Orphan Black: Season 4/ Episodes 9 & 10 [Season Finale] – Overview/ Review (with Spoilers)

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“The Mitigation of Competition”

Overview

As Susan and Cosima work on technical aspects, Sarah and Rachel are going for different methods to bring Evie down, and Helena reappears to check up on her sestras.

Trigger Warning(s):
Suicide (Post-death) | Body Horror | Graphic Murder | Blood (Gore) |

Main Plot (with Commentary)

Topic 1: Checking In & Taking Out (Allison, Helena, Donnie, Felix, and Adele)

In what surprisingly is the episode before last, we quickly rush through a few things. The first being Donnie being released, but not necessarily free. The charges remain, and with Duko dead does come some increased scrutiny. Not from the cops mind you, but more so Brightborn. For with their agent not out, it means they have one less cop, of many, to do their bidding. Luckily, though, they still have that creepy guy from the first episode, who made out with the black lady, and he is all ready to extract information out of Allison. He even came with a maggot as a threat. But, despite her faith wavering, a prayer to the lord sends an angel. One known as Helena who is the angel of death and she sends an arrow through that man’s head.

But that is one of the last things Helena does in the episode. For most of the episode she is just checking up on people for while Sarah tried to downplay all the drama, she can’t lie to her sestra. So, despite her pregnancy, she goes from a phone call to Sarah to checking on Felix, and that is when she meets Adele. Now, though my memory is quite selective right now, when it comes to Felix, despite damn near every villain on the show likely known where he lives, he has slightly gone through less than everyone else. However, if there is one thing Felix doesn’t want, it is Adele getting too involved in Clone Club issues. Which is becoming a bit hard for with her working on Donnie’s case, and meeting one clone after another, naturally, she is going to question some things. Especially upon meeting Helena for with that being clone #3 and each one having a very distinct personality, accent, and way of treating her, red flags are popping up. All of which Felix has no desire to address and does his best to keep Helena from addressing. To put it simply, he tells Adele he doesn’t want her sullied by all of this and, so it seems, she is willing to walk away from this subject for now. But even if there is one episode left, something tells me her being ignorant of all that is going down isn’t going to last forever.

Topic 2: Operation – Take Down Evie Cho (Rachel, Ira, Sarah, and Art)

Sarah and Rachel have a common goal, but two different means of how to reach it. Sarah wants to use Art and the legal system to take down Evie. Rachel, alongside Ira, rather just do things quickly and expose her, publicly embarrass her, and move on. The key to these two plans come from Rachel learning about two escaped mothers who could testify. One of them, upon reaching a woman’s shelter, we learn is dead. She supposedly hung herself, but based off the way her nails look, this was likely staged. The 2^nd mom, however, is alive and well, but unlike the first, she isn’t pregnant anymore.

So, enter the split path. The woman alive, with a blind white baby, named Kendra, Susan wants to convince to come forward, testify and go through the legal route. Something Kendra isn’t that interested in for she has a son outside of her Brightborn dealings, she doesn’t want to be put out there, and she feels the video she has of a Brightborn employee euthanizing a baby should be enough. On Rachel’s side of things, though, as noted, she doesn’t want to wait, she isn’t trying to go through the legal system and deal with all of Brightborn’s obstacles which surely will get in the way. No, she wants a quick and easy exposure, something she strangely gets. For in a combination of blackmailing Kendra, and capturing Evie on video admitting the euthanizing, she takes her down.

But here is the thing about that takedown, Evie looks right into the fake camera on Rachel’s neck before confessing, almost leading you to believe Evie wanted to get caught. In a way, it almost seemed like she might have been in detective Duko’s situation. She got forced to play a game that she learned she was good at. However, unlike Duko, she found an out. Though, with her statement now spreading online, and Brightborn getting government approval for their gene therapy, so comes the question of not only who will become the new face of Brightborn, but what will happen to Evie? Well, if Rachel has any part in it, she’ll leave Susan on the island and wiggle her way back into power. For even with her seeing more vivid visions of some woodland camp [3], which for a moment made me think she was seeing what Helena did while she was away, it seems she believes she can return to a corporate role and thrive.

Things To Note

Susan and Cosima are on their way to having a zygote and are bonding quite well. Susan even shows Cosima the History of Neolution book she showed Rachel. Something Cosima takes an interest in but isn’t necessarily overwhelmed by to the point of fangirling. Especially since she thinks the writer is a racist and doesn’t like how he thinks poverty is genetics.

Delphine is seen alive at the end of the episode!

It seems Rachel’s visions are coming from someone who lived on the island. Now, her eye is robotic so the idea that genetic tissue sending memories seems unlikely. But who is to say it isn’t an eye taken from a dead person and revitalized with robotic engineering?

