Orphan Black: Season 3/ Episode 4 “Newer Elements of Our Defence” – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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Overview

With Sarah and Mark having a temporary partnership, as well as Allison and an old acquaintance of hers, you have to wonder if these new alliances may be long term beneficial, or may become more trouble than they are worth.

Review (with Spoilers) – Below

Characters & Story (with Commentary)

Topic 1: Can’t Get Over You – Cosima and Felix

As always, when one of his sisters are down, Felix tries to build them back up and be the big brother to them that he has always been to Sarah. Though while last season saw him doting on Allison heavy, this season has him doting on Cosima. Someone who still is very much not over Delphine, so it seems his goal this season will be finding someone new for her. Which, per the previews, seems like it may have worked.

Topic 2: An Old Flame – Allison

From what we learn, the stash Ramon sold Allison was not his to sell. In fact, it seems he was in quite a bit of trouble before he decided to take Allison’s money and run who knows where. But, being that Allison is selling well, and Ramon’s former supplier is Allison’s High School ex, Jason (Justin Chatwin), it seems a deal has been worked out so she can continue her business. Now, whether working with her ex will make her relationship with Donnie a bit less stable, well only time will tell.

Topic 3: Save Helena/ Time To Escape! – Sarah, Helena, Mark, and Seth

Beginning with Helena, thanks to a steak with a decent sized bone, she fancied herself a way to make a key out of the bone. Also, thanks to learning how to deal with the knockout injections, she finds a way to get some time to case the area for an escape route. However, during her escape, she comes across as Castor clone with his brain exposed, and who is in agony. So, being that she sympathizes with him, and is merciful, she kills him. Which, naturally, leads to Dr. Coady becoming very pissed off.

As for Sarah? Well, she finds herself not only saving Mark’s life but helping him complete his mission. For while Gracie has a miscarriage, and seemingly is about to be kicked out of her mother’s life forever, it seems Mark is about to finally complete the mission she slightly distracted him from. Issue is, though, Rudy gets involved and seemingly is ready to end Sarah, and possibly Mark. However, with Mark apparently being the older clone, and with Mark perhaps wanting to save Sarah’s life like she saved his, he keeps her from getting shot. Though, all things considered, maybe him acting as a savior now is going to put her in one of the worse situations possible.

Praise

I’m strangely interested in Allison going on dates, and Felix honing his attention on her. If only because Allison, for the most part, has been integral but her technical explanations for everything has always confused the hell out of me. But, with her sort of being the cute, lonely scientist, there is this soft side which makes you want to invest time and attention to her. For while Helena also shows an immense vulnerability, as does Sarah to a point, arguably Cosima is the most stable and her only armor chink is that she would like to experience the love and affection her sisters have had, and one of her first true loves bit her in the ass.

Switching to Allison, while Jason isn’t the best solution to her storyline problem, it is taking it in a positive direction. Though I feel left wondering what will happen to Donnie near the end of the season? For Allison doesn’t hardly ever seem happy with Donnie at all and, while he does hold a major secret of hers, at the same time this old flame I think she is going to have an affair with. Which could lead Donnie to killing him, or trying to, which does sound interesting, but either way this is better than what her trajectory used to seem to be.

Criticism

As for Sarah, well as much as I would like to pick over her interactions with the Castor boys, at the same time she is the main clone and moving the story forward. Though with each mystery solved, or else progressed, comes the question of whether they will dump more mysteries on top of it, or will they just let us focus on the task at hand?

For, right now, it seems Sarah will reunite with Helena, a positive, but now Gracie will be with Felix and Mrs. S. Something which could become a negative or positive. Though, with Gracie gone from her mother’s thumb also leads to the question of what will the Prolethean next move be? After all, they are just as much invested in this clone thing as the rest. So will they find a way to easily mesh with all the madness or will the show continue its tightrope walk between having far too many characters to focus on and being just coherent enough to follow?

Things To Note

Abel is the name of the Castor clone which, from what it seems, is as pure as Sarah and Helena. Though, unlike those two, it died as a baby so its corpse is being used for tests.

A part of me wonders if we may ever meet the original Castor and Lida and see them as they were in the past. Which I’m only curious about since there is so much talk about them that it seems odd we have never learned about their relationship and how they became part this cloning project.