Orphan Black Season 5 Episode 4 Review: Let the Children and the Childbearers Toil

This Orphan Black review contains spoilers.

Orphan Black: Season 5, Episode 4

This week we spent more time adding to the Neolution mythos, and enjoyed a good old fashioned con with S and Sarah. Adele made her grand return, Kira is still struggling with who she is, and Cosima poked around the Island of Dr. Moreau.

Adele returns

S tells Adele about clones off-camera, which feels like a missed opportunity for some great reaction gifs and folksy sayings, as well as an odd storytelling choice. I guess we’re all just trusting Adele now? I mean, how often has S been wrong? Somehow, Adele’s crime actually makes me more comfortable with her, since that makes her a better fit for the Satler-Manning clan. Adele and Felix are headed to Sweden, which will certainly be an interesting foray, especially if Felix isn’t interested in going.

I’m glad to see that Kira is finally coming into her own as a character, as opposed to just being a glorified MacGuffin. It’s also great to see her one on one with her uncle Felix, and the realistic way that she opens up to him, as opposed to her mother and grandmother.

S and Sarah run down leads

It was great to see Mrs. S and Sarah pulling a con, and even better to realize how much their relationship has grown over the course of the show. The mock argument that was the bait was once commonplace for them, but now feels so out of place. S and Sarah have grown to respect each other’s judgment so much more, and it seems like most of their disputes these days have moved on to more complicated issues, like how to parent a clairvoyant child who’s cutting herself to perform her own science experiments as a sign of love.

Sarah also made a pit stop to see another key member of her family, her twin sestra Helena. It turns out that while she is in a convent with a nun from the Ukraine, her location is luckily more convenient.

Finally, all the deception pays off for S and Sarah as well as us, when they get some intel from Cody, the creator of the Castor Clones. There’s no way we’ve seen the last of her, especially since Susan seemed terrified of PT finding out that she’s still alive (how ironic!)

Cosima investigates and Susan rejoins the Neos

This season has been broken really well from one episode to the next, and bringing the mystery of the island dweller front and center in this episode was a great example of that. If it went another week we would all forget about it, but it would have felt cramped in the Allison-heavy episode and it would have been a huge detriment to the tight plotting of the episode before that.

Surprising no one, PT Westmoreland was into eugenics. It will be interesting to see what parts of that, if any, have stayed top of mind for him. On the other hand, I’m hopeful for Mud, who you may recognize as “the one who kinda looks like Anna Kendrick” from The Handmaid’s Tale, who is caring for PT, Susan, and Cody’s original sin, a boy they experimented on in unconscionable ways. It’s not hard to assume that they have similar plans in mind for Kira, regardless of what Rachel says about her remaining with Sarah.

I’m happy to see Scott & co. are still part of the extended Clone Club family, and the way that S works every connection she has, including behind her daughter’s back. I’m very interested in learning who her source is, though, and I always want to see more of her old network, since old school S storylines are always amazing.

Will Mud start trusting Cosima enough to let her help? Will Kira let her mother back in? Just how quickly Will Cody break herself out with that key card, and make herself known to PT Westmoreland? What can Ari do beyond observe and report back? It’s all building rather nicely right now, but I already can’t believe how quickly it’s going, and how many answers we still need.