ORPHAN BLACK Goes on a Road Trip
Episode 2.06 “To Hound Nature In Her Wanderings”
[photos: Steve Wilkie for BBC AMERICA]
Road trip!
Sarah and Helena do a little bonding. Allison and Vic do a little bonding. Felix and Art do a little bonding. Paul and Mrs. S do a little bonding. And Cosima’s science guy friend has figured out more than he should have!
Spoilers abound!
The search is on for the Swan Man, Dr. Evan Duncan, who could be the key to finding out a lot of things for Sarah and her sisters. So off they go to a place called Cold River, an abandoned psychiatric institute where some of the first cloning experiments were done under the auspices of the government. When the government funding ran out and the program was shut down, Dyad came in and took over, which is apparently how Aldus Leekie came into the picture.
Now, while Sarah is in a church basement digging through files and figuring this all out (in the wake of Maggie Chen doing the same thing), Helena has hit it off with a tow truck driver at the local bar — after being told to stay in the truck, of course — and after some arm wrestling and shots, she’s feeling pretty mellow and is totally fine with dancing.
Of course, that doesn’t last too long, as Big Biker Guy With Attitude decides he’s a better playmate than Jesse the Tow Truck Guy. Helena takes exception to this — rather violently — and gets taken into custody by local law enforcement. The whole thing has been observed by both Paul (following Sarah) and Mark (following Helena), and the two have a bit of an uneasy truce declared here in the bar over drinks — how long it will last is anyone’s guess.
Meanwhile, back in the city, Allison is still trying to get a grip on the whole rehab thing, and finds an unexpected ally in Vic, who’s also in rehab (except not really). Turns out Vic is there to get information for Detective Angie. This is actually an interesting dynamic to watch, as Allison is so uptight and Vic is… well, he’s Vic.
And Team Dyad — Cosima and Delphine — get a surprise visit from Scott, the lab monkey they’d have to kill if he ever learned too much. Turns out he’s there for a job, and Delphine thinks it’s kosher because he already has seen samples, and they need someone they can trust. Cosima isn’t too sure, but when Scott mentions he’s already figured out clones are involved (“Can I see one?” is a great line.), he’s brought into the circle. Look for that to complicate things.
Some nice byplay between Art and Felix this week, as Art sets up the Maggie Chen art board at Fee’s loft — and Felix, in spite of himself, gets into the puzzle almost as much as Art does. Given that Art has probably helped spring Felix from the trumped up murder charge, Felix is probably going to cut him a little slack. But there’s almost an Odd Couple vibe that could easily develop between these two, in terms of temperament.
And the bit between Paul and Mrs. S, where she pretty much reveals she knows a lot more than she’s letting on, and gives him the speech that basically he’s going to have to choose sides very soon… well, we can pretty much predict where Paul is going to land, right?
A small quibble I have this week: Sarah leaving Helena in the hands of the police. It felt very much like Hand of the Writer, as it allowed for the Proletheans to get their hands on Helena, using the idea of motherhood as bait, but it didn’t feel organic. Doubtful Sarah would have been picked up, and there’s only the two of them, so they can easily pass as twin sisters instead of clones… it just felt like the show had to make a left turn and so it turned left into a corn field instead of onto a dirt road.
But Sarah had to get back to town to find Duncan, which she does. Along with Mrs. S at the house, hiding Duncan from … Aldus Leekie, who killed Duncan’s wife with the lab fire.
Dun dun dunnn.
[Show web site on BBC] [Previous recap: “Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est”]
