Orphan Black Rewatch: “Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner”

“Parts Developed in an Unusual Manner”
Written by Tony Elliott
Directed by Brett Sullivan
Season 1, Episode 7
Original Airdate May 11, 2013
Re-air date: September 28, 2013

What Happens: Sarah and Cosima are skyping once again, and realize that “this is the new normal.” They decide that even though Paul is a monitor, he is likely on their side. Sarah tells Cosima to stay away from Delphine, whom they both suspect is Cosima’s monitor. Sarah warns Cosima about what happened with Alison and Donnie, who are now on a trip “repairing their marriage.”

Jump to Olivier and Paul in the back room of a club (Neolution owned by Olivier): Olivier is asking about the shooting. Paul tells Olivier if he reveals why he’s asking the questions, perhaps he can help.

Helena is laying down and a strange man is dripping water on her head before he wipes her face. We again see the ring with the winged fish emblem—this is the guy who picked up Helena after Sarah allowed her to escape.

Sarah and Felix pull up to the club where Paul is meeting with Olivier. She expresses concern to Felix that Cosima will get too close to Delphine because she’s blinded by science and that Paul may be selling them out to Olivier. Sarah wants to go into the club to investigate, but Fliex thinks she’s too recognizable so he pretties himself up and goes instead. He name-drops Olivier with the host, who has two different colored eyes. This club caters to people with physical augmentations, including Olivier and his tail. Yes, ladies and gentleman, a tail.

Scene flip to the police station…“Identical,” Art says. Janice the coroner claims Jane Doe, Katja, has the same blood/DNA as the crazy killer Helena. Deangelis thinks somebody with access tampered with the evidence. The Captain tells them to go over everything again before asking about the facial recognition.

We jump back to Olivier who asks about Paul and “Beth’s” sexual intimacy. Paul stresses that it is hard for him to help Olivier if he doesn’t know what’s going on. Olivier finally reveals that somebody is “killing our subjects.” Whilst dancing, Felix spots Paul and follows him outside the club. Paul turns on him and threatens him before Sarah breaks it up.

Meanwhile, the convalescing Helena tells the strange man that Sarah is different than the others. This man, Tomas, stresses that Sarah is an “it” before slapping away Helena’s cup then embracing her. Tomas thinks they can use Sarah in their hope to remove the other clones, but once Sarah’s usefulness expires, Helena is to kill “it.” As a form of penance, Tomas gives Helena a razor, which she uses to trace more cuts on her back. Helena emerges from her “sanctuary” as Tomas tells her she is the original, she is the light.

Paul and Sarah rehash what they each know back at Paul and Beth’s apartment. Paul is less than trusting of Sarah’s knowledge. Not of what Sarah’s telling him, but whether or not Sarah knows the full story…she might be a little too trusting. Sarah reiterates to Paul that she believes he isn’t trying to kill them. He gives Sarah his keys to hide from the killer, but Helena still manages to sneak up on her in the garage.

Over lunch, Helena tells Sarah she dreamt they were friends. Helena acts like a child who hasn’t gotten out much. That’s because she grew up in a convent in the Ukraine, as she tells Sarah. Helena also asks for her flying fish knife back and informs Sarah she’s supposed to kill her. Helena asks Sarah for the names of the other clones, saying that she’ll spare Sarah.

(Side note, Sarah’s eyes seem more green hazel in this episode than in previous episodes)

Deangelis complains about the quality of “Beth’s” paperwork as she and Art review the evidence a second time before heading out to the morgue.

Olivier is doing some taxidermy when he gets a call from Dr. Leekie.

Sarah and Cosima are chatting on their clone phones, debating their situation; what to do about Helena, what to do about their respective watchers, and Dr. Leekie’s Neolution movement, which happens to be the name of Olivier’s club. Could this be a coincidence? (Hint: nope.) Sarah again tells Cosima to stay away from Delphine before they both hang-up the phones and call each other bitch. A knock on Cosima’s door reveals Delphine.

Paul is getting out of the shower in the middle of the day and finds that Olivier and Miss two-colored-eyes (Astrid) have snuck into the townhouse. Olivier asks where Beth is, Paul says out with a friend. Olivier warns that Beth isn’t who he thinks she is. Paul says “like a twin?”

That evening, Paul and Beth’s townhouse is empty, which allows Helena to enter with no problems. She pokes and prods things, picks food out of the fridge and rolls around on Paul and Sarah’s bed.

