Orphan Black: Season 2, Episode 7 Recap

Loose ends are tied up as we head towards the Orphan Black Season 2 finale.

Editor’s Note: There be spoilers afoot!

Last episode left us with a few solid plot twists and a couple of big questions. Firstly, Helena voluntarily left her sestra road trip to rejoin the Proletheans on their creepy farm thanks to Gracie’s quick thinking. However, returning to the farm and actually going through with the Proletheans’ plan are two very different things and I’m actually torn on what I want to happen. Helena is so headstrong that it’s hard to believe that she’ll adopt the modern Prolethan ways of life and fit in successfully with the rest of Henrick’s devotees, despite the fact that she was raised in the old-school Prolethean ways.

On the other hand, Helena’s need for family has been her driving force for much of her time onscreen in the first season and all throughout this season, so it would make sense for her to choose to become the center of attention in this big, extended family. I struggle with wanting Helena to belong and knowing that it’s possible she never will. As sympathetic as her desire for family is, it’s hard to cheer for her to become a full-time mother. In any case, I’m still holding out hope for some ass-kicking scenes on this Prolethean farm, though they may come from Sarah rather than Helena.

Speaking of Sarah, she successfully managed to find both Mrs. S and Swan Man, a.k.a. Andrew Peckham, a.k.a. Ethan Duncan, and some solid intel along the way. Leekie, Rachel Duncan’s mentor and the man who raised her, was actually behind the murder of her mother all along. It’s pretty screwed up and I have a good feeling that while she’s the most self-aware clone, Rachel has zero idea that her closest cohort was actually her mother’s murderer. I wouldn’t be surprised if Rachel found out and decided to settle the score once and for all when it comes to Leekie.

And then there was that vague stem cell treatment discovery by Scott back in the Dyad labs with Delphine. I’m hoping we get confirmation of the mysterious source of the stem cells this episode. Since the only known relative of any clone is Kira, it’s not looking good for the magic child and definitely kicks up some concern regarding Cal’s involvement in this whole thing again. Purely just a father-figure? I think not.

Episode seven starts with Alison and Vic in rehab. Vic convinces her to trust him enough that Alison informs him of her involvement in neighbor Aynsley’s untimely death. She overhears Vic on the phone with DeAngelis discussing the trade of Alison’s dirt for Vic’s freedom and decides to take matters into her own hands.

Back at the Duncan residence, Sarah considers siding with Rachel after learning of the dark spot on Leekie’s personal record. With all the information they have and Rachel’s collection of old home movies, Sarah believes that Rachel may be more inclined to align herself with the clones instead of Leekie or the Dyad Institute.

While Sarah is with Duncan and Mrs. S, Cal and Kira are still traveling in Cal’s camper-van. He discovers that his laptop has been hacked and someone has been monitoring his time with Kira through the computer’s video capabilities. With Dyad written all over that, Cal calls Sarah to inform her of the hack, ditches the laptop, and forges a new trail with Kira still in tow. Parting ways, Sarah leaves her foster mother to meet up with Cal and her daughter.

At the Dyad, Cosima begins an invasive stem cell treatment of the polyps on her uterus. Delphine tries to calm Cosima’s worries by walking her through the treatment’s process, but instead of heartwarming, the scene feels like Delphine is whispering sweet nothings to Cosima while another doctor injects our scientist with this magical medicine to begin treating Cosima’s ailments. Did I mention this happens with Cosima in gynecologist stirrups? The scene is darkly lit and despite the attempt at hopeful music playing in the background, just feels off-putting.

Even more off-putting are Delphine’s consistent attempts to keep the source of these stem cells from Cosima, who just so happens to come upon Scott and Delphine in an argument about this very information. With confirmation that these stem cells do belong to Kira, Cosima unleashes hell on Delphine. Cosima is understandably pissed that this information has been kept from her, since that’s one of the major clauses in her contract with Dyad and her relationship with Delphine. Next in the line of questions and answers is how the Dyad procured Kira’s stem cells at all. Remember way back in season one when Kira was hit by that car? She lost a tooth in that accident and Leekie took it from the hospital, which means that their source of Kira’s stem cells is finite and in order for the treatment to continue, more of Kira’s stem cells are needed.

Leekie sets up a meeting with a powerful woman named Marian Bowles, with whom he discusses the living status of Dr. Ethan Duncan. Marian seems to have a strong handle on the clone situation, though we don’t learn much about her personal involvement in it. We get the sense that Marian is higher up on the Dyad food chain than Leekie when she essentially orders Leekie to pull in the reins on Rachel and make some strides on obtaining Sarah Manning.

