Orphan Black: Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate Review

I need to apologize to you my fellow Clone Clubbers. I don’t feel my review last week really purveyed the scope of Twerkgate. I mean, I can’t even tell you how many times I watched Donnie and Alison making it rain and shakin’ dat ass on Youtube. It’s funny every freakin’ time and really might trump Clone Dance Party in terms of rewatchability. Sadly, there was no twerkfest this week, but there was plenty of clone wackiness to keep even the most hardened Orphan Black fan smiling.

Last week, we were introduced to Alison’s booty but this week, we were introduced to her mom, and I must say, that Mrs. Hendricks is exactly like I thought she would be. She was judgmental, close minded, prone to hysteria, and has her nose so far in the air, she could smell satellites. A reunion with Mama Hendricks would have been tense in the best of times, but this daughter mother reunion happened because Alison needed to buy her moms store in order to use it as a drug front. You know, like what Walter White did with the car wash? By the way, the store is named Bubbles and for some reason, I giggle every time someone on the show says it. Just something about a place called Bubbles being used as a drug front. Anyway, of course, Alison’s mom refuses to sell particularly because Bubbles (giggle) will be co-owned by Donnie.

Now what did we learn about Donnie this week? We learned that his last name was Chubbs until he married Alison and took her last name. We learned that Donnie might be the single worst drug kingpin in history, and we learned that if you threaten to cut off Donnie’s nose with a paper slicer, he will pee himself.  How did all this happen? Well, Donnie was supposed to deliver 30K to a local drug kingpin, the same cold hearted criminal that cut off Vic’s finger in season one. Of course Donnie being Donnie, instead of bringing the envelope full of cash, he brought an envelope full of Alison’s campaign buttons. So cue the Bennie Hill music for some epic wackiness as Alison was at her campaign trying to convince the community to vote her in as school trustee while trying to figure out a way to get the envelope of cash back, save Donnie, reconcile with her mom, and make sure that Cosima was able to leave with a jar filled with Alison’s pee.

Wait? What was the last part? As zany as that sounds, Cosima’s involvement in Alison’s kookiness actually lead everything down a rather morbid path. This week, Cosima’s tale began with an AWK-WARD meeting between Shay and Delphine. Delphine was concerned with some of Cosima’s test results and needed her urine. This led to Cosima giving a campaign speech as Alison (and without her glasses), and taking part in the zaniness, but it also led to some rather deep character insight into Cosima. Here’s a woman whose IQ is through the roof, but she would rather take a major health risk than trust Delphine. With Cosima, it seems that affairs of the heart are her Kryptonite. Poor Shay is such a rebound it’s not even funny, but it seems poor Shay is still rather smitten with our favorite dreadlocked scientist. That’s why it was so heartbreaking when at the end of the episode, when saw Shay cradling a bleeding Cosima in a bathtub, we knew things had taken a truly tragic turn for Cosima, for Delphine, and for Shay. During this, the third season of Orphan Black, Cosima’s story focused on her relationship drama, but now, things have taken a dire turn as her illness returned in full.

The secret to curing Cosima seemed to lie with Rachel, who paid Scott a visit this week. Rachel lured Scott into her web, holding her knowledge over the nerdy scientists head. Of course, Rachel, devious, Machiavellian Rachel, has a long game and will only tell those secrets to Sara. In spite of the epic level of Three’s Company like wackiness this week, it seems that Rachel is back in the game in a big way which could mean hard times for our clone sisters.

It may seem that this week’s episode was all about the comedy, and in a way it was, but it was also about family as Felix and Cosima came to Alison’s aid when she needed it most. Of course, neither of them knew that Alison is now a drug kingpin (well, Felix found out-it was awesome), but they were there for her because the school trustee thing is so important to her. It’s important because her mom never accepted her as a person, because the clone sisters are the only real family Alison ever had. And it was Alison’s love of family that inspired her neighborhood to support her. And yes, Alison managed to save Donnie from the paper cutter.

With all this, Sara and Helena were not left out of the action. Last week, we saw the clone pair escape Castor, and this week, the duo had to get the heck out of Mexico. Mrs. S arrived to make this happen but there was one problem. The always unstable Helena had promised to kill S for betraying her. It started tense but it ended sweet as S embraced Helena (well, after Helena punched her in the face-hard) and reminded her daughter’s clone that she will always have family. In Mrs. S’s arms, Helena found what she never had, a mom who accepts her and will care for her no matter what.

So by episode’s end, Helena was embraced by S, Alison had the love andaid of her extended family, and Donnie still had his nose. But poor Cosima will have to put affairs of the heart on the backburner because it looked like she was on her last legs and only Rachel could save her.

So far this season, the stakes on Orphan Black haven’t been that high. The episodes have been entertaining but they haven’t had that desperate feel of life or death. I think this week changed all that.