Did everyone catch that both Tatianas were visible in the mirror during this scene? Sometimes “Orphan Black” just likes to show off.
Credit: Steve Wilkie for BBC AMERICA
We open this week with Alison, foolishly confessing her sins to Vic the Dick. She starts with just her hatred of Aynsley, but then proceeds through sleeping with Aynsley’s husband and right on into a big ol’ murder confession. She rounds off the experience by handing Vic a pair of gloves she’s knitted for him, complete with missing finger. Vic tries not to freak out about how far off the expected track this conversation has gone, because he never watched “Desperate Housewives.”
Sarah and Mrs. S, meanwhile, are going through Ethan Duncan’s hoarder house to find something important related to the clones. S defends Duncan’s scatterbrainedness, and Sarah suggests they divide and conquer, because she has no particular loyalty to him.
Back at the rehab center, Alison goes looking for Vic when she realizes he’s left his new gloves behind, and then overhears him plotting with Angie, because Angie’s plots shall always come to naught.
Cal of the mysterious skillset decides to try to hack into the Dyad, but then notices that the little green light of his web cam is on and realizes he’s boned and they probably saw Kira in the RV behind him.
While searching through Duncan’s house, Sarah finds a dead mouse and knocks over a stack of boxes in a panic, which thankfully reveals the specific box Duncan wants. These joyful dead mouse tidings are interrupted by Cal, who lets Sarah know he’s on the move again and is trying to throw Dyad off the trail. Mrs. S wants to know who the mystery sitter is, but Sarah is too smart to tell her that. She heads out to check on Kira.
In an almost impossibly tender scene, Cosima gets her first round of treatment while Delphine holds her hand, talks her through it and wipes her tears away.
Alison manages to sneak out to an available phone at the rehab center to call Felix and get him to help resolve the whole Vic situation.
Sarah, meanwhile, goes to meet up with Cal, who wants to know about the aunties Kira has been telling him about. Sarah brushes him off, though.
Whose side is Paul on, anyway?
Paul reports in to Leekie with the news that Helena went off with a Prolethian and that Sarah came up empty in her search for Duncan. Leekie, in the spirit of sharing, tells Paul that he is creating a synthetic womb. Paul’s hobby is pottery. And betrayal, obviously. Leekie dismisses him and makes an urgent call to a Marion Bowles.
Mrs S and Duncan get ready to leave, and he empties out the memento box from earlier to reveal a few floppy discs containing “everything” related to the clones.
In additional overhearing of important information in this episode, Cosima overhears Delphine tell grad student Scott not to tell her something, and immediately confronts her about it. Delphine tries to tell her that Leekie set them up, that he pretended the successful stem culture had been found by chance, when really he used a tooth Kira lost in her accident. Cosima argues that the whole thing should have been her choice, and Delphine says this is the only way forward, but that it’s a finite source and they’ll need more. Cosima throws her out.
Back at family day at the rehab center, Alison pulls Vic aside for a quick chat, and brings him to Felix, who rightly points out that people go to rehab to improve themselves, not to get even sleazier. Vic apologizes, but won’t back down until Felix offers the chance to meet with Sarah. Oh, Vic. Such an obvious Achilles heel.
I will stop calling them by their “Battlestar Galactica” names when they stop casting “Battlestar” actors
Leekie meets up with the aforementioned Marion, who turns out to be played by Michelle Forbes, of evil Admiral Cain on “Battlestar Galactica” fame! Welcome to “Orphan Black,” Admiral Cain. She and Leekie do some gross faux flirting and then he informs her that Ethan Duncan is alive and Sarah Manning found him. They discuss what Rachel will do when she finds out the truth, and then Admiral Cain points out that she keeps having to talk to Leekie about Sarah Manning and that “we need to look at that.” Leekie maybe poops his pants in panic.
Cal wants Sarah and Kira to run away with him to Reykjavik, but Sarah tells him she can’t abandon the other people involved in her Dyad issues. She’s interrupted in her flirting with him by a call on her clone phone.
It’s Felix! He wants her to come help him and Alison out with the Vic situation, and Sarah agrees. Alison is busy setting up the nametags she has designed (impeccably, of course) for family day. Donnie’s is hilariously bare of any pizzazz next to all of the others.
Vic adorably and tragically tries to look like he’s reading a book and sitting in an urbane yet casual fashion for Sarah’s arrival. She’s not exactly into this. He wants to make amends, but isn’t satisfied by her immediate acceptance of his apology and attempt to brush him off.
Downstairs, Alison greets her kids and pretends Donnie isn’t there. Back upstairs, Vic and Sarah are getting in a bit of a fight. Uh oh. Too many agitated clones in one building. He wants Sarah back, and tries to tell Sarah he’s better for her than nail-gun Ken and the new guy, but then turns around, asks if they smell salt, and collapses into Alison’s craft table. Felix proactively spiked Vic’s tea, because that’s clearly the solution. Side note: What does salt smell like?
