tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15832326128996923302024-03-17T23:02:59.721-04:00DR SHE BLOGGO(is not a doctor)DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.comBlogger317125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-5604051996493468832016-06-11T15:03:00.000-04:002016-06-11T15:11:31.868-04:00Orphan Black 4.09 - "The Mitigation of Competition"Look. It’s tacky to gloat. I know this. But DAMN if I’m not the slightest bit smug about <a href="http://drshebloggo.tumblr.com/post/144958494726">correctly predicting Delphine’s return</a> in the season’s second to last episode. Lanky bitch lives? Check. Penultimate episode? Check. Stepping out of the shadows? Check. Flat-ironed, steely-eyed, and buttoned-up...? Okay, 0-for-3 on that front. Girl is rocking soft curls, a wry smile, and some kind of wilderness tank top. FINE, I can’t be right about <i>everything</i>.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.09 - “THE MITIGATION OF COMPETITION”</b><br />
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All jokes aside, let’s dissect the few moments we received of <i>notre dame de cheveux</i>, shall we? One plea I made to the writers last week was related to Cosima and Delphine’s reunion - as Cosima just choppered off to Moreau Island and away from Delphine, I wanted their long-distance reunion to give me shades of Penny and Desmond’s emotional phone call in “The Constant.” Well, turns out the writers went full <i>LOST</i> in a completely different way, and I am totally okay with that.<br />
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I don’t know about you, but I actually feel a pang of nostalgia when someone says something like “IT’S THE ISLAND” as if this little ocean-bound lump of rock and dirt is not only sentient but also a core component of your destiny. Call me crazy, but I miss that shit. Enough time has passed to heal my <i>Lost</i>-related frustrations and I JUST WANT TO GO BACK, KATE. Whatever. The Island’s got me.<br />
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And perhaps, just perhaps, it has <i>Delphine</i> too, in a batshit plot twist that’s so deliriously off-the-wall that I'm beyond excited for it. Why else would we plant the map with Cosima? Why else would we cut from Rachel’s “Someone’s trying to show me something” to Delphine herself, sitting with a walkie and a notepad, scribbling to the soundtrack of a twee folksy French song? Why else would she appear to be in some kind of woodland yurt? Every inch of this is bonkers, and I’m loving it. <br />
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So the questions are these: what is Delphine doing? Is she of sound mind? Is she acting of her own accord, in protection of the clones, or has Neolution got her in their clutches? Are her messages to Rachel meant as secret information, or are they an SOS? The wry smile could go either way, depending if you want to read it as a slick “I GOT THIS, NE T’EN FAIS PAS” or a “THIS IS A CREEPY SMILE BECAUSE I AM NOT THE PETITE CHIOT QUE TU TE SOUVIENS.”<br />
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Then, finally: to whom does the shoulder hand belong? We still don’t even know who shot our dear French doctor <i>nine episodes ago</i>, and they’re already springing us with another “Whodunnit?!” (Although shoulder touches are far less sinister than, well, gunfire. The dead lesbians of 2016 know this to be true.) There aren’t many possible characters that could be believably creeping up behind Wilderness Delphine, and honestly there’s only one character that makes any sense - and yet, none at all.<br />
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Come with me on this journey, friends: does the hand belong to Dr. Percival Westmoreland himself? If any cockeyed old scientist could engineer longevity 100 years beyond natural death, it would be a Victorian-era Neolutionist. This REEKS of immortality bullshit, right? Racist blowhards totally have the level of entitlement to stick around past their welcome. T hat being said, questions still remain exactly about how and what for, except for the scientific self-congratulatory nature of it all. At any rate, Cosima’s got his book, and a map, and it would make complete sense that Delphine is with the man himself, on the very same island. <br />
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So I don’t even <i>need</i> a Penny-and-Desmond-style phone call, because these bitches are surely on the same land mass, and <i>Orphan Black</i> served up another shade of <i>Lost</i> homage. Morally questionable scientists living on an island? Pop music reveals set in shadowy outdoor hovels? An island sending messages? As Hurley would say: Dude.<br />
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The only thing that worries me about Delphine and Cosima’s eventual reunion - aside from that whole coughing-blood situation in the 4.10 preview - is the fact that WILDERNESS stands between them, and the only people at the Island Dream House who could step out and traverse it are a terminally ill woman who has literally spent all season indoors, a terminally ill child with a deformed leg, and a wispy on-in-years British scientist. WHERE ARE THE OUTDOORSY CLONES WHEN WE NEED THEM. <br />
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Actually, the Outdoorsiest Clone was very much needed elsewhere this week. It turns out Helena’s got a nice setup away from it all, complete with very fashionable furs, an excellent food supply, and a cozy lil’ shelter. But when Sarah finally checks in and lets slip that that shit’s still going down, Helena puts on her best fox fur hat (not store-bought!) and trundles back into town to protect her sestras. In particular: Alison and Donnie Hendrick, whom Helena hears about from Felix. But before we can talk about the very nice save that Helena provides for House Hendrix, we have to puddle-jump to the intersecting storyline: Alison’s. <br />
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<a href="http://www.drshebloggo.com/2016/06/orphan-black-408-redesign-of-natural.html">Last week</a>, I had vague plans to talk about Alison’s relationship with faith and religion, because it seemed very... complicated. She was portrayed quite purposefully as a Christian, churchgoing woman of faith, yet her conversation with the Reverend seemed to result in frustration and impatience, and a general lack of positive response. Here’s this character, who is purposefully scripted as religious, but who is also quite morally adrift, as she barrels through storylines committing adultery, manslaughter, and drug trafficking.<br />
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What echoes through all of Alison’s endeavors is this idea that she’s putting on a brave face and refuses to address any of the actual messy <i>self</i> that she’s got hiding underneath. She’s always a study in coexisting and colliding contrasts, right? Torture with craft supplies. Absurdity through tragedy. Pastel suburbia with drugs, sex, and manslaughter. Alison remains a buttoned-up facade until something pushes her over the edge, and everything she <i>really is</i> - messy, flawed, and imperfect - comes spilling out in a rush. <br />
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Alison’s faith could be seen as lining up with this pattern - a self-identification with organized religion for the purpose of a tidy facade and the neat fulfillment of suburban mom and upright citizen. Is she actually, then, quite faithless? Has the world burned her, and she’s only using this image for protection? Hm. At the end of this thought spiral, I found myself shelving the discussion, largely because I couldn’t exactly make a point about it, and I also didn’t really want to suggest that Alison’s religion was somehow false or invalid.<br />
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What’s interesting, though, is that the writers actually <i>created</i> a faith arc for Alison in the following episode, and swung it in the opposite way. She’s actually having a crisis of self, negotiating the very contrast that has long defined her character. How can she be a good Christian, and person, when you consider the laundry list of her sins? Phew. It’s not an easy question to ask oneself in the mirror, especially for someone like Alison, who cultivates only the most convenient thoughts about herself, in order to preserve her carefully-constructed outer world. Is she finally breaking down?<br />
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But the answer about what lies at the very essence of Alison goes beyond the concept of faith and “goodness.” Alison Hendrix is fucking <i>tough</i>. It is not her exterior that is indestructible, but rather her very <i>core</i>. She is immovable in ways that the others are not: Evil Toby Keith takes one look at her, with her pink fuzzy sweater, and declares, “You’re the tough one in the family, aren’t you?” Not only that, but Alison <i>immediately proves it</i>, by completely relinquishing her safety for the protection of Sarah Manning and the Clone Club. Faced with the violation of her body and the threat of her own life, her decision is instantaneous - without any hesitation, she tells Donnie she loves him, and then begins a prayer. Yes, she’s afraid, but she is <i>strong</i>, as she keeps her eyes open and skyward, and her resolve turns to iron.<br />
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How <i>fitting</i> is it, then, that Alison’s savior in that moment is none other than Helena? Helena, raised in the church, and fighting for a faith that treats her as a human! Helena, who came onto this show in the archetype of fallen angel, with bloodied scars where wings should go!! Helena, who is completely <a href="http://www.drshebloggo.com/2014/05/orphan-black-205-ipsa-scientia-potestas.html">diametrical to Alison</a> in their relationship with chaos and control!!! In this one moment, a line is drawn between Alison and Helena, as women of faith by their own definition, with sins and faults, but a deep fierceness inside of them borne from that burning mix of love and woundedness. They are both, after all, clones defined by paradox - soft, though savage; tragic, yet funny; good, but... <i>not</i>.<br />
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There’s another clone this week who was also largely defined by the negotiation between two polarities: Rachel Duncan, who has similar goals to both Clone Club and BrightBorn, but is ultimately looking out for her own personal power. The plot presented in “The Mitigation of Competition” was a perfect avenue for Rachel’s actions to read as completely nebulous. She was often acting against Sarah, even though they were in pursuit of the same goal. We were made to think that she was also out to expose Evie Cho, but then that she would betray Sarah and Co. through negotiation, only to actually expose Evie Cho, in the end.<br />
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The not-twist was an interesting choice for Rachel’s actions, in that it’s set up from the very beginning that Rachel was gunning for Evie Cho, and in the end, that’s what she does. The doubt that Rachel might do otherwise only crops up when she threatens Kendra at the end of the second act, and then she only verbalizes it in the last moments before we get the final result anyways. While I love the extended question of Rachel’s true intentions, I wish there had been more time to let our doubt expand a bit. As it was, Rachel cornered Evie Cho, recorded the defense of euthanasia, and uploaded it to the internet within a span of about a few minutes. In the same window of time, we pivoted from uncertainty about Rachel’s intentions to the discovery that she had a trick up her sleeve, which we only learn about because Ira <i>tells</i> us. So for me, there wasn’t enough space and weight around the reveal to really make it the maximum “OH SHIT” moment it could be.<br />
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Regardless, something important is said (by Ira) about Rachel’s actions in this hour: “She’s doing what needs to be done.” When Sarah was unwilling to blur the lines of morality to achieve their goal, Rachel stepped up and did the job. This statement is definitely true for Rachel, but in this episode it also extends to both Helena, and Alison. All three women have had a complicated relationship with “good” over the course of the whole series, and “The Mitigation of Competition” finds all three women making the difficult decision to do what is ultimately necessary for her goals - whether the protection of her family, or her own individual purpose. (Ah, the Rachel Division.)<br />
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You could argue that this is a larger central theme of the show, this negotiation of boundaries between what is right and what is necessary. You can also argue that each of the women on this show therefore displays this characteristic at various points in the narrative. Siobhán is the queen of doing what must be done at the potential expense of morality (see: last week). Sarah drinks soap and kicks through walls to achieve her ends. Hell, even Beth’s original sacrifice lines up with this pattern. Ultimately, it’s a fantastic thing that each player in this story has an opportunity to embody the gray area of difficult situations with a messy but noble humanity - all women, at that! But in this particular episode, I love that a connection was made between Rachel, Helena, and Alison - three clones who don’t get a lot of shared space, and whose storylines are often rooted in their differentiation from the sisterhood.<br />
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In all, “The Mitigation of Competition” laid out one final mystery hour to wrap up the season-long arc, treated us to some excellent character interaction, and prepped us for some world expansion that will carry us into the next year. With Evie Cho deposed, it looks like our finale episode is going to be a ferryman. We have cures to work on, French exes to find, and new villains to establish. Will Rachel be one of them? Will Evie Cho strike back, or should we anticipate Percival Westmoreland making a crusty corporeal entrance? Most importantly, can someone just go get a Jurassic Park Jeep and take Cosima to Delphine? The Island can’t do <i>everything</i>, you know.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
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It is truly and astoundingly <i>hilarious</i> just HOW MUCH Rachel and Sarah don’t get along. Okay, yes, Rachel shot Sarah in the brain with a pencil, but I’m pretty sure they were this chemically incompatible long before that. I love all the petulent hanging up and bossing around. Sisters!<br />
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Adele leaves, and I still don’t entirely understand what her purpose was, but that’s okay.<br />
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The idea of Alison, Helena, and Sarah being triplets is honestly hysterical. Can you imagine raising those three together? It would be a nightmare. <br />
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Battle of the bobs: whose haircut more accurately intimates the severity of its wearer, Evie’s or Rachel’s?DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-46458586282700574022016-06-09T17:14:00.000-04:002016-06-09T17:14:10.912-04:00Orphan Black 4.08 - "The Redesign of Natural Objects"After the darkness, comes the light. With Sarah and Cosima emerging anew from their Dark Nights of the Soul, <i>Orphan Black</i> delivers a little bit of hope: a new plan for the Cure, new allies with the Duncans, and a little bit of retribution in the name of family.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.08 - “THE REDESIGN OF NATURAL OBJECTS”</b><br />
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Of course, the darkness isn’t entirely vanquished - actually, this episode deftly mixes the two tones at key points for style, comedy, and tension. Much in the way that Donnie’s arrest was set to a cheerful (non-copyrighted, natch) birthday song last week, there were two scenes in this episode underscored by musical contrast. First, there’s the opening sequence of Donnie’s time in prison, set drearily to an upbeat rendition of “I Fought the Law (And the Law Won).” Then, of course, there’s the pinnacle of the episode, weaving Donnie’s torture with Alison’s rehearsal of “Superstar,” using the contrast to build tension and fear for the outcome.<br />
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In fact, tension was BIG in “The Redesign of Natural Objects.” There were two main questions propelling the episode, as well as the audience’s emotional trajectory through the plot. We <i>think</i> we know the answers to these questions, but there’s enough doubt and crafted suspense to make us nervous. Thankfully, the result still fulfills not only our expectations, but also our <i>hopes</i>.<br />
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Question #1: Will Siobhán go full Irish Lady of the Darkness and avenge her mother’s murder at the hand of Martin Duko? Our initial response: probably. Look, Mrs. S. has only been peeling potatoes lately, and while she makes everything look good, a necessary part of her position on this show is the swerve on traditional motherhood. This is the primary caretaker of our main character, and she casually struts around with a thermos of tea and a shot gun. Hell, most of Season 2 directed the audience to question her motives, as it defined her as morally gray and potentially untrustworthy. <br />
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But lately? Potatoes, and sadness. So it was time for Mrs. S. to stir things up in the narrative, as we know she is capable, and what better way than to avenge her own mother’s death? And even though we were <i>fairly certain</i> that Siobhán was going to pull the trigger on Duko at some point, for better or for worse, the writers did a fine job extending the drama and getting the most out of a seemingly inevitable situation.<br />
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For one, it underscored the key theme of the series: family. As Duko desperately tries to earn Siobhán’s mercy at gunpoint, he tells her that he’s protecting his young niece from threats of danger. <i>It’s about family,</i> he says to the woman who is the true familial <i>nucleus</i> on this show. It’s not Sarah. It’s not Kendall. It’s <i>Siobhán</i>, who is sandwiched neatly in the lineage of the clones - born to the Original, custodian to the orphan in the black. Siobhán Sadler is the hub: the anchor, the caregiver, the protector, and now the avenger, to whom all of Clone Club tethers back. She is just as much Chosen as Sarah Manning, in that she was chosen <i>for</i> Sarah Manning.<br />
