Orphan Black “Transgressive Border Crossing” Review

The Neos are coming! The
Neos are coming!

First off
thank the good characters of this
show for giving me an abbreviated
name for the
Neolutionists. Typing up last weeks review I was starting to
wonder if I was
going to make a
full season typing that word. I can’t describe it. I just
don’t like the
letter combinations. I’m a simple
man Geeklings. Any way as
expected be careful going forward as there are
spoilers

ahead…

Coming off the fantastic flashback episode that was last
week
things picked up right
where we left off. Sarah, having just hung up the phone
with Art and MK, was
in “frantic get out of the
house” mode while S and Kendall
were left suspecting the phone call. I think
their responses hurt the tension
a
bit. While I agree that the random phone call from MK should be
questioned, and
appreciated S
questioning how MK knows about them, the call did originate with
Art and
he’s a trusted source. If someone
like Art is passing along a message
that says “get out of the house” then I
think it should be a safe
assumption
to get out of the house. All it took was eagle eyed Kira
to spot the
lights of the
incoming vehicles to get everyone in gear. For me this was where
the tension
picked up and I love any escape
plan that ends with “burn everything
down”. I do stand by the fact that that
burning sock monkey is an
upsetting
image.

Traveling in the back of a U-haul brings us to a
mini Clone Club
reunion in the
secret under ground comic book shop lab/hide out for Cos. We are
introduced
to how the ending of season three
is treating the other clones and
apparently Alison is just dancing her
troubles a way while Cos is living in

plastic tent of highness (don’t worry it’s medicinal). While this week was

focused mainly on bringing
the band back together it was filled with tons of
emotional character
moments. What makes theses moments
shine is not only our
investment in the characters but the performance of
Tatiana Maslany. Each of
these
women have distinct characteristics and Maslany taps into the core of each

one to make each emotional moment
resonate.

Let’s start with
Helena
who is off to the hospital to see her baby. I love the dynamic between
her
and Donnie as she pretends to be
Alison (yay health insurance scams boo
stupid brown hair). While Helena’s
role was downplayed a bit, which
makes sense
since Alison doesn’t want her to know that Sarah is back yet,
she absolutely
chewed up the
scenes she was in. The moment of finally seeing her baby which
turned into
babies (ummmm called it!) was
fantastic. The peer joy and emotion
that resonates from her was brilliant
and one of the glowing moments of
an
episode that saw the majority of the cast feeling a bit
glum.

While there
was the high of twins
in the belly for Helena there was the low of not being
able to have children
with Alison. After seeing the
image of the babies, Alison
had a tough time keeping the jealousy out of her
voice and tried to focus on

other things to make it seem like she didn’t care. The reaction is a bit

transparent, even Donnie
catches on. Once he leaves and you see Alison alone
with the picture it
becomes a little heart breaking here.
Don’t forget the only
two members of the Clone Club who seem able to have
children are Sarah and
Helena,
there is no doubt a twinge of jealousy from Alison, who tried so hard to

start her own family naturally. This
was a tricky scene as it easily could have
made Alison seem like a jerk for
not being excited about the
twins, but was
navigated in a way where you just want to give her a hug when
it’s over. Alison
is
constantly putting on a strong face but it was touching seeing her respond in

such a bittersweet
way.

Continuing down the road of characters who are
feeling a
bit down and emotional, we turn
to Cos who is still not
feeling well. They still haven’t
discovered a pure cure with Kendall’s
blood
and I’m starting to wonder if they will now that it was revealed that
Kendall
has leukemia. I
never thought that Kendall was long for this universe but I
don’t know how
I feel about the illness being
kept a secret. She is clearly
sick (constantly coughing and seeming weak)
and you would think as Cos is

searching for a cure she’s going to notice that the source is ill. Also

wouldn’t you think that Kendall
being ill would contaminate the blood? Just
strikes me that the source not
being healthy will lead to further
complications
for Cos who is already having a tough enough time as it is.
Since the show began
the
question of Cos being able to survive the illness has loomed over head, and

things aren’t looking great. The
weed is only helping her with appetite as she
feels a bit run down and
sluggish. Plus the question of whether
or not Delphine
is alive is weighing pretty hard on her. In what was another
brilliantly acted
scene from
Tatiana Maslany, Cos confines in S abut the fate of Delphine and says
how
much she misses her which leads to
another heart wrenching break down. I
think this is the first time we get an
idea of how scared Cos is. Of
all the
members of the Clone Club I want to say that this is the first time
we see Cos
give in to her
emotions. Even when she was going through the worst of the
illness she
managed to remain positive. Seeing her
upset here tugged at the
heart strings.

