pendragon at 9:41 AM on June 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

This one was pretty good. I was almost sad to see the bad cop guy go, just because he was so evil and creepy but also sorta normal? Like, a normal guy that likes/knows d&d and was worried about his little niece but also did super SUPER evil shit.
posted by destructive cactus at 9:53 AM on June 3, 2016

Poor Donnie, it sucks to get beaten up in prison anyway, but to "Jesus Christ Superstar"? That's rough.

I can't believe there are only 2 episodes left. With Cosima going to Susan's creepy Neolution island, who's going to be looking for Delphine? Or is she going to be found in another gilded cage in the basement?
posted by hobgadling at 10:02 AM on June 3, 2016

I loved that episode, but how much of a fool was Duko not to see that coming?
posted by amro at 1:21 PM on June 3, 2016

Allison playing Judas in the play really worked.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 2:41 PM on June 3, 2016 [3 favorites]

Allison uttered an actual curse word!
posted by plastic_animals at 4:48 PM on June 3, 2016

and then the same word again in german, even.
posted by vibratory manner of working at 5:04 PM on June 3, 2016

That was a good, solid episode. So glad to see Duko dispatched. He almost seemed to have been dropped-in from some other show.

I just can't get over just how completely and believably individual Maslany plays the clones. It's immersive.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:52 PM on June 3, 2016 [2 favorites]

Lady7 crowed delightedly "Yay! Donnie is the New Black!"

I found it pretty ironic that Sarah got wound up at S's "Black Irish shit", considering her attitude to crisis. I'm kind of glad Duko is out of the picture now - he was a bit too creepy-evil to sit well. I think OB's villains are better when they're more ambiguously drawn (Leekie, Susan Duncan, Rachel) Reserving judgement on Evie Cho, but she seems like more of a Duko than a Leekie...
posted by prismatic7 at 10:12 PM on June 3, 2016

That was good! I was a bit worried for this season - there were some rough plot points the last couple episodes - but I'm back on board.

Two episodes left, though? I guess we're mostly setting up for season 5. I think I've read that the series was planned in a five-season arc ... I'll see if I can find the source again.

Also, Felix has been hitting the gym hard, and is looking fine. I do appreciate a bit of gratuitous semi-nudity when it plays to my team.
posted by kanewai at 3:02 AM on June 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

I really have a feeling the finale is somehow going to involve Kira. She's been much more in the picture this season, like they're teasing us, waiting to uncork her.
posted by Thorzdad at 5:19 AM on June 4, 2016

"We are mad scientists. Don't be a hater." is in strong competition for my favorite line of the season.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 9:36 AM on June 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

"We are mad scientists. Don't be a hater." is in strong competition for my favorite line of the season.

I don't know, it has big competition in "And she cheats at Agricola".
posted by hobgadling at 11:20 AM on June 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

"We are mad scientists. Don't be a hater." is in strong competition for my favorite line of the season.

That was awesome.

Felix signalling "it's good" to Alison is in strong competition for my favorite scene of the entire show.

Felix is such a charming character. His (and Alison's) fear in that scene, and then their shared relief, was so well played and so heartwarming it made me cry! Ridiculous I know. But Alison's pouring her happiness into her performance (of Judas, hahahaha) was just too perfect.

That was an excellent episode all around.
posted by torticat at 12:29 PM on June 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

Yeah, I really liked Adele, Felix's sister, in this episode. She was hilarious. I hope she sticks around.
posted by heyho at 12:39 PM on June 4, 2016 [2 favorites]

I'm having major trouble picturing Rachel sitting around with Scott and his friends playing board games.
posted by amro at 1:26 PM on June 4, 2016

amro:

I'm here to help!
posted by destructive cactus at 1:43 PM on June 4, 2016 [1 favorite]

How do you even cheat at Agricola ?
posted by Pendragon at 2:19 PM on June 4, 2016

Ah, thank you! I had forgotten that!
posted by amro at 2:24 PM on June 4, 2016

I think at one point Rachel basically said "well this is mine now" while they were playing, which I might be making up but I imagine that's how Rachel would cheat.
posted by numaner at 5:19 PM on June 4, 2016

"Yeah, I really liked Adele, Felix's sister, in this episode. She was hilarious. I hope she sticks around."

I like her, too, and the one thing I don't want is what everyone expected about her, which is that she's not what she seems. I want her to be exactly what she seems because she's a lot more interesting that way.
posted by Ivan Fyodorovich at 7:27 PM on June 4, 2016 [4 favorites]

I like her, too, and the one thing I don't want is what everyone expected about her, which is that she's not what she seems. I want her to be exactly what she seems because she's a lot more interesting that way.

Yeah one thing the show has handled really well is all the allies... Mrs S, Felix, Donnie, Art, Scott, Paul & Delphine (I have more ambivalent feelings about those last two, but oh well), most recently Kendall. I can see Adele fitting into that pantheon nicely!* I like the comic book store dude also.

Really, really hope they don't have Adele playing a double game. She has skills the clones could use and clearly could benefit from having an adopted family herself. Also, writing her into the show as a traitor would be so unfair to Felix.