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Beyond the theme, the narrative also allows Siobhán and Sarah to demonstrate quick wit and manipulation through their counterattack - and let’s face it, these two were due for a win. Siobhán’s desire for vengeance took her in the path of Duko, where she was able to correctly sniff out his ill intentions and take control of the situation behind the scenes. Good stuff, right?<br />
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Of course, this directly intersects with the other main question of the hour: Will Alison betray her clone sisters in favor of her husband? Duko, as anticipated, has successfully orchestrated the situation for ransom - Alison must give up the location of Sarah in order to save Donnie from getting stabbed in the brain. It’s fitting, then, that we actually hear Alison <i>swear</i> in this episode. No <i>scheisse</i>, no <i>holy freakin’ Christmas cake.</i> We get a proper, unfettered, and venomous "<i>SHIT!"</i> out of Mrs. Hendrix - and of course, it’s at church, in front of the Reverend. (More good placement by contrast.)<br />
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Like with Mrs. S., we <i>think</i> we know what Alison is going to do. We know that she would never betray her sisters, right? Of course! But there’s enough groundwork laid, in conjunction with a truly impossible situation, that gives enough credibility to the extended suspense of Alison’s choice. When you think about it, Alison has always been the outlier. Hell, the <i>writers</i> have long had difficulty bringing Alison organically into the fold, because she’s marooned in suburbia, or rehab, or a drug smuggling plotline. It's also easy to forget that she agreed to cooperate with DYAD at the end of Season 1: where Sarah rebelliously stood on her message of “UP YOURS, PROCLONE,” Alison completely complied, and signed her family into protection by the company. Add this to the minor squabbling with Sarah that has carried through a few recent episodes, and you could almost believe that Alison would sell out her sister.<br />
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And we’d sympathize, right? The episode so clearly delineated the stakes for Donnie, and by extension, Alison - a baseline of getting beaten, and the threat of being killed. While I was at first worried that Donnie’s stint in prison would feel just as relevant as Mr. Bates’ extended time in Downton Abbey’s Department of Corrections (aka, <i>not</i>), we were quickly meant to feel genuine fear and alarm for Donnie’s fate through the question of Alison’s choice. How is Alison supposed to make that call, between family and family, blood and bond? So it’s a lovely dovetail back into Siobhán’s storyline that these two tension-driving questions work together to resolve themselves, and doubly rewarding that <i>of course</i> Alison turned to Sarah and Siobhán for a way out. Yes, there's relief that Donnie is okay, but I would say it's an even greater relief that Alison would never turn her back on her sisters' safety.<br />
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So, finally, fear and hope land on the side of hope. We also get an added bit of optimism with Cosima’s new plan for a Cure: fertilizing a Leda egg with Castor sperm! Ira is useful at last! So Cosima is choppering off to Dr. Moreau’s HGTV Dream House, trading places with Rachel in an actual Clone Swap. Gotta say, Charlotte and Susan are getting the better deal in this trade. (Cosima's absence also sets up more extended drama - if Delphine is in fact recovered, she will not be in town for a heartfelt reunion. In its stead, I humbly request a heartswelling phone call à la Penny and Desmond's in "The Constant. Thank you and good day.)<br />
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In natural contrast to the new possibilities, there are also a few fears to lead us into the season’s final hours. First, MK is back, and she’s definitely sick (and concealing it). This was a great choice for the writers, to keep the threat of illness tangible - especially with a character like Mika, who we are not monumentally attached to, but who still has our sympathy. It’s also another established way to bring Mika in the collective, and unite her goals with Clone Club’s. Do we think that Mika will actually tell anyone of her illness, or is the gang gonna find out in the worst way, i.e. when Mika is collapsed in front of her computer screen?<br />
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Then, of course, there’s Rachel. Last week, I talked (...a lot) about Rachel receiving The Hero’s Call, by having a vision of a swan through her robot eyeball. This week, Rachel gets walloped with an even more overt Chosen One conceit. Not only does she see the swan again, but her eye also presents her with an owlish old man I can only assume is Percival Westmoreland, the founder of Neolution, in his own time period. As mentioned last episode, Rachel is living in his former room, and her visions seems to be connecting his past with her present. Um, hello! The founder of Neolution is communicating with Rachel through digital hallucination?! If it looks like a swan, and sounds like a swan, as they (kind of) say...<br />
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So while Rachel <i>claims</i> she wants to restore Susan Duncan to her rightful place as Queen Neolution, it’s impossible not to wonder if Rachel is making a power play to usurp her mother (who prefers Cosima anyways) and take an increasingly less wobbly stand as the head of movement. Villainy! But we can’t discount the fact that Rachel is also standing up for a cure - while she’s a bit macabre about child-sized coffins, the fact remains that she is taking up the crusade to save her sisters, and Charlotte. So Rachel, who slides through the middle with a Hero’s Call but a Villain’s Plan, has the advantage of the gray area. She is both hope and fear, admiration and disgust, disenfranchised and empowered.<br />
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There’s also a question of the symbolism behind the severed swan head that Rachel ends up seeing. Of course, the reason it's swans is the mythological story of Leda and the Swan, wherein a woman named Leda is raped by Zeus disguised in the form of a swan. Leda then lays two eggs - one containing twins, Castor and Pollux, and one containing Helen, the kidnapping of whom causes the Trojan War. There are clearly narrative overlaps with these stories, beyond the names: the concept of Leda’s lack of consent; wars being fought over abduction of an innocent. Considering the myth, a severed swan head calls to mind the theme of vengeance, as acted out by Siobhán in this same episode, or the decapitation of an oppressive but alluring figure - perhaps a metaphor of Rachel’s future bid for the top spot of Neolution. And while she may be a villain once she’s ascended the throne, it’s currently hard to <i>not</i> root for her to succeed, especially in her renewed juxtaposition against Sarah.<br />
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So “The Redesign of Natural Objects” delivers some hope to balance out the fear, and propels us towards the season finale, with questions across the board. But even with optimism alive, the hour still gets the full value of its suspense and tension, achieved with some well-constructed sequences of contrast. And, too, Mrs. S. put down the potato peeler and got shit done.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Listen. We need to talk about Sarah Stubbs. I <i>LOVE</i> Sarah Stubbs. I love that she was introduced as a red herring for a one-off plot point about Sarah Manning’s chase party, and yet she has been brought back, time and again. I love that she is the nicest person on this show, and that Alison actually tries to be a good friend to her. I love that she played Jesus (Christ Superstar), and she totally stole the show with her riffs and runs. I JUST LOVE SARAH STUBBS OKAY.</li>
</ul>
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<li>What with Cosima inadvertently offending Scott last week, it was particularly rewarding that she immediately took his conditions about working with Rachel to the negotiating table and stuck with them, no questions or hesitations. Aww.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Cosima and Sarah also had some great scenes in this episode, demonstrating further the quiet connection they’ve shared since Season 2. I particularly love that they seem just to <i>get</i> each other, despite not having much in common. Their interactions always have a lovely sense of peace and warmth... how is it possible that two clones can have more chemistry than others, when they’re all played by the same two people in different permutations?</li>
</ul>
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<li>I do want to take a moment to praise the portrayal and performance of Detective Duko in this episode. In the past, he was mostly disturbing in a standard creepy way, through his flattened speech and casual execution of horribly inhuman plans. But this episode fleshed him out into a real human - who is understandable but no less despicable. I love that he was so condescendingly business-like with Alison, and petulant and sarcastic under torture with Siobhán. These layers, added to the reveal of his niece and his D&D knowledge, come together to create a portrait of a man who is evil, yes, but also <i>mundane</i> - a loner nerd who needs an attitude check.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>In the moments before shooting Duko, a wonderfully heartbreaking expression of <i>pain</i> flashes across Siobhán’s face. In this split second, you get the feeling that killing Martin Duko is not going to help her feel any better about losing her mother. But you also know that she’s still going to do it. Hopefully we'll see the emotional fallout from this next episode.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-55097856809288299902016-06-01T16:12:00.000-04:002016-06-01T16:12:09.311-04:00Orphan Black 4.07 - "The Antisocialism of Sex"<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Despite the fact that last week’s episode skated too closely to emotional torture porn for me, I was still looking forward to this week’s post-trauma outing, since Dark Nights of the Soul are inherently character-heavy, and that is totally my jam as a television viewer. And truly, the hour didn’t disappoint. An in-depth study in grief across the spectrum personalities of Clone Club, “The Antisocialism of Sex” delivered character, catharsis, and fucking phenomenal performances - four of which from Tatiana Maslany alone. I hope they gave her a day off after they filmed this one.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK<i> 4.07 - “THE ANTISOCIALISM OF SEX”</i></i></b><br />
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After an ending like last week’s, of course the focus of this episode was largely on the fallout. How are the clones coping? How is Siobhán grieving? What happens now, with Project Leda, Evie Cho, and Susan Duncan? Weirdly, though, the hour begins with Rachel: suddenly freed, still limited in her movement, and tasked with a big-ass flight of stairs to ascend. I guess this is actually an apt allegory for the sisterhood and its own challenges at this juncture - a sisterhood to which, it bears stating, Rachel <i>decidedly</i> does not belong.<br />
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It’s fitting, then, that Rachel is the only clone in a position to make a power play (okay, "power play") in the episode. She is still, after all, a proclone, system-raised, and separate from her sisters. With her mother ousted by Evie Cho, Rachel steps up and tries to assert herself... only to be shot down. Not only that, but she’s rebuked on the sole reason of her DNA: “Did you really think Neolution would let a clone take a position of real importance?” Rachel may sport a blond bob and a loathing for her sisters, but she’s still one of them, at the mercy of her own biology. Nature, in this area, will always trump nurture.<br />
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Even though Rachel’s bits in this episode are rather unassuming, given the comparative lack of sobbing, punching, and police arrests, it is her storyline that gives us the plot pivot into the season’s final act. Evie Cho lays out the new stakes for the clones: while it’s not necessary for Neolution to go full Helsinki (an extermination effort that took out Mika’s family and friends), all of the self-aware sisters are not safe from its continued efforts to eliminate the remnants of Project Leda. (Krystal Goderitch, therefore, would presumably live on, misguided yet oddly effective as ever.) <br />
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We can guess that this pursuit will fill the final hours of the season, but more than that, this story corner also gives us the idea that Rachel Duncan is being... <i>called</i>. Now, if you, as a teenager, weren’t also obsessed with <a href="http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Star_Wars:_The_Power_of_Myth">a book comparing Star Wars to the monomyth studied by Joseph Campbell</a>, let me explain: all stories in human history, spanning every time period and culture, share a certain structure - common touchstones along a character’s journey as they are pushed into their true power and purpose. This gave rise to the concept of “the Hero with a Thousand Faces,” which totally has new meaning when applied to the Clone Club.<br />
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And, as much as Rachel fights it, she is one of the Thousand Faces. She, too, is a hero, because they have a common goal: she, too, needs a cure - not just for herself, but for Charlotte, whose symptoms aren’t ebbing. And so Rachel, like any hero, receives a call: the moment when a hero is beckoned out of their ordinary world and compelled into the unknown to fulfill a larger goal.<br />
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Let’s stop here, for a moment, and jump into another storyline, shall we? Usually, when we talk about the Hero of <i>Orphan Black</i>, there’s one main figure: Sarah Manning. Sarah Manning, however, was never really <i>called</i>. Not exactly. She stumbled, conned, found a family, and started fighting for them. Sarah fell into her circumstances, and has struggled to gain anything resembling an upper hand since the Pilot. This all came to a horrific and tragic low point last week, with the destruction of their research, and the murder of Kendall Malone. And so, Sarah Manning retreats into her shadow self, and tries to refuse the fact that she was ever caught up in this nightmare journey. This is also part of the Hero’s Journey - the Refusal of the Call. <i>Uh-uh. Not me, pal. Pick a different Chosen One and keep moving.</i> <br />
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So Sarah tries to drink her reality into oblivion, and pushes away anyone who attempts to tether her in this world of terrors. But the Call persists, as it always does, and Sarah Manning finally, formally, received hers -- and listened. Sarah’s Call is from Beth herself, who appears to her in hallucination throughout the episode, haunting her her until Sarah stops to pay attention. “Bring us together. We need you.” The leadership role that Sarah stumbled into is hers to seize, to <i>accept</i>, in order for her to embody her power and purpose. In order to keep everyone <i>together</i> during this ordeal. <br />
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This isn't <i>so </i>unusual, though. We basically <i>expect</i> Sarah Manning to get a Call, as she’s our primary POV character, and she’s borne the Hero Mantle for much of the series. She’s the glue, as Felix says. But do we expect a Call for Rachel Duncan? On any other show, probably not. But this is <i>Orphan Black</i>, and clone parallels and connections are Lifeblood. <br />
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So, two storylines over from Sarah Manning, Rachel Duncan receives her own Call, which also appears to her in a hallucination, as she’s lying on the ground after falling from the stairs. The physical fall is insult to injury - Evie Cho has subsumed Susan Duncan’s work, and removed the Duncans from any possible power. And, from this counterpart low point, Rachel envisions a swan, in an echo of the illustration shown to her from Neolution’s first printed work. Even if the swan is conjured by her robot eye, the Call is still clearly communicated: the leadership role that Rachel was adopted into is hers to take back, to be responsible for, in order for her to assume her power and purpose. <br />
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Please allow me to go full capslock on you for a moment: HOW COOL IS IT THAT. I love, love, <i>love</i> that Rachel and Sarah are brought back into parallel, with opposing forces, even though they ultimately have the same goal. Not only that, but their parallel is devised to embody the central character themes on which this whole show is built: claiming power and purpose, through togetherness. Developing and positing the clones in conjunction with their own similarities and differences will always be good material, especially when it's directly connected to core themes. <br />
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As such, the <i>Orphan Black</i> writers didn't stop there. Not only were Sarah and Rachel joined in theme and repositioned as foils, but Sarah and Beth were brought to the forefront to facilitate Sarah's call. What's interesting about their dynamic is that it exists as a paradox, because their connection is that they never coexisted. The timeline exists as <i>Before Sarah</i> and <i>After Sarah</i>, and the audience holds them distinct in the show's narrative<i>.</i> Sarah’s connection to Beth is entirely constructed, entirely symbolic, and it’s made even more meaningful when <i>that’s all there is:</i> one instance of locked eyes, crossed paths, and... it's all over.<br />
