ORPHAN BLACK: Of Monkeys and Meatheads

Episode 2.05 “Ipsa Scientia Potestas Est”

[photos: Steve Wilkie for BBC AMERICA]

Relationships all get changed up this episode, as we hit a new phase of Crazy in the Clone Club.

Allison is noticeably absent from this hour, but it’s probably something to do with the additional screen time for Helena and Rachel, who are both corners in a new puzzle box being set up for the rest of the season. Helena, after saving Sarah, now has to get used to the idea that Felix is “one of us” — that he’s family and shouldn’t be a target for the “Angry Angel”. Felix, of course, is beside himself as he has to adjust to Sarah’s new charge. He’ll need to paint a lot to work out the angst.

Especially after he and the morgue attendant, Colin, have their tryst interrupted by Paul and a bunch of bought cops. Paul, having been “promoted” to be Rachel’s new monitor, now has the gun that Daniel used to kill a police officer, and he puts Felix’s fingerprints on it, thus putting Sarah into an ever-shrinking box in an attempt to get her to come in from the cold. Rachel also decides that the stem cell research Leekie is keeping from Cosima — the one that promises a treatment for her illness — should be withheld to add pressure on Sarah to come in and help her fellow clone.

Sarah, of course, has other ideas. With Kira still in the company of Cal, Sarah appeals to Art to help her with Helena. Art tries to get the blonde clone to talk coherently about Maggie Chen, but Helena has more interest in Art’s goldfish, and with the “Swan Man” — turns out Rachel’s “father” may not have died in that lab fire all those years ago.

Helena, of course, manages to escape Art, leaving behind a clue as to her whereabouts. But she’s already gone by the time Art and Sarah get there, finding a photo of “Swan Man” and an empty rifle case. Sarah figures that Helena has gone after Rachel. Helena figures if Rachel’s a problem, you get rid of the problem. Boom. And technically, would it be murder for an artificial person to kill another artificial person? Yes, they’re self-aware, but are they people?

Rachel has determined to go on the warpath, and her cold ice queen act proves to be just that — it’s a front she performs in front of everyone. We see cracks in it when she’s alone, even though there’s really no hint as to what lies beneath the surface yet. But it’s clear she’s compensating for something. Her position at Dyad gives her power, and money, and that gets her anything else she wants. But the absence of parents — her loss when they died — is going to be her vulnerability that maybe Paul or Sarah can exploit. Certainly, Leekie has issues with her contempt of the other clones. His decision to treat Cosima with the secret stem cell line, while it may be the “right” thing to do, feels like an impulsive act. There’s a power struggle brewing between Rachel and Leekie, and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.

Especially since Leekie gives Cosima some very interesting information: the reason the original genome is kept so super-high-secret is because it doesn’t exist anymore. It was destroyed in the fire that consumed the Dyad lab. But with the possibility that Duncan could still be alive, could another copy of the genome exist?

Sarah’s relationships get turned around here, too — both with Kira (who’s now calling Cal “Daddy” and doesn’t want to be called “Monkey” anymore) and with Helena (the “meathead”). In those last few moments of the episode, when Sarah talks Helena down from shooting Rachel, there’s a new emotional dynamic going on — and one has to wonder if Sarah’s turned a corner, or if she’s just playing Helena. I suspect the former, although it seems very quick after all the emotional wreckage Helena’s left in her wake. We’ll have to see how this plays out.

And what secrets rest with Cal? How does he have a fake ID and registration ready to show the police? What’s he doing with a gun stashed away in the cabinet? Is he just paranoid about being found after walking away from his work? Or is there something more sinister in play here? Does he know more than he’s letting on?

So, we’re left with Rachel and Paul now being subject+monitor/slave/object, Sarah and Helena starting to bond, Kira moving away from Sarah and gravitating toward Cal, Cosima and Delphine finding an unlikely ally in Leekie. And poor Allison left out in the cold this week.

Next week, though, promises to be full of more twists and “what the what?” moments, I’m sure.

[Show web site on BBC]     [Previous recap: “Governed As It Were By Chance”]