What I’m Watching: Orphan Black

Orphan Black: Season 4, Episode 3 “The Stigmata of Progress” (B+)

This episode dug up – if you’ll pardon the expression – a few plotlines that have been dormant and unreferenced for a while. I forgot all about Rachel, the least sympathetic of all the clones who now has seen her circumstances changed completely. She’s doing pretty well with her new eye and trying to get back on her feet physically, but it’s being trapped and out of control of her situation that is really driving her crazy. I like that she’s found a way to secretly communicate with her clone daughter, and I’m sure that her mother won’t be able to keep her for long. It’s interesting to see the Castor clone who was kept apart from his brothers and is far kinder that any of them. Felix has found his birth sister, it appears, and even if she’s not a neolutionist spy, she’s hardly the deepest person, even compared with the relatively shallow Felix. Alison’s decision to exhume Dr. Leekie’s body came pretty easily, and it was very entertaining to see her and Donnie nearly pass out as they kept digging and unfortunately inhaling. Helena wearing a towel on her head while raiding the fridge was fun enough, and then things got very risky when the police showed up and started questioning her. She came through in a big way with the names of those who worked on Alison’s campaign, and I guess being a Russian assassin does make her very qualified to be perceptive and to lie to the police. Kira’s hazes are disconcerting, and when Ferdinand was the one to save the day and prevent Sarah from certain doom, you know things aren’t looking good.