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And yet... <i>and yet</i>... they share so much. They have the same burden, the same family, the same responsibilities, the same demons, the same path, and the same <i>choices</i>. So here at the end of trail, back at the beginning, Beth is the one to give Sarah the strength to step forward. <br />
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There were many things, big and small, that I loved about Sarah and Beth's spectral interactions in this episode. Sarah seeing Beth in all the mirrors was a fine conceit, but it was made superb by the match cuts of Sarah and Beth both snorting a line and coming up for air. Of course, this invites the episode’s initial connection between the two, visually linking them, and then allowing the depth of their interaction to come to light in the bridge scene.<br />
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You could argue that, in this scene, Sarah is not talking to Beth, but only to a projection of who Sarah perceives Beth to be. I think this is 100% logical, but I think this idea actually cheapens the moment. Sarah's Beth hallucinations in Season 3 felt more akin to this construct, because we, as an audience, couldn't verify who Beth really was. But now? We've spent time with Beth, and the Beth that appeared to Sarah was the Beth that we got to know this season. I'll chalk it up to whatever supernatural mojo you want to put forth; for me, that was Beth Childs interacting directly with Sarah Manning, for the first and last time.<br />
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The writers, then, get full resonance out of this milestone. It's Sarah's Call, after all, and the balm that eases her wounded rage and self-hatred. There was such <i>meaning </i>in every moment, and I found myself fascinated with the way that Beth handled Sarah during their conversation. The spectrum of emotions that play on Beth's face in the train scene is truly fantastic, and resonant, and <i>heartbreaking.</i> Beth regards Sarah with love, with pity, with amusement, with longing and loss and compassion and pain. She teases her, she's stern with her, she's fond yet strict, both warm and cold - it's everything you would expect of a loving yet hard-nosed sister before her final goodbye. It's definitely the most emotion that we've ever seen from Beth, and this contrast completely fleshes out the tragedy of who she was, and of the connection yet <i>divide</i> between her and Sarah that can never truly be reconciled.<br />
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In that this is the culmination of the audience finally allowed to <i>know </i>Beth, beyond what she left behind, the episode’s design spins the Beth-Sarah construct into a new light, which adds another dimension that wasn't there before. As we originally accepted the story, Sarah rekindled the torch that Beth had found too burdensome to carry. She stepped into Beth’s identity, her life, and her place of leadership in Clone Club - and the question was this: where does Sarah succeed, where Beth failed? What’s so special about Sarah, the Main Character, the Chosen One? Inadvertently, through the narrative construction, the writers posited the idea that Sarah has Something that Beth did not, that would ferry the clones through the end of their journey. Felix even says it: “You’ve got to be stronger than her.”<br />
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This season, this episode, we learn that this telling of it isn't exactly true. First of all, Beth never “quit” the investigation because it was too much. She sacrificed herself to bury the investigation and keep her sisters safe. She didn’t see Sarah coming out of the black, and had no intention of passing a torch to anyone. Second, when things hit rock bottom for Sarah, as they did for Beth, Sarah finds herself doing exactly what Beth did - numbing out from reality and hanging her life over the train tracks. <br />
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Third of all, the episode wrote in exactly what NEEDS to be different between Sarah and Beth. It doesn’t have anything to do with Sarah’s traits vs. Beth’s traits - because actually, they’re quite similar. As Beth says: there’s more than biology between them. The difference comes from Beth herself, in the form of the Call - Beth’s only failure was disconnection, through bad circumstances and a noble intention. The only thing Sarah can do that Beth could not? Stay. That’s it.<br />
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This construct does right by Beth, even in the midst of her inherent tragedy, and also does right by Sarah, in that it connects to the character's individual development. Wild by nature, one foot out the door, Sarah Manning's arc is defined simply by compelling her to stop running. To honor her relationships, to be a good mother to Kira, to fight for her sisters and accept that she is not a Lone Wolf in the Night. The Call works on two levels for Sarah - only by fulfilling her character's core growth can she step into her true power and purpose.<br />
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When she finally does, officially accepting the torch from Beth, we are renewed. The dawn comes, and Sarah goes to make peace with Siobhán, after harsh words and reopened wounds. I loved that the beat in that scene was not <i>forgiveness</i>. Tatiana Maslany and Maria Doyle Kennedy played that moment perfectly, because it fulfills Beth’s plea and Sarah's arc. No smiles, no relief; not <i>forgiveness</i>, but <i>togetherness</i>. Not everything is okay, but family stays, and that’s enough. Sing it with me! WHAT A GREAT ARC OUR SARAH MANNING HAS.<br />
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Sarah actually gets two more clone comparisons in the episode, after the plot-based Rachel parallel, and the character-based Beth connection. The two additional ties both serve the drama in-episode - with Cosima, in the inherent stakes of their combined spiral at the end of their tether, and with Alison, in contrast of their coping skills. Where Sarah and Cosima spend the episode backsliding into recklessness and self-sabotage, Alison skids hard in the other direction, white-knuckling her life and every minutiae she can actually control in it. Interestingly, she does have one brief breakdown at episode’s beginning - but in private, and as soon as eyes are on her - her <i>husband’s</i>, it's worth noting - she shuts off all vulnerability and goes full Stepford. <br />
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Of course, Alison is followed around by pitying but well-intentioned men asking her in very calm - and perhaps condescending - voices if she’s doing okay. She dodges them comedically each time, but the episode does a fantastic echo when Duko appears at her doorstep after Donnie’s arrest and asks her how she’s “holding up.” The payoff, as the third of three insipid inquiries, with the twist element of danger, makes this moment chillingly good. It also reveals to Alison that <i>he knows</i>, even though she’s never met this man, and ramps up the fear to great effect.<br />
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In non-clone-related news, Art gets a very satisfying moment to beat the shit out of Duko, tearing down any pretense of unawareness, and surely putting a big target on his own back. Felix comes through big time for both Cosima and Sarah, pulling them back from the brink, as well as taking care of Siobhán in her grief. Kira probably wished she <i>didn’t</i> have the ability to emotionally connect to all the clones, seeing how all of them were devastated and miserable this episode. But no one fared worse than Donnie, who got arrested after storytime at his daughter’s birthday party. <br />
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And perhaps the one who fared the best? Off-screen Delphine, who went from reportedly dead to not-actually-dead-but-carted-off, based on the eye-witness account of Detective Goderitch, Manicurist. Alongside the plot shift and the Calls, add this to the end-of-season quests; there’s finally some hope to balance all the fear. We also have the return of MK - who <i>could</i> magically have backup files for all the research... although that seems like a too-swift Ctrl+Z for a situation given this much gravity in the story. Either way, she’s reaching out to Kira, and almost definitely as a friend, considering that she introduces herself as Mika - the name Beth called her. <br />
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So the climax ebbs, the sun rises, and the tortured souls make it through the Dark Night. We’ve been pulled through to the other side, and begin the descent into the season’s final hours with ramped-up stakes, renewed sense of purpose, and that <i>Orphan Black</i> Clone Togetherness that binds and grounds this spinning sci-fi thriller. “The Antisocialism of Sex” made the most of these markers through tried-and-true storytelling touchstones, and wields its characters to full emotional effect in an exploration of grief, desperation, and connection. Seriously, can someone get Tatiana Maslany a blanket and a cup of tea? And like, whale sounds or something.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>In case you were wondering, the four standout performances for me were Sarah, Cosima, Alison, and Beth. The full range of emotional spill that each of these characters required resulted in a damn fine symphony of acting. Throw in Rachel and her restraint by contrast, and it’s even more impressive.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>BISEXUAL SARAH MANNING!!! That is all.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Rachel may be living in a prison, but at least it’s HGTV’s 2016 Dr. Moreau Dream House.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Y’know, leave it to the Victorian era to birth Neolution. This kind of humanly grab for complete control like we’re <i>not</i> all sloppy bags of emotions and blood flow is so totally Victorian it’s not even funny.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I am SO ready for the Hendrix-Stubbs musical revue.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>You get the feeling that Alison isn’t arrested alongside Donnie because Duko has specifically <i>arranged</i> it that way, and if the implications of that are not scary as all get-out, I don’t know what is.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>A lovely moment with Siobhán thanking Art for sticking with them. As we’ve quickly learned, that kind of investment is usually at the cost of your life, so Art continues to remain a champ.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>And, finally, as much as Felix might resent his perceived sidekick role... it was gratifying to see him being a stalwart and compassionate righthand dude to basically everyone in this episode. Another solid champ.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-16399514989346202972016-05-26T09:23:00.000-04:002016-05-26T11:07:03.322-04:00Orphan Black 4.06 - "The Scandal of Altruism"Last season, Episode 6 was a Big One. Paul Dierden went out in a blaze of glory, sacrificing himself for the sisterhood, as new villains emerged and the plot spun asunder to carry the momentum to the end of the season. This year, Episode 6 serves a similar purpose, with one key difference: IT’S SAD AS ALL FUCK.<br />
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<b><i> ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.06 - “THE SCANDAL OF ALTRUISM”</b><br />
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It really is no exaggeration that “The Scandal of Altruism” is perhaps the saddest hour <i>Orphan Black</i> has ever put out into the universe. It’s sadder than Cosima’s lip quiver when she finds out she’s patented property. Sadder than Ethan Duncan killing himself in front of his daughter. Sadder than MK’s plea to Beth not to abandon her. THE EVENTS OF THIS EPISODE ARE DEEPLY UPSETTING AND UNFORTUNATE. <br />
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The whole plot centered around a trade - as always, Sarah and Co. are backed in a corner and need to shake hands with enemies to achieve a goal. In this case, it’s removing Sarah’s maggot-bot, and collaborating on a cure for Cosima - at the cost of Kendall’s Leda DNA. Sarah and Cosima make the deal with Susan Duncan and Evie Cho, without consulting Siobhán, and the rest of the episode plays out in extended tension and foreboding lines of dialogue like “This is the wrong play. It’s a risk,” “I don’t know if sharing this [information] is a win,” and “This is what killed Beth.” OH GOOD. I FEEL SO GOOD ABOUT THIS.<br />
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And of course, not all trades and deals can realistically work out so well for the Clone Club. The whole premise of the show hinges on the inherent disempowerment of the clones at the hands of corporations and systems that see them as science experiments and not humans. These woman are never really winning, and because the show has dissolved so many threats in DYAD, the Proletheans, and Castor, it has little other option but to rear an ugly head through Neolution. <br />
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So this deal goes belly-up, as Kendall Malone is stolen away, Cosima is abducted, and every bit of cure-related research destroyed. Meanwhile, the plot dovetails with the culmination of Beth’s flashback narrative, as we finally learn why she had blood on her hands and what pushed her to suicide. In this way, the show pulls a nice bait-and-switch with the real Big Bad and the executioner of the Plan: not Susan Duncan, not her Castor lover Ira, not even creepy Detective Duko. Instead, it is Evie Cho, who has engineered not only her biology, but also her future. <br />
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And it’s this element that makes this episode so much sadder than any other: not only are there aftershocks of tragedy rippling through the end’s events, but the reasons for Evie Cho’s destructive actions are so heartbreakingly unfeeling. True to the show’s villainy themes, it comes down to property. The clones are outdated technology, and need to be eliminated to make way for the new advancements developing at Brightborn. There is no one else on the inside standing in the way of this coup - not Susan Duncan, the maternal observer, not Ethan Duncan, the father who tried to save them, not Aldous Leekie, the paternal watchman, not Delphine Cormier, who loved them all. All of these figures stood guard before the clones and protected them, because they saw them as people. They fell in love with the clones as humans, and were therefore vulnerable to attack by the real villains - the ones who see the clones only as technology, experiment, and property.<br />
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So we’re finally at the head of the snake, and the only guard left is Susan Duncan, who, to be fair, had a gun held on her twice this episode. The soul-emptying sadness is worst when you realize that still <i>more</i> of the clone’s protectors sacrificed their lives, and the very thing they died to prevent happened anyways. Delphine is dead. Kendall is dead. The possibility for a cure is dead. Cosima is left on her knees, alone and dying. Siobhán is left without her mother. And Evie Cho has successfully cut the Leda clones off, and left them to wither and die.<br />
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These rock-bottom developments lead to a larger question about the structure of the whole show. This level of narrative self-destruction seems fit for a second-act end out. This is the lowest point. We have an increasing tally on sacrifices for the Clone Club - Beth, Paul, Ethan, Delphine, Kendall - with no more research, no card to play, and a ticking time bomb on Cosima. This is it. The dark night of the soul begins, and I’m curious where this will take us for the end of the season and beyond, especially given how much crying and screaming happens in just the <i>preview</i> for next week. <br />
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A few difficult questions must also be asked, through our tears: was this truly necessary? Is it narratively imperative to burn everything to the ground, to give new material for rebuilding? Did Kendall have to die? Could Cosima have a good storyline and substantial screentime without devastating her? Was it absolutely essential to withhold Delphine’s fate until Cosima was already in the dirt and crying? <br />
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While everyone’s mileage may vary, I will say this: comparing Kendall’s and Delphine’s exits with Paul’s at this same time last season yields a few key differences. Paul died on his own terms, orchestrating his own plan and sticking his neck out to save Sarah and her sisters. It was a bona fide Hero’s Exit. Can we really say Delphine and Kendall are afforded the same narrative care? Though they chose admirable stoicism when faced with the barrel of a gun, neither of them had any control of their situation, no plan to be in charge of - only a coping strategy in shitty circumstances. <br />
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And while their actions are noble, and in service of saving the clone sisters, neither death actually allowed any smidge of breathing room for Clone Club. We are, of course, at the lowest point. But by contrast, Paul’s action nearly swiped Coady and Castor’s evildoing from the narrative completely. (Granted, it was the easiest way to cleanly rearrange the storyline that wasn’t working, but the point stands.) Delphine and Kendall, though? They were casualties of a callous pursuit, victims in the firing squad lined up before Leda. Evie Cho has taken over, and the coup was successful. The scandal - the punishment - of altruism. <br />
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Beth’s death, though, it turns out, was perhaps a little different than we thought. From the beginning, it was easily assumed that Beth’s suicide was the result of her investigation, her accidental shooting of Maggie Chen, her addiction, and the sum emotional toll of these weights. “The Scandal of Altruism,” however, posits something slightly different: having reached the end of the rabbit hole at Evie Cho, Beth realizes she only puts her sisters in danger, and her suicide is retrofitted as something of a sacrifice for her family. Evie Cho literally says to her: “You wanna save the people that you love? Use that gun on yourself.” A bit on the nose? Yes. Can this new truth co-exist believably with the situation we previously considered true? And was this a necessary layer to add to a scenario that perhaps didn't need tinkering?<br />