At Mrs. S.’s place, Kira is playing the piano for Sarah. Felix says she was good, but Mrs. S. says Sarah didn’t work hard enough at it. BACKSTORY TIME…Mrs. S. hands Sarah a photograph and tells her, “England was burning … Thatcher … sacked social security, the Unions…What do you remember about Brixton?” Sarah was in a safehouse at one time, a place for deportees, orphans. She points to a photo of a man name Carter, who was a “fine man” and often brought children to Mrs. S. to hide. One of them was Sarah, whom she adopted to legitimize Sarah. Carter stressed to Mrs. S. that she needed to hide Sarah, get her away from whatever it was Carter took her away from so she left England with Sarah and Felix.

Cosima and Delphine are sharing a fancy dinner when Dr. Leekie enters the restaurant. Delphine invites Dr. Leekie, Cosima seems a bit uncomfortable. When Dr. Leekie arrives at the table, he asks if they are familiar with his work at the Dyad Institute, including the patenting of transgenic cells. Delphine compliments Cosima so Dr. Leekie asks if either of them thought about working for the Dyad Institute. Leekie seems to be flirting with Cosima a bit, which Delphine doesn’t seem to like.

Deangelis and Art are back in the coroner’s office; Deangelis is fascinated with the dead bodies.

As Sarah and Felix are leaving, Mrs. S. seems to be a bit more understanding of Sarah perhaps needing to “go back to go forward. I can keep Kira safe just like I kept you safe.” They hug, Sarah sheds a tear. Her phone rings.

It seems Olivier and Astrid took Paul back to Olivier’s club; Olivier informs Paul about the European killer. He thinks Sarah is the killer, but Paul says the killer is Helena. Olivier lays out some seemingly incriminating photos of Paul in Afghanistan, stressing that Paul should cooperate. Astrid hands Paul his phone, Olivier tells him to put it on speaker and to call Beth. After a few words through gritted teeth under the watchful gaze of Olivier and Astrid, Paul tells her “They know you are not Beth. RUN!” A slight physical altercation between Olivier and Paul ensues, which is cut short when Astrid sticks a needle in Paul’s neck.

Sarah and Felix are in Paul’s car outside of Oliver’s club. Sarah blames herself for what’s happening to Paul and has a plan to fix it. She calls Helena who, in her latest bit of crazy pants obsessing, is playacting with a photo of Paul in Paul and Beth’s apartment. Sarah tells Helena to meet her at Olivier’s club. As Sarah enters, she gives Felix Art’s card and instructs him to tell Art “everything” if she doesn’t get out of the club. Felix implores her not to die again because “you’re first funeral was agonizing enough.” Sarah is skulking about the halls of the building when two-colored eyes Astrid confronts her.

Paul is tied up being punched by Olivier who tells Paul he knows how bad it can get. They are interrupted by Astrid who has “Beth” to see him. Astrid also hands over Helena’s knife, which Olivier turns over in his hand knowingly. Olivier is very pleased to see “one of them in the flesh.” Sarah tells Olivier the killer is Helena, describing her. She tells him she knows about his tail, he asks if she wants to see it. He claims the tail is merely performance art compared to the clones, specifically Sarah.

Olivier’s phone rings, it is Dr. Leekie. He tells Olivier to get “her” ready to travel. Astrid puts a bag over Sarah’s head and escorts her out. Paul notices, over Olivier’s shoulder whose back is to the security camera, that Helena has entered and whaps Astrid on the back the head. However, she chokes Sarah until Sarah reveals the names of the clones. Olivier threatens Paul with Helena’s knife, until he turns to see Astrid knocked over on the security camera. Olivier goes to investigate but is taken over by Crazy Helena who wishes to see the tail. She cuts it off as a “message from his master…from Tomas.”

Sarah rushes back into rescue Paul. Unfortunately Felix assumes the worst and that things have gone awry, so he calls Art to tell him about Beth Childs until Paul and Sarah run up to the car causing Felix to end the call.

Helena is dancing in the club with Olivier’s tail in her hand then drops it.

Back at Felix’s apartment, Sarah reveals the name she gave to Helena – her name. Paul and Sarah are definitely getting closer, which Felix realizes as he leaves to go to the bar.

Cosima is pouring wine while she’s holding Dr. Leekie’s Dyad business card. She isn’t alone, as Delphine walks into the room. Cosima sensing something, moves into kiss Delphine which drives her out of the apartment.

