Orphan Black – They’d do anything to find a cure.

Orphan Black: 3x04 Newer Elements of Our Defense.

Crises there will continue to be. In meeting them, whether foreign or domestic, great or small, there is a recurring temptation to feel that some spectacular and costly action could become the miraculous solution to all current difficulties. A huge increase in newer elements of our defense; development of unrealistic programs to cure every ill in agriculture; a dramatic expansion in basic and applied research -- these and many other possibilities, each possibly promising in itself, may be suggested as the only way to the road we wish to travel. But each proposal must be weighed in the light of a broader consideration: the need to maintain balance in and among national programs -- balance between the private and the public economy, balance between cost and hoped for advantage -- balance between the clearly necessary and the comfortably desirable; balance between our essential requirements as a nation and the duties imposed by the nation upon the individual; balance between actions of the moment and the national welfare of the future. Good judgment seeks balance and progress; lack of it eventually finds imbalance and frustration.

Dwight D. Eisenhower, 1961

This season of Orphan Black is gearing up to be all about survival. It’s always been about that, survival against all odds, even existence against all odds, considering the unlikeliness of human cloning, but what is starting to happen now is that the show focuses on the cost of survival. One of the aspects of it is the idea of trading one thing for another, of survival being a sort of zero sum game in the eyes of sum. Castor is willing to do anything to find a cure for the male clones, even if that contains doing unspeakably painful things to one of them, and holding Helena hostage not like a human person, but like a resource to fix what is broken with the male clones. The cruel reality of survival in that world becomes apparent when Sarah literally digs up the body of a dead child, valuable because of the DNA that it may still contain, for being a possible key. One of the consequences of focusing so entirely on survival is what happens to the value of actual human life – with a greater purpose in mind, the greater good of the many, the life of the individual loses meaning. The soldier in the laboratory, his head cut open for the sake of science, suffering, is proof of this just as much as Gracie is: she is allowed to return to her family only because of the child she is carrying, only for the greater purpose (“You are the one with the blessed child), and once she loses that child, she loses her purpose, and the right to call herself family. Those that pretend to care the most about human life reveal themselves to care nothing about actual humans, and this applies to Dr Coady as much as to what Bonnie, in the absence of Henrik, has shaped the Proletheans into. 

Of course, this has always been the reality of Orphan Black. The female clones were patented, turned into products for Dyad to market and use in whatever way is profitable. Their fight against the system that birthed them is about the dignity of being recognized as human, as having inalienable rights. The show has never shied away of portraying just how fierce a fight for survival with those very bad odds is, how ugly it can get. In Newer Elements of our Defense, Helena makes a key out of a bone – she shapes it with her teeth. She literally gnaws her way towards freedom, endlessly resourceful in the face of a whole army. 

Part of survival is recognizing the value of having the same goals. Sarah’s motives for connecting with Mark seem manifold and complex. Over the course of the past few months, she has grown emotionally attached to the idea of a connection between clones based on their shared DNA, their shared fate, the fact that they came from the same place, but more than that, it is a recognition of a connection based on fighting the same forces. Mark is just as eager to break free from what he originated from as she is to finally leave Dyad behind and be able to lead a free life – and to do that without giving up on Helena. Mark’s mission is Sarah’s. They will trade the DNA for freedom for themselves and those they love and care about. 

Mark: You know I’m not really your brother. 

Sarah: Well you are. Biology says you are.

She discovers in the materials that Mark got from Finch that Henrik was Ethan Duncan’s lab assistant, and stole the genetic material of the original clones. She also realizes, with the help of Cosima, that Henrik ended up using that material to make a son of his own, a son that was carried to term by his wife Bonnie, but who later died. In the absence of any other genetic material, the body of that son is the only connection to the original genetic material which both Leda and Castor need to fix whatever is wrong with the clones. 

The other side of survival is what happens to family when everything else stops mattering. Gracie stops being a daughter and is nothing but a tool for whatever mission Bonnie is on. It’s terrifying to watch Bonnie’s cruelty, her willingness to cast out for daughter for losing a child – as if allowing Henrik to do this to her weren’t transgression enough. The relationship between Mark and Rudy, who is on the same mission as him, reveals the inherent weirdness of Castor. The clones have a hierarchical order as soldiers but at the same time were raised as brothers, as family, so their relationship with each other is just as complicated and multi-layered as their connection to Virginia, who is mother and commanding officer at the same time. And they don’t leave loose ends, except it looks like everyone is about to get what they want – Rudy will prove that he is a good son by bringing back the dead body of a child, Mark has fulfilled his mission, and Sarah will go wherever Helena is.

Random notes: 

As breathless and filled as these episodes feel, there is still an odd sense of the show biding time, or getting the pawn into place for a great showdown – but it can be, at times, be slightly frustrating (or as frustrating as the best show currently on television will ever be). I wish Alison’s story weren’t so disconnected, but this is the third week in a row where putting her section of the show in the random notes feels entirely justified. Also, possibly: too many male clones, not enough focus on the female ones, and Rachael and Delphine are dearly missed.

“Oh my god, it’s hideous, it looks like you’ve been mounted by a llama.” – Felix gets Cosima to leave the house and maybe search for love on the internet. 

Felix: if you don’t put yourself out there you’re never gonna find what you’re really looking for anyways. 

Cosima: What am I really looking for? 

Felix: The one who stays in your heart forever.

Donnie is useless, but the great thing about the show is that everyone else recognizes is, and automatically assumes, rightfully, that Alison is running the show. He’s also misinterpreted Breaking Bad, as guys like Donnie are wont to do (if you’re rooting for Walter White, you’ve revealed yourself to be on the wrong side of everything).