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These are all questions worth discussing, that don’t necessarily have one right answer. Overall, for me, the balance of hope and fear wan’t quite right. Literally everything we’ve ever feared to happen <i>happened</i>, as we relived not only Delphine’s death but Beth’s, with Kendall’s to boot. And while Beth’s newly-tread heroism was perhaps an intended ballast, I’m not exactly sold. Moreover, I'm of the opinion that it’s quite laboriously cruel to give Cosima the news about Delphine when she’s just lost any possible hope for her survival. Sure, I love the idea of a narrative Dark Night of the Soul, but the particulars could have been shuffled a bit differently. This erred too much on the side of emotional torture porn.<br />
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Though, truthfully, stubbornly, I still don’t think Delphine is dead. A glimmer of hope <i>does</i> exist with Krystal’s reveal that not only did she see Delphine get shot, she saw <i>everything</i>. Which indicates that there’s more to the story, and again, why would they name-drop Delphine so much only to give us information that is neither new nor shifted? DELPHINE VIT ENCORE! When that lanky bitch steps out of the shadows in the penultimate episode of the season, flat-ironed, buttoned-up, and steely-eyed, I will holler a triumphant TOOK YOU LONG ENOUGH and also maybe draw hearts on my screen. However, it is also possible that the camera will pan up a body in a hospital bed and reveal that it is in fact Delphine and she’s got a bot in her face. (I’m just realistically weighing the options here.)<br />
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Regardless, it’s fairly evident that we have just witnessed the climax of the season - if not the whole show - and the events for the rest of the season are sure to be chaotic, dramatic, and desperate. Here’s hoping for some happy endings - or at least, to start, some workable new beginnings.<br />
<b><br /></b>
<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>The key to the cure may now be in the wormbot that Cosima slyly pocketed in Evie Cho’s office, post-trade. Since it delivered the illness to Sarah as part of gene therapy, I assume it’s the best lead to finding a cure. SCIENCE!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Honestly, though, before anything, Cosima needs about ten thousand hugs, also therapy, and maybe some Vitamin D wouldn't hurt either.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Was anyone else taken aback by Susan Duncan’s hard left turn into “I love you!” territory towards the clones? Lady faked her death to get away from her own kid and live in happy science heaven - is it really believable to sell her as emotionally invested at this point? </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>So Beth’s dad was an addict also, presumably? “Tendencies” thinly veils a few options - addiction, homosexuality, mental health issues.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Our final shot shows Evie Cho walking into the light at a train station, which feels symbolic but also not exactly clear. Is it metaphor only, or is this bitch going to the train station to make sure Beth eliminated herself from the picture?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I don’t know if anything is quite as emotionally wrecking as Kendall’s final words to Cosima: “Tell Siobhán she’s done right, always. Tell your sisters I’m proud to have been part of them all. Turn around love.” WHO ELSE NEEDS A MOUNTAIN OF TISSUES. For a character who wasn’t exactly deployed to maximum capacity in the narrative, this was a hell of an ending for her.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-29852366399429866942016-05-16T12:43:00.000-04:002016-05-16T12:43:08.328-04:00Orphan Black 4.05 - "Human Raw Material"Even as <i>Orphan Black</i> evolves, expands, and goes full-tilt body horror, there is one central tenet of this show that will always be a joy to watch: Tatiana Maslany playing every single damn character. It’s often easy to forget, but “Human Raw Material,” in full accordance with its name, delivered a great hour to marvel at the full spectrum of clones and Tat’s ability to embody them all.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.05 - “HUMAN RAW MATERIAL”</b><br />
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Admittedly, the main performance piece to marvel at is Krystal Goderitch, just because she’s so starkly <i>different</i> from the other clones - at least, at first. With her colorful lycras and furs, her done-up hair and nails, and her Valley Girl upspeak, Krystal Goderitch stands so separate from her sisters that her existence alone is part of the comedy. She’s an innocent, completely unaware of her identity, and thus has had the blissful luxury of a happy life. There’s comedy here too - Krystal lives in the <i>same</i> city as a half dozen of her genetic identicals, and she has no idea. She rotates into the main action without any deep understanding of what’s going on, and it’s, well, <i>funny</i>. She thinks she's a whistleblower for illegal stem cell testing in cosmetics, her plan goes haywire, and she ends up getting massaged by Donnie and thrown in Office Jail! C'mon. That's funny.<br />
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But the innocence isn’t absolute, and neither are the jokes. She <i>knows</i> something is happening around her; she just doesn’t know what. Hell, we first <i>meet</i> Krystal as she falls victim to Rudy and Seth’s violence and general disturbing-ness. So when she <i>does</i> swing into the narrative, ready to throw down and investigate the strange occurences in her life, it’s not<i> just</i> funny and adorable - it’s also badass and a little bit tragic. How awful that Krystal feels it necessary to train up to physically protect herself? How traumatic that she’s confronted with her abductor’s face? And how sad that at episode’s end, she’s whisked away back into the dark, none the wiser?<br />
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The real question, of course, is this: how long can Krystal stay Unaware? It’s effective to bring her in when she knows nothing - both dramatically, as a damsel, and comedically, as she escapes danger when it turns out she can hold her own. But the writers have done this thrice now, and I do hope Krystal eventually learns the truth and joins the fold, in some form or another. It’s strange to imagine her as part of the dynamic, yes, but that’s part of the fun of it, <i>d’y’know what I mean?</i><br />
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In this episode, though, Krystal was an effective deploy in conjunction with the other “lead investigator” of the hour: Cosima, who stands opposite Krystal, as an identical who has <i>always</i> been aware. Cosima, the Self-Aware Clone, a scientist embracing the design of nature and honoring the humanity in science. But Cosima’s faith in science is pushed to the edge in this episode, as she witnesses the horrors behind the curtain at BrightBorn: human experiment, DNA editing, trial-and-error without consent. <br />
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Narratively, Cosima was the perfect person to meet Susan Duncan and the truth of her scientific directive. Faced with her Maker, Cosima has to deal with more than just the truth of her creation; she has to confront the manipulation of science at the cost of humanity, when she has always held them intertwined, and equally sacrosanct. This is a violation of Cosima’s worldview, and it’s even more personal when Susan Duncan throws Cosima’s illness into the argument. By withholding Kendall Malone from Topside, Cosima is not making some noble stand on the altar of ethics: she is only signing her death sentence through inaction. <br />
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Isn’t this <i>Orphan Black</i> at its best? Cosima, who has easily embraced paradoxes and harmony in chaos, is put in a situation where she must make a unilateral decision: in service of her beliefs, or in service of her health. Layered over this is the inherent mistrust of the system promising results, the power imbalance between clone and maker, and the tension between clones acting for themselves versus their collective. Phew! This is some well-constructed drama here - the stuff of great conflicts, relevant themes, and tough choices - and it’s great to finally see Cosima in the thick of good story again. Her final scene with Susan Duncan was fantastic.<br />
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Of course, it also makes one wonder when - that’s right, I said WHEN - Delphine is going to come back. I half-expected her to round a corner and bump into Cosima at the BrightBorn facility, for reasons I can’t explain. Perhaps it’s deluded hope. But given that Dr. Cormier is name-dropped in this episode, and Cosima goes asking after her in the next... c’mon. How underwhelming that it wouldn’t lead to anything, right? Right. (RIGHT!!!!!)<br />
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Backseat to this week’s action were Sarah and Alison, who already had their turn at grifting and answer-seeking in previous episodes. I continue to love the decision to rotate different clones forward into the active push of the narrative, especially to an effect as excellent as Cosima's in this episode, so Sarah and Alison did just fine in the background for me. Besides, we got an extension of their barbed bickering from last week, as Sarah lambasts Alison’s drug dealing and slight neglect of Helena, and Alison serves it right back for Sarah’s... drug dealing... and slight neglect of Helena. Sisters! Foils! Identicals! Aren’t they great.<br />
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Of course, Helena’s absence is a bit worrying, as is the possibility that Alison’s connection to Pouchy’s pills could be revealed in a shit-hitting-the-fan kind of manner. Duko clearly Knows Something, because he is a creepy-ass bastard, and his toying with Art was an excellent tension-filled scene to rebut Art’s similar mindgame from last week. The stakes are high for Art now, which brings more intrigue back to Duko, the police office, and Beth’s flashback storyline that is still dangling in the present.<br />
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Sarah, meanwhile, literally took the day off and hung out with Kira - but she’s got another kind of family drama brewing when Felix brings his biological sister to the safehouse for dinner. (Awkward family dinner? Yes, but still not as awkward as Rachel’s with Ira and Susan. AND WE DIDN’T EVEN KNOW THE HALF OF IT.) Adele’s incorporation into the plotline finally feels purposeful, and it took two little moments to make it so: the small-scale meltdown behind Sarah’s eyes when she confirmed Adele and Felix’s biological connection, and Siobhán’s terse “Welcome to the family” after Sarah leaves the room. These two little reactions reiterate the hope and fear being set up throughout the episode: Adele is great with Kira, and seems to truly care about Felix... but the service she and Felix used to connect is owned by BrightBorn, and now she knows the location of the safehouse. Like it or not, she’s an extension of the Clone Club family - by blood, this time, and it’s not Sarah’s. <br />
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So more danger is planted, as <i>Orphan Black</i> wraps up its first act and pivots into escalation for the remainder of the season. We have high stakes with Art, Alison, and Sarah, mysteries with MK, Beth, Kira, and Helena, and big decisions for Rachel and Cosima. The season’s first half has done well to assemble these story elements for all its characters, and we even got Krystal Goderitch thrown in to boot! It should be a wild ride to the end.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Sarah and Kira painting together is a nice callover to Rachel and Charlotte painting together in the last episodes. Save that little girl, you silk-satined maniac!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Susan Duncan, like her adoptive daughter, also stares icily out of top floor windows. So this is a nurture trait, then.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Donnie’s POV reveal of Krystal was truly hilarious: fantastic framing, excellent comedic performances, well-placed against an emotional moment... that beat is wonderfully funny every time I watch.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Great tension building with the cross-cutting between Cosima’s snooping and Sarah’s interrogation of Adele. Little moments like Adele and Kira singing the GeneConnexion jingle were sweet add-ins in their contrast.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Actually, this episode was quite well-woven in the details! Did anyone catch the delivery nurse badmouth Dr. Moffatt about ditching them to go get a smoothie? Lo, previously, when Cosima was trying to get on the elevator to snoop, the doctor passing through mentioned he was off to get a smoothie. A nice little easter egg!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>So Kira’s emotionally connected to all the clones? It’s too important not to mention, but we’re just gonna have to see where this one goes...</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Part of me kind of wants a talk show with Cosima and Susan Duncan called “Poolside Chatz with Your Maker.” Most of me does not want a poolside show with Susan Duncan and Ira.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>But actually, imagine a jazzercise kickboxing video hosted by Alison and Krystal. IMAGINE IT. So much colorful lycra. So much toothy self-assuredness. Probably some squabbling.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-62645321140582442152016-05-12T16:33:00.001-04:002016-05-12T16:37:26.694-04:00Orphan Black 4.04 - "From Instinct to Rational Control"Last week, I groused a bit about the slower pace of <i>Orphan Black</i>’s fourth season, what with the third episode’s lack of character involvement, the constipation of answers, and low-simmer stakes. This week, however, things got moving! Oh, yeah. Here’s some good stuff.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.04 - “FROM INSTINCT TO RATIONAL CONTROL”</b><br />
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MOVEMENT truly was the name of the game in “From Instinct to Rational Control.” Unified with the common goal of getting the wormbot out of Sarah’s face, the clones were mobilized on multiple fronts of investigation: Cosima in the lab, Alison and Co. at the fertility clinic, and Sarah tracking down MK. Things were learned! Things were done! Progress was made, as a team!<br />
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Alison, of course, was the big step-up, as Sarah and Cosima are no strangers to hands-on answer-seeking. For me, this was a welcome development, simply because Alison <i>has</i> historically been a difficult character to incorporate. Marooned in Bailey Downs, she’s always had a degree of separation from the main events, and her own storylines with murder, drugs, and politics have often been a sidecar only <i>affected</i> by clone-centric shenanigans. Each season, we've had an Alison-centric Outing that acts like a time-out, where everything goes screwball-sideways with torture and clone-swap under the gleam of suburban social politics. <br />
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While there may yet be an official turn on the Alison Hendrix Tragibsurdity Carousal this season, “From Instinct to Rational Control” easily serves as an episode that showcases Alison’s place in the group, with more subtlety and relevance than its predecessors. On a coffee date with Sarah Stubbs, Alison is confronted by Trina, the formerly-preggo Neolutionist who knew Beth, and is now mistaking Alison for Beth. Alison handled it like a total champ, snapping a photo of Trina, and sending it to Sarah (Manning, not Stubbs), who recognizes her and instructs Alison to investigate. I <i>loved</i> that Sarah snaps a little at Alison to pull her weight, because it’s so in-character for their dynamic, and frankly we can forgive Sarah because she has a maggot in her face. <br />
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This moment of rankle is also excusable simply because Alison <i>does</i> pull her weight, bringing together Donnie and Felix to pose as prospective parents investigating Lifespring Fertility in the footsteps of Beth, who had been there before she died. Not only does Alison successfully assemble fake IDs and COLOR-CODED INFORMATION PACKETS for the mission, she corners a newly-pregnant friend into giving her a fertility treatment to name-drop: Brightborn. While Alison may not have the conning and coping skills that Sarah does, she is still smart as shit and a good liar to boot. It was fantastic to see these on display incorporated into the main storyline for once, and the Sarah-Alison parallels call back to Season 1, when they were the original clone foils. At the time, with a low headcount in Clone Club, they were set up as completely opposite - yet similarly willing to have each other’s backs. Since the addition of half a dozen more sisters, they’ve had little opportunity to interact in that vein, and it was lovely to see a hint of it again.<br />
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“From Instinct to Rational Control” moved things forward with worm answers, too, in a much-needed development. Cosima and Scott discover that the maggot-bots are basically a gene therapy delivery system, and could be altering Sarah’s DNA. Science people probably know what that means, but mostly I’m agog at the fact that Leekie’s post-mortem mouth maggot is glow-in-the-dark. Cosima Herter, you’ve truly outdone yourself.<br />
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Other answers came in the form of MK’s backstory, and the explanation of what exactly happened at "Helsinki." Turns out MK, née Veera Suominen, is a Finnish clone who escaped a Topside “clean-up” of a group of clones and their families. While MK got out with just burns, her best friend Niki, another Leda clone, was killed. This, naturally, leads to MK’s revenge fantasy falling into her lap when she realizes that Ferdinand Chevalier, the executioner of the purge, is in contact with Sarah.<br />