Mrs. S wastes no time in getting to the Dyad Institute to strike up a deal with Leekie. She offers Ethan Duncan’s early research on the clones but Leekie requires the authentication of this research by the good doctor himself. Siobhan counters with another offer: Duncan for the Dyad in exchange for Kira’s freedom. This deal, however, doesn’t include Sarah as Mrs. S believes that Kira deserves a better life than what she’s been given. Still seemingly playing both sides of the field, Siobhan calls Sarah to fill her in on her meeting with Leekie. She believes that Rachel has no idea of Leekie’s involvement with her mother’s murder and the two agree to drop that knowledge bomb on Rachel despite the consequences.

Sarah is reunited with her daughter for a few short moments before she gets a call from Felix and Alison. Sarah rushes to the rehab center to help them with their Vic problem while Felix spikes Vic’s tea, knocking him unconscious. As the day goes on, Sarah gets strong-armed into playing Alison at her rehab’s Family Day. Consider this scene a throwback to Season One’s potluck party at Alison’s house where Sarah pretended to play Alison in front of her entire neighborhood. Meanwhile, Alison and Felix go on a mission to hide the unconscious body of Vic and narrowly avoid being spotted by Angie DeAngelis. Our detective sees her informant passed out and bleeding from the nose, which basically negates him as a credible source and saves Alison’s secrets, for now.

The biggest shock at Family Day comes when Donnie discovers both Alison and Sarah side-by-side and is flabbergasted by the resemblance. Alison confronts her husband about his involvement in the experiments, but Donnie explains that he was completely unaware his monitoring gig had anything to do with clones at all, but instead was pitched to him as an extended sociology experiment. Poor, sweet, dumb Donnie.

Cosima calls Sarah and fills her in on the Kira stem cell treatment problem. Kira overhears the resulting argument between Sarah and Cal and pulls her own loose tooth out, just for her ‘Aunt’ Cosima. Just another creepy-sweet moment from Orphan Black. The mother-daughter pair ride off, presumably to bring the tooth to Cosima.

Meanwhile, Siobhan’s deal with Leekie comes to a head when Rachel and Paul show up to meet Ethan Duncan and authenticate his early research. For once we see some real emotion from Rachel, including tears in her eyes at the sight of her long-lost father who proceeds to tell his daughter about Leekie’s involvement in Rachel’s mother’s death.

Armed with that knowledge, Rachel confronts Leekie and a Baddie Showdown begins. Leekie urges Rachel to put this whole thing behind her and move forward, but Rachel instead calls Marian. In another switch up, we discover that Marian has ordered a hit on Leekie for his incompetence with the Sarah Manning issue. Rachel, in an act of kindness, prompts Leekie to leave the Dyad and forgo his car and his home in effort to survive the hit. With one powerful quote, Rachel admits that it is foolish to spare Leekie’s life, but he raised her. “Nurture prevails,” she says, which is basically the central discovery of this entire series.

Of course, it’d be far too easy if Leekie got away. Donnie, now armed with knowledge and literally armed with a handgun, tracks Leekie down for retribution. Poor Donnie, in another moment of pure idiocy, decides to punctuate his statement of resignation from the program with a smack to his steering wheel…and with it an accidental trigger-pull of that handgun, angled so it shoots Leekie directly in the head.

With episode seven down and only three more to go before the end of the season, I’m glad these loose ends are beginning to knot up. It’s good to see that many of the secrets from earlier this season are already being wrapped up. Cosima’s now aware of the stem cells’ origins and has seemingly isolated Delphine thanks to her secretive nature, Donnie’s cognizant of the clone experiments, and Rachel understands her mentor’s involvement in her mother’s murder.

With these secrets now common knowledge, we can now move on to the bigger picture questions. Will Rachel join Sarah Manning in her anti-Dyad fight? Will Helena’s dream of a family come to pass, no matter how unsettling the Prolethean lifestyle that accompanies it? What will become of Kira if Sarah gets her too close to the Dyad, now that Leekie’s gone? It’s obvious that the line of power at the Dyad stretches well beyond Rachel and Leekie and probably even beyond the new boss, Marian, but I’m pretty positive Paul would dive in and snatch up the miracle child of Sarah Manning at any chance he could.

I’m hoping to see a change of heart from Rachel. It’d be good for Sarah to have a powerful ally in her corner, no matter how strained the relationship is. At this point, I’m willing to replace Rachel with Marian in a battle with the Proletheans for this season’s Best Villain Award.