Orphan Black “History Yet to Be Written” 

Just when you think you’ve counted all your bad guys…..Orphan Black goes and breaks the conspiracy wide open all over again. In the season three finale, a Big Bad from season one came roaring back on to the scene with some serious revelations. Clone Club managed to all make it in one room at the same time and we said good-bye to the delectable Delphine. The episode felt like they had tried to push as much into the finale as possible when one more episode to the season would have smoothed out some of the story lines. Either way, it was a powerhouse of finale with some big payoffs and plenty to chew on for next season.

Sarah and the rest of Team Leda managed to get the original source Kendall Malone into town, but not without some considerable duress. As Scott prepped a clean room so no pesky genetic material could be left lying around for Castor or Topside to get their hands on, Mrs. S was doing her best at some serious scare tactics. What in the world could Kendall have done to her own daughter for Mrs. S to cheerfully fill a sulfuric acid bath for her own mother? The bath ended up not being needed right away, because Kendall agreed to give some blood over to Cosima after she humanized Kendall up a bit with the kindness approach.

With Kendall in hand and reluctantly cooperating, Sarah has the biggest bargaining chip to bring down Castor. She strikes a dangerous deal with Ferdinand and Topside—help them take down Castor and they’ll get genetic material from Kendall. The ensuing plan hinges on tracking down Castor clone Mark and getting him to agree to bring down Coady as well. With the help of Art, Sarah and Felix bust in on Gracie and Mark treasuring whatever time they have left before Mark goes all clone self-destruct. Or rather, Felix busts in like a badass to his own delight and surprise. Mark’s agreement to help makes sense. If he allies himself with Sarah, he, too, could benefit from the original genetic material. Sarah kindly helps Mark bloody up his face so he can pose as Rudy, who is currently tailing Alison. Got all that? Coady is takes the bait that Rudy is with Kendall and is given coordinates that lead her straight to Ferdinand.

Rudy, during this time, is on the trail of Alison to secure his own bargaining chip. However, instead of finding Alison in her garage, he finds Helena. Helena, no stranger to death matches, prepares for a brutal fight against Rudy complete with taped blades to the hands, but instead finds the clone “winding down like toy.” The pathogen that took down Seth is breaking down Rudy at an accelerated rate. Helena gets one devastating stab into Rudy’s arm before she realizes it isn’t a fair fight. Here is where we are reminded of Helena’s compassion that does show itself in between homicidal moments. Helena comforts Rudy as he dies on Alison’s garage floor. So does that mean Mark is the only Castor left? As he was the first one we met, it’s somewhat fitting but I was digging on the brother-sister relationship to come between the Castors and Ledas.

But to take it back a step, before Helena fought Rudy, she received a pretty fantastic gift from Donnie. As a thank you for slaughtering the drug kingpins threatening Donnie and Alison, Donnie tracked down Jesse, Helena’s “boyfriend.” Remember him from season two? In a purely “Awwww” moment, Helena is reunited with Jesse, to both of their delight. Helena and Jesse exchange some of the cutest little sweet nothings before Helena is called away to help her family. The idea that Helena could have a functioning relationship is both encouraging and terrifying. I would love for season four to open with Helena as a partner in Jesse’s towing business.

Meanwhile, one clone is notoriously missing from this master plan. Rachel, following her switcheroo with Krystal, didn’t exactly wake up where she expected. Locked in a very cushy luxury room, she quickly discovers a prison is a prison, no matter how many finches surround you. Even more shocking is the revelation that instead of a perfectly matched prosthetic eye, as promised by Nealon, she now has some kind of bionic eye. For the Queen of Control, she’s none too pleased by this revelation.

With things going all topsy-turvy for Topside and Dyad, Delphine manages to put together one part of the bigger plan. Krystal in her Rachel mask miraculously wakes up while Delphine is in the room and utters the best line, “Why do weird things keep happening to me??” Considering it was Dr. Nealon who nabbed Krystal under Delphine’s nose and now seemingly isn’t on Rachel’s side, guess who is playing everybody? Delphine interrogates an unconcerned Dr. Nealon. He drops the ultimate bomb: Neither Topside or the military behind Castor are in charge. The Neolutionists aren’t just back; they’ve been there the whole time, working behind the scenes at the highest levels of both organizations. If you remember back to season one, the Neolutionists believed they could use cloning to drive their own evolution. Who could forget Helena taking off Neolutionist Olivier’s tail back in the day?

In a truly grotesque moment and perhaps the marker of how season four will go, Dr. Nealon attacks Delphine with some kind of bloody worm wiggling its way out of his mouth. I mean, what?? Delphine shoots him in the chest but that worm just kept wiggling. What is it?? Why is it in his mouth and how does that tie back to Neolutionists?

Dr. Nealon warns Delphine is marked for death and she takes his warning seriously. She manages to warn Sarah before Topside wanders off with Kendall’s genetic material. Ferdinand shows something he hates as much as he loves sex games with Rachel: Neolutionists. He goes off the chain on his bulldog guard and makes use of that sulfuric acid bath before cheerfully sending Sarah, Siobhan and Kendall on their way, far away from Castor or Topside.

The Clone Club gather back at Alison’s store Bubbles for a family dinner. The strongest points of the finales are always when the clones are together and reveling in their formed family. Alison gets the news she’s been elected school trustee so it’s celebration time. Delphine drops by to wish Cosima well. The meeting felt final, as if Delphine knew every moment counted. Sure enough, a few minutes later, Delphine is shot by an unknown person. She recognized her shooter but it’s too late. Delphine is seemingly dead on the floor of a car garage.

The end of season three leaves us with two lasting images that packed a punch. One, Sarah makes the trek up North to be reunited with Kira. It’s a gorgeous moment as Kira, Sarah, Siobhan and Kendall all unite—women in one crazy family. Second, Rachel is greeted by Charlotte, the younger clone still growing. She had once been with Marion of Dyad but now…..we get the big bomb behind the controversy. Hello, Susan Duncan! Rachel’s long lost mother and presumed dead wife of Professor Duncan is presumably behind the master conspiracy of Neolutionists invading Topside and Castor. Whoa!

Orphan Black has been renewed for season four and will return next season on BBC America.