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I was honestly astonished to get so much information about MK and Helsinki in this episode, but it served the hour well. First: it opened up more questions, as all good answers do. Why were the clones exterminated? Were they all living together as part of a study? How exactly did MK escape? Who else did she lose? Did Susan Duncan pull the trigger on the decision, and how does Rachel fit into this puzzle? All excellent questions to spawn.<br />
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Beyond the new crop of mysteries, this development gave us a setpiece of suspense the likes of which we haven’t seen since Helena had Rachel in the crosshairs of a gun and Sarah stepped in front of it. MK’s revenge fantasy allowed for a huge in-episode build of tension in conjunction with the backstory, and also rotated her into a more developed and gray-area character.<br />
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Looking at MK’s dynamic with Beth, it was fairly easy to draw a parallel between her and Helena, given Helena’s history with Sarah. The similarities continued in “From Instinct to Rational Control,” with MK demonstrating obsessive tendencies, skills beyond her emotional maturity, and the instincts of a wounded child. Even better still, the narrative is using MK to fill a role that Helena once held: that of a clone who’s not exactly 100% Team Clone Club. <br />
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Initially, the great thing about Helena’s introduction was that she was sympathetic to the audience but a complete threat, and antagonistic of our main clones. Reigned by chaos, there was no telling what Helena would do, and to whom. How quickly do we forget, for example, that Helena murdered her own birth mother. (Rest in peace, Amelia. Sorry the show didn’t do more with you.) <br />
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Basically, clones that are not squarely with Sarah & Co. are inherently more interesting because of the divided loyalty - yes, they are Leda clones, but will they act in the interest of their sisters? Since the show's beginning, we've only gotten Helena and Rachel (differentiated as bottle blondes, natch) to wear this mantle. But after three seasons, Helena’s at the dinner table now, and Rachel is locked away in Castle Neolution. MK stepping into this role is welcome. As MK flees, she has both the sympathy and fear of the audience. She is a wild card - no longer trusting Sarah, and carrying $3.7 million to fuck shit up. What is her long game? Is she going to hide, or will she fight?<br />
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Of course, we are still waiting on the other Antagonist Clone Out to Sea: Rachel Duncan. Her scenes remain heavy with anticipation, and also sometimes just heavy with content that doesn’t seem to matter yet. Even so, she <i>has</i> been tasked with a Decision: does she let Charlotte’s illness run its course for full study, or does she step in and try to save her from the deterioration of her life? Obviously, we’re all hoping for the latter, but Rachel is currently leaning towards the former, in a classic Rachel case of holding to the party line. But I would wager that the writers are building to a shift, since Rachel, with all her childhood baggage, is basically looking at her younger self and leaving her to die. She also needs to stick it to her mom, who has basically lied to her and treated her like shit her whole life. So! This could be another spilling-over of Duncan feelings we’ve been waiting for... but we’ve got to earn it. I’m good with that. Who doesn't love a good payoff?<br />
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That’s the good thing about “From Instinct to Rational Control,” though: payoff seems imminent, as the wheels started spinning in new directions, with all the clones pushing forward individually and for the good of the group. These principles keep <i>Orphan Black</i> at its full potential: sisterhood, movement, progress, decisions, mystery, tension, and obstacle. Good stuff!<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>I hate to be the one who keeps making <i>Lost</i> references, but was anyone else reminded of Desmond in the hatch during MK’s pre-credits intro sequence? All those close-ups of a mundane routine in a larger mystery were totally reminiscent. Except Desmond made smoothies, not bombs. MK’s hardcore.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I really love Sarah Stubbs, okay. I love that this show had the gall to give a supporting character the same name as their main character, and <i>yes</i>, it was originally used for a plot point, but they keep bringing Sarah Stubbs back and I’m overjoyed every time. It’s lovely to see her and Alison actually <i>be friends</i>.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>It’s also always welcome to have Felix in the Hendrix sphere! Great detail to have Felix offering his help with a little bit of exasperation about Sarah snapping at Alison, given his frustration with Sarah lately.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>This episode really gets the most out of its rotting flesh dissection, with not one but TWO disgusting match-cuts to otherwise pleasurable moments - food, and sex. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Ferdinand is such a welcome piece in this narrative, because he’s a total slimeball, but also highly entertaining in his own loathsome way. He’s completely expendable, yet also valuable - and predictable only in his love of frittatas.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>This is the second episode in a row to end with a beat of terror about eugenics, so we definitely know where this season is heading. Drop the first letter off "Brightborn" and you're in the realm of a scary-ass directive... because if there's one thing this season needed more of, it's full-body shudders!</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-6079922780469863742016-05-04T13:53:00.000-04:002016-05-04T13:53:39.204-04:00Orphan Black 4.03 - "The Stigmata of Progress"I confess: I have officially reached the point in Season 4 where all my reactions to <i>Orphan Black</i> are just questions. This show has spiraled so much, contorting towards and away from characters, spinning new yarns, and reviving old ones. I can barely keep track anymore, and watching an episode now only yields a series of questions. What’s going on with Kira, unsettling child with obvious yet undefined powers? What happened with Beth and MK that we don’t know about? Why is Rachel dressed like she’s the face of Celine Dion’s new Pirate Loungewear collection?<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Rachel Duncan is obsessed with neither Sarah Manning nor white silk pajamas, thank you very much.</span></i></td></tr>
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It’s just too much to try and answer.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.03 - “THE STIGMATA OF PROGRESS”</b><br />
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Questions can be great. In fact, it’s essential for any story to set up questions that lead the audience. Questions from Season 1 of <i>Orphan Black</i>, for example: <i>Who is killing the clones? Who is Alison’s monitor? Is Cosima going to be okay? Are Paul and Delphine good or bad? What is Kira’s deal?</i> Questions mean mysteries, and almost always audience engagement.<br />
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Similarly, there are some good questions in Season 4. Namely: what is the function of the robot worm embedded in Sarah’s face? How did Beth and MK meet, and what exactly unraveled Beth during her investigation? What is the true intent of Neolution and its disciples, like Detective Duko? And seriously, what, in the name of creepy fictional children everywhere, <i>is Kira’s deal?</i><br />
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But Season 4 is also inadvertently spurring questions perhaps unintentionally, about the direction and focus on the show: this is how we’re dealing with the Castor clones now, with the addition of Ira? Where did Marian Bowles go? How much can we believably keep the police at bay after two manslaughterers shacked up with a trained assassin? Is Art back at work or still on probation? Why are we paying attention to Felix’s birth sister? Have they mentioned Helsinki already? Am I supposed to know what that is?<br />
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There are so few takeways from “The Stigmata of Progress,” excepting an enduring lineup of questions. So let’s look a few.<br />
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<b>1. The clones may have telepathic powers??? </b> It’s unclear how exactly Helena knew the names of Alison’s campaign team - even Alison herself shruggingly attributes it to Helena’s killer instincts (literally). But the post-show chat raises the question of telepathy, given the way the scene was directed and edited. This is certainly not outside the realm of possibility, what with the show’s willingness to step into science fiction and familial connection. Honestly, I have no idea. If it is true, I'm mostly just amused that the two sisters to first demonstrate it could not be more different from one another. I’m pretty sure the <i>only</i> way Helena and Alison could successfully communicate is telepathically.<br />
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<b>2. Why <i>are</i> we paying attention to Felix’s sister???</b> I truly don’t know. Similar to the Delphine mystery, I can't sniff out what the writer's intentions are with this storyline. Of course we think she might be suspicious, but she’s probably not, and why are we even exploring this anyways? Yes, it’s completely understandable for Felix to find his birth family, and also understandable that he feels taken for granted in his sidekick role Chez Clone Club. But also, this show is about Clone Club, so any stories <i>not</i> directly dealing with the clones and their mysteries are better off on the cutting room floor. Felix <i>is</i>, in fact, a <i>sidekick.</i><br />
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<b>3. What happened to Marian Bowles? And Shay? And Krystal Goderich?</b> With our return to Season 1 mysteries, some of the characters who played big roles in Season 2 and 3 have gone missing from the narrative - even ones who connect to current stories, or were involved in cliffhangers from last season. From the looks of the previews, we’ll be in touch with Krystal again soon, to which I say: GOOD. <br />
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It is tricky, though, to sell this return to Season 1 mysteries as intentional and well-developed. Without tight storytelling, more questions creep in: is this too close to retcon? Will the audience buy that MK stayed in hiding for so long? Is it believable that no one has just directly asked about some of the long-burning mysteries and complicated alliances? <i>Orphan Black</i> walks a careful edge, trying to keep air in their premises. But honestly? This show does best when it’s threatening to careen off the tracks. <br />
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So far, though, we’ve got a slow-burn season happening - for better or worse. In Season 1, the writers put Sarah Manning in a corner and forced her to kick her way through walls. In nearly every scene, the thing the audience feared happening <i>always happened</i>, and the characters had to adapt or fall back. The pace was fast, the stakes high. But this season isn’t <i>moving</i> so far, and, fitting to its title, “The Stigmata of Progress” showed that plainly. Rachel’s locked up, Cosima’s stuck underground, Helena, Alison, and Donnie are playing house, MK’s hiding, and Sarah’s just walking around Toronto. While everyone’s at home, the only sense of urgency comes solely from the ticking time bomb in Sarah’s face.<br />
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Of course, it’s difficult to keep the story tight and purposeful when it’s sprawled in different directions, with so many characters. (A factoid that further boggles the mind: more than any previous season, Season 4 has the most scenes with multiple clones. Imagine if they were separated!) Objectively, it’s a massive challenge to maintain the stakes and urgency of a plot-heavy serial four seasons in. But so far, Season 4 is asking a lot of questions, both good and middling, and we’re hopefully plodding towards answers.<br />
<br />
<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Rachel’s dinner with Susan Duncan and Ira truly is the worst possible family dinner imaginable. Susan and Rachel’s dynamic is textually fascinating, but I’m waiting anxiously for it to bubble over and erupt the way it did with Ethan. Also: free Rachel Duncan.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I love noticing little personality traits cropping up in Charlotte that remind me of the other clones. She was pretty scrappy and precocious this episode, calling to mind both Sarah and Cosima.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Art has a framed photo of his parents on their wedding day above his TV. I love Art.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Art also played mind games with Detective Duko to let him know he <i>knows</i>. I love Art.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Felix’s wistful monologue about his mother was lovely, but again: <i>what is the point???</i> I want Jordan Gavaris to have great material, but surely there’s a better way...?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The brief Sarah/Helena interaction was lovely and heartbreaking, even in those few sentences. “I don’t want them to grow up like me.” “Rub that belly for me.”</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Big love for Auntie Cosima paying attention to Kira and offering to do a science experiment with her when she’s been feeling left out of the loop.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Speaking of clones and kids, I’m digging this bond they’re setting up between Charlotte and Rachel. When Rachel jailbreaks, she better take that kid with her. </li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-71012282635900423012016-04-26T12:45:00.000-04:002016-04-26T14:22:32.394-04:00Orphan Black 4.02 - "Transgressive Border Crossing"With <i>Orphan Black</i>’s flashback premiere throwing forward to Sarah Manning at episode’s end, there was no telling whether the ensuing episodes would devote any more time to Beth’s last case and her final days. Connecting characters were set up to cross into present-day - MK, the cheek cutters, and Detective Duko - so theoretically “The Collapse of Nature” could be the only hour in the past, as we push forward with Sarah on the run.<br />
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But “Transgressive Border Crossing” <i>does </i>indeed return to a modified flashback format, as we truly spend more time “back at the beginning of all this shit.”<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.02 - “TRANSGRESSIVE BORDER CROSSING”</b><br />
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The success of “Transgressive Border Crossing” lies in the fact that it isn’t just flashback, but rather a synthesized connection between past and present. The two timelines are merging, as MK bridges the gap between Beth and Sarah, and Art and Sarah uncover new mysteries through Beth’s surveillance. <br />
<br />
Here’s what we learn: Beth has an encounter with Detective Duko at her apartment, where they both speak with dangerous candor from under thinly-veiled poker face. It seems clear that he knows Beth’s identity as a Leda Clone, given his reaction to her suggesting that the story of her life is at the end of her investigation. So, when Beth later puts a blond wig on her head and a gun in her purse, it’s difficult to avoid any conclusion that doesn’t involve her killing Duko. After all, as Art says, Beth can’t let anything go.<br />
<br />
But when she returns with blood on her hands, she tells MK they’re done, and she needs to drop the investigation. Stubborn-as-hell Beth, backing off? It only seems logical that Beth found something out during this encounter, especially when you add the fact that we all <i>expect</i> that she killed Duko. Maybe she didn’t even kill Duko; maybe he’ll show up in present-day, in the Sarah storyline, or Rachel’s. Regardless: there has to be something else. <br />
<br />
Whatever it is, it also has to be enough to push Beth completely over the edge, as we realize in her last scene with MK that she is wearing the burgundy dress and tightly-wound bun of our first encounter, on the train tracks. The slow recognition of that outfit, followed by the immediate understanding - and dread - of what was coming was phenomenally executed, and capped beautifully with MK’s vulnerable pleading for Beth to stay. There are few more heartbreaking sentences in the English language than “Please don’t leave me; I need you” - and even fewer when they’re not heeded, to tragic result.<br />
<br />
Embedded in MK’s present-day conversation with Sarah, this section of the episode finally humanized MK into a fully-fledged character and Leda Clone to Care About. Between the close-ups on her face as she talks to Sarah in the laundromat, and the way she talked to Beth the last time she saw her, MK is now officialy initiated into Clone Club empathy. Not only that, but her dynamic with Beth called to mind another sisterly relationship on the show: that of Helena, with Sarah.<br />
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Sure, Beth and MK were not mirror-twins in utero, à la Meathead and Sestra, but the way they interact has shades of similarity. Beth and Sarah both occupy protective Older Sister role, while MK and Helena are both childlike and emotionally stunted, behaving lovingly towards the sisters who treat them with respect. This echo is yet another element of loss in Beth’s suicide, and I hope the writers spend time allowing MK to open up to Sarah in Beth's place. Given that Sarah immediately echoed Beth’s choice to call MK Mika, sensing that it meant something to her, this path seems likely, and should be rewarding.<br />
