Orphan Black “Newer Elements of Our Defense” 

The “eww” factor on this season of Orphan Black is getting a little out of hand. Between the brain removal last week, Sarah’s impromptu plier surgery on Mark this week, not to mention Helena stabbing a Castor in his exposed BRAIN this week, I’m covering my eyes a good portion of these episodes. But not so often that I’m missing the plot hairpin turns. As with season one, Orphan Black is really exceeding at only showing us the road directly ahead and not the whole picture. The reveals are a little at a time as we meet the Castor clones and the backstory on their creation.

You have to commend Helena. She’s got a lot more going on than anyone, including her sisters, give her credit for. Locked up in the HQ military compound, she’s making small strides to escape and playing on her guards’ perception of her. By getting herself taken into the infirmary time and time again, she’s getting the lay of the compound. As she whittles herself a bone skeleton key with her teeth, she manages to unlock herself and is on the way out when she encounters a new Castor clone bound to an operating chair. Unable to resist a little recon, she meets Parsons, a Castor clone with a lot on his mind. Or rather, a lot of his mind hanging out without a skill. Apparently the route to finding a cure to the Castor defect includes leaving one of their own in tortured pain with his brain exposed. With frantic eyes and a withered body, Parsons begs Helena to kill him. Helena takes pity and stabs that poor clone right in the gray matter. Dr. Coady finds her with scalpel still in hand. Helena may have missed out on escaping but she’s gained some valuable information on her captors. Her companion scorpion is pretty pissed though.

Meanwhile, Sarah manages to drag a bleeding and weak Mark away from Bonnie’s henchman. Yay! Mark’s not dead! As he’s the only Castor clone who has shown any kind of moral compass, he’s so far my favorite. Not to mention, his affection for Gracie humanizes him up a bit. Sarah manages to get Mark to an abandoned house where they play Operation on his shot up leg and belly. Surgery by pliers isn’t exactly how I’d like to bond with my newly found brother but hey, you take what you can get when you’re a clone. Mark, in his dazed and blood-loss state, gives Sarah some background on how the Castor clones were raised and what they need. Do I detect some clone-bonding? Not so fast. Sarah leaves an unconscious Mark to find Henrik’s box of clone info goodies.

We’re seeing a swing in Sarah’s emotions towards all the clones, Leda and Castor, even though the Castor clones keep trying to kill her. There hasn’t been a week without a gun pointed at Sarah’s head by at least one of them. Yet, she’s softening her position towards all of them. The Sarah we met in season one had one purpose: get away with her daughter Kira and Felix and leave them all behind. That Sarah couldn’t give a damn what happened to any of the Leda clones. As she learned more about what created them, she started to trust Alison and Cosima, but of course, Helena was still trying to kill them all. Sarah even shot Helena at one point. Throughout season two, she saw the chinks in Helena’s armor and began to see that Helena needed family almost as much as Sarah did. Sarah, the original Orphan Black, began to see she had a family. Now that circle is widening to include the Castor clones. She accepts it easily that they’re siblings. It’s Mark who is resisting, the way Sarah did early on season one. Helena, the trained killer and hunter came around to trust her “seestras.” How much pushing will it take before the Castors trust the Ledas as blood?

I’m pulling for a full on Castor-Leda dance party to celebrate complete with Felix DJ-ing and Helena pelvic thrusts dance moves.

But before we get to the dance party, we have to get back to the hunt for the Castor DNA. Sarah finds Henrik’s box and some quick paperwork detective work from Cosima, we learn that Henrik created his own clone with Bonnie, a clone that would be the identical of the Castor original’s DNA. Just as she’s putting the clone pieces together, Mark shows up, irate that she called an ambulance for his bleeding self. Bad sister. Mark figures out where Henrik’s clone son is, buried in an old cemetery. Guess who’s going grave-digging? They uncover the bones of Henrik’s son (after some more bonding) but who shows up to ruin the day? Crazy, scarred up Rudy. Another gun to Sarah’s head! Mark pulls rank on Rudy and gets him to stand down. Both loom over Sarah menacingly. Helena’s about to get a cellmate, it seems.

Moments of Goodness

While I wouldn’t call it “good,” Gracie miscarries Helena’s baby – the creepy “blessed child”- and is now shunned from the Proletheans. This poor girl can’t catch a break. But now she is free from the cult and maybe can find her way back to Mark. Team Gracie Mark lives!

The LOL moment has to go to Alison, the Walter White of her school district. When Ramon’s drug supplier realizes Ramon has passed on his business to Alison and Donnie, they are not-so-subtly requested to meet with the “boss.” Alison takes a meeting in a fancy Hummer, only to discover the kingpin is her high school boyfriend, Jason. The one her mom always really liked. Alison’s got this in the bag. The best lines had to go to when they caught up in the cab of his Hummer. She charmingly convinces him to let her run the business and she’ll double his profits. Boom! Will we see a Donnie-Alison-Jason triangle shaping up?

Watch Orphan Black Saturdays at 9pm on BBC America.