Orphan Black: Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis review

An extraordinarily complex installment of Orphan Black that's even more full of clones than usual. Here's Marc's review...

This Orphan Black review contains spoilers.

We start things out on this week’s Orphan Black with one of the creepiest ass sex scenes you will ever see. Last week, we met two new male clones, one mustachioed killer and another soldier boy who was held prisoner by Dyad. Mustache saved Soldier Boy and these two deadly duplicates were free. This week, we got to see what they do for recreation and it wasn’t pretty.

One aspect of Orphan Black we really don’t hear much about is that, in addition to being one of the most intelligent sci-fi dramas on TV, it is also one of the most potent horror shows currently airing. Want evidence? How about Soldier Boy bringing a woman back to his pad for a little booty call and having Mustache creeping in on the action right as the woman in question was in the throes of passion? In the middle of coitus, boom, four identical hands were suddenly probing her body. Yeessh! It was an effective and bone chilling intro to an episode that would tell the disturbing and tragic tale of these two clone brothers.

And what a twisted tale it was. After the fateful sexual encounter, the violated woman in question went to the police with her sordid tale. This brought Art into the picture (and it was very good seeing the sour faced grump again). After Sara got word that there were twin sexual deviates preying on women in the city, she adopted the Beth identity once again to question the girl. Now, she knew the male clones were out and about and up to no good but there were other distractions waiting for Sara, namely Cal and his new Sara and Kira friendly apartment.

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First off, how did I just realize that Cal is played by the same dude that plays Daario Naharis on Game of Thrones? Secondly, for the first time, Sara seems like she is really close to a stable life. With the loyal Cal bidding her welcome to his new abode to the bond between Cal and Kira, everything Sara has wanted since we first met her is right there with Cal. But Sara’s loyalty to her sistras goes far beyond her own wants and needs and with Helena missing and in so much trouble, it seemed Sara will have to play sistra savior once again.

Trouble might be an understatement as we got to witness Helena being waterboarded and indoctrinated into Project Castor. Not much was revealed about Helena’s captors but the crazy haired squirrely Ukrainian is still chatting with her scorpion pal and is still in all sorts of danger…although the matron of Castor seems to be nicer than the rest of the military crazies. Helena’s situation was still a mystery, but it was clear that Helena needed Sara and the Clone Club to come to the rescue.

Sara had bigger problems other than Helena as her familial bliss was shattered by the arrival of the boy clones. Mustache and Soldier Boy had problems of their own as Mustache seems to be losing his grip on reality. Soldier Boy was the caregiver of the duo and it seemed that Mustache might be suffering from the same genetic breakdown that Cosima has been forced to deal with.  

It also seemed that Sara’s old boy toy, Paul, was the boy clones’ keeper. So this conspiracy ran deep and encompassed many of our major players. Soldier Boy busted into the sanctity of Felix’s lair and threatened Kira in front of Sara. Sara saw every one of her nightmares come true as the clone conspiracy once again threatened the life of her daughter.

Downstairs, Mustache was coming apart at the seams when confronted by Cal. Upon hearing his brother’s screams, Soldier Boy ran downstairs and saw Cal standing over his twin with a pipe and a knife. I really thought that was it for Cal but Soldier Boy emptied a clip, not into Cal, but into his own brother, putting Mustache out of his misery. It was a little frightening that the clone that paints Xs on his eyes when he goes out to threaten little girls was the stable one. After seeing her daughter threatened, Sara knew that she would have to find the truth of the male clones of Project Castor. Kira went off with Cal and Sara went off on her own mission to find the truth about Castor and to find Helena.

Not caught up (yet) in this complex cloning conundrum was Alison, but Mrs. Hendricks had her own problems this week. Last episode, we discovered that Alison was going to run for a position on the local school board against her rival Marci. This week, Alison discovered that her old drug dealer was pushing uppers and Oxy to half the PTA so what did Alison do? She bought the dudes business and her client list. So tune in next week for Breaking Black, I guess.

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Hey wait, Marci’s name is one the dealer’s customer list. I guess it could be time for some Orphan Blackmail for dear old Marci. And seriously, I would pay to watch the weekly adventures of a drug dealing Alison and Donne.

But it was Sara and Helena that our drama seems to be focusing on as the male clones of Castor have now threatened Kira. Sara’s resolves has never been stronger and her status as the noble hero has never been greater, but we don’t know how many Castor males are out there and judging from the ones we met so far, stability is not exactly built into their DNA.

Case in point, Mark, the first boy clone we met last year. Mark is still with that red head that he married last season, the one that he escaped with after Helena burned down that clone cult from last year. Mark was reintroduced this week burning off his Castor tattoo with a blowtorch. Yeah, like I said, not exactly stable.

The Good

“Fist me.”

Cal. It’s about time Sara had a good dude in her life after Paul.

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Cosima still seems to be in good health.

Helena likes mangos.

Blanket forts.

The Bad

Just not enough Cosima so far this season.

Can we get a love interest for poor Felix up in here?

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The Ugly

Unexpected menage-a-clone.

Insane soldier clones with his eyes x’ed out hiding in a blanket fort.

Rating:

3.5 out of 5