<br />
Of course, Helena’s going to be tracking down Sarah, to share the important news that she is having twin babies with her boyfriend-husband Donnie Hendrix. Helena’s stories have recently skewed towards comedic, so it was nice to see the emotional turn this one eventually took, rewarding Helena’s relationships with Sarah, motherhood, and weirdly enough, Donnie himself.<br />
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It’s these last two that might stir up trouble, though, as Helena inadvertently disrupts Alison’s household, patience, and emotional landscape. I find it interesting that the show chose to show Alison struggling with uncomfortable feelings of jealousy towards her sister(s) that can have children. On the one hand, it’s totally understandable, especially for someone like Alison who doesn’t cope well with dashed expectations and perceived failure of self. At the same time, I wish the scene had been written differently, in a way that reminds the audience that <i>Alison does have kids</i>. She and Donnie have always been portrayed as the suburban mom-and-dad archetypes, and we forget too easily that <i>they are</i> actually parents. <br />
<br />
<i>Orphan Black</i>’s writers have perhaps painted themselves into a corner on this issue, crossing their messages inadvertently through plot points. This has been, since the beginning, a show about found family. Sure, the family mostly comprises genetic identicals, but there’s an element of reward in that these separated sisters did, in fact, have to find each other. More than that, this nucleus has amassed a group of people unrelated by blood who serve - <i>choose</i> to serve - wholly and completely as mothers, daughters, brothers, sons, sisters, and in-laws. We don’t have to look far to see that in this episode, with Mrs. S. serving as Cosima’s shoulder-to-cry-on and stand-in mom.<br />
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But also… last season’s reveal about Kendall Malone and Siobhán pulled a <i>Once Upon a Time</i>, and now everyone’s a blood relative in a tangled-up genetic lineage. The writers even shine a light on that in this episode, as Felix feels like he’s an outsider and reveals that he’s been searching for his own birth family. And in the same hour, Alison’s kids go unmentioned and unshown as she expresses pain over not being able to have children. This coincidence of events paints a portrait, however unintentional, that there's more validity and value in raising children by birth, and identifying families by blood.<br />
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Ultimately, Felix and Alison’s character motivations are completely understandable, but I do wish the narrative provided the validation that adopted children are, in fact, and irrevocably, <i>enough</i> for the families they are adopted into - especially for Alison’s kids, who are not white, and seldom talked about. Now that we’re on a show with an encompassing bloodline, found family narratives require extra reinforcement, especially when it’s been a core construct from Day 1. <br />
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“Transgressive Border Crossing” <i>did</i> mention another now-missing member of the Clone Club’s extended family: Delphine Cormier, who was last seen by the audience in a parking garage. Oh yeah - and mysteriously shot. In-universe, Cosima is suspended in uncertainty, knowing nothing except that Delphine disappeared. While the showrunners have intimated that <a href="http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/television/2016/04/11/tatiana-maslany-laments-reaction-to-spoilers-death.html">Delphine is in fact dead (complete with some tone-deaf commentary)</a>, I am holding out hope. Because, frankly, if she’s dead, this is not great storytelling. Let’s lay it out:<br />
<br />
<ol>
<li>If she’s dead and we just find out later, it’s a terrible choice. Why drag it out?</li>
<li>If she’s dead, the best possible scenario is that we find out later because she did something important the night of her death. Obfuscating Delphine’s death can only be a successful strategy if it is also obfuscating new information or a plot twist.</li>
<li>Worst case scenario if she’s alive: the Neolutionists have seized her and done some experimental body-altering shit against her will. The New Rachel goes the way of the Old Rachel, as it were, and Delphine could become a rescue mission.</li>
<li>Best case scenario, point-blank: she’s alive, laying low, and scheming - and the writers are just building natural suspense. After all, the <i>Orphan Black</i> showrunners talked about Helena like she was dead for months, only to show that she was alive and well, and now that bitch is having babies! I have hope. As Mrs. S. said: “It’s a war. Anything can happen.”</li>
</ol>
<br />
[prayerhandsemoji] <br />
<br />
<b>STRAY THOUGHTS</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Episode MVP obviously belongs to Mrs. S., who fiercely burned down their Iceland haven looking all badass yet snuggly in her fair isle sweater. Bonus points for calling Cosima “chicken” and being emotional support.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Anybody else notice that Sarah’s styling her hair like Mrs. S. now? Cuuuuute.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>“You alright with this?” “No, but it’s where we’re at.” What a nice bit of dialogue.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Just to make the body horror of the season even more traumatizing, Sarah now has a MAGGOT ROBOT IN HER MOUTH. OH GREAT. I DON’T MIND HAVING NIGHTMARES, THANKS, <i>ORPHAN BLACK.</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>As if we didn’t need just one ticking clock on a clone’s health, we still have Cosima struggling in the background, and now Kendall has leukemia that everyone can look forward to.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Consider me curious about how the pregnant lady fits into Beth’s mystery. Any chance she was carrying a Leda clone? Or was the visit to Beth’s house just part of the premiere investigation about her boyfriend?</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-67526053978173796562016-04-17T19:16:00.001-04:002016-04-17T19:24:59.491-04:00Orphan Black 4.01: "The Collapse of Nature"Since the first shocking moments of <i>Orphan Black</i>’s pilot, one mystery in particular has always captivated the audience: who exactly is Beth Childs? Her demise is the inciting incident for the whole show, and the unknowns and loose ends of her existence propel much of the drama in the first season. But as the show has sprawled further and further, the woman at the center has largely remained a question mark - until now.<br />
<br />
<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 4.01 - “THE COLLAPSE OF NATURE”</b><br />
<br />
Yes, finally, <i>Orphan Black</i> devoted an episode to Beth Childs’ backstory, choosing to focus on the events leading up to the accidental murder of Maggie Chen - the fallout from which serves as a challenge for Sarah to deal with in the first season. As a result, everything in “The Collapse of Nature” is familiar yet new, as we look at old events with fresh eyes and new information.<br />
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That’s the key, of course, to pulling off a flashback hour: <i>information</i>. What does the audience already know, and what do we need to tell them? How can we take past events and inject stakes and obstacles to engage the audience, instead of propping up old news without any new questions? <br />
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This particular type of quandary reminds me of another rabbit-hole science fiction show: yep,<i> Lost,</i> which relied exclusively on the flashback (and flashforward) as a narrative device. But <i>Lost</i> faced issues of pace and payoff, especially when negotiating how to dole out information and when. With <i>Orphan Black </i>firmly reestablishing itself as a science fiction show in this premiere, the comparisons don’t stop there. We have a similar beast - a serialized sci-fi mystery with humanity at its core to anchor the sprawling world expansion.<br />
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In general, “The Collapse of Nature” does well with pace and payoff - although it takes some time to ramp up to its best material. The first two-thirds of the episode are part-and-parcel procedural, with its lead cop burned out and drugged up on the job. Of course, <i>Orphan Black</i> is anything but <i>typical,</i> and we’re quickly reminded that this is also science fiction, and body horror. Olivier Duval is a human in this universe who existed and also had a tail that he apparently liked to accessorize. JUST IN CASE YOU FORGOT.<br />
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Along these lines, the episode used these kinds of callbacks to fill their first two-thirds: we are treated to a carousel of characters we haven’t seen in awhile, like Olivier, and Paul, and Leekie, and Angie, Raj, Astrid, and Lieutenant Hardcastle. We get to see Beth on the phone with Alison and Cosima, and a surprise chance encounter with Felix, when he was momentarily arrested for solicitation and public urination. <br />
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All of these were fun to witness, especially for a long-time viewer (my personal faves were Raj and Angie) but part of me wishes there were more <i>meaning</i> in these old faces. First of all, most of them are dead now, which cast an eerie pall over the proceedings. (It also gives Art, who has survived most of these people, a well-deserved present-day weariness.) But beyond that, the Neolution mystery that connects to Sarah’s current storyline was planted retroactively in newly-devised characters like MK, Roxie and Frank, and Detective Duko. It would have been massively cool to pull a familiar character into new relevance, instead of show-ponying them for novelty’s sake. At the same time, I totally get that it would also be massively <i>difficult</i> to pull that off, given the fact that most of them <i>are</i> dead now, and and a lot of time <i>has</i> passed. And truly, I don’t wish to believe that Raj is anything but a lil crumbcake of an IT guy with earnestly misplaced crushes.<br />
<br />
So really, we look to characters we know a little better for an emotional anchor in this ghostly flashback. Beth, right? She’s our POV character. But even she is something of a stranger to us, as she floats through her own narrative barely engaged. That’s totally the point, though, and it still gives us the episode’s most powerful moments - in the final third of the hour, when the narrative transcends procedural and delivers us the character piece that's always underpinned this story.<br />
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Beth spends most of “The Collapse of Nature” struggling to connect, and being wholly unable to. She is being suffocated by everything <i>unsaid</i> - the emerging mysteries of her identity, her disintegrating relationship with Paul, and her own burgeoning secrets. So she fights to connect - she refuses to wear a mask, she begs to be seen, to be <i>looked at</i> - but she’s fighting a battle beyond her being. She’s already slipping out of her own life, fading from everyone around her. And even though she’s surrounded by people throughout the episode, there’s a degree of superficiality to all of her interactions. There are only two moments of genuine connection that Beth is granted: with Art, and with MK.<br />
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Structurally and narratively, the love scene with Art is the dam-breaking moment of relief before everything truly falls apart for Beth. Yes, it precedes her fatal encounter with Maggie Chen, but it also falls after Paul’s refusal to acknowledge Beth. When Beth escapes to Arts, she is still seeking - and ultimately given - someone who truly <i>sees</i> her, even without knowing everything about her. A relationship - a <i>love -</i> that transcends truth, in its many forms. Art understands who Beth is, fundamentally, despite the complications he can't pinpoint, and is trying dearly to hold onto her as she’s slipping away.<br />
<br />
Last season, Sarah assumed that Art was in love with Beth because he was the one Beth called after shooting Maggie Chen. At the time, without context, that choice didn’t feel particularly informed or original. It seemed like an easy excuse to keep Art involved with the clone mystery, when we didn’t really <i>need</i> one at that point. But now? Now, with context and chemistry, it’s so much more nuanced and complicated than “Art was in love with Beth.” Their relationship finally has the texture it’s deserved since the beginning, and the idea that it was likely unresolved when Beth committed suicide is truly heartbreaking. Can any romance on this show catch a break?<br />
<br />
Of course, this is a show that prioritizes clone sisterhood above all else, and the last moment we get with Beth is on MK’s couch, Beth’s eyes slipping shut and MK offering comfort - in person this time. “The Collapse of Nature” kept Beth from interacting face-to-face with her genetic identicals - Alison and Cosima on the phone, MK by video chat - and only in the end is she allowed a moment of rest in the refuge of a sister. Knowing the kind of sister-family the show has assembled for Sarah in Beth’s stead, it’s not hard to conclude that Beth might have stood more of a chance with the clone club support system Sarah has had the opportunity to inherit and foster.<br />
<br />
But this is history that has already come to pass, and so “The Collapse of Nature” has no choice but to push Beth believably over the edge with Maggie Chen’s murder. In the final moments of Beth at her own crime scene, it’s difficult not to think of our last glimpse of her on the train tracks in the pilot. The dead-eyed stare she gives Art from beyond his conversation is eerily reminiscent of the look she gives Sarah before she ends it all, at the beginning.<br />
<br />
And with that, we’re back to the present day and Sarah Manning, as the mysteries continue. I’m left wondering: is the premiere the best episode for a flashback episode? I wager that, much like with <i>Lost</i>, this decision will have little consequence in the future when you’re bingewatching. You can just jump from 3.10 to 4.01 without a yearlong memory fade. But now? It feels a little slow to grease the wheels and get them grinding, especially when we’re not nested in the present. I almost wonder if the <i>OB</i> gang could’ve done a present-timeline premiere, set up a bunch of mysteries - including MK and the cheek cutters, and then placed the flashback immediately after. <br />
<br />
Regardless, I’m certainly primed <i>now,</i> and ready to hit the ground running. The Neolutionists are chasing Sarah, and we certainly have more to explore with systems and the individual, nature and nurture, and chance and design. I also found myself missing the latter Clones - Rachel, Helena, and Krystal, so I’m looking forward to checking in with them. Armed with information from the past and a few villains to carry into the present, this season is refreshed and ready to go.<br />
<br />
<b>STRAY THOUGHTS:</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Add Beth to the company of Rachel and Alison as Clones Who Can’t Cope. All three have trouble bending and not breaking, as they rely on self-destructive tendencies to numb out and suppress negative emotions. Meanwhile, Sarah, Helena, and Cosima all embody or embrace chaos, and can deal with the loss of control.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Will the mystery of Maggie Chen go even further? Was she in that alley for a reason? We know she was involved with DYAD and the Proletheans, but did she have a connection to Neolutionists also?</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Another tragedy of Beth: she skirted so close to so many mainplayers in her investigation, but was (presumably) never able to learn the whole truth before her death.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>There’s material for more flashbacks here, since we still don’t have the block of time between Maggie Chen’s death and Beth’s suicide. There’s also the question of Beth’s life before things started unraveling. I want to know the earliest beginnings of <i>all</i> the clones, frankly, as well as how Beth first started her investigation and met with Cosima and Alison.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>No Delphine? Even despite her early ties to Leekie and Neolution? Honestly, there was a curly-haired extra with her back to the camera in the Leekie/Beth scenes, and I was half-expecting the woman to turn and be - GASP - Delphine. And it wasn’t even the right hair color. In any case: sigh.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Paul was the worst monitor ever. Like, honestly. HE WAS REALLY BAD AT PRETENDING TO BE BETH’S BOYFRIEND. No wonder Beth was ready to claw her face off out of frustration. Or, y’know, shoot him. (Yikes.)</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-68262823257534702152016-04-08T14:57:00.001-04:002016-04-08T14:57:16.528-04:00Orphan Black Season 4 Sneak Peek<div style="text-align: left;">
Egads! BBC America has treated us all to the first four minutes of Orphan Black's Season 4 opener one week before it's set to air. Mark those calendars for April 14th at 10 pm, and behold:</div>
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Of course, the world twists madly on, around Sarah, and Rachel, and Alison, and Cosima, and Helena, and - well, you get the idea. But we're given time with some new characters as well as familiar faces in this Season 4 sneak peek. Let's round them up.</div>
<div style="text-align: left;">
</div>
<ul>
<li>New Clone Alert! We meet M.K., who serves as our eyes and ears for new information. Except it's not <i>new </i>new information. Nah, this is actually old news, because we are in a pre-pilot flashback! (More on that in a moment.) M.K. wears a mask for the most of the clip, and of course, that mask looks like a sheep. Clone imagery, check! The question, of course, is if M.K. herself knows that she's a clone. Where exactly are we on this investigation? </li>
