Orphan Black – Beneath Her Heart

By: Michelle Lopez

We open in a flashback to a time shortly after Beth (Tatiana Maslany) reached out to Alison (Tatiana Maslany). She and Donnie (Kristian Bruun) are having Aynsley (Natalie Lisinska) and Chad (Eric Johnson) over for dinner. It’s the stereotypical image of suburbia until Alison gets a call from Beth. Alison’s in denial about the clone situation and doesn’t want to talk to Beth. Aynsley walks in and Alison pretends to be discussing raffle tickets. Alison scoffs at Aynsley’s thinking her sketchiness is over some side action. Chad and Donnie join them and Aynsley decides to ask the Hendrixes to take shrooms with them. Donnie laughs the idea off, but Alison’s just received a text from Beth about meeting another clone, so she’s game for any escape. Outside the house Cosima (Tatiana Maslany) is on the phone with Beth, wondering if an ambush is the best idea.

Hendrix house, present day – Mr. Frontenac (Andrew Moodie) questions Alison and Donnie about Helena (Tatiana Maslany). Donnie claims to not know while Alison throws all the salt she can his way for abandoning her in the woods. Alison’s done and wants Frontenac to let Rachel (Tatiana Maslany) know that Neolution won’t get anywhere near Helena’s babies. Alison is finally stepping up to bat for her sestras, but Frontenac deflects her bravado by claiming she has nothing useful to offer. Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) and Helena can have babies while Cosima is curing them. Hell, MK was a hacking genius. From Neolution’s view, Alison’s got nothing to offer outside of being a clone.

Back in the flashback, Donnie’s attempting to take care of everyone while they ride out their trip. Alison gets a call from her “mystery man,” Beth, about going outside to face reality. She does exactly that and is shocked to find Cosima on her porch. In her altered state, Alison gets caught in an existential crisis about the nature of identity. Cosima understands the crisis, but is mostly there to convince Alison to attend a clone club meet-up…until she realizes Alison is high.

In the present day, Sarah, Siobhan (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Felix (Jordan Gavaris) and Kira (Skyler Wexler) are hosting a memorial service for MK over Skype. Alison’s feeling useless after Frontenac’s visit and wishes she could have helped MK. They mourn their loss and part ways, all agreeing to lay low for a while. Kira’s still pissed at Sarah for trying to keep her away from Rachel. Siobhan benches Sarah and Felix while she handles Kira and Rachel to keep Sarah from making things worse.

The Church Fall Fun Fair is today and Alison’s not up for it. She tidies up her craft room while Donnie reminds her they’re both performing. Alison’s been replaced by Nona (Jayne Eastwood) because of her sestras, who she wants to hate but can’t. Donnie tries to cheer Alison up, but ends up motivating her to pull a hostile takeover of the fair.

Alison arrives ready to take over, but Nona’s been preparing for this moment. She mentions all the warnings she got about Alison pulling this exact maneuver and suggests Alison cut it out to prove everyone wrong. Alison backs down. She wanders into the chapel, pops a few pills and decides to dose a bottle of apple juice with the rest of the bottle. She finds Nona to apologize and offer the bottle of juice. Nona gladly accepts both. The pastor walks up to applaud Alison’s graceful acceptance of Nona replacing her and she reconsiders her plan. She snatches the bottle back, claiming it’s been in her car so long the chemicals alone would kill her.

At Dyad, Rachel and Frontenac discuss the Hendrixes’ resistance to giving up Helena. Rachel suggests they send Maddy (Elyse Levesque) and Art (Kevin Hanchard) to shake them down. Cut to cops at the Hendrixes’ door with a search warrant. Donnie, decked out in full highland dancing attire, lets them in to search for evidence that doesn’t exist (aside from the bodies in the garage).

At the church, Alison finds Aynsley’s memorial when Chad and his kids show up. She hasn’t spoken to them since the funeral, claiming the distance is the root cause, not her guilt. Chad tries to blame Aynsley’s death on their affair, but Alison’s not ready to throw herself back into a well of guilt. The past is the past and there’s no changing it.

Flashback – Alison’s shroom trip has turned into a full-on existential identity crisis. Donnie tries (and fails) to calm her down when Aynsley and Chad show up. They sense “bad energy” from Alison so Aynsley decides her best friend needs some time outside to appreciate nature.

Art and Maddy continue to ransack the house while Donnie repeats that he doesn’t know where Helena is. He wants to call Alison, but his phone is part of the warrant. Maddy tells him that the warrant doesn’t require him to be there so he can go to the fair. Since Art is there, Donnie feels safe enough to leave the cops alone in his house. On his way out, he tells Art to keep the cops out of the garage.

At Dyad, Rachel’s clipping and collecting Kira’s fingernails while discussing how Kira’s genes saved her that time she got hit by a car. With the nail clipping done, Rachel gifts Kira a mouse that can grow back its skin and fur. While playing with the mouse, Kira mentions that everyone says she can’t trust Rachel, but she’s having fun.

In Felix’s apartment, Sarah’s ranting about Rachel turning Kira against her. Felix needs to distract her so he decides to paint her. When he starts to disrobe, since he paints naked, Sarah finally snaps out of her catastrophizing and the two siblings joke around like we haven’t seen in a very long time.

Outside the church, Alison spots Ramone (Alex Ozerov) unloading party supplies. She confronts him about ripping them off. Ramone realizes that Kellerman took advantage of the Hendrixes’ naivety and played them. Ramone offers her his flask to help take the edge off, which she denies for a few seconds before we jump cut to her guzzling its contents in Ramone’s truck. Ramone offers her a toke as she wonders aloud how she ended up where he is. She takes a hit after telling him to not get trapped in Bailey Downs like she has.

Flashback – Alison and Aynsley are laying in the yard stargazing. Alison asks if Bailey Downs is the end of the line for them. Aynsley can only laugh because, despite the superficial façade, she has days where she wants to run away and never come back. Their lives are picture perfect in Bailey Downs, but Aynsley encourages Alison to follow her instincts and live her life.

Donnie finds Alison outside the church, stoned, and having the time of her life in the bounce house with Ramone. Donnie begs Alison to leave the bounce house, but she refuses until the long line of kids start yelling at her to get out. She and Ramone finish the “safety check” and the kids all climb in. Alison wants to know what’s got Donnie in a bad mood and is surprised to hear the cops are searching their house. She’s not worried because the house is clean of any evidence linking them to the many crimes they’ve committed. Except for the bodies, Donnie reminds her.

At the house, Art sees Maddy headed to the garage to plant evidence. He follows her and calls her out on it. She’s got to find out where Helena is and if framing Alison for murder is the only way to get that information out of Donnie, she’ll do it. As she’s planting the evidence she notices some new concrete and discovers the grave-sized new floor.

With Alison’s relapse and the cops searching his house, Donnie doesn’t know what to do so he calls Sarah. Felix and Sarah decide to ignore Siobhan’s orders and help their sestra. While waiting for the cavalry, Donnie finds the drugged apple juice in Alison’s bag and downs it.

Kira’s back in her room with her new pet mouse. Siobhan comes in to check that Kira finished her homework and to see if she wants to talk about what she did with Rachel. Kira doesn’t feel like sharing so Siobhan tells her to get ready for bed. When she’s alone, Kira walks over to her desk and grabs a pocket knife.

Chad finds Alison sitting outside the church looking anything but okay. He asks her what’s wrong so Alison begins to tell him about Aynsley’s death. She tells him she’s responsible, but Chad thinks her guilt is a byproduct of their earlier conversation. He reminds Alison that despite their differences, Aynsley was her best friend and loved her. She’s gone but they need to honor her by living their lives. That’s exactly what she needed to hear so she thanks him and heads to the theater to watch Donnie dance.

Alison and Felix both arrive just as Donnie begins his performance. Everything is going well until the drugged juice starts to kick in. Donnie eventually collapses and provides everyone with a view they never wanted. He gets up to try again, but falls again and loses consciousness. Alison finds the empty juice bottle and realizes what’s going on. Felix and Alison rush the stage to help Donnie when Nona comments on both Hendrix’s being “alchies.” Alison’s had enough of Bailey Downs’ crap. She gets up on her soapbox and dresses down the community her world used to revolve around. She’s finally taking Aynsley’s advice. She’s letting go of Bailey Downs and embracing her sestrahood. Felix closes the curtains before Alison accidentally drops the c-word and they drag Donnie off stage.

Art pauses his excavation of the garage when he notices Sarah lurking outside. He tosses Maddy the shovel and excuses himself to go take a leak. Inside the house, Sarah asks Art to stall because Rachel can’t know about Leekie. Art wants to help, but his daughter is at risk so he’s got to stay in line. Sarah calls to give everyone an update and they’re in a bind. Art can’t help and if Rachel finds out they killed Leekie she’s going to stop playing nice. Donnie offers up Helena’s location, but Alison is not about to sacrifice a sestra to save herself from dealing with the consequences of something she’s actually guilty of. Alison tells Felix to take Donnie home while she makes herself useful for once.

Maddy discovers the headless body of Leekie as Alison arrives at Dyad with Leekie’s head in her bag. Rachel greets Alison and makes it clear that Frontenac wasn’t joking earlier — Alison is the least “valuable” clone to Rachel. Alison’s been in this war longer than Sarah and while she hasn’t been on the front lines, she’s been a player. She drops her bag on the desk and waits for Rachel to open it. When she does, Alison calmly explains how Leekie died. Rachel’s shocked that Leekie and a Castor are buried in her garage, but tries to leverage that to get Helena’s location. Alison knows she has the upper hand because any investigation into the bodies would lead to Dyad and Neolution. Alison tells Rachel to call off the cops so Rachel gives Maddy a call. Maddy reports the headless body they’ve found and asks for further instruction. Art sneaks behind her ready to add her to the garage cemetery, but Rachel instructs Maddy to dispose of the bodies and clean up the garage.

Back at home, Donnie applauds Alison for facing off with Rachel and winning. He notices that she’s not excited and asks what’s wrong. Alison’s finally accepted that she’s not the person she’s been pretending to be and she needs some time away to get to know this new version of herself. Donnie’s sad, but understands that she needs to do this.

Oh, and Helena’s hiding out with the nuns that raised her.