This season seems to want to
display the similarities of

Beth and Sarah, and so far they’re off to a strong start. I really enjoyed
Art
and Sarah returning to
Beth’s flat as it had all those season one feels to it.
I was also glad to
see that we’re not quite done
with Beth’s story, and dug
the way the flashbacks were incorporated.
Watching Beth put on the blonde wig

and check herself out in the mirror literally mirrored Sarah’s attempt to

become Beth. I’m a sucker for
moments like that. The larger question here is
where did Beth go with that
blonde wig and gun? After her
encounter with the
Neos cop (IMDB says his name is Duko) it would be safe to
assume that he was the

target. But it seemed that who ever Beth was meeting was in a hotel of some
sort
so she was posing as
someone in order to get access.

Whatever happens we can assume that Beth killed someone
and got answers
that unnerved
her pretty strongly. MK’s last encounter with her helps clear up
some
questions on why MK has been in hiding
(Beth told her to and since Beth is
her only friend it’s natural that she
would listen). This was yet
another
heartbreaking scene as MK pleads with Beth not to leave because she
needs her.
Ugh. This poor
little creature. It’s only been two episodes but the MK
character is
quickly becoming one of my favorites.
Her ability to dig into the
conspiracy leads me to believe that she knows
quite a bit about what’s going

on, but her paranoia and inability to trust makes her sort of endearing in
her
vulnerability. Watching
her beg Beth to stay was gut wrenching as you could see
just how very alone
she is. Beth doesn’t stay
though, gives her a hug and a
gun, and is off to her date with a train.
Insert feels.

Back to real
time
as Sarah is looking for the preggers Neo and enlists the help of Felix
to sneak
her into the Neos
club. Which I might add is the scariest place on earth.
Remember that club
scene from the third Matrix
movie? I won’t blame
you if you tried to purge the existence of that
movie from your memory. Any

way… it kind of reminded me of that. Or the vampire club
in Blade
II. Either way it
is not a place I would go to spend
my Saturday nights.

Sarah makes contact with one of
MK’s sources (hello mistaken
identity) as we learn more about the worm tech
that the Neos are inserting in

cheeks. For the record that whole thing is rather gross. We watch a viral
video
of one being removed and
watch as it pierces through the persons cheek and tries
to eat their face.
That is all types of not okay.
Once the source discovers that
Sarah is not MK she steals his phone and sets
up a rendezvous with MK at a

laundry shop. Here MK fills in some of the gaps on what happened to Beth and

leads on that she knows
quite a bit. While Sarah tries to get answers from her,
pushing results in
chasing MK away. Before she goes
though she mentions that she
can’t tell Sarah what’s going on because
it’ll destroy her like it did Beth.

Is this because the conspiracy is so mind blowing that she feels Sarah
can’t
handle it or is it
because MK sees the similarities in personality
between Beth and
Sarah?

The episode ends with a chance
encounter with our
favorite killing EMS pair as they attack Sarah thinking
she’s Beth. In order to

confirm that she’s not Beth they pin down Sarah in order to check the
inside of
her cheek and seem
satisfied that she’s in fact not Beth. This leads to a very
frantic Sarah
bursting in on the underground
comic book lair needing to
know if there is something inside her
and Kira’s cheeks. With a little

flashlight trickery we discover………….. that yes there’s something
living
in there. And boom
episode is over and I feel that I need to wash the inside of
my mouth
forever.

Some quick notes
before we call it a
day.

• I’m not sure how I feel about the Felix story line
  but I do feel it
  makes a bit
  of sense. Finding out that Sarah is actually related to S (and
  pretty much
  everyone else) was a bit of a blow
  to him, and has Felix feeling a
  bit displaced. His attitude this episode was
  very standoffish and he is
  clearing
  keeping the Clone Club at arms length. I’m curious to see what the
  search for
  his birth parents
  will result in.
• Kira has reached that age
  where all the
  hiding and underground movements
  are getting old. This was the
  first time we saw her give an attitude to
  Sarah as well as displaying that she

  wants to see her Dad. Must be tough for Sarah to explain that Dad is off in

  Westeros searching for the
  Mother of Dragons and won’t be back until those
  duties are fulfilled (for
  the record I know that Danerys is
  not in Westeros but
  for the purpose of this joke it worked).

• I think my favorite
  line of
  the week belonged to Alison when she says, “I’m completely over booked.
  I
  have no time for Neos.”
• There was a Walking Dead comic
  visible in the comic book
  shop. I just thought that was
  cool and probably not by
  accident.
• There are still no answers
  on whether Delphine is
  alive
  or not. All we saw was what her absence is doing to Cos. Ugh.
• Again I want to add just how
  awesome Tatiana Maslany is. Those
  emotional character moments all resonated
  and she continues to masterfully

  present these characters. All the awards!

• I like that
  Beth’s
  story is still unfinished
  and looking forward to more flashbacks. Who did she
  kill and why did she
  need a blonde wig to do
  it?

There you have
it Geeklings another week of Orphan
Black in the books. What did
you
guys think? What’s up with these maggot bots in the cheeks? Is it some
sort of
tracking device? Are
we going to have to watch them cut it out of Sarah
(ewwwww)? Is Delphine
alive or dead? Where’s Rachel in
all of this? Does anyone
else just want to hug MK?Sound off in the comments

below!

 

Images from BBC America