<li>The answer to that question might be revealed through Beth Childs, who also makes an appearance in the sneak peek. She's still alive, and in contact with M.K., presumably on her quest to uncover the mysteries of DYAD and her genetic identity. M.K. sends Beth GPS coordinates, Beth numbs out with medication, and goes to meet her in the dead of night. We don't know exactly how long she is for this world, but it seems we've already begun the process of "losing it, clinically."</li>
<li>Of course, when Beth storms out, she leaves behind her monitor - nice to see you again, Paul! He's as poker-faced and intense as ever, under the thin guise of caring partner. Knowing that these two are dead now - as well as the dysfunction of their relationship - makes their whole interaction here more than a little unsettling.</li>
<li>Then there's the mystery of what M.K. actually sees, in the forest: two paramedics burying a body, not in a hurry enough to <i>not </i>stop and make out a little bit. There's no real evidence that this couple killed the person they're burying, but the Hendrix-esque Murder Couple vibe they give off doesn't really paint them innocent.</li>
</ul>
<div>
So, naturally, <i>Orphan Black </i>kicks off raising questions! Who is M.K.? When are we? Who is in the body bag, and who's burying it? Where are Alison, and Cosima, and Mrs. S in this pre-Sarah timeline? With the reveal of Trojan Horse Neolutionists from last season's finale, it only makes sense to rewind and look at past events with new information, and new eyes. The exploration of Beth's backstory and pre-pilot events is definitely worthwhile, and helps this show stay grounded in its sci-fi spiral. Onward and upward, Season 4!</div>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-77877702030733341752015-09-01T15:44:00.000-04:002016-04-07T14:48:51.943-04:00The Legend of Korra: Book Three ReviewAt some point during the Book 3 finale of <i>Korra</i>, I e-mailed my friend one simple message: HOW MUCH CAN ONE AVATAR TAKE<br />
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<b><i>THE LEGEND OF KORRA,</i> BOOK THREE</b><br />
<br />
Of course, the first instinct after watching Book 3 is to compare it to Book 1 and Book 2, its vastly different predecessors. Where Book 1 was a plot-driven crime story inhabiting a vibrant city and its characters, Book 2 was an Avatar-centric exploration of cosmic themes and world-building mythos. Book 1 gave powerful moments to its supporting cast, whereas Book 2 struggled to involve its ensemble with its strong focus on mythology. And where Book 1’s stand-out episodes ramped up the stakes and obstacles through action and reaction, Book 2’s highlights unraveled backstory that underscored the plot events. <br />
<br />
So, with such a variation between Book 1 and 2, Book 3 could really go in any direction. But it’s nothing so drastic - in fact, it mines a nice blend of characteristics from both previous excursions. Book 3 shares the swift and organic plot advancement of Book 1, with the strong themes and gamechangers of Book 2 - and altogether turns out a damn good batch of episodes.<br />
<br />
It’s worth noting that Book 3 was able to nimbly rework what didn’t quite gel in the season immediate before - Book 2 struggled with supporting characters, villains, love triangle, and focus. Yet while Book 3 swiftly clears up all of these issues, it doesn’t completely eschew the events of Book 2, as it takes place only two weeks after Harmonic Convergence. Things are different, yes, but they’re different as a direct result of the changes from the end of last season. There are consequences to Korra’s decision to leave the spirit portals open, and there are also repercussions in the Love Triangle, which has drastically shifted in focus. As Korra said, this is a dawning of a New Age, and from the very first episode we understand this to be a world where vines eat buildings and Asami is more important than Mako.<br />
<br />
Okay, that last bit is partly a joke - but just <i>barely</i>. Book 3 <i>finally</i> shelves the lackluster love story, and it does so in the most hilariously pointed way. The premiere more or less glues Asami to Korra’s side, and the remainder of the season gives them a multitude of interactions entirely devoted to putting the Love Triangle behind them and building an independent dynamic. The blatancy of this choice is LAUGHABLE, and I mean this in the best, most loving way. It’s as if the writers woke up from a fever dream and realized JUST HOW BADLY they’d failed the Bechdel Test with Korra and Asami. “Dear Viewers: We know. We’re so sorry. Let us make it up to you. Love, the <i>Korra</i> writers.” <br />
<br />
This decision to bring Asami into Korra’s immediate circle goes hand-in-hand with a general uptick in the Handling of Supporting Characters. Book 2 wasn’t really conducive for this, and it was lovely to see it carried out so nicely in Book 3. All the characters share screentime together, and most of them are actually relevant to the furthering of the story. Better still is the simultaneous expansion of personal arc for these characters, in a way that progresses with plot. Ventures like Jinora’s spiritual journey, the discovery of Mako and Bolin’s family, and Lin’s history with her sister fill out the season meaningfully and organically. Furthermore, these connections to core characters help facilitate the inclusion of thematic and logistical backdrops such as Zaofu, Ba Sing Se, and the Airbender tradition. Our world is expanded, and our plot greases forward without a hitch, simply because we’re grounded in characters we care about. <br />
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Naturally, because this is the season of “Change,” these smooth pivots are particularly helpful. But within the narrative, change isn’t portrayed as being so swift - and morever, it’s painted with the specificity of a different word: <i>rebuilding</i>. We begin with the world having to rebuild after Harmonic Convergence, and we end with Korra having to rebuild her body and her identity after giving herself up to Zaheer. In the middle, the Air Nation is rebuilding its ranks, Korra is rebuilding the Avatar legacy, Zaheer is rebuilding the Red Lotus, and characters like Lin and Suyin are rebuilding once-ruined relationships.<br />
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What’s lovely about this exploration of rebuilding is the inherent complex material that accompanies it. <i>Rebuilding</i> is more specific and powerful than <i>change</i>, because it doesn’t just focus on the difficulties of adjusting to a new present. It also addresses the challenges of leaving behind a forgotten (or unforgettable) past - and the pain that comes with it. How does one rebuild a culture, exactly? How can an Avatar make the right choices without guidance from those who came before her? Can we forgive loved ones who wronged us? What can we let go of, and what <i>must</i> we let go of, in order to move forward into the change?<br />
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The concept of <i>rebuilding</i> illuminates the internal struggles of characters like Korra, Tenzin, Lin, and Zaheer, but it also regroups the ensemble. Once again, this season does right by the group. <i>Korra</i>’s supporting players are united in a revitalized and connected purpose, from new characters like Suyin, to old characters like Asami, who fell prey to irrelevance in Book 2. All characters - both supporting and main, heroes and villains - are given importance because they plug into a larger thematic landscape: they are devoted to shaping a still-fragile, post-war culture. The only difference between Hero and Villain is method: Korra seeks balance through preservation and revitalization; Zaheer seeks it through annihilation. <br />
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You could argue that rebuilding is a larger theme of <i>The Legend of Korra</i> as a show, simply because it is set in a world that is teetering on the line between old and new, tradition and modernity, war and unity. But Book 3 brings forth an underlying question at the core of this complex political discussion: is it <i>right</i> for one person to make choices about a group of people? When you remove imposing yet long-standing structures, the one thing that remains is chaos, followed by people attempting to seize or maintain power. Zaheer emerges with a philosophy that is sound in theory, but raises questions of morality when applied to reality. Korra as a Hero is not exempt from this questioning - she makes choices that are sound in theory, but she has to deal with the actual repercussions of them, like public dissent, or wild spirit vines. In both cases, the idea of <i>one</i> making a choice for <i>all</i> creates complications in practice and suggests a portrait little different from an absolute ruler like the Queen. <br />
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From this aspect, we get a season that is actually highly politicized - and successfully deployed in this structure, where past efforts didn’t quite embody the goal fully. (Tarrlok was wielded as a councilman only briefly, as that role was usurped by his place as the villain’s brother, and the Book 2 politics of the Water Tribes were too complicated and sudden.) In Book 3, though, we begin to fully understand that the Fire Nation and Earth Kingdom are, in fact, <i>monarchies</i>, and that the Earth Kingdom in particular suffers from a huge class divide. This is shown to the audience organically, through character: we meet the Queen through Korra’s status as the Avatar; we meet the People through Kai, and Mako and Bolin’s family. We know Korra to be of the people, but the Villain claims that he is of the people, too. <br />
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More than this, <i>Korra</i>’s Book 3 goes one step further from mere government and politics, and explores the relationship between nation and identity. In this New World, the borders are blurred: Republic City is land from the Earth Kingdom, Airbenders are cropping up in Ba Sing Se, and the Queen is using new Airbenders to join her army. In spite of these crossed lines, most people hold allegience to their motherland. Earth Kingdom Airbenders don’t just drop their lives in the Earth Kingdom to become nomads, and Mako and Bolin’s grandma still keeps a portrait of the Queen over her mantle. Identity and nation are intertwined, and this serves as both a tenet and obstacle for Tenzin as he endeavors to conform to Airbender Tradition while bringing in men and women from all walks of life. <br />
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Then there’s Korra, from the Water Tribes, serving all nations without a past to guide her. She’s also politicized this season, as Episode 1 finds her squarely in the role of Civil Servant. Of course, that role is soon truncated as President Reiko banishes her, and I honestly continue to find myself highly interested in the Avatar’s position <i>Of the People</i>, despite the fact that Tenzin totally shot that down and told her she’s not responsible for people’s everyday worries. Whatever, Tenzin. The Avatar has a public approval rating. I’M HIGHLY INTERESTED.<br />
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Regardless, politics and identity affect Korra too, as the main character, and by season’s end, we see a huge shift in Korra’s sense of self and power. As a particularly strong-headed fighter, Korra has always derived her identity from her role as Avatar. The title, the power, the abilities. Book 1 saw Korra <i>terrified</i> to lose her bending, and depressed when she was forced to face that reality - briefly, anyways. She’s also still training throughout the first two books. But in Book 3, this is Korra as a fully-formed Avatar. She has a quest independent of self-betterment, and it fittingly results in self-sacrifice. She ends the season with her power completely stripped away because she gave up her entire being - body, mind, power - to preserve the future of the Airbenders. She walked knowingly into that vulnerability, let it completely tear her apart, and now she has to recover from that - visible to the world.<br />
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Book 3 brings Korra’s development to a climactic, satisfying peak, and in doing so, precipitates a completely new reality for her, one that will challenge everything she has ever believed about her identity and her power. Within the same series of choices, she fulfilled one quest, and begot another. The cycle of build, destroy, and rebuild - and more than ever before, the pain inherent in the process. The coda of Book 3 is heart-droppingly resonant, because it finally manifests the worst moments of coping with change and identity - a broken present and a hopeless tomorrow. (Genius points to the writers for setting this moment against a ceremony heralding the exact opposite of Korra’s feelings: a hopeful future from a broken past.)<br />
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In this way, Korra herself enters the void. Much like Zaheer losing his earthly tether by way of P’Li’s death, Korra herself loses her earthly tether through the divestment of her power, and the death of her sense of self. Zaheer’s outward experience is internalized emotionally in Korra, in a culmination of their common arcs embracing Airbending tradition, for both good and evil. What’s even more beautiful about this is the continuation of gray area between the concept of “good” and “bad.” Zaheer, unlike Korra, is a natural devotee of the Airbender Tradition, and embraces Guru Laghima’s teachings to serve his “evil” agenda. Losing P’Li would be painful, except that emotional connection was the last thing holding Zaheer to the earth. The void is comfortable for Zaheer; it is positive and fulfilling of his beliefs. But for Korra, our “good” heroine, who struggles to connect with Airbender teachings of meditation? Her void is a nightmare. It is pain, and loss, and emptiness. All this, despite the lineage of the message, traced back to a guru - presumably, a “good guy.”<br />
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So, Korra is left to rebuild, as the new Air Nomads take her place as a power for peace, resolving the question of nation and identity by promising to serve all nations as disciples of balance. The concept of good and evil is no longer represented fundamentally by shapes and Beings, but rather in human shades of power, choice, and agenda. And deeper than this, is the soul of a human, who must weather the natural endings and beginnings that mark everyone’s lives. These themes are spun together masterfully in plot and ensemble, and most importantly - embodied and emblazoned in Korra, the main character whose journey is still the meaningful center of this changing world.DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-49531955000611500862015-08-04T10:42:00.000-04:002015-08-04T10:42:12.855-04:00Rose DeWitt Bukater, Titanic, and Freedom<div class="p1">
<i>Note: this is a repost of a previously-removed piece.</i></div>
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Let’s be honest: we’ve all made fun of <i>Titanic</i> at one point or another. You know - the sweeping love story, the weeping audience, the overwrought Celine Dion song that just wouldn’t go away in 1997. There was <i>Titanic</i> mania, <i>Titanic</i> backlash, and now the film’s legacy exists almost exclusively as a pop culture echo, woven intrinsically into the collective psyche as the subliminal urge to stand on the bows of ships and shout, “I’m king of the world!” There is a strange and permanent aura surrounding the film that can’t be denied, let alone erased.</div>
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<span class="s1">To that end, it’s easy to lose the original merits of the actual film amidst the cultural discussion and film history reverb. <i>Titanic</i> came to define what it means to create a “blockbuster” - a vast, sprawling epic that requires a mammoth shooting schedule, unprecedented CGI, and at least two and a half hours of end result. The investment is huge, and so is the payoff - monetarily speaking, of course. But films so large in scope as Titanic often miss the emotional investment, the emotional payoff. The narrative can easily get lost in the grandeur, the special effects, the “blockbuster moments.” And every good film, no matter how big or how small, requires an intimate and specific story anchoring the spectacle. </span></div>
