Orphan Black Season 2 Episode 6: Clone Road Trip

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I Think I Love You, Would You Like To Arm Wrestle?

Sarah and Helena take a clone road trip and hilarity ensues. One of the great things about "Orphan Black" (there are so many) is the zaniness and humanity that are sprinkled throughout the story telling. I especially enjoyed their scene in the tent. Helena fears that Sarah will leave her if Helena tells her where Dr Duncan is (and that turns out not to be far from the truth). I also enjoyed the clone sing along in the truck. Helena is seriously growing on me. Sure she's a psycho serial killer but she's also a very damaged person who just wants to be loved.

Alison is back this week and still in rehab. During a therapy circle (in which Alison says she's not "an actual alcoholic") a late comer arrives. It is none other than... Vic. He just got back from the doctor. Remember his unfortunate nail gun injury last season? What are the odds of Vic being in the same rehab? Not high so something's up. They bond while shooting hoops. Vic later goes on a smoke break and gets into a car. In the driver's seat is none of than Angie. He says he'll get the dirt on Alison for Angie but then he's done. The situation is interfering with his recovery and his newfound Buddhist faith.

Meanwhile Dr Leekie recommends Scott for a job as gene sequencer at the Dyad Institute. Cosima is at first opposed but he blurts our that he knows about the clones. He's hired. What he doesnt know if that Cosima is a clone. Scott also discovers that the stem cells being injected to Cosima belongs to a female relative (a daughter or a niece) of the clones. Is this from Kira or is there another child we dont know about? If it's Kira, how did they get the cells? Was it from Mrs S or maybe Cal? Delphine makes Scott promise not to tell Cosima about his findings.

Sarah and Helena head for Cold River (the "Place of Screams" according to Helena). Sarah tells Helena to stay put in the car. We all know that's not going to happen. Meanwhile Felix and Art are trying to find clues by going through Helena's storage locker (if they can distinguish between the useful intel and the rantings of a crazy person).

Sarah finds out that the Cold River Institute records are stored in the basement of the church that was in Duncan's photo. She is able to access there by pretending to be a student of Dr Duncan's. Maggie Chen had also been there previously. It turns out Duncan is stolen identity of a dead baby for the past 20 years. His name is currently Andrew Peckham. Sarah also learns that the some sort of the genetics experimentation has been going on since the early 1900s. It appears to involve not only cloning but also eugenics (and sterilizations). The plot thickens.

Helena goes into a bar across the street and meets what appears to be a nice guy. They bond over what young couples usually do-- heavy drinking and arm wrestling. Meanwhile Mark is watching them. He is joined by Paul. They both agree to take their respective clones (Paul takes Sarah and Mark takes Helena) and there will be no additional bloodshed.

Just when things start to get heavy between Helena and Trucker-Cap-Wearing-Guy, someone interrupts. Helena doesnt appreciate this and proceeds to beat the crap out of him. She of course goes for his eyes (cause that's what Helena does). She is hauled off to jail. Here's where I thought Sarah would come to Helena's rescue. Instead Sarah heads for Ethan's house. Way to have your clone's back... not. In her defense, Sarah did ask Art to bail Helena out.

Helena is instead bailed out by Gracie and Mark. They tell her she will be reunited with "her babies". Poor Helena does not have good decision making skills. Given what happened last time, she should know better than to go with the Prolos.

Sarah goes to the house of Ethan Duncan (alias "Swan Man"). Remember Ethan and his wife pioneered the cloning technique and were surrogate parents to Rachel. He was presumed dead until last week. Sarah knocks on the door and who answers but... wait for it... Mrs S. She allows Sarah to speak with Ethan. He tells her that they were working on the cloning project for the military (so I guess the US government is now involved). However the program was hijacked by the Neolutionsists inside the Dyad Insttitue (and Leekie in particular). And we still dont know their agenda is. Mrs S refers to Dyad as a "hydra". Duncan says Dyad wants "babies" and "little girls".

Apparently Leekie also killed Ethan's wife (Susan). That's why Duncan has been in hiding all these years. Just when we thought Leekie might be a good guy, he's firmly back in the bad guy camp.

While Ethan and Sarah are having their chat, the armed Mrs S keeps looking out the window. She sneaks up on a car outside and says "Hello Paul". How do those two know each other? She then offers him some tea and biscuits. She suggests that Paul could use a new friend (after of course threatening to kill him if she tries to take Sarah or Ethan). What exactly is Mrs S up to? I'm not sure what to think of her (but I hope she's a good guy).

There is talk of Rachel this week but she's MIA. After the sex scene with Paul last week, we've seen enough of her for a while. That was definitely an unsexy sex scene.

Favorite Quotes:

"I can’t help but think the godhead has put you here to test me”- Vic to Alison.

"If you think you’re taking Sarah back, you have to kill me. But you don’t want do that or Afghanistan would have all been for naught. In your position, you could really use a new friend”- the always mysterious Mrs S to Paul.

"Ethan is the only person alive who can give Sarah and her sisters what they need"- Mrs S to Paul.

"We're stronger together"- Cosima to Sarah about Clone Power.

"You are a bad goat"- Helen to creepy dude in the bar

"I'm very good with children"- Helena to Sarah. That made me laugh.

"Who do you really trust?"- Mrs S to Sarah.

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). "To Hound Nature In Her Wanderings" was another great episode. I wish we had seen more of Cosima though. And Sarah ditching Helena in jail sucked. I thought she had genuine feeling for her after their hugfest last week.