Orphan Black: Season 2/ Episode 9 “Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

Overview

As life becomes increasingly difficult, each clone finds a way to make the best out of the situation, though not everyone ends the episode in triumph.

Review (with Spoilers)

There is one more episode to the season and I am already hating the fact you know the show is going to leave us on some sort of cliffhanger. For between Rachel aggressively wanting a child, Helena finally getting hers, then, of course, Cosima’s condition, you know something is going to happen made to piss fans off and make them anxious for season 3 next year. Still, so much happens just in this episode that just thinking of what will lead to the fated cliffhanger is intoxicating.

Topic 1: Rising to the Occasion – Allison & Donnie

With Leekie’s body still a major issue we begin to really understand how adaptable Allison is, and potentially see why she married Donnie. For while Donnie is a bumbling mess at first, he quickly seems to learn from Allison’s resiliency in the face of not only dealing with a body but an external threat to their family. So when Vic visits because Angela just really can’t let the clone situation go, Donnie loses that weird anxiety ridden persona he had with Leekie and becomes a sort of bad ass. I mean, dude literally takes on Vic and beats his poor excuse for a villain down and then threatens Angela and reminds her Art got suspended for doing less than she currently is. He even takes a picture of her with Vic to have something on her! This coming from the man who just in the earlier part of the episode was still freaking out.

I mean, you could look at this character development as a bit too quick, but it isn’t like most of the clones didn’t do their best to quickly adapt to the madness of being self-aware. Plus, Donnie knew something, though not much, so now it just seems like he is taking his cue from Allison to learn how to not only be the guy she needs but the bad ass she probably always wanted. And I was quite glad he and Allison got it on because dude seriously did step it up.

Topic 2: Tricked (Part 1) – Helena

Something you can clearly see is Helena and Rachel share a love of children. In fact, arguably Kira is the source for both of their fascinations with motherhood. Focusing on Helena though, with Henrik promising her motherhood, and even having a midwife show Helena the farm’s nursery, you can see that as much as Helena can be this uninhibited murderer, she has a soft spot for children. She even bonds with this one girl, Faith, who sort of reminds her of herself and her own childhood, with the aforementioned midwife being like the nuns who Helena despises. And perhaps that was strike one in this whole fiasco.

Strike two and three come directly from Henrik’s plans being revealed. For one, Helena seems alright with being with the Prolethians, at least until the guise that she would be the only one with her babies there. Thus leading to strike two when Helena learns multiple women there are being impregnated by her babies, and Henrik is the father of them all, even the babies his daughter Grace are to give birth to. Showing that, while not as violent as Tomas, Henrik and his sub-sect of Prolethians are as twisted. But then comes strike 3. When Helena goes to leave, with Gracie tagging along, and Henrik stands in her and Gracie’s way, he strikes her. A foolish decision since Helena, at least so far this season, isn’t much for hurting people unless they make the first move, or act against Sara and Kira. So, as Gracie and Mark run, Helena does to Henrik as he did to her, though I believe with cow sperm. But, seemingly not satisfied, and being a lover of escalating a situation, she decides to just burn the whole Prolethian farm down and now she is off to find Sara. Here is hoping to some sister bonding and Helena’s eventual birth in season 3.

Topic 3: Tricked (Part 2) – Sara and Rachel

Backtracking to Rachel’s love for children, you can clearly see as she privately watches her home videos, as well as when we saw from her destroying stuff in her office, post barren by design news, she badly wants a child. Assumingly just because her childhood, before she lost her parents, certainly seems to be the primary bit of happiness she lives off of. I mean, she laughs and cries just watching her home videos and hearing herself say “I love you, Daddy.” And while she may have a business exclusive relationship with her father now, you can see she wants to experience the love a child could bring.

So with Delphine once again playing a double agent, Rachel seems ready to achieve this dream of having a child. First by convincing Sara to give Dyad Kira’s bone marrow, a contentious subject amongst Kira’s caregivers. But, Kira agrees to it and so the procedure is done and somehow Mrs. S contact closes down a whole hospital floor to have some sense of privacy, though maybe Dyad helped. Anyway, as Ethan begins sequencing you can hear Rachel prepping for something. What exactly is hard to say, but it almost makes it seem like she is speaking with a fertility doctor. The truth is, though, she is speaking to an interior decorator. For, after dressing up like Sara, and using Delphine to distract the real Sara, Rachel kidnaps Kira and seems ready to impose some Stockholm syndrome in Kira and perhaps make her Dyad’s successor.