Orphan Black – One Fettered Slave

By starrymag | August 12, 2017

By: Michelle Lopez

 

We open on Helena (Tatiana Maslany) barely conscious, restrained to a gurney in a speeding ambulance, and flashing back to her childhood. One day at the convent she grew up in, young Helena (Habree Larratt) snuck into a nun’s room to steal some chocolates. While she’s stuffing her face and filling her pockets with her loot, the nun returns to her room, shuts the door and starts to masturbate. Having no clue what the nun was doing, she curiously approached to get a closer look and when the nun noticed her Helena’s life took a turn for the worst. The nun projects her internal guilt onto Helena and bleaches her hair to mark her as having the devil inside. That way if she ever told about the nun’s indiscretion nobody would believe her. Sister Irena (Eileen Sword) watches on in horror as the nun drags Helena to broom closet and padlocks the door shut.

 

At Siobhan’s funeral, Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) talks about her dedication and willingness to fight for her people. Before she passed, she left a letter for Sarah, Felix (Jordan Gavaris) and Kira (Skyler Wexler). Sarah tries to read it, but Kira breaks down sobbing so Felix takes over. Siobhan wanted her chickens to know that death isn’t the end and she’s in the next room waiting for the time when they meet again laughing about this very moment.

 

Alison (Tatiana Maslany) and Cosima (Tatiana Maslany) couldn’t attend the funeral so they’re mourning Siobhan over video chat. They’re concerned about Sarah because she found Siobhan’s body and hasn’t shed a single tear. Sarah doesn’t have the luxury of mourning because she needs to be the rock for Kira and her sestras. It isn’t fair that she has to be the strong one but life isn’t fair.

 

At the post-funeral gathering, Sarah’s sitting off to the side with Kira watching news reports on the Dyad fallout. Kira runs off to spend some time with uncle Felix and Art (Kevin Hanchard) brings Sarah some of his turkey chili and a promise that he’s all in on shutting down Neolution. Siobhan sacrificed herself for her kids but also for his family and that’s a debt he’s going to repay. Adele (Lauren Hammersley) leads Sister Irena into the house. She’s looking for Sarah because she’s got Helena’s journal, which lets Sarah know something’s gone terribly wrong.

 

Helena’s finally regaining consciousness as Coady (Kyra Harper) works on inducing labor. They’re being hunted so they don’t have time for her to naturally go into labor. They notice Helena waking up so they give her something to knock her out again causing her to jump into another flashback. Helena’s singing to herself in the broom closet when the door opens. The nun has contacted Tomas (Daniel Kash) and he’s there to take Helena.

 

In an epic video call, the entire gang comes together to figure out where Helena is. They know Gracie visited Helena and that she’s sold them out to Coady in the past. Cosima and Scott (Josh Vokey) figure they want the babies asap so they can harvest cord blood to treat PT (Stephen McHattie). Donnie (Kristian Bruun) guesses they’re going back to the island, but since the news of PT’s lies came out Revival is in shambles. Felix suggests they go to the one person who would have any idea of where to look, Rachel (Tatiana Maslany), but Sarah’s not keen on working with the reason Siobhan is dead. They don’t have a choice so Felix and Art go to talk to her while Sarah stays home with Kira.

 

Felix and Art crash Rachel’s hotel room ready for a fight. What they get is Rachel’s condolences and a good look at what used to be her eye. They’re not the only ones that have suffered under the thumb of Neolution. Felix tells Rachel about Helena’s abduction and probable relocation to the island, but Rachel’s not so sure about that since the island isn’t safe after Revival’s downfall. Everyone involved in the scam, Rachel included, is being hunted by the people they tricked. Helena was taken the night of Felix’s opening which happened to be the same night Maddy (Elyse Levesque) went rogue so they head out to find her but leave Scott behind to keep an eye on Rachel.

 

At the new Neolution hideout, PT isn’t looking too good. He’s dying so Frontenac (Andrew Moodie) prepares an adrenaline shot to keep him going until they can get treatment from Helena’s babies. Frontenac’s been busy cleaning house and taking out the Neolution cabal. PT’s impressed with his progress and tells him to go after Al-Khatib (Elie Gemael) next.

 

Waiting for news on Helena’s whereabouts, Sarah despondently wanders the house when she comes across the wall where Siobhan marked their heights growing up. She picks up one of her jackets and takes in the scent of the woman who’d spent her life caring for Sarah even when she did everything to push her away. Sarah’s goes and sits with Kira just embracing each other when Felix calls with an update. They’re at the police station investigating Maddy’s involvement.

 

In the station, Maddy sees Art enter and gives him a quick wink before Hardcastle (Ron Lea) lets him know Interpol wants to talk to him. They’re investigating the Neolution mess and Maddy’s told him some stuff implicating Art. He doesn’t have time for this so he decides to tell Hardcastle the truth hoping he’s not Neolution.

 

Coady’s done everything she can to prepare for Helena to go into labor. PT can’t wait for it happen naturally because he doesn’t care about the science anymore, all he cares about is preserving his life so he demands a c-section. Coady refuses so he demands hormone induction. In flashback land, young Helena is playing with her dolls which equate to her spitting on lesbian barbies. Tomas watches on proudly as Helena hates on the “copies” that are plaguing the earth and promises to protect the original. She wakes up to find Coady setting up an IV bag of labor inducing drugs. She knows her babies aren’t ready so she taunts Coady about letting PT control her; in return Coady has Helena knocked out again.

