RECAP: Orphan Black 2x08 - I've Got Sisters

So, last episode ended kind of abruptly, and also with my realization that I am a potentially not very nice person because I thought that it was hilarious. No, seriously. All of this buildup. All of this, “Dr. Leekie is going to be the ultimate villain of this season!” and then a sharp “Nope!” and some brains splattered all over the windshield.

Classic.

Anyway, this episode starts with a big car chase and some criminals that we presumably don’t actually know. The criminals drive their crime van into a garage and proceed to book it away. One of them has a bandana over his face. Suspicious. The other one has been shot, and they bicker over what just happened. It was an ambush. Were they set up? The guys shooting at them weren’t cops…

I have the sudden fear that two low-level criminals just tried to rob the DYAD Institute. That would be both terrible and absolutely hilarious. Because, you know, DYAD is terrifying.

The shot one is getting worse fast, and the bandana one takes off his bandana to reveal that he is…Tatiana Maslany. Because of course he is. I’m starting to suspect various furniture items of being Tatiana Maslany. Also the shot criminal tells the clone one that they were set up months ago. “That cop” called him. She wanted clone dude for some reason. The cop? Beth Childs. And the shot criminal has a message for her. Well, this should be entertaining and not at all super confusing.

At Mrs. S’ house, Duncan has settled in nicely, and it seems that Mrs. S is enjoying actually having access to her wardrobe again. Sarah is also there, and they discuss how they’re going to bring Kira in. Mrs. S reminds them all that Benjamin has four men on watch, and if Rachel tries anything, like tries to take Duncan or tries to hurt Sarah or Mrs. S, then Mrs. S will shoot Duncan in the head.

As Duncan says, “I like to think she’s bluffing.” But, as we all know, she’s definitely not bluffing. I love Mrs. S. S is confident that everything is fine with Rachel, and that they should wait and see what’s going to happen with DYAD. Also, her men come in with Felix and Kira in tow, because apparently her security is scary good, and also Felix is bad at hiding. Sarah wanted them left out of it until they were sure everything was safe, but that doesn’t appear to be an option.

Still, Kira seems more than happy to be reunited with her grandmother. And Felix is happy to see his mum too. In the background, though, Duncan is creepy interested in Kira.

Over at the DYAD Institute, it seems that Cosima and Delphine haven’t exactly made up yet, because Cosima has revoked Delphine’s access to the lab. But she let Scott in. Hmmph. Delphine has a package from Sarah for her, and Cosima takes it before shutting the door in her face. As Scott aptly puts it, “Wow. Girl fights are mean.”

Scott opens the package: it’s Kira’s babytooth. He’s a little surprised to find that the donor’s a child. While they extract the stem cells, Scott points out that the more effective treatment would be the kid’s bone marrow. Cosima says that, yes, they are aware. But her tone of voice makes it clear that this is not an option. Because Kira.

Over at Chez Hendrix, it seems that Alison has finally gotten to come home to her family, and is ready to put all of the craziness behind her. But Donny’s not really in a place to do that. You know, because he shot a dude yesterday. Or at some point in the recent past. She’s just home and pissed to find that Donny is still in bed, the kids haven’t been taken to school, and there’s cleaning product all over the laundry room. What is going on?!

Donny is not having a good day. Alison is all, Let’s put this behind us and I want to start over and she’s kissing his shoulder but…Donny’s got a hangover and he’s lying in a bed surrounded by empty mini-bottles. The reunion is not going well. I mean, Alison literally just got back from rehab.

Oh this family. I love this family so much. Their kids show up in the doorway just as Alison is pouring booze on Donny’s face while he lies in bed naked, and she’s pulling back to start hitting him with a pillow. Those kids are going to need so much therapy. So much. Alison hustles them out the door to get dressed for school, and then tonight they’re going to stay at Grandma’s house. Donny gets the day to “think.”

In some creepy abandoned park type place, Art is waiting for someone. I assume. Mostly I’m just happy to see Art, because he’s fabulous and I missed him. But he walks up to a car, that he was presumably waiting for, and it’s Tony. Art is…surprised. And Tony wants to know where Beth is. Problems.