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<span class="s1">You’re probably two steps ahead of me by now. You’re probably thinking, “Ah yes, she’s referencing the intimate love story set against the huge historical backdrop!” Alas, you would be incorrect. While the ballad of Jack and Rose is effective, powerful, and transcendent, their love story is not quite the center of the film. Their love story is not precisely what makes <i>Titanic</i> emotionally resonant and honest. It’s a part of it, certainly, but it’s not the source. Because at its core, <i>Titanic</i> is not a love story. No - at its very essence, <i>Titanic</i> is a story about freedom. And that freedom is embodied in the character design and journey of Rose DeWitt Bukater - the film’s sole main character.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">It’s not difficult to defend Rose as <i>Titanic</i>’s individual lead. She is the voice of the story, the only character that spans from 1912 to 1997, and the only character who changes. She is afforded a hero’s entrance, a developed design, and a flawlessly constructed arc. Every story decision made about <i>Titanic</i> - its historical context, the DeWitt Bukater family, Jack Dawson as love interest, the Jack-Rose love story, the conflicts and obstacles - it all comes back to Rose as a main character.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Rose DeWitt Bukater exists at a very unique place in history. Coming of age in 1912, the world around her was changing. Technology, communication, business, social norms - they were all on the brink of modernity, poised for a huge shift from Victorian order to contemporary chaos. Rose, without realizing it, was very much a part of that. Born to a good family name whose liquid assets dried up, it is of the utmost importance that Rose marry into new money in order to keep her status. This is why she is on board the <i>Titanic</i> - after meeting her fiancé Cal in England, the family is now traveling back to America where an engagement party awaits them. But Rose, already embodying the 20th century’s disdain for tradition and inhibition, feels suffocated by her lack of choice in the matter. She is not content to be a pawn in someone else’s game, denied the freedom of opinion and choice in favor of serving a fading ideal. To her, the Titanic is a prison.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">But Rose can’t articulate her place as it relates to social history. She doesn't understand that she feels the stirrings of modernism, while she reads Freud and revolts against propriety and etiquette. She instead languishes in a constant state of despair, unable to comprehend her own feelings. She buys modern art because it speaks to something inside of her, but she can’t explain what she likes about it - it’s “truth but no logic.” She rebels against her mother, who tightly binds her into the confines of a corset without second thought. She feels like she’s “standing in the middle of a crowded room screaming at the top of [her] lungs, and no one even looks up.” This unacknowledged frustration with Victorian repression leads to a bold - and necessary - character choice for Rose. Unable to take the suffocation anymore, she rushes to the stern of Titanic and prepares to throw herself into the ocean.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Of course, this is where Rose’s story becomes entangled with Jack’s. The easiest takeaway from their initial encounter is to say that Jack saved Rose’s life. Yes, that is true. But there is much more to understand about their relationship than a mere knight-saves-damsel construct, even when it’s expanded to umbrella their journey together, as in Rose’s description of “he saved me, in every way that a person can be saved.” Truthfully, “Jack saves Rose” as a unilateral statement cheapens Rose’s character arc a bit. It’s actually much more interesting to explore the dynamic from a slightly different angle, especially as it pertains to Rose herself. Even more, <i>Titanic</i> as a film hints encouragement at this analysis.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I say this because Jack Dawson is actually kind of a boring character. He's weirdly good at everything, he's kind, he's lucky, he's handsome, he's poor but happy. There's not a lot of dimension there. He’s of the utmost importance, sure - but only insofar as he extends to Rose. He is designed to be a representative foil, although calling the relationship “poor boy falls in love with rich girl” is an extreme oversight. It’s more textured than that, even if the paradigm helps fuel the lovers’ obstacles. More than anything, Jack represents modernity. He exists to pull Rose into her true identity, to model a life she herself never knew she wanted. He travels with only the clothes on his back, and lets his art take him to Paris. He feels more than thinks; he has no responsibility but to his own happiness. Where Rose is threatening to end it all at ship’s stern, Jack is embracing the freedom of flying at ship’s bow. With his boho philosophy of “make it count” and no lack of coincidentally-important survival skills, Jack serves mostly as a spirit guide to Rose’s emotional fulfillment and physical safety. He is a bizarre spectral over the whole film, beckoning Rose forward and forward until she’s ready to take the steps for herself.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">I was gobsmacked when I realized this, because it means that the second-most grossing movie of all time - the movie that redefined the modern blockbuster - has a main female lead whose male love interest is simply an accessory to her own arc. Because while Rose may say that Jack saved her, the fact of the matter is that she saved herself - with Jack’s help. This can be seen perfectly in Jack’s encouragement to Rose after she’s slipped off the railing. She dangles there in a panic as he desperately holds on, and the expectation is that he’ll be able to pull her up and over. In any other flattened love story, it’d be as simple as that. But <i>Titanic</i> does something in a tiny microcosm that echoes into the larger story of Jack and Rose: Jack tells her he won’t let go, but she’s got to pull herself up. He can’t do it for her. This same sentiment is echoed during their conversation in the gymnasium - Rose tells Jack that it’s not up to him to save her. He replies: “Only you can do that.” </span></div>
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<span class="s1">Sweet merciful feminism, how much more loving could this film be of its main character’s empowerment? <i>Titanic</i> puts forth the concept that while Jack may be there to save Rose, it’s on her to take initiative. This is therefore all the more rewarding when she actually<i> does</i>. She takes Jack’s hand and pulls herself up; she meets Jack at the clock; she finds Jack at the bow of the ship and says, “I changed my mind.” The entirety of <i>Titanic</i> is Rose DeWitt Bukater actively fighting for her life - her own life. In a genius twist on tragedy, the sinking of the ship provides the perfect opportunity for her to externalize that. At film’s beginning, Rose is ready to fling herself from the back of the Titanic. At film’s end, she clings to it with every hope and intention of survival. Even when a boat comes back to rescue her from the water, she must let go of her love, swim to a whistle, and proclaim her intent to live. She has to fight for it. And for a character who was one step from throwing her life away at the beginning of the film? These are huge moments.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">Ultimately, <i>Titanic</i> is a film about freedom. This concept tethers Jack to Rose, and Rose to the story itself. Every step of Rose’s journey moves her closer to freedom from the shackles of what society demands of her, closer to the kind of life Rose might choose for herself if given the opportunity. In the film’s final act, she poses naked, has sex, and fights with her life to save the person she loves. Even when she can save herself, she chooses solidarity with her love over waiting idly for fate to run its course. She spits in a man’s eye, punches a guy in the face, and wields an axe. The hair and costume choices are purposeful: she wears a simple dress with no corset, her hair down and unadorned. Rose even takes ownership of her name, choosing to call herself Dawson instead of DeWitt Bukater.</span></div>
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<span class="s1">By the end of the film, Rose’s transformation is complete. When we first see her embarking in the beginning, she looks up to see the Titanic - her prison. When Rose arrives in America, she looks up to see the Statue of Liberty - freedom. And we know, through the photos that tell us what she did with her life, that she embraced that freedom Jack helped her choose, and lived a life she wanted. It is this journey, and how it’s connected to her identity and her love story, that provides the emotional depth to <i>Titanic.</i> So while this film may forevermore reign as one of the biggest movies of all time, presented with cinematic gloss and occasional Hollywood implausibility, it’s tethered emotionally to a well-constructed main character, whose design and arc interact beautifully with her historical context to create the love story that’s transcended the film itself.</span></div>
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DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-19170205468097818902015-06-26T12:11:00.000-04:002016-04-07T14:42:08.159-04:00Orphan Black 3.09-3.10: “Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow," "History Yet to be Written"Even though the last two episodes of <i>Orphan Black</i>’s Season 3 play independently, they really could be considered Part 1 and Part 2 - halves of the same whole, setup and payoff, plot and character, in a final expression of a bisected season focused on duality.<br />
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(But then we couldn’t get two cool titles, and I can’t argue with that.)<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 3.09-3.10: “Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow,” “History Yet To Be Written”</b><br />
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Truthfully, I have little to say about 3.09 independent of the finale. The events of “Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow” play largely for plot and setup, and individually the episode doesn’t carry much emotional weight. I spent most of the hour squirming in my seat under the duress of suspense and the conviction that everyone was making the dumbest decisions possible in their situation. Yes, they were hard decisions, as Cosima pointed out in the finale, but as they were happening, there was a bewildering sense that no one had the right information and everyone was pushing forward without hesitation. STRESS.<br />
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There were markedly fewer character moments in the penultimate episode, as the hour was overtaken by reveals, plot twists, and the natural culmination of the Delphine-Cosima-Shay love triangle - Delphine threatening to stage Shay’s suicide and leave her bleeding out in the bathtub. Ah, <i>l’amour</i>. We also got the Big News that Siobhán Sadler’s mother is the Original - of both Castor and Leda, thanks to some fun science I know cursory-Google-search-levels about. Then there’s the convenient expiry of Alison and Donnie’s time as Drug Dealers, thanks to a well-placed threat against Alison’s kids that triggers Helena’s murder button.<br />
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But none of this really lands in any emotional resonance until the episode <i>after</i>, which is all I really want to talk about. “History Yet to be Written” makes the most of its emotional moments, and succeeds in wrapping up a scattered and inflated season in a grounded way that makes me excited for Season 4. <br />
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The main difference in Season 3 was borne of the fact that this is really no longer a chase show, after two breakneck seasons of pushing our heroes into a corner. This worked! This was wonderful! It was a fitting expression of its main character: a young woman who was a little <i>too</i> good at running. But as the villains have shifted, Sarah is not back on her heels. She’s gained some power. And it took the first half of this season to figure out what to do with a main character whose instinct to fight has overtaken her instinct to flee. This is no longer a chase show. Now what?<br />
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The key, of course, still lies with Sarah Manning. The second half of Season 3 has proven that the show’s structure changes best with the natural evolution of its main character. Yes, this isn’t a chase show anymore because logistically, there aren’t as many pursuants. But also, this is not a chase show anymore because <i>Sarah Manning isn’t running</i>. Sarah Manning is choosing to stay, and fight, and protect her family. This is now a show where Sarah Manning calls the shots and negotiates with enemies - and allies - and has to make sacrifices because she wants to keep her family safe. <br />
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Much like “Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method,” “History Yet to be Written” exhibited this new structure to great effect: Sarah & Co. hatch Plan, everyone in Clone Club contributes to Plan, Plan goes awry with new information, Sarah & Co. live to fight a new enemy. It’s a solid structure because it allows our heroes to <i>do</i> things, with the added bonus of involving everyone, building in natural tension and opportunities for twists. Emotionally, this has evolved organically into the Family Show it has intended to be, and it’s now operating logistically as a Teamwork Show. It’s like the Partridge Family! If the Partridges were all genetic identicals and their music career were a concerted effort to protect their bodies and minds from scientific corruption. <br />
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Regardless, this is the word of the season: taking information we already knew and bringing it back in new situations, with new interpretations. Season 3 has shone when it grounds new situations in familiarity with its original premise and characters. We need a lifeline in the rabbit hole, after all. “History Yet to be Written” continues this exercise, in ways both big and small. There’s Sarah’s toast to Beth, as well as sly visual throwbacks - a standalone shot is dedicated to Delphine putting down her briefcase before meeting her untimely end, much like Beth’s in the pilot, and we see Virginia Coady react to a driver’s seat murder - through the windshield, with a violent blood splatter - much like Sarah, in the pilot.<br />
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But narratively, the biggest grounding device is the return of two symbiotic elements: 1) the Neolutionists, and 2) the subsequent reminder that HEY YOU’RE WATCHING A SCIENCE FICTION SHOW. I think we forget all too often that a character in the first season HAD A TAIL. (And we’re not talking about a monitor.) Looking back, it’s easy to see that <i>Orphan Black</i> perhaps dissolved Neolutionism as a potential villan too soon, as it killed off Leekie and focused instead of DYAD, Topside, and the military.<br />
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But this is not to say that that decision was a mistake, because the revival of Neolutionism is well-crafted in a way that suggests that was the plan all along. It refreshes the stakes, revives the villains, and reminds us that we are, in fact, in a science fiction show that lands moments of off-kilter body-horror like nobody’s business. There’s now an instant lightning rod to the first season, and it twists our previous information into fresh story fodder. Until now, <i>Orphan Black</i> has traded largely in systems - the group vs. the individual. There’s the corporation, the military, the church, science, the private sector, the public system; we have characters that represent each outpost, and lines are divided and crossed very purposefully.<br />
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But Castor and Topside and DYAD are under attack from within: Neolutionists do not act as a group, but rather as a parasite. They are everywhere, infiltrating every system from within to destroy it. They shapeshift as necessary to achieve their goals, in an echo of their eugenic purposes. The enemy is no longer identifiable by group, the Goliath villains of seasons past. Nah, we have <i>individuals</i> to worry about now, and the secret affiliations that define their agendas. This gives us new paranoia, new villains, and a new set of bedfellows - like Ferdinand. (Who, by the way, has the most hilariously disturbing reaction to the Neolutionist reveal. He’s like a mad Jeff Goldblum character who’s not above murder by bludgeoning and sulfuric acid bath.)<br />
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The Neolutionist poison provides a new interpretation on everything we’ve already learned: Rachel’s own mother turned away from science in favor of neolutionism; Rachel was raised by a man who was operating on neolutionist agenda; Delphine skirted awfully close to the cause while working for the same man, and again while working with Nealon; Rachel’s new eye is the product of hi-tech bionic retrofitting typical of neolutionism; Rachel herself is at the hands of the neolutionists now. (Okay, a lot of these are about Rachel. Can you tell I’m excited for her arc next season? I’m delighted the writers have succeeded in finding ways to keep her in the narrative.)<br />
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Beyond the logistical plotting, “History Yet to be Written” also dealt some solid emotional work in the episode - in both cases, as payoff to the bombs dropped in “Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow,” and relationships that have been developing since Day 1. Of course, we have the dinner party, where the World’s Best People sit together to celebrate Alison’s school trustee win. Clone Club in harmony is the happiest, most wonderful thing this show can put forth, and “History Yet to be Written” finds countless tiny moments to do this. From Alison and Donnie’s inclusion of Helena in the family - finding Jesse Towing! letting her make Babka Cake! - to Mrs. S’s soft “we’re so proud of you” to Alison, I repeatedly want to curl up in a ball and cry about how much I love these people being a family. (SOMEBODY GO GET KRYSTAL GODERITCH AND PUT HER AT THE TABLE.)<br />
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There’s also the emotional grounding of last week’s big reveal: it’s no coincidence that Sarah Manning, Kendall Malone’s female genetic identical, went into the custody of Kendall’s own daughter. Kendall <i>chose</i> for the lost clone to be sent to her daughter, as a last vestige of herself to give her daughter, who wanted out of her life. Written out, it seems like a fairly logical conclusion, but major props to Maria Doyle Kennedy - a continuing MVP - and Alison Steadman for selling this to full emotional capacity. Never did the words “Jesus, Ma” ever make me so verklempt. <br />
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Then, of course, there’s the whole other TIDAL WAVE OF EMOTIONS this episode brought about. Aren’t you proud of me for waiting FOURTEEN PARAGRAPHS to talk about Delphine? Sweet Delphine, brave Delphine, BADASS DELPHINE. In her potential curtain call, Delphine worked with Sarah, passed on crucial information for the clones’ survival, got punched in the face, gave her blessing for a new relationship, tried to atone for her mistakes, killed a man, kissed the girl, and got shot in a parking garage. THIS IS THE KIND OF CONTENT I WANTED FOR DELPHINE. <br />
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Finally, <i>finally,</i> we got more from Delphine’s point of view than just moody scotch drinking and words left unsaid. She was deployed into the narrative in full embodiment of her position, negotiating her role as DYAD’s New Rachel (is there a title for this job? Would I even use it if there were?) and her care for Cosima. That’s been constant tension in Delphine’s worldview, as a “double agent” - can she do what is best for the Leda sisters, on their terms? Can she respect their right to make their own decisions? Can she protect them without abusing her avantage in power? Delphine has long struggled with this gray area, