Orphan Black: Variations under Nature

Spoilers for the episode

The Story:

Sarah’s still trying to get the money from Art while the police find Katya’s body ground up in a quarry. She’s unrecognizable but there’s still the problem of fingerprints that will show results for Sarah who’s meant to be dead and who will look like Beth.

Thoughts:

Cosima’s trying to break the news about being Clones gently to Sarah but Allison ruins that.

Allison thinks Sarah is a low life grifter who probably pushed Beth in front of the train. She doesn’t want to believe Beth killed herself because Beth was a cop so what chance do the rest of them have at coping if she couldn’t.

Sarah asks how they’re related, Allison says they’re not but Cosima says they’re related by nature not nurture. Allison loses her temper and just blurts out that they’re clones. They’re someone’s experiment.

Felix is still waiting out in the car and is told he can’t wait there by the ‘bitch that guards hell’. He gets tired of waiting and enters the back garden.

Allison pulls a gun on him but Sarah gets in the way and tells Allison it’s fine and he’s her brother. As soon as she puts the gun down Sarah slaps her and drags Felix away.

Cosima hands the phone back and says she broke the first rule of clone club while Felix stands in the background looking like he’s in shock.

Back at Felix’s flat Sarah’s in denial and probably having an identity crisis. (Felix looking through the photos and calling them soccer mum Sarah and scientist Sarah can’t be helping). She repeats ‘they’re not me’ and doesn’t want to get involved. She wants to stick to the original plan to take the money and Kira and run.

Felix’s more realistic and thinks she can’t escape it because the clones are being hunted and Cosima said the blood samples are a matter of life or death.

Sarah puts on her Beth face again and tries to convince Art to give the money back but in the next second she’s reinstated so now he’ll give it back but he doesn’t have the money on him or in the trunk (which later turns out to be a lie).

A body’s been found at a quarry so they’ve got to go investigate. Sarah struggles to put the gun harness on and doesn’t load it.

In the car she also doesn’t know how to use the radio or how to respond properly.

They pull up to a quarry and there’s Katya’s body that’s been ground up by the machines so she doesn’t really have a face anymore. She’ll have to be identified by fingerprint.

Sarah phones Cosima to find out if that’s going to be a problem. Cosima says their fingerprints are close enough and asks if she’s got a criminal record. Sarah answers wasted youth, assault and fraud. But they’ve got a bit of time before the results come through so Sarah’s got to intercept them.

Art finds out that Sarah’s gun’s not loaded and is so not happy about that. Sarah decides this is a good time to ask about the money again. He threatens to shred it if she asks again.

Sarah meets Cosima in a bar. She says she doesn’t believe in clones and Cosima asks how many of them does she have to meet. Apparently Katya had collected samples from European clones who have been killed.

Sarah hands over the briefcase and makes a joke. Cosima says it’s good she’s still got a sense of humour, Beth couldn’t keep hers.

Art books Sarah in for the gun range because she didn’t have her gun loaded. While Katya’s killer phones the police station with a voice changer and tells them the spot where Katya was killed.

Sarah can’t log onto the work computer or do anything else really. So she befriends a tech guy and gets him to reset the password and tell her the procedure for fingerprints. She then deletes the fingerprint results.

Art goes with another cop to where Katya was killed. They find motorbike tracks and the head of the Barbie doll from the hotel

Sarah goes to talk to Mrs. S who asks her about her new identity and how she’s doing it. Sarah says she’s going to take Kira but Mrs. S says clothes and a new car don’t make you a mother. She threatens to tell social services that Sarah hasn’t been in Kira’s life if she doesn’t prove she can stay in one place.

So onto dealing with the next problem and it turns out Allison knows how to shoot so can teach Sarah but needs someone to watch her kids. They get Felix, who asks where the alcohol is and gets the children cross dressing.

Beth taught Allison to shoot so they were close. Allison says she’s doing the best she can with what her life has become but her children can’t know their mother is a freak. Allison thinks someone is wiping out their illegal experiments.

Also the money is Allison’s. It was how she could contribute and they’d buy information. They’re hoping Sarah realises she can’t run away from this. Good luck with that.

Allison comes home and the children don’t want Felix to leave. He calls them ‘dragsters’.

Back at Beth’s and Sarah’s still determined to take the money and run but Paul turns up so Felix has to hide. Sarah distracts him with sex or potential sex because he decides to run hot and cold with her like she’s doing with him and leaves.

At the gun range Art and Sarah discuss the murder. They get a call of a bike matching the description of the APB Sarah got tech guy to put out for her.

They go to the flat and the door’s open. Sarah does her best at pretending to know how to enter and be cop like.

While they’re searching Sarah hides an ID of Katya that she found in a bible. There’s a big bible quote. Sarah spots the killer and pushes Art out of the way but he gets shot in the neck. He tells her to pursue and she does but she doesn’t try to catch the person just stays close enough so she can follow.

She looses them and calls Art to tell him where she is. She gets attacked and they’re about to kill her when she says ‘I’m not Beth’ and the person pauses. She lifts her hood to reveal another clone. Sarah stabs her and the clone picks up a gun but doesn’t shoot instead running away.

Later Sarah says she never saw his face and Art feels guilty about telling her to pursue him. He gives her the money and he did have it in the trunk.

Sarah goes to Mrs. S and watches Kira through the window but can’t bring herself to snatch her own child. She can’t leave her clones without telling them about the murderer clone.

Meanwhile the blond clone is removing the metal pipe from her side. She’s got whip marks all over her back. She’s religious so I’m guessing the whip marks are from penance or something similar.

This episode is so good. They just keep pilling on the problems. I love how conflicted Sarah is. She wants to be selfish and ignore the clone thing and steal Kira but her conscience gets the better of her. I like that Sarah’s not always likable because it’s so rare with female characters to be in between but I think we needed Sarah to do the right thing here and show she’s a good person.

And now we’ve got another clone added to the mix and Tatiana Maslany is so good at this one as well.

I think my favourite clone is Cosima but I’m starting to really like Allison as we get to see a side to her other than uptight. I don’t think there’s a character I hate and that’s such a rare thing for me.

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