Art is about to leave the precinct when Deangelis finally gets a match on Katja’s fingerprints – Sarah Manning. “Who the hell is Sarah Manning and why does she look like Beth?” asks Art.

Commentary: Remember how I said the flip-flopping of the multiple story threads of the clones was well done in this show? Yeah, I still believe that, but it makes writing these recaps a bit of a challenge especially this one, but at least two of those flip flops converged at the end.

Some real interesting gender things going on in this episode; one woman rescues a man, while another woman performs what felt like a pseudo-rape on a man before performing a pseudo-castration. Paul, who spent previous episodes in a position of power and control (specifically stepping into the Vic/Sarah thing at Alison’s), is clearly the one being controlled and later saved in this episode. When he’s tied up in Olivier’s office, he leans on Sarah showing an affection that seems quite genuine. Another role reversal is that Sarah is telling Cosima to be cautious with her monitor, whereas in the past Sarah was the one who was told to be cautious in dealing with her monitor Paul.

Alison is completely absent from this episode, but we get Helena back. Not exactly a fair swap if you ask me, I thought initially. However, the necessity of getting Helena involved and off the sidelines is critical. The ruse worked perfectly to get Olivier in front of her, even if it seemed a tad choreographed. (Then again, I’m looking at this critically now rather than just being along for the ride as I was when I initially watched it six months ago). The little things Helena did in the episode helped to make her more than just the “Crazy Clone” and more than simply a foil for Sarah. Her yearning for a positive human connection of any kind with her “sister” or Paul, then turning the tables on the creep Olivier in defense of Sarah felt a natural progression of a warped attempt at seeking that connection.

Cosima is not heeding her own advice or the warnings of her clone sister—she’s falling for Delphine and continues to be intrigued by what Leekie has to offer. Of course she has no clue that he’s a puppeteer in the clone games being played this season, but the geek girl whose character on a superficial level is defined by science and facts is being swayed by emotion.

Mrs. S opened up a lot. This helped to reveal a great deal of Sarah’s past as well as her own, and most importantly the brief recap of how she, Sarah, and Felix came to be a family who left the UK to settle in Canada. At this point, I don’t think Mrs. S. knows everything about Sarah, but I also think she’s not revealing the full hand of cards she’s holding. Not exactly a full balance of answers and questions on this part.

Frewer’s recognition, I think, may work against the role he’s playing. I like him fine in general, but more often he’s played the role of comic relief (his character on Eureka) or at the least, an unhinged character (Trashcan Man), but not a character who is a controlled, calculating, egotistical, mad scientist.

Then there’s Olivier’s tail. I really don’t know what to say, it could be the plot point that turns some people away. For me; however, its revelation was couched with a lot of strange science in the show’s narrative before the reveal in prior episodes so it felt a natural progression of the mad science going on in the show. If nothing else, it gave us that great scene of Helena dancing with it in the club which more than anything, kind of symbolizes Helena.

We also don’t get much on Tomas, Helena’s captor/handler so at this point, he seems to be just a cardboard cutout of a religious whack-a-doo.

Right, lots happened, so until next week, here’s the regular tallies:

Clone Count (episode): 3 — Sarah, Cosima, and Helena
Clone Total (series*): No change from last week, still at 6 — Sarah, Beth (deceased), Alison, Cosima, Katja (deceased), Helena
*I’m only counting those we’ve met in a physical sense, not just names on a sheet of paper

Clone Layers: Helena pretends to be Sarah under the black hood. Sarah pretends to be Beth when she first encounters Olivier.

Sexy Time: Some touching between Sarah and Paul is as far as it gets this episode.

Hey, it’s that guy/gal!: Tomas is portrayed by Daniel Kash who has been making the rounds for quite a while. Most recently, he was on an episode of Defiance as a Castithan weapons maker. He also portrayed “Justin Morningway,” Harry Dresden’s uncle on the cancelled-way-too early adaptation of The Dresden Files, and had a role as “Private Spunkmeyer” in the seminal military SF film Aliens. Also, like a lot of actors on this show, was in an episode of Lost Girl and a few episodes of Alphas.

Rob Bedford lives in in the farmlands of NJ with his wife and dog. He reviews books for SFFWorld, runs a blog about stuff, and contributes to SF Signal. If you want to read random thoughts about books, TV, his dog, beer, and hockey, you can follow him on Twitter: @RobHBedford.