Orphan Black General Discussion

Shocker that Leakey disagrees with Rachel's persecution of Sarah. Of course it turns out she didn't kidnap Siobhan and Kira after all.

She tries to be all badass and coldblooded, but then Sarah fires the gun and she understands she's not in control at the moment.

The look on Art's face as he watched Alison rehearse the musical was priceless.

Good premiere. 4 stars.

I don't trust Siobhan either. And this episode gave me several reasons for that. First of all, she was almost right that she did a better job keeping Kira safe than Sarah did. Until she wasn't. Big dealbreaker.

Also the fact that she was SUCH a convincing liar about not knowing what Leda is, says when she claims she is on Sarah's side I have no reason to believe it.

Third, Kira's getting bad vibes. I trust that kid's vibes more than most.

Rachel is as big as sociopath as Helena is, but for different reasons.

Cool episode. 4 stars.

And the difference between this and Game Of Thrones is that I'm properly horrified. Game Of Thrones would try and titillate me at the same time because it is the worst.

I love that Felix ultimately wanted to go back to Alison.

Cal is the father? Interesting.

That was a pretty shocking episode on a lot of levels. 4 stars.

Cal is not cut out for this. While he was outside of it, that's his selling point. When he gets into the thick of things it turns into a drawback. If he survives the season I will be shocked.

Sometimes you haven't been kidnapped to a top secret facility. Sometimes you're just in rehab. Why the FUCK should I ever care about Alison's unrelated nonsense? And why does it always amuse me anyways?

Is it just me or does the wedding dress play like it's Helena's straightjacket? It feels like some sort of visual prison at any rate. It Gets. The Point. ACROSS.

Baller ending here. "Clever girl." 4 1/2 stars.

By the way, Rachel is purely fucked up.

It is amazing that her, Sarah, Alison, and Helena each look and sound nothing alike. I can tell which character is which on-screen even though they are played by the same person. I've never seen a performance like that, where the actor disappears so far into the character you can't even tell it's them.

This episode is a turning point for Paul. It's the first time he's never had any plausible deniability for his actions. Not saying he's definitely turned against Sarah or her friends. What I'm saying is there is no evidence left that he hasn't. The thing with Felix and the gun is not a sin that can just be explained away.

Mark's kiss to Grace was horrifying enough (as were the lips sewn together), but the idea that she'll have to carry the child if they don't find Helena? This is why I hate Godbotherers. It's pretty much the brand.

Alarming episode. 4 stars.

This episode is filled with revelations, and for the mystery genre there is a right way to do things (rare) and a wrong one (common). The wrong one is to cut off the information before anything important is learned, often by killing the infodump character off mid-monologue. Bad TV shows with mysteries don't actually want to give the viewers anything EVER, and think viewers can be shit on repeatedly, and will tolerate it with no objections. They are often right about the second thing.. For David Lynch and Twin Peaks, that was sort of the point. For The X-Files and Lost, it was because the writers were dicking us around. Lost actually eventually started revealing enough to satisfy the character arcs by the series finale (although most fans of that show disagree with me) while The X-Files ultimately collapsed under the weight of its own bullshit. The fact that Orphan Black gave us this much without dicking us around first is a very good sign. This was the right way to do things. Not a guarantee it will ALWAYS do the reveals the right way. But as the first real big infodump, it's promising we were dealt as square as we were.

I am not happy to see Vic. Because the character is so hapless I predict he's gonna get his dumb ass killed soon. And I don't actually want that. Him and Alison were cute together.

So was Helena and her "boyfriend". God, Maslany is just unrecognizable. Where did they find this chick? Helena's frightening, funny, and shockingly adorable, especially considering she's a serial killer.

The baby teeth were Kira's? This will not end well.

Is Siobhan the light at the end of the tunnel for Paul? Or a train? To be determined. But I liked her offer because it suggests there is a way out from under Paul being Rachel's puppet.

This did the big reveals right. Played fair and didn't hold back too much. Satisfying. 5 stars.

Shocked Vic AND Cal appear to have survived. But maybe this is not the bloodthirsty show I thought it was. Maybe Vic is allowed to be pathetic enough to ask Sarah to go back with him and then face-plant into a table full of glitter. And maybe Cal's story doesn't end here either.

Dr. Leakey's fate is great. And Michelle Forbes is the second big name the show has gotten, so it's clear she's gonna have his role in the future. Rachel shows him mercy. As he's escaping Donnie confronts him. He dismisses Donnie, but at least convinces him not to kill him. Until the gun accidentally goes off, feeding into the general haplessness of the men in Alison's orbit.

I don't like Donnie. But his outrage over the realization that Leakey had his wife probed is genuine. That is literal rape, and you understand for the first time he actually didn't know about it until today. He thought Alison was making that part up until he saw Sarah.

Sarah in the role-playing skit is why Alison adds value to the show. She's always introducing stupid, unneeded complications that are both ordeals for Sarah and the other Orphans to fix, and also so dumb and funny that you'll forgive her poor judgment.

Siobhan IS like Sarah and a person who likes blowing shit up. The difference is she's much better at it.

Fantastic episode. 5 stars.

When Tony kisses Felix I was skeeved out, but when he leaves calling him a "Sister kisser" I laughed. What a weird scenario.

Alison and Donnie have more in common than they thought. The difference is that Alison is better at this.

Rachel did NOT take the idea of why she was barren well. Honestly? I get why she's pissed. It's a beyond cruel notion.

Wild episode. 4 stars.

The stuff with Kira and Rachel is freaking horrible and yeah, it's upsetting.

Do you know what else is? The Proletheans stuff. This pushes EVERY button I have against religious fundamentalism. Mark's creepy infatuation with Grace is encouraged. The women are literally chattel. I love when the lady hits the kid Helena grabs her by the throat and threatens to kill her the next time she does that. I think that's the point Grace started to accept her.

The episode is refreshingly not all horrible. They actually brought Vic back for yet another final bit of humiliation (still without killing him off) and the show is goofy enough to give Donnie what passes for a Crowning Moment Of Awesome. Yeah, the levity is needed here after everything else.

It's a damn great episode. 4 1/2 stars.

The ending is a gamechanger. Although not too big of a surprise. Would have been a bigger shock if the male clone was either Adam or Cal instead of Mark.

Glad Rachel was killed. Her smashing the marrow said she needed to freaking go.

I will get shit for the following opinion, but I hated the dance scene at the end. It was so far the first scene on the show that was Purely Television. And I fucking HATE Television.

Cal survived the season which I did not predict.

Mark and Grace's wedding is fucking gross. What kind of sick preacher would sign up to perform it?

I don't know whether this show has the best act breaks on TV or the worst. I'll lean towards the worst. But especially in the second half of each episode, each commercial break ends on such a dire moment, for any other show they'd be the episode ending cliffhanger. The episodes are relatively short (41 minutes) and each of these supposed false-seeming endings make it seem like the show spends a LOT more time with the viewer than it actually does. Neat trick, although it IS somewhat aggravating.

Another good episode for answers. 4 1/2 stars.