Review Summary

Highlights

Helena returns and so does Delphine.

Low Points

No matter how the writers may try, it is hard to invest in Allison’s story. Yes, her questions of faith seem justifiable, but arguably she should have been questioning things when she found out she was tracked, was burying a dead body with her husband, and so many other incidents in the past.

On The Fence

Evie Cho was taken down just a bit too quickly and easily. Which mean one of two things, either she was nothing more than a glorified puppet or that she found a way to break away and with her looking at Rachel’s hidden camera she took the first out she found.

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“From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths”

Overview

Unfortunately, the season finale leaves us on a cliffhanger, but by god the build to that final moment was excellent

Trigger Warning(s):
Blood

Main Plot Summary – The Rundown
(with Commentary)

Alright, Krystal now knows about clone club but isn’t too fond of the idea of people comparing her to Sarah because, I mean come on. Krystal is a Malibu Barbie and Sarah is beyond her opposite. I mean, from the hair to lack of makeup to the way she dresses, to say Krystal is insulted is an understatement. Yet she seems to not even really care she is a clone which is rather strange, especially considering all the conspiracy theory stuff she has been looking into. But, the main point is, with Krystal having Felix introduce her to clone club, and confirm some of her suspicions, she reveals that not only is Delphine alive, but Dr. Ian Van Lier, Evie’s personal physician, and the man who kills her when she decides to not leave quietly [1] saved Delphine after Detective Duko tried to kill her. Meaning, yes, Evie has been putting Duko to work for ages.

But, before we go more into Delphine, there are some other things which have to be mentioned. Perhaps the major thing being, Cosima finally had her cure. Problem is, she is dealing with Susan, who is trying to make deals with Rachel, and with Rachel and Ferdinand back together, so ensues a double-cross. One which ultimately leaves Susan stabbed, Cosima and Charlotte on the run, and Sarah, trying to save Cosima, stabbed in the leg on the side of a cliff.

Let me back up a bit, being that Rachel is overly ambitious, she decides to usurp her mother’s plans and install herself as someone in the running to be the CEO of Brightborn. With this proposal, though, she requires a plan, something to present to the board, which Dr. Van Lier is on, to convince them why they should revisit the clone project. Well, it is because Cosima, using Ira and Sarah’s genetics, pretty much made a new Kendall Malone. Meaning they not only found a cure for the clones but have found a way to create more. Then, on top of that, Rachel says that the board should use Evie’s bots and experiment on clones since they lack personhood. Possibly meaning that she would perhaps have them returned to their former monitored state, be that in a lab or in controlled conditions. An idea the board loves, but they want the science – for technology is what drives their decisions.

This leads to Rachel heading to the island, Susan learning of her betrayal and due to said betrayal saying something completely unforgivable. That is, regretting Rachel’s birth and daring to put Cosima, much less Sarah of all people, as if they are some higher standard of being. This drives Rachel to stab Susan, and within, let’s say an hour, Sarah shows up because not long after Cosima communicated about the cure Cosima was cut off. Susan did that but ended up regretting it. Hence why she provided Charlotte instructions for those two to escape. However, they escape without the cure.

Now, as for how Sarah ends up next to that cliff? Well, believe it or not, Rachel got the best of her. She beat her with that cane, stabbed her in the leg, and shot at her. Which, in all honesty, Sarah should be dead for Rachel was within 10 feet of her. But I guess even with a bionic eye, shaky limbs will mess up anyone’s shot, right? It isn’t just for plot convenience I’m sure.

Now, with Krystal revealing Delphine is alive; Sarah wounded and bleeding, calling Mrs. S for backup and learning Ferdinand somehow overpowered Mrs. S; Rachel getting ready to meet the mysterious P.T. Westmorland, who we learn not only made her eye but is still alive; that just leaves Cosima. Well, Cosima got her wish. Not the cure, she is still a bit screwed on that front, but she does see Delphine face to face. You see, those people Rachel has been seeing in her visions live on the north side of that island, they seemingly aren’t clone friendly, and yet they brought Cosima, and assumingly Charlotte, who we don’t see after the rescue, to their camp. There we watch as Delphine does what it takes to help Cosima with her hypothermia and they speak on the cure in hushed whispers. Not because of Cosima’s condition or to be romantic, but because such knowledge getting out there isn’t recommended.

So, what will happen next season? Will we learn more about this group that Dr. Van Lier surely knows about, or is a part of? What shall be the next path the board of Neolution will take, especially under Rachel? Will Helena finally have her children? Much less, will Allison finally become interesting? What happened to M.K.? Can Mrs. S and Kira be saved? How about Sarah? Who is P.T. Westmorland and what do they look and act like? Well, we will have to wait till next year to find out!

Things To Note

Using the bot in her cheek, Dr. Van Lier kills Evie.