*The substance abuse fills me with dread, though. The intervention for Alison, way back, was played for laughs, along with her and Donnie's pills-dealing. But I hope they aren't going someplace really dark with all this. With Sarah's bender and Adele's issues and Alison's finding that vodka bottle, I'm worried.
posted by torticat at 10:59 PM on June 4, 2016

Allison playing Judas in the play really worked.

So call me crazy but I got this tiniest little hint of a suggestion of a possible connection between Alison playing Judas in the play & her betraying Sarah for real. Did anyone else see that or am I just reading too much into all this? If it was really there it was extremely subtle so I'm just not sure.

It was almost as subtle as the 9 different ways Kurt Sutter made absolutely sure everybody watching had no excuse if they missed the parallels between Jax Teller & Jesus in the series finale of Sons of Anarchy. Well OK, it wasn't quite that blatant. But still.
posted by scalefree at 1:34 AM on June 5, 2016

So, um, murderating Bad Cop in daylight is not okay by Sarah but torture followed by probable murdering is okay? I'm just really unfond of torture (or threats thereof) as a trope. Normalizing torture has real-world implications that I'm not cool with.

I'll miss Bad Cop. His Bureaucratic Evil was surprisingly compelling.
posted by BungaDunga at 4:06 PM on June 5, 2016 [1 favorite]

I have never seen Jesus Christ Superstar so I thought Allison's sparkly cape was meant to represent that her character was God, and her lines seemed to back up that impression, but now I don't remember how.
posted by bleep at 4:19 PM on June 5, 2016

so I thought Allison's sparkly cape was meant to represent that her character was God, and her lines seemed to back up that impression

"jesus christ, superstar, do you think you're who they say you are" and "who are you? what have you sacrificed?"--you're right, the lines could plausibly belong to God or they could be Judas. In the show they are Judas's lines.

I wondered how that scene would play for people who aren't particular fans of the musical. The great inversion in JCSS is that Judas is kind of the main character, the narrator, and he strongly challenges Jesus. At the same time he's still a traitor, and his guilt and doubt is overwhelming. Which makes it very funny on OB both that Alison takes that role and that she embraces it with so much joy after finding out Donnie's okay.

And possibly not as unrelated as it might seem...

So, um, murderating Bad Cop in daylight is not okay by Sarah but torture followed by probable murdering is okay?

BungaDunga, I don't think it's okay. I think S even admits as much, after Duko says "it's all about family" and she says "I get that." I don't think it's supposed to be in any way completely alright.

But in terms of the fictional story of OB, we accept it because we know S is ALL about family, and she is completely badass when it comes to that, and as it happens that we love her family.

Or at least that's how I see it (didn't stop me from cringing when I wondered what happens to Duko's poor little 10yo niece).
posted by torticat at 5:20 PM on June 5, 2016

oh CRAP I just thought as I hit "post"--what if Duko's little 9 or 10yo niece is another Charlotte? What if that's how he got dragged into the whole thing... could it be that his niece IS Charlotte??
posted by torticat at 5:22 PM on June 5, 2016

I had no idea Allison was playing Judas (I was actually about to ask if there was an explicit mention of it that I missed, or if that relied entirely on the audience knowing the play) and thought it was a nicely tense scene, but that the particular musical they were doing was entirely incidental to that tension.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 6:10 PM on June 5, 2016

could it be that his niece IS Charlotte??

Is that a dumb theory? Charlotte as far as we know is a clone of Rachel, so she shouldn't have any other genetic relatives. OTOH the show has made kind of an issue of introducing this relative of Duko's, stating her age more than once and giving S a little bit of an empathetic connection with her ("that's a pretty name"). Also Duko mentions that whoever this child is, she didn't have anyone else supporting her.
posted by torticat at 6:54 PM on June 5, 2016

I felt bad for Scott, having to clean up S's mess.
posted by DowBits at 9:21 AM on June 6, 2016 [1 favorite]

Couldn't you at least put down some plastic, S?
posted by Kitty Stardust at 9:49 AM on June 6, 2016

Charlotte is a clone, but she was still born -- I assume that the show would have mentioned if they'd come up with artificial wombs. If her birth mother is Duko's sister[-in-law] he may still think of her as family.
posted by Holy Zarquon's Singing Fish at 12:55 PM on June 6, 2016

I really have a feeling the finale is somehow going to involve Kira.

KIRA: Hello, Evie. It's nice to meet you.

EVIE [startled]: How... how did you get in here?

KIRA: It was easy! [points to a piece of BrightBorn-branded paraphernalia, like I don't know, a pregnancy-test package?] I just followed the directions on the box. So did she.

[EVIE CHO whirls around, to reveal...]

CHARLOTTE: It's a very fun game you've been playing with us. I like games, don't you? Hide-and-seek is fun, but my favorite is "Ring Around the Rosy."

[KIRA and CHARLOTTE start singing creepily]

EVIE [glancing back and forth, panicked]: Oh god, no, make it stop! This isn't right! It's inhuman!

[KIRA and CHARLOTTE smile and continue singing, more slowly]

EVIE: No! I can't take it anymore! [jumps out window]

S [stepping out from shadows]: Come on, loves, let's go. We have to set up Ira and Felix, so next season's Big Bad can be Awkward Relationship Dynamics.

FIN
posted by psoas at 1:47 PM on June 13, 2016 [1 favorite]