Orphan Black – The Few Who Dare

By: Michelle Lopez

When we last saw Sarah (Tatiana Maslany), she had been stabbed in the leg by Rachel (Tatiana Maslany), was on the run and had just learned that Ferdinand has Mrs. S and Kira (Skyler Wexler). We pick up moments later as Sarah limps her way across the beach toward the woods. As soon as she finds cover, she collapses and takes stock of what she has on her (a tampon, matchbook, a picture of Kira and a knife). She’s got 2% battery left so she calls Felix (Jordan Gavaris) and gives him the abbreviated version of the shit that’s gone down on the island. Felix is concerned for all his sestras, but Sarah’s poor attempt at convincing him she’s fine has him on edge. He wants her to leave the island, but Sarah’s not departing without Cosima (Tatiana Maslany). She has Ira (Ari Millen) tell her where the boathouse Susan sent Cosima and Charlotte (Cynthia Galant) to is before the call ends. Next on Sarah’s to-do list is make a fire. She’s got one match and no kindling aside from her picture of Kira, which she burns for the sake of survival. She stuffs a tampon in her stab wound as a makeshift bandage and passes out from the pain. She dreams of Kira telling her to wake up, which she does just in time to hear some branches snapping nearby. A humanoid figure jumps out of the woods, tackling Sarah. They roll around through the fire until Sarah grabs a rock and bonks the creature over the head and scares it away. She spends the rest of the night fashioning a walking stick/spear and heads out at first light to find the boathouse.

Cosima wakes up inside a yurt (which should be the first sign that something’s amiss because nothing good happens in yurts). Case in point, the door is locked and her cure is gone. She finds a note from Delphine (Evelyn Brochu) instructing Cosima to follow her lead. Cosima spots Delphine trying to visit her, but she gets turned away. Instead a chipper girl named Mud (Jenessa Grant) enters, who welcomes her to Revival – a village that’s been off the grid since 1908. Mud explains that Delphine’s gone to work and that Mud, herself, is going to give Cosima a tour and history lesson. Revival’s purpose is to genetically improve the human race and all the residents were picked for that purpose. Cosima brings up Rachel and Mud explains that she’s meeting with the 170-year-old founder, P. T. Westmorland. Charlotte notices Cosima and runs out of “school,” thankful to see a familiar face.

Following Sarah’s orders, Felix stops by the safe house and finds Sarah’s intel was right — Ferdinand did take Mrs. S and Kira. He hears someone entering so he arms himself with a frying pan and goes to attack the intruder, only to find himself face-to-face with Art (Kevin Hanchard). They find signs of a struggle, but nothing helpful so Art asks Felix to keep Alison and Helena hidden while he works on finding Mrs. S and Kira.

Felix calls up Donnie (Kristian Bruun) and Alison (Tatiana Maslany) to give them an update on what’s gone down while they’ve been hiding in the woods with Helena (Tatiana Maslany). Alison is ready to jump into action, but Felix tells them to stay hidden. When the call ends, Alison starts packing their bags, refusing to sit around while Kira is in danger.

On the island, Sarah hobbles her way to the boathouse only to find it under patrol by a bunch of armed men. She hides in a bush and learns that they’re out hunting her with orders to bring her to Revival. Not a fan of being captured, Sarah books it out of there as fast as her injured leg lets her.

In the Revival clinic, Delphine reviews the file of a young Afghan girl. Her family has traveled all the way to Revival for “the fountain” to heal her. After the exam, the family leaves and Delphine locks herself in the clinic. She’s prepared Cosima’s cure and stashes it in the back of the clinic fridge. The old guy (Geza Kovacs) who runs the camp stops by to micromanage Delphine’s day and is pissed to find the clinic locked. Delphine pockets the Afghani girl’s chart and lets the grumpy guy in. He’s come to take her to see “him,” which is a big deal according to Delphine’s reaction.

At the comic shop, Scott (Josh Vokey) and Felix are reviewing satellite maps of the island. Ira tells them the village is named Revival, but he’s not willing to share more than that out of misplaced loyalty to the Duncans. Hell Wizard (Calwyn Shurgold) explains part of the plan. They’re trying to contact MK (Tatiana Maslany) through video games by spamming the name Sarah Manning across the gaming community. It’s a good plan, but Felix remembers that MK contacted Kira through Minecraft before so he rushes out to go grab Kira’s laptop for them to use.

Maddy (Elyse Levesque), Art’s new partner courtesy of Lt. Hardcastle (Ron Lea), drives them out to the middle of nowhere and shows him her case file on the clones. Turns out she’s Neolution and wants to use Art, by threatening his daughter, to get her hands on Alison and Helena – the only unaccounted-for clones.