The strangest family reunion continues back at Mrs. S’ house. Duncan is still creepily interested in Kira, but Felix is taking off. He’s done with the weird stares and awkward silences for a bit. Also, apparently Art needs his help, and Sarah needs to stay with Kira. Felix leaves, and Duncan mentions that Rachel was about Kira’s age when she was “taken”. 

Delphine comes upstairs at DYAD to see Leekie, presumably, but gets Rachel instead. Leekie was fired, after all (they don’t know yet that he’s dead). Inside, Rachel is leaving a message for Paul: he hasn’t contacted her, and she’s annoyed/worried. Rachel takes a fair amount of relish in telling Delphine that Dr. Leekie “suffered a fatal heart attack on one of the DYAD jets yesterday. But, they don’t know that he’s dead? Huh. I guess they’re going with dead to us equals dead to the world too. Creepy.

Anyway, Delphine reports to Rachel now, and Rachel wants to know everything Delphine has on the origins of the experiment, especially now that they know Leekie hid findings. Rachel for the first time seems a little vulnerable as she mentions that they now have a line to get to Sarah, and it might be the breakthrough they need to save Cosima. And all the clones.

Felix goes back to his apartment, and finds Art and cone dude there. Felix has some complex feelings about this. 

Clone dude’s name is Tony, and he is royally pissed off that Beth is not here yet. He has sussed out that she’s not coming. Also, he doesn’t like that Art and Felix won’t tell him what’s up. Felix convinces him to stay, and he and Art rush out into the hall to talk. Turns out Art had Beth’s old cell phone, and was shocked when Tony called. Even more shocked to see that he’s a clone. Neither of them know what’s going on. 

Or well, they can kind of figure it out. Tony must be trans. Art relays that Tony will only talk to Beth, but that his friend was just killed by “suits” and that he thinks someone is hunting him. Not good. They don’t know whether or not Tony knows he’s a clone, and Art didn’t want to tell him anything because he’s “sketchy as hell.” Felix decides to go with it.

They go back in to find that Tony is stealing things, and also that he doesn’t recognize the clone riddle.* Art breaks the news: Beth’s dead. Tony figures that his business is finished then. Beth called him and said that they might be related. Then she said that she was a cop and he hung up. But Sammy (the shot guy, I guess) had a message for her, and now he’s dead too.

Tony doesn’t want to tell them the message, and Felix and Art don’t trust Tony enough to tell him what they know either. Art’s going to go corroborate Tony’s story, and in the meantime, Tony and Felix will get to hang. And glare at each other, I assume.

Finally, finally, finally, Sarah and Kira are getting some solid mother-daughter time in. They made a mobile, and Sarah points out that they need Auntie Alison’s help. Also the mobile is full of angels, which reminds them both of Helena. Kira wants to know if Auntie Helena is okay, and Sarah says that yes, she is, but she had to be left to her own devices. But she did ask about Kira all the time! Kira likes that.

Then there’s a knock at the door downstairs, and Kira very sweetly asks, “Should we hide?” It’s pretty heartbreaking, not gonna lie. Sarah goes down to check, and Kira peeps down the stairs. It’s Delphine. Sarah is immediately worried about Cosima, as she should be, but that’s not why Delphine is there. She’s there on Rachel’s request. Leekie is dead. 

Of course no one is surprised by that, nor do they trust the party line that he “had a heart attack.” But that’s not the point. They need Duncan. His synthetic sequences are the key to a gene therapy cure that would help the clones but wouldn’t require any of Kira’s stem cells. And, of course, it would require Duncan to come into DYAD. Which both makes perfect sense, and ensures that Sarah immediately refuses the offer.

Mrs. S, however, reminds Sarah that they didn’t bring Duncan all this way not to use him. She tells Delphine to tell Rachel that they will consider her proposal.