Mrs. S is not sitting idly by during all of this. She goes to bargain with Leekie for Duncan’s research. He wants to meet with Duncan himself to “authenticate” the research. Guys, Ethan Duncan wrote his initials and Susan Duncan’s initials in hearts all over his research, and that’s how they’re going to know it’s him. Mrs. S wants Leekie to promise to leave Kira alone, but, rather coldly, not Sarah. You know, Sarah is hardly mother of the year, but Mrs. S is probably going to finish even further down the list.
Meanwhile, back at the rehab center, Felix points out that Vic looks like he’s been molested by elves due to all the glitter now adhering to him. Poor Michael Mando. In his short time playing the lovely Vic on “Orphan Black,” he’s lost a finger, gotten a nail gun shot through his hand, and now he’s unconscious and covered in glitter. We’ll assume they pay him well for these various indignities, and that more are to come.
Sarah and Mrs. S have a quick check in about whether Leekie or Rachel will go down because of Ethan Duncan’s revelations, which is interrupted when someone knocks on the door looking for Alison. Do you know what that means? It means clone shenanigans time! Sarah straightens her back, claps a hand on her forehead to cover her lack of bangs, and answers the door. Unfortunately, Alison agreed to volunteer, so now “Alison” has to leave the room. Sarah grabs a helpfully adjacent headband and heads off to family day. She narrowly misses Alison on the way out, who is checking on Felix. Turns out Felix’s big plan to make Vic miss his meeting with Angie will be problematic once the family tours start.
Clone shenanigans, go!
Sarah as Alison goes to the big meeting room. With her punk rock clothes and extensive eye makeup, she looks basically nothing like Alison. Except for how her face is identical. She sits down in the back to avoid Donnie, only to immediately run into Alison’s theater friend Sarah, and then gets called on to give a speech. Rough day for clone shenanigans, Sarah. She has no idea how to talk to a rehab center.
Angie sneaks in and steals a helpfully gender neutral “Pat” nametag. Does anyone else remember the similar scene that occurs in “Grosse Pointe Blank” with the creepy assassin?
Felix is carrying Vic through the halls of the rehab center, with a bonus knock on the head added in. Felix is in shockingly good shape for a raver kid. Alison is worried about being late for role playing, which means we are in for a delightful scene of Donnie role playing as Alison. He has the posture down perfectly. Sarah as Alison tries to call him out for some monitor behavior, but is having a little trouble keeping straight who all is pretending to be whom, especially after she sees the Alison/Felix/unconscious Vic parade head down the stairs. She finally makes her escape with a very Alison “I really have to tinkle.” Isn’t that how Alison put it when she had to do it in front of the nurse? Which means she’s totally said it in front of Sarah before, which is hilarious.
Alison and Felix, meanwhile, barely avoid Angie, who calls Vic’s phone just as they’re darting away from her into an empty room. They send her off the trail with a misleading text, then meet up with Sarah in Alison’s room. Alison has only just started to chastise her for screwing up family day when in walks Donnie. She tries to suggest he just go ahead and call Leekie already, when it becomes clear that Donnie had no idea there were clones. Poor Donnie.
Angie goes to look for Vic and finds him sprawled out on the floor, covered in glitter. His reliability as a source may be just slightly compromised.
Paul brings Rachel to meet with Ethan Duncan. She even sheds a few tears as a he explains what really happened to her mother.
Donnie explains that he thought he was in a sociology experiment. As Sarah and Felix discreetly leave, Alison asks Donnie what he thought of the strange men who came and examined her at night, and tells him he ruined their family with his spying and lies. That moment was a long time coming, but it was still great to finally see Alison call him out for everything he’s done.
Leekie and Rachel meet up, and it becomes clear that Rachel has outmaneuvered him with Admiral Cain. She’s staying at the Dyad, but gives him the opportunity to make a run for it, which is more than Marion was going to allow. Let it be said that Michelle Forbes looks amazing. Some great costuming for her.
Cosima calls Sarah and explains what she’s learned about Kira and her cells. Sarah and Cal then get into a loud argument about Sarah taking Kira in to help Cosima, which she overhears. While they’re outside, she pulls her own tooth to help. It’s a big step for Sarah, that she’s willing to put Kira at risk to help one of the other clones. Cal warns Sarah this whole thing is going to swallow them both, and then she and Kira head off together.
As Leekie makes his escape, he’s stopped, not by a scary Dyad employee, but by Donnie, who has miraculously managed to track him down. Donnie gets him in the car by threatening him with a gun and then yells at him for ruining his marriage. Leekie calls him a turnip and tells him he’s a footnote in history. This is not the nicest thing to say to someone holding a gun, and Donnie tells him he won’t participate anymore. Leekie thanks him somewhat sarcastically, and Donnie yells, “I quit!” and slams the gun down on the steering wheel, causing to go off right at Leekie’s head. So long, Dr. Leekie, and Matt Frewer’s great work as him. Any bets on Donnie’s ability to conceal the fact that he just murdered someone in his car? As a friend put it while we watched this episode, that was the quickest Chekhov’s gun in history.
Grade: A- Clone shenanigans always win a good grade. What do you think about Leekie’s abrupt departure from the “Orphan Black”?
Catch up last week’s recap here. Follow Lisa Weidenfeld on Twitter at @LisaWeidenfeld.
