Sarah just saw Bonnie, scary Prolethean lady, apparently shoot Mark. Sarah wants none of that, especially not with the ominous music playing, she hides and runs, grabbing Mark’s pistol on the way. In the cornfield she finds Mark – wounded and bleeding but still alive (seriously Evil Bonnie, you couldn’t manage a lethal shot at that range?). She decides to help him, something even he doesn’t understand and drags him away before the cultists can find them (which means the cultists are just damned lazy, to be honest. Cults just can’t get good help these days).
Sarah takes Mark to safety where they have to get the
bullet out of his leg for REASONS (bullets are not generally radioactive poison
factories that need removing from the body RIGHT NOW or, even, at all for that
matter – but you do have a good chance of causing a load of extra damage
rooting around for them in amateur, non-sterile surgery). So time for the wound
to be cut open with a dirty knife and Sarah to shove her unwashed fingers into
Mark’s leg. If you wanted to kill him there are less cruel methods (oh wait
they pour vodka on things which makes it all ok). Points for “stick it in fast
it won’t hurt,” “god you must be one hell of a first date.”
He tells her all he knows and how the Castors are raised
in a very different way to the Leda clones (they’re all raised together with no
outside contacts). He also tells her about the stash of “junk” which is all
they got from Johanssen, which Sarah is very interested in because she knows
what treasures can lurk in this junk. When Mark passes out she leaves with his
key –but calls an ambulance for him. Of course this puts Mark back on the
Castor radar.
At Felix’s Cosima is spending her time working on the
confusing science left by Ethan in the book he gave Kira and pining after
Delphine. Felix, recognising his eternal role as providing comfort and support
to everyone around him quickly diagnoses this and moves in to help like a good
little servant. He takes her drinking so she can unload and introduces her to
online dating.
Sarah finds the box of junk Mark had and sees that Johanssen
was Ethan Duncan’s (the guy who started Castor and Leda going) lab assistant.
Since it’s all science she calls Cosima to bring her up to date and connect the
dots. Reading the books it’s clear Johanssen used what he stole from Ethan to
make his own clone; basically they’re not looking for tissue samples Johanssen
may have on ice from the Castor original, they’re looking for a clone,
Johanssen’s son – and the woman who carried the child. Sarah finds a picture –it’s
Evil Bonnie, pregnant.
Over to Evil Bonnie - she and Grace return to the Creepy
Cult – they have a whole new centre now and a new host: Mr. Appleyard. He is extra
specially creepy and the cult has already set the creepy bar high. He uses the
excuse of being blind to grope her and obsess about her clone baby.
Except Gracie starts feeling severe pain – and she starts
bleeding. They decide urgent prayer is needed which, unlike actual medical
attention, doesn’t actually do anything and Grace miscarries. Evil Bonnie,
being Evil, blames it all on Grace because EVIL SINNER! She banishes Grace as
the only reason they welcomed her back was for the baby. Evil Bonnie is not a
nice lady.
Mark doesn’t end up in hospital – he follows Sarah back
to the motel and holds her at gun point (which is kind of like a whole family
ritual now). Mark knows about this missing Castor son of Johannsen’s – but it
died as a baby. They go to the grave of Abel Johanssen. Yay Sarah time to dig
up a dead baby – she’s not having the best night. While doing so she explains
to Mark her connection with Helena and excuses a lot of what Helena has done
due to the way she was raised. She also keeps calling Mark “brother”
But he passes out from his injuries just as Sarah
unearths the baby body and scar-faced Castor shows up. He may get another scar
since Sarah whams him in the face with a shovel. Cat and mouse game follows in
which this Castor shows that he is the creepiest Castor of all – but just as he
catches Sarah Mark shows up and orders him to stand down. Seems Mark outranks
Creepy – and Creepy Castor tries lots of threats and bravado but ultimately won’t
kill his big brother. They take the box – but they also consider Sarah a loose
end.
To the military base where Helena is being kept. She has
a plan (and I am both afraid and gleeful over this). Tying a tourniquet over
her arm she then freaks out, trashing her room, throwing her shit bucket and
generally being worrisome. So she gets tranquilised by “Mother” – in the arm
she just applied a tourniquet to. Clever Helena.
Since they think she’s unconscious they leave her alone with her happy hallucination scorpion. She scouts around fighting the drugs – before she passes out she finds a lab. Her scorpion leads her back to her sick bed. She also spends her nights carving a weapon from a chicken bone with her teeth. Honestly, there are few things more terrifying than Helena held hostage. She’s so determined and creative.
Helena uses her chicken bone lock pick to escape and
returns to the science lab she found – there she finds Parsons, another Castor
clone tied to a chair. They’ve sliced off the top of his skull and his brains
are exposed – and yes, he is still alive. All part of their drive to find a
cure. He begs her to kill him. The scorpion disapproves of her wasting valuable
escape time but Helena is more compassionate identifying with the clone who has
been abandoned by his family. She kills him
Mother arrives to see that but Helena is now supremely
pissed after what she’s seen and calls her a ”shit mother” before the guards
take her which is something of an understatement. Well she lost any chance she
had of winning Helena over
Allison and Donny continue their little drug dealing escapade though Donny doesn’t really have the nerves for this. Allison is just freakily organised about the whole thing. The person following Donnie isn’t the police though, it’s Ramon’s supplier who isn’t exactly pleased with them taking over the business without sending any money his way. The boss wants to meet and his minion not-very-subtly mentions the names of their kids.
They attend the meeting and Donnie brings a gun which
Allison thinks is a bad idea given his past experience with firearms. Of course
they’re searched (Allison first because she’s clearly the more dangerous one –
the boss doesn’t even want to talk to Donnie).
Turns out the big boss is a man called Jason who went to school
with (and dated) Allison. Freaky reunion time –he also still has a major crush
on Allison and lots of flirting happens. Allison’s also still a business women
and, since she knows the community, she’s sure she can make a lot more money
than Ramon ever could – they make a deal
Much as I love all things Helena, my acute loathing of
scorpions means I’m throwing this back to Renee so I can go back to skipping
those scenes. Especially if she’s going to let it crawl on her hand, gaaaaaah.
Though her scenes are incredible and, I have to say yet again, that Tatiana
Maslaney is an acting mutant with super powers.
Sarah and Allison don’t need Felix at their beck and call
at the moment, so he’s moved on to being
a good little helper to another clone – at least him being the support
in Cosima’s life means he’s playing GBF to a lesbian and not another straight
woman which I guess is a step up.
Allison the drug dealer – I’m torn. On the one hand it’s
funny and weird and cheesey and silly and unbelievable and kind of a fun relief
from the rather unrelenting grimness everywhere else – but it feels less relief
and more like a complete nonsequiter. Like some dropped the scripts from two
different shows and got a few scenes mixed in that have no place here. Not just
in terms of plot, but theme, tension, everything just feels too out of place.
Ok let’s unpack this. So Ethan made the Castor and (I
think) Leda originals who are related. As to why and the difference in
upbringing et al I’m just going to say “for science!” and probably throw in some
cackling. Both of these clones have health issues that make acquiring the
originals to do some hasty DNA patching a major goal. Johansen (Henrik, head of
the Proletheans) stole the research and made his own clone – another Castor
(Everyone assumes) and Evil Bonnie carried that child. It’s complicated but
when you lay it all out we can see the connections forming – I find Orphan
Black is one of those shows where it just helps to draw out a big chart now and
then.