In the woods, Donnie loon-calls to Helena because that’s a thing they do now. Helena spots some armed men headed toward camp and sounds the emergency loon-call. Instead of acting like there’s an emergency, Donnie walks out of camp and prepares to loon-call back when a few of the men rush camp. They grab Alison while Donnie watches from behind a tree and then runs away.

Felix returns to the safe house to grab Kira’s laptop when Mr. Frontenac (Andrew Moodie), one of Rachel’s lackeys, shows up. He tells Felix that he doesn’t need to worry about his family because Rachel has taken a special interest in them. Felix knows he’s outmatched so when Frontenac tells him he’s there to bring him in, he goes quietly.

A large black van carrying Alison pulls up to Art and Maddy. They found Alison because Art caved when his daughter became a pawn in the game. Alison is shocked to see that Art is with her captors, but he tries to explain that Neolution is offering a truce and they need to find Helena. Maddy is under strict orders to not hurt the clones, but to motivate Alison she holds a gun to Art’s head and asks where Helena went. Alison has no clue and her panicked eyes tell Maddy she’s being truthful so she drops the gun and they head home with Alison in tow.

In a yurt, Charlotte reads Cosima the “school” book she was given. It’s some grade-A cult material that has even Charlotte pointing out how weird and scary Revival is. Delphine rushes in and apologizes for not contacting Cosima, but she wasn’t allowed to. The old guy enters telling Delphine the transport is ready for her. She’s being shipped off to Sardina for a “research trip” because Cosima isn’t allowed to be happy. Delphine asks for ten minutes alone with Cosima before she leaves and even the grumpy old guy can’t say deny them that. Finally alone, Cosima tries to wrap her head around everything, especially Delphine being there. She checks for the gunshot scar and kisses it because it proves Delphine was telling the truth about what happened to her. Their time is up so Delphine quickly tells Cosima where the cure is and tells Cosima to follow the crazy science and figure out what the hell Rachel is up to.

Sarah’s still wandering through the woods trying to outrun the hunters. They’re finally closing in on her so she begins to run, only to trip and smack her head against a log. She almost blacks out, but once again she hears Kira telling her to wake up. She sees that her hand is covered in blood, sees a disemboweled deer and then hear the hunters getting closer. With nowhere to run, Sarah hides behind a fallen tree and hopes they miss her. When the hunters come upon the deer, they’re a little freaked out and decide to leave Sarah to deal with whatever creature killed the deer.

Mud finds Cosima eating lunch, and some music starts playing over the speakers. Everyone moves toward the stairs that lead to Westmorland’s House. Mud excitedly explains that the music means Westmorland has something to announce to Revival. Rachel makes her way down the stairs to address the crowd. She talks about taking over as the face of Neolution and wraps up by telling the crowd that they’ll drink from “the fountain.” As the crowd applauds, Sarah pops out from behind a yurt looking haggard and shocked.

In the woods, Donnie runs up to his poorly hidden car. While he’s opening the door a Neo agent appears and orders him on his knees with his hands on his head. Donnie is scared for himself, but that fear quickly morphs into fear for the agent because behind him is Helena. She jumps on the agent’s back, knocking the gun out of his hand. They fall to the ground and grapple until Donnie picks up the gun and knocks the agent out. Donnie rushes to Helena’s side to help his wife’s very pregnant, sestra only to find that she’s been stabbed in the stomach with a large stick. He helps her up to the best of his abilities and they rush off to find a hospital.

Ready to be cured, Cosima sneaks out of her yurt jail and lets herself into the clinic. She finds the cure exactly where Delphine said it would be and begins to prepare it when Sarah walks in and scares the crap out of her. She wasn’t expecting to see Sarah…and she definitely wasn’t expecting to see Sarah bloodied and beaten. Sarah explains Rachel is losing her marbles and how she’s on the island to bring Cosima home. The only problem is that Cosima doesn’t want to go home. She’s in the heart of Neolution, the one place where she can get answers to the questions they’ve all been asking since they discovered they were clones. They hear a search party moving through the camp and Cosima knows it’s for her. She tells Sarah to go take care of Mrs. S and Kira while she stays behind for the sestras. When Sarah leaves, Cosima prepares the giant syringe that she needs to inject into her uterus. She tries to do it, but it’s not easy to stab yourself in the uterus. Rachel finds her and offers to do the procedure because Westmorland wants Cosima alive to be a part of “this” and because Rachel has overdosed on Neolution Kool-Aid. Cosima agrees because she’s spent four seasons working for this moment. Surprisingly Rachel actually does the procedure. COSIMA IS FINALLY CURED!

Sarah makes it back to the boathouse unscathed, but as she prepares the boat to leave she gets shot with a tranquilizer dart. She collapses and has the same vision of Kira. Before she passes out, Rachel appears telling Sarah it’s a new day.