Saturday, April 19, 2014

Cloning Around: Orphan Black Resurrects the (Presumed) Dead - seattlepi.com

[WARNING: The following contains spoilers from Saturday's Orphan Black Season 2 premiere. Proceed with caution (unless you're Alison on a chardonnay binge.)]

When Helena died last season on , we knew we were going to miss that crazy clone.

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Fortunately, by the end of Saturday's Season 2 premiere, we learned that we didn't have to. It turns out that getting shot in the torso won't slow Helena (Tatiana Maslany) down much. Somehow, she finds the strength to stagger into the nearest emergency room and tell them, "Excuse me, my sister shot me." Aww, Helena's so polite, even at death's door!

What else did we learn from the season premiere? Check out other highlights from "Nature Under Constraint and Vexed":

Sarah catches the acting bug
Our favorite impersonator is at it again, but this time she pretends to be Cosima, and it's a testament to Maslany's skill that we as viewers can figure out it's really Sarah under those glasses and faux dreads through her performance. (Although Delphine, played byEvelyn Brochu, must have figured it out with a kiss.)

Rachel runs deep
The damn "proclone" lies about having Sarah's daughter Kira (Skyler Wexler) -- whom we later see alive and having her picture taken by an unknown person -- in order to lure Sarah to Dyad. Apparently, Rachel is also the face of the company (who better to discuss the Dyad matters than one of the clones?), can speak German and is heading to Taiwan for some reason.

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Alison catches the acting bug Performance skills run in the clone family. Our favorite suburban housewife wants to normalize her life, so she's sworn off alcohol and pills (good luck with that!) and has signed on to do a musical. The silver lining of letting her best friend Aynsley (Natalie Lisinska) die via garbage disposal? Alison is now the star of the musical, which, as far as we can tell, is about cleaning up after an unfortunate death.

Ramon has resources Alison's friend, the "gun enthusiast" Ramon (Alex Ozerov), is a fresh-faced employee at Econo Mart who deals pills and firearms from the trunk of his car. He also has an eye for the ladies, and Cosima eyes him right back. We hope this isn't the last we've seen of Ramon.

Helena can't escape The cowboy guy Mark (Ari Miller) who gave Sarah grief has a belt buckle with a fish glyph on it. Yup, that means he's one of those religious extremist Proletheans, who are of course interested in Helena. It remains to be seen what this new sect of Proletheans are all about though.

Felix is cheeky We're so glad to see Felix again ... all of him. As is contractually required for Jordan Gavaris, Felix shows off some choice skin in the premiere when Sarah catches him in a club wearing fetish gear that includes buttless chaps.

Cracking the Code

Project LEDA
As mentioned previously, Leda is a reference to that Greek myth about the human queen of Sparta Leda who was seduced by the god Zeus in the guise of a swan (ew!). She also slept with her human husband that same day (ew!) and therefore produced two sets of twins: Helen (of Troy fame) and Clytemnestra, and Castor and Pollux. It is often accepted that Helen and Pollux are Zeus' offspring (and therefore are part god). What this means for Orphan Black remains to be seen. Although Sarah and Helena are twins, we're not sure if that means one has some sort of almost demi-god powers, not literally of course. But Helena did survive getting shot, and maybe hit the lottery with her genetics for strong healing. Or Leda could just refer to the cloning experiment in which the scientists were "playing God" or possibly trying to implant favored or "god-like" genes into the subjects.!

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"Nature Under Constraint and Vexed" The title of the episode is from philosopher Francis Bacon's "Plan of Work" that was published in 1620. The full quote, which basically is about man's manipulation of nature (e.g. cloning), is: "Next, with regard to the mass composition of it: I mean it to be a history not only of nature free and at large (when she is left to her own course and does her work her own way) -- such as that of the heavenly bodies, meteors, earth and sea, minerals, plants, animals,-but much more of nature under constraint and vexed; that is to say, when by art and the hand of man she is forced out of her natural state, and squeezed and moulded."

Best Quotes

"We will wipe, wipe, wipe away the plasma!" -- Alison singing in the musical

"Am I wrong, sailor?" -- Ramon, with a special delivery for Felix and Sarah

After Sarah hits and then disarms Paul (Dylan Bruce)
Paul: "In the face?!"
Sarah: "Sorry."

Bonus

The eagle-eyed fans will spot series creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson at the Dyad party. Fawcett is the photographer who snaps a picture of Dyad fan Manson with Dr. Leekie (Matt Frewer).

What did you think of the Orphan Black premiere? Are you glad Helena is back? What were your favorite moments? What are your theories about Project Leda?

Orphan Black airs Saturdays at 9/8c on BBC America.

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