Cosima goes into her lab late at night to find that Scott has invited over some of his buddies for a game night while minds the incubators. Cosima goes to do her science while they play. Actually, she’s not doing science, she’s looking up Delphine’s work records. Actually, she’s not doing that anymore, because that’s boring. Instead, she’s schooling the guys on how to play their strategy game. And then she’s playing the strategy game. And then she’s absolutely kicking all of their asses at the strategy game.

Cosima for the win!

While she’s dominating them, though, her cough comes back, and it’s worse than before. Delphine’s there too. They need to talk. Delphine tells her that Leekie is dead and that Rachel has taken his place. As she puts it, Cosima is out of time. Delphine thinks they killed Leekie. Kira’s tooth is a bandaid, but Duncan holds the key to an actual cure.

Cosima responds to all of this in a completely appropriate way: She decides to kick out the boys and their game, and get Delphine epically high. It’s an approach.

Back in Felix’s spiraling nightmare, he’s still trapped in his apartment with Tony, who is like the mirror version of his sister, and Felix has so many feelings about this. Felix also notices, while Tony is going on about how terrible his parents are, that there’s a photo of Sarah out in the open. Balls! 

Felix asks how long Tony and Sammy knew each other (was Sammy his monitor?), but Tony’s not telling. They’re still stuck at an impasse while Tony goes through Felix’s apartment and rifles through all of his things. Tony wants to borrow some of Felix’s clothes, and Felix calls him out on trying to push boundaries. Tony’s trying to rile him up, and Felix refuses to be riled.

I mean, he has lots of practice not being riled by things. He was a teenager in the same house with Mrs. S and Sarah. He must be very good at not bring riled.

Alison comes downstairs in the middle of the night to find Donny rummaging around. He announces that he’s leaving and she utterly refuses to accept that. Alison has fought too hard and too long for her marriage to give up now. Nope. Nothing doing. Donny thinks that she’s better off without him, and Alison calls him out on it. Then he cries like a lot, and he hugs her, and admits that he hates her mother.

“Everybody hates my mother,” she says, matter of factly. 

And then Donny says that he’s made a lot of mistakes. Specifically, one big one, that we can now assume he’s about to tell Alison all about. Well, good. I think. I mean, at least now they’re evenly matched in the accidental murder thing. Hurray!

Serious clone talks continue elsewhere. Duncan, Sarah, and Mrs. S are discussing what to do. If Duncan gives them the files, then he’s handing them the “keys to the kingdom, synthetically speaking.” They’ll have everything, all his research. Which is good and bad. He could cure Cosima, which is good. But DYAD is pretty generally bad. Sarah agrees to have him taken to DYAD. We’ll see what happens now.

Art texts Felix, and Felix makes up an excuse to Tony about going to get some booze. “I can’t stand you sober,” is his explanation. And while I know he’s doing this to go out and meet Art, I think he’s also not kidding about the booze. Tony is super obnoxious, after all.

Actually, as a sidenote, I really like that this show isn’t afraid to give us a character like Tony, who is offensive and annoying and pretty unlikable overall. They’re not afraid that we won’t watch if everyone isn’t super nice and simplistic all the time. The fact that Tony is a trans character, but completely free of having to be a sterling silver representation of that or any other community is also nice. Tony is Tony, and Tony is a dick. It’s kind of refreshing.

Felix and Art confer in the hallway while Tony searches Felix’s apartment. Presumably he’s looking for whatever it was that Felix was sketchily hiding earlier on. (The photo of him and Sarah, that is.) Art’s found out that Tony and Sammy are career criminals, and that Beth and Sammy had definitely met. And whoever shot Sammy is undoubtedly going to come after Tony next.

They’ll tell Tony he’s a clone eventually, but first Felix is going to get him drunk and see if he’ll spill the message already. Also it looks like Tony might have found Felix’s sister portraits. 

Felix comes back in to find Tony on the couch doing his testosterone shot. He points out to Tony that Sammy and Beth must have known each other, and Tony fires back by asking how Felix, clearly not a cop Felix, knew Beth. Felix spins a story, but neither of them buy it. 

Uh, so now Duncan is reading The Island of Dr. Moreau to Kira, which is the most inappropriate thing ever. Sarah points this out, and Kira rolls her eyes so hard her head falls back. It’s comforting to see them interacting like mother and daughter, have to say. But it’s short-lived. Benjamin is here, and it’s time to move Duncan to DYAD, I think.

Sarah gets a phonecall as they’re prepping to leave, and it’s Felix with his clone problem. He’s trying to explain it all but he can’t, because Tony’s still in the room. Suffice to say that it’s all very confusing, and he needs Sarah to come quick. He hangs up and whoa, there’s Tony, all up in his space wanting to know who was on the phone. Felix says it was his sister.

Tony kisses Felix, and it is uncomfortable. Felix is very clearly aware that the person he is kissing is genetically identical to his sister. Tony is not aware of that, and therefore Felix’s reaction is confusing. I have to say, this show really does manage to come up with the most complex drama.

Anyway, Tony reacts to the weirdness by walking over and pulling up the painting he found. It’s the one of Sarah with the eyes crossed out. “Is Beth Childs your sister?” Tony asks. And Felix demurs, because she’s not, and that’s not a picture of Beth Childs. Tony is not taking this well. But, to be fair, is there a good way to take it? And Felix still won’t spill his secrets until Tony tells what the message for Beth is.

Elsewhere, Cosima and Delphine are, in fact, super freaking high. They’re inhaling helium and dancing around the lab. Eventually they settle down, and Delphine tells Cosima that she loves her. That’s why she didn’t tell her that they were Kira’s stem cells. Cosima asks if this is why Delphine keeps violating her autonomy. Delphine insists that it’s Cosima’s life, and she’s protecting it.

But Cosima has a comeback. Because it’s not just her. It’s all of them. All the clones. If Delphine loves Cosima, then she loves all of them. Delphine agrees to love all of them. And then Cosima blithely points out that if Delphine pulls this crap again, she’s going to bury Delphine professionally because she knows where all the skeletons are now. Good talk.

Also Cosima loves Delphine too.

Donny and Alison are talking about whatever his mistake was and why he agreed to spy on Alison. Alison decides to confess what happened with Aynsley. Donny is pretty shocked, but it does make a lot of sense, doesn’t it? Besides, it’s nice to see these two have the first honest conversation in their whole marriage. And Donny responds to her confession by admitting that he killed Dr. Leekie. 

Tony is packing to go. Felix refuses to explain why he has a giant painting with Tony’s face on it, and Tony is done waiting for answers. Not even Felix’s “I want to tell you; it’s not my place,” can sway him. Tony’s out of there. 

Fortunately, Tony literally bumps into Sarah on his way out. Good timing.

Inside the apartment, Tony is processing and looking at all the paintings while Sarah chatters on about being confused about how to explain this. Tony wants to process in silence. Interestingly, he’s the only one of the clones to react pretty nonchalantly to the news. “Not our usual identity crisis,” as Sarah says. But Tony explains that he’s good. He knows exactly who he is, and this information isn’t going to change that.

Interesting. It’s very similar to how Sarah reacted (“There’s only one of me.”) in the pilot episode, and it highlights once more how incredibly similar Tony and Sarah are. And also how weird Felix has been feeling all day, living in a twilight world where he’s hanging out with someone who is just like his sister only not. Actually, I think Felix lives in that twilight world at this point.

But it’s finally time to get down to brass tacks. What was Sammy’s message? Sammy was ex-military, and a lot of his jobs came through that. Incidentally, Paul is also ex-military. Coincidence?

This is the message: “Tell Beth, keep the faith. Paul’s like me. He’s on it. He’s a ghost.” So Paul’s not an innocent in this, I guess? 

Also, he appears to be missing entirely. Rachel’s not been able to find him. He’s gone. And now she has to deal with her father showing up. It’s awkward and formal and neither of them know how to act. Rachel is upset with herself for being so emotional last time she saw him, and insists that their relationship be professional from this point on. 

Duncan uses a literary reference to ask Rachel if she can forgive him for being glad that Aldous Leekie is dead. She can. 

Cut to: Donny and Alison opening up the trunk where the body of Dr. Leekie is slowly decomposing. Alison’s reaction is very Alison. Not upset about the murder, just how Donny has cleaned up after it. He didn’t wrap the body properly, and he used her gun! Ugh, Donny!

Felix and Sarah try to suss out the message. So, Sammy and Paul were both military. But what does that mean? Anyway, Sarah has to be going. Felix will be good on Tony-sitting duty for a while longer. They hug. It’s sweet. 

Tony is still processing the giant family he has just inherited. He thinks Cosima looks fun, and that Alison looks “like a douche.” Felix defends her, because Alison is fabulous. 

Duncan gives Rachel the list of items he needs in order to unlock the synthetic sequences. The technology is twenty years out of date, after all. But once it’s unlocked, then he can work with Cosima to develop a cure. Duncan, however, is still fixated on Kira. He calls her “the prize.” Blegh. And Rachel seems equally nonplussed. Is it possible we’re going to add another fierce auntie to the arsenal of women who would do anything to protect Kira?

I hope so.

Also, Rachel has a very pressing question: Why is Sarah the only one of the clones to have children? Duncan’s answer is not pleasing. Sarah is a failure, not a success. All the clones were designed to be barren, because a self-replicating prototype would be bad for business, wouldn’t it?

Rachel is not happy. Rachel is wrecking things in her mind and holding on very tight to her professionalism and cold exterior. Rachel is going to murder someone. Probably soon. Oh good, Delphine is here to bring Duncan to meet Cosima. “It’s time to begin fixing your mistakes.”

Art’s back, and he has bad news. The cops found Tony’s stolen car, which means that DYAD can’t be far behind. Art will wait downstairs to give them a private goodbye, but he is so over this.

Felix isn’t worried about Tony, which is fair. Tony’s not worried either. Felix gives him a burner phone with only three numbers in it, and Tony kisses Felix before he goes. And then he’s gone.

In the lab, Scott is freaking out about meeting Duncan, and Cosima is helping him get ready. But she has a confession before they go any further. She’s the clone. She’s the science. Scott is a little confounded by this. But he reacts really well, actually. Really sweetly.

“It’s an honor, Cosima. An honor to be working with you.” What an adorable goober.

Duncan and Cosima meet, and it’s sweetly awkward. And then Cosima starts coughing and can’t stop. She collapses into a seizure.

Sarah and Kira wake up in the same bed for the second episode in a row. How cute! Less cute is the part where Kira gets out Duncan’s copy of The Island of Dr. Moreau and starts reading it. It’s full of notes. Duncan’s notes on the genetic research. Huh.

End of episode.

Well, that was certainly an eventful one, wasn’t it? I think it’s interesting how the show keeps expanding its scope without losing sight of the central question. With the introduction of Tony and the idea that Sammy and Paul are actually working for some other organization, the show has now added in another big conspiracy, and it’s not like we’re running out of steam on the Proletheans or DYAD or the Birdwatchers. Still, it’s nice to see the world expand like this.

And yet it all stays the same, doesn’t it? Ultimately the show is about family and personhood and bodily autonomy. It’s harder to pinpoint a theme for this episode, because I feel like it was a bit all over the place, but the closest I can think of is that this episode was about trust. Alison and Donny finally trusted each other enough to tell the truth. Sarah decided to trust Rachel enough to let Duncan go. Cosima chose to trust Delphine (after she got some blackmail handy). And Felix and Art had to choose whether or not to trust Tony with their really big secret. 

It’s all about trust, isn’t it? It’s the basis of all human relationships, and it’s crazy hard to live in. Just saying. This is a show with no shortage of complexity in both characters and ploit, and yet it still manages to always boil down to one simple fact. It’s about who we are, and who we are in relationship to those people around us.

And isn’t everything about that, ultimately?

Jordan Gavaris needs more love. He does such a wonderful job as Felix.

*Just one,

I’m a few,

No family too.

What am I?