 

Art’s boss isn’t in on Neolution so he sends Art to continue investigating on the DL armed with the reports of the deaths that Interpol is concerned with. They call up Cosima and Scott to go over the deaths and find that they’re all members of the Neolution cabal. According to their information, all but three members are dead so their best bet is go to after Al-Khatib.

 

Coady’s concerned that wiping out the Neolution cabal is going to cause them more problems but PT isn’t since they have LIN-28A. He notices Mark (Ari Millen) lurking around and tells Coady to put him down because they’ve already gotten whatever science they needed from Castor and he’s just a loose end. Coady doesn’t want to kill her last son, but she made a deal with the devil and it’s time to pay up.

 

In the cabal boardroom, Frontenac’s meeting with Al-Khatib  who foolishly thinks he can still be apart of Neolution. Before Frontenac can get around to killing him, Felix bursts in talking about the interior design of the room as a distraction for Art to sneak in and get the drop on Frontenac who knows that Art has no legal grounds for arresting him. He reaches for his legally owned gun, but before he can pull the trigger Art takes him out. They give Sarah a call to let her know what’s happened. She’s worried for Art, but he’s over caring at this point as the only thing that matters is getting Helena back.

 

In the hideout, Coady follows through on PT’s order and puts Mark down. She tells him she’s giving him the cure and they talk about his plans for his future with Gracie. Coady plays along until the drug puts Mark to sleep permanently.

 

After her first contraction, Helena flashes back to when Tomas decided she was finally ready to do his bidding. He gives her the fish knife and sends her out to kill the first of many copies. Helena stalks her target into a church and stabs her from behind. When the target drops Helena’s horrified to see that the copy has her face. She returns to Tomas a mess because she realizes that she’s one of the copies she’s dedicated her life to killing. Tomas tells her that she’s the original and the light calms her and inspires her to begin her work carving angel wings onto her back. She snaps out of flashback land admitting out loud that she’s a copy just like her sestras. She begs Coady to let her keep her babies because they need her, but Coady knows just how to deflate Helena’s dreams of motherhood. She tells Helena that she could never be a good mother. She did spend most of her life hunting down and murdering her sisters.

 

Felix and Art have brought Al-Khatib to Rachel’s room for further questioning. He doesn’t know where Helena is. Sarah calls Felix to let him know that they’re running out of time because Kira senses that Helena’s in trouble and her babies are on the way. They’re out of time so they threaten Al-Khatib until he gives them the only information he’s got, Rachel’s the one PT wants more than anything else. With that new Sarah’s got a plan.

 

Alone in her room, Helena manages to use her IV line to drag a table of instruments to her. She grabs a pair of surgical scissors and begins to cut through her restraints. Outside the room, Coady lets PT know that Helena’s a few hours away from labor. He tells her to stay with Helena, but she’s pissed about having to put Mark down so she runs outside for a smoke. On her way out she passes Maddy rushing in because Al-Khatib is on the phone offering Rachel up to PT.

 

Helena’s having no luck cutting through her restraints so she does the only thing that will protect her babies from life as a science experiment. She stabs herself in the wrist trying to free herself and her babies from the shitty hand they’d been dealt.

 

Maddy rushes out to the location Al-Khatib gives and finds Sarah dressed as Rachel tied up in the trunk of a car. Cosima’s worried because this plan is bonkers, but Rachel assures her that Sarah will have some time before PT tries to kill her. Art’s tracking Sarah so they should be able to bust in and save them both before anything too bad can happen. Art tracks her to where the closed down old wing of Dyad where Cosima’s lab was and it’s practically impenetrable, but Hell Wizard (Calwyn Shurgold) uses to work security there and is sure he can get them in. They just need Sarah to keep PT occupied long enough for them to get there.

 

Helena’s vitals go nuts causing Coady to rush in and discover what she’s done to herself. They manage to stop the bleeding, but the damage has been done.

 

Maddy leads Sarah into Rachel’s old office where PT is waiting. She starts off by asking about Helena, but she gave up her seat at the table. PT opts to taunt “Rachel” with all her secrets that he’s learned because of her robot eye. Sarah calls him father to get him to shut up because she doesn’t want to know this much about Rachel. That piques his interest because she’d never called him that before. He rips off the wig so Sarah pulls out a knife and slashes him before Maddy pins her to the table. PT pulls a gun ready to finally take out the clone that singlehandedly caused his empire to burn. Before he can pull the trigger, Coady rushes in because Helena needs blood stat and Sarah’s all they’ve got. Sarah’s rushed into the room and when she sees the state Helena is in she agrees to the blood transfusion without question. She begs her meathead to wake up and thankfully she does.

 

Scott and Hell Wizard make their way into the Dyad building with a security jacket and cooler pretending to be transporting an infant organ. Once inside they make their way to the entrance to the old wing and Hell Wizard takes a crack and hacking through security. It takes a few tries, but he gets through and opens the door. Scott rushes to an emergency exit and lets Art in.

 

Helena’s feeling a lot better with her sestra there and her will to escape is reignited. She feigns a contraction and shoots Sarah at look says “watch this.” Helena asks Coady for some water and when she gets close enough Helena bashes her head into the side of the gurney probably killing her. They get ready to make their escape, but when Helena stands up her water breaks.