Orphan Black (Season 2, Episode 2): Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion

BEWARE: I spoil.

While the first episode of this new season definitely wowed, the second episode made me dramatically impatient with confusion. Clearly, Orphan Black is too intense for my well-being. Last article, I talked about Manson and Fawcett being the kings of lying. You literally cannot  trust anyone outside of the Clone Club, and even they do sketchy stuff sometimes.

Kira calls her Uncle Fe in the beginning of this episode, setting into motion a series of events that leads the viewers tumbling down the rabbit hole of OB-certified craziness. Art manages to get a trace on the number, and he and Sarah follow the signal to a motel. Empty, but our Monkey is a smart little girl, and it appears that Kira has left a trail of clothing to lead her mom to her. Wrong. The trail, leading to the trunk of a car, is actually left by the people that kidnapped Kira, knowing that Sarah would come after her daughter. Once the trunk is opened, none other than Mrs. S is there to greet her on a dirt road in the middle of the wilderness. (I knew she took Kira!!) Apparently, Mrs. S figured the house was being watched and wanted to bring Kira somewhere safe, so she tossed her flat and ran with her. She takes Sarah straight to Kira. They had been hiding out in the home of Brenda and Barry. Back when Sarah and Felix were children, Mrs. S took them there to stay after they first left the U.K.

This whole time, we’ve (or at least I’ve) been thinking that it was the Prolethians that nabbed Kira and Mrs. S, but as it turns out they actually have other things to do. Unconscious for most of the episode, Helena is admitted into the hospital with sugar packets and lollipops. I hope they grabbed those when the unnamed Prolethian enthusiast (guy from the diner on the first episode) stole her from her hospital bed and brought her to a farm (where earlier they did something that involved a cow and…an arm…condom?).

Anyway, I will say that I have high expectations for this bunch of Prolethians because while I still dub them “crazy religious people,” they not only killed Tomas, like gangster Godfather-style, but also, they had an aversion to the self-harm bit. I do think they’re going to come next Saturday with a full truck of crazy and start brainwashing Helena against the Clone Club again, but at least (hopefully) she can stop hurting herself and maybe have some kind of semblance of a family in her immediate surroundings.

Proof of this is that the Prolethians manage to drop a few coins into the pockets of Brenda and Barry, the people who Mrs. S, Kira, and Sarah have been staying with, thinking they’re safe. Good thing Sarah’s one step ahead of everyone, trying to whisk Kira away in a battered pickup before it’s even apparent that Mrs. S has been sold out. Yes, sold out. She didn’t know, but she was planning to take Kira to London through contacts made by Barry, something that Sarah wasn’t willing to let happen, regardless of who’s working for who. Mrs. S slays Brenda and Barry like a true experienced bad-ass, but she doesn’t get to ride off into the night with Kira and Sarah, because I imagine that little window of trust that Sarah was allocating to her is slowly coming to a close. Stopping to pick up Felix (we saw his butt again!), Sarah and Kira embark on a road trip of their own, leaving Alison and Cosima with no knowledge of their whereabouts. I just have one question for Mrs. S: what the hell is Project LEDA, woman?

Speaking of Alison, I can tell already that Felix is going to be spread a little too thin in the Clone Club. He seems to be her only friend, and the scenes between them have a chummy, Sarah-Fe vibe, except there’s much more alcohol and playful banter on both ends. I have to say that Alison has been bumped up to my favorite clone! I’ve come to notice that I’m actually waiting for the Alison scenes. This girl stuffs her purse with tiny bottles of… (is that) vodka (?), downing them as she tells Fe she thinks her husband is her monitor. Finally. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve screamed at the TV, “IT’S DONNIE, ALISON! YOUR MONITOR IS DONNIE!”

How’d she find out, you ask? At Aynsley’s funeral, apart from making a new friend named Sarah, Alison also reads a very suspicious text message on her husband’s phone (words like: PLACATE HER. If I had a hubby, I would karate chop him in the face if I saw that in his messages). This sets her on a mission to find some hardback evidence, so people (Fe) won’t say she’s jumping to conclusions. She tells Donnie that she’s meeting Sarah. He follows her, thinking the woman will be Sarah Manning, and Alison catches him red-handed. Can we expect a husband murder later this season?

Oh, almost forget about Cos! See how Alison is taking over? Cosima plays deer-in-headlights as Leekie and Delphine recount The Adventures of Sarah Manning at the Dyad Party last episode. After her “Oh, really-s,” she gets to take a look at her new—well, old—and dusty lab (thanks, in large part, to Sarah) in the basement (?) of the Dyad Institute. Just as Cophine are about to get it on on a crusty, old lab blacktop, guess who bursts through the door? By far the saltiest of Salt Lake residents, Ms. Rachel “Permanent-Stankface” Duncan herself.

Finally, we get to see Cosima’s relaxed, witty retorts play out with the Ice Queen, proving that no member of the Clone Club is scared of her. She assigns Cos her first task with Dyad, finding out why Sarah’s genetic DNA differs and how she was able to have a child.

I can’t wait for next week! I’m anticipating an Alison-spiral-out-of-control episode. Plus, she’s supposed to be meeting Detective Pain-in-the-Face, so I expecting lots of screaming at the TV and popcorn throwing.

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