After almost two seasons of ‘Orphan Black’, I was of the opinion that this show could do no wrong and that star Tatiana Maslany could tackle any role given to her. This week, however, the writers and producers try something pretty bold… and it’s a huge misfire.
Viewers learn what’s coming in the pre-title sequence, which has a pair of guys in a bullet-ridden van who apparently have just escaped a shootout. The driver of the van, a bald and bearded fellow, has been on the receiving end of some fatal gunshots. Before he dies, he tells his partner that he needs to find Beth Childs. The partner is played by Tatiana Maslany… except that’s no female clone… That’s a man, baby!
The clone makes contact with Art, who takes him to Felix’s apartment. While the new clone finds out that Beth Childs is dead, viewers learn a little more about him and his sexual orientation. It turns out that the clone’s name is Tony, although he formerly used to be Antoinette and went through sexual reassignment as some point. He looks to have already had a sex change operation, but still takes shots of testosterone. He also seems to have a crush on Felix.
Thankfully, Tony doesn’t seem as if he’s going to play a big part in the ongoing storyline and may only be a recurring character. The problem with Tony, other than the fact that the stunningly beautiful Maslany could never pass as a male (even one who had a sex change operation) is that he’s just an uninteresting character and seems to have been created only to see if the gimmick could be pulled off. What we have here is a distraction to the real storylines, and I hope we don’t see Tony again, at least not until the show-runners have something more interesting for him to do.
Elsewhere this week, Alison arrives home from the rehab center to find Donnie in bed and drinking heavily. Later, she’ll find him packing his bags in the middle of the night. She demands that he not give up on their marriage, and then confesses to him that she was responsible for the death of Aynsley. Donnie then confesses to killing Dr. Leekie – with Alison’s gun, no less. It looks like the next episode or two will have Donnie and Alison teaming up to hide evidence of Leekie’s demise. (Donnie has the body wrapped in plastic in the trunk of his car.) That should provide for some good, albeit dark, comic relief.
The main focus of this week’s episode is on Cosima, who’s getting worse despite having obtained another one of Kira’s baby teeth for stem cell purposes. Lab assistant Scott tells her that Kira’s (although he doesn’t actually know her name or that she’s one of the clone’s daughters) bone marrow would yield much better results, but Cosima doesn’t want to ask that of Sarah or Kira. Cosima also starts the episode pretty ticked off at Delphine, but they manage to rekindle their relationship before episode’s end.
At Rachael’s request, Ethan is asked to come to the Dyad Institute to see what he can do for Cosima. Before he goes to see her, he has a conversation with Rachel where she asks him why none of the clones but Sarah are capable of reproduction. Ethan tells her that Sarah is actually the clone he screwed up with. He had designed each of them not to be capable of reproducing.
Ethan finally meets Cosima, but tragedy strikes when she collapses and goes into a seizure – violently convulsing and spitting up blood. The episode ends back with Sarah and Kira sleeping together in bed. Kira awakens, gets out of bed, and pulls out a copy of ‘The Island of Dr. Moreau’, which Ethan has been reading to her. Except, as Kira turns the pages, we see the margins and blank spaces are filled with all kinds of scientific notes and formulas that Ethan has written.
This was probably my least-favorite episode of ‘Oprhan Black’ this year, thanks largely to all the stuff involving Tony/Antoinette, which I really didn’t care for. For the second week in a row, Helena fails to make an appearance (though she is in the previews for Episode 9), nor do we see or find out anything more about the mysterious Dr. Bowles.
