In the beginning, that was exhilarating. Separated at birth from her twin, Sarah Manning (all the clones are “sisters”, but the rest had different surrogates), Helena was raised in a convent in the Ukraine. Not only that, but there’s a new clone in the mix. Tatiana Maslany can relate. What’s going on during tonight’s season premiere? It was a fun romp back to the show’s original roots and featured plenty of familiar faces who have long since perished. Orphan Black has kept us hooked with its sharp script, brilliant character development, and inventive pseudo science, but it’s avoided answering that big question.
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“Her performance(s) seriously make all the confusion worth it for me”, one blogger wrote. Beth never got to tell her own story – we knew what Sarah found out after assuming her identity, plus what Art and Paul and the sister clones have told us, but this was the first time we really got to spend time with her ourselves. With the show seemingly returning to the clone-versus-creator core, Orphan Black will likely return to being the taut narrative that made it such a compelling show from the beginning. Watching Maslany flesh out a character who’s always been something of an enigma was a real treat, and the actress beautifully dramatized the festering despair that led Beth to take her own life. Foreshadowing, much? Ramon is her delivery boy, and he brings Beth pills and a bottle of Alison’s daughter’s pee to pass a drug test. Such a great mother.
At the end of Season 3, most of the CASTOR clones were dead, Rachel (Tatiana Maslany) reunited with Susan Duncan (Rosemary Dunsmore), and Sarah (Maslany) and Kira (Skyler Wexler) chose to lay low in Iceland. Who’s the body? And why, as we discover within minutes of the first episode, is the unidentified corpse missing part of his cheek tissue?
TM: A lot of that comes from the writing, [co-creator] Graeme [Mason]’s character creation – which is so detailed and awesome – and just the conversation that he and I had leading up to this season. Can you knit me together or just tear me apart?… With every episode there have been so many complications, twists, and turns that keeping track of it all was just about impossible – even if it was your job, as it was mine. But Beth is just now tracking down the Neolutionists involvement.
Throw in the ominous Dyad institute – an organisation hell-bent on using genetic engineering to evil ends, and a story-world where allegiances are constantly shifting and where digging for the truth only ever reveals a new bottom, and you end up with a show that gives viewers the good kind of whiplash. “To know that there is something deeper, and there’s a deep level of conspiracy and mystery in our show”. Jordan Gavaris previously teased that Neolution is not a company but a concept. “In today’s society, we’re forced to be so buttoned up and keep everything close to the vest and don’t say too much and don’t do too much and don’t put yourself too far out there for fear of x, y, and z”.
So when “Collapse of Human Nature” sent Beth down a rabbit hole that led to Neolutionists, I actually groaned.
HANCHARD: Here’s the thing I always talk about when I do interviews. It is, after all, one of the most engaging sci-fi series now on television, so there’s no shame in wanting to go back and start the series from the top (also, Tatiana didn’t win the label of “Best F***ing Actress on TV” for nothing).
I can’t believe Beth nearly shot Paul. I knew that there was something that pushed her to do what she did, but seeing the way that she pushed other people away. We haven’t seen anything as insane and weird as cheek worms and bifurcated penises (extra points for Beth’s “corkscrew breasts” comment) since Helena lopped off Olivier’s tail back in season one.
Still: There are a couple encouraging factors, here.
Some ghosts from the past popped up (R.I.P., Hot Paul), too as Beth’s tangled web was weaved, but the most shocking moment came when the show jumped back to the future and showed Sarah’s latest threat.
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Cosima, for instance, is still mourning the death of her ex-girlfriend, Delphine (Evelyne Brochu). But everything around the interpersonal drama is so fraught with complications that boiling it back down for a second was an absolute necessity. Back where we started. Not only do I not buy it, but it felt like that entire part of the plot was added to the plot just to get Beth from Point A to Point B. It was boring, and rather than adding a random goth girl to the proceedings, it would’ve been great if M.K. was able to just continue helping Beth until they got somewhere.
