Orphan Black Post-Game: Entangled Bank
There are no literal fans on BBC America’s Orphan Black, and I’m not sure the network would allow shit to be seen, but the shit and the fan definitely began to collide in “Entangled Bank.” Nearly every single character is at risk in some way. The clones. Fe. Paul. Leekie. Delphine. Aynesley. Kira. Everyone but Detectives Bell and Deangelis — Art and Angie to friends and family. But they’re the ones presenting the greatest potential hindrance to all involved, since everyone is involved in one illegal activity or another.
Alison also came back this week, having left marriage counseling after telling Donnie she wanted a divorce. She is now convinced her neighbor and good friend Aynesley is her Monitor. With accusations and a manic determination, Alison cuts all ties and ends up getting stoned and sleeping with Aynesley’s cheater husband. All because Aynesley thought she was ill-fit to watch kids ice skating. To be honest, I’d like to believe Alison is right here, but I think this series is going to pull a wild card as far as who her monitor really is, and prove she is just making her personal life a living hell.
Speaking of monitors, Paul is now Dr. Leekie’s right-hand man, after Olivier’s life takes an unfortunate turn towards a foamy-mouthed death. Each of his scenes was spent face down on a table after the surgery to fix his previously sliced-off tail. A tail! He delivers all of his dialogue through a facehole in a table, he gets owned by Paul on an occupational level, and then he gets a shot in the foot that kills him. Olivier was one karaoke song away from completely stealing this series. R.I.P. Olivier.
Cosima, meanwhile, seems to have gone full Freaky Leekie on everyone, blinded by the man’s genius. Delphine senses Cosima’s willingness to go farther than they’d thought, and Leekie pretty much signs the deed for the women to have sex. While Cosima goes out for post-coitus Eskimo pies, Delphine raids the room and finds all of the research done on the clones, immediately calling Leekie to tell him about it. However, she holds back on telling him that Sarah has a naturally born daughter. Everyone is playing everyone! Why would Cosima even leave her room wide open for Delphine to look through? Maybe it’s some sort of a long con, but I don’t think so. Incidentally, I have never been more interested than now as to who Kira’s father may be, because the way this show throws out mysteries, that person is going to be a real humdinger of a plot twist. A real humdinger. Which brings us to…
Early in the episode, Kira goes to answer the door before seeing who it is, which she gets scolded for, and Helena finds a letter from Kira with a picture in it. (And if somebody pulls out a gun in the first act, you know it comes back.) So later on, when she hears a knock at the door, of course she answers it, and it’s Helena. They spend a second looking at each other through the door, and you get a sense that Helena is enthralled by this child, perhaps due to a general awe of seeing a clone’s child, or on some other level entirely. In any case, it’s almost immediately obvious that Helena has no intentions of kidnapping Kira; there is just fascination. Kira didn’t seem this interested in Alison when they met, but I’ll give it the benefit of the doubt.
The major blow here is delivered by a car, which strikes Kira full-on as she’s running back towards Sarah. It isn’t the first time my jaw has gone slack while watching this show, but it’s the first time I got carpet burn when it happened. And then the episode immediately cuts out. And then immediately cuts to Kira in an ambulance, which has me thinking she’s definitely going to live. And you know what? I’m really glad that preview happened immediately after, because I don’t want to think about Sarah’s daughter dying all up in the middle of the other dramatic aspects. So while this is obviously a blow to Sarah’s character, it has deeper impact into the show as a whole, which we’ll get into in a sec.
Here is why the cops are the major threat at this point. They know Sarah exists, but they think she is the one who threw herself in front of the train. They talk to Mrs. S. and Fe, and they know that Sarah was an orphan and that Fe is the one who called Art last week, bringing up Beth’s name. Beth goes to talk to Art and Angie and there’s a lot of playing dumb, but Angie doesn’t buy any of it. In any case, they now have the real Sarah’s fingerprints, which they send to the lab. Kira’s accident ties into all this because her blood is now a pretty important part of the story, as police and the hospital will now have it, and someone interested in them as clones is going to want it. So I foresee someone going after Kira in the hotel, as well as the cops finding out who Sarah really is. Wouldn’t it be wild if Kira needed a kidney or something and her father would be the only match, and that’s how we’d find out who he is? And wouldn’t it be fucking spectacular if it was actually just Tatiana Maslany in a man-suit? The possibilities!
If this show has a problem, it’s that Cosima isn’t integrated into the lives of the other clones in any way but phone conversations and online video chats. It makes sense for her involvement with Leekie, of course, but Cosima’s vibrant personality would mesh well with Fe and would brighten the mounting angst. Also, some of the music cues really get on my nerves, but that’s all I can think of. Also, I wish every episode featured someone’s tail being cut off like last week’s episode. I cannot wait for next week’s episode, and then the one after that, and the one after that. And then for next season. This show is too good to miss. Read all my Orphan Black recaps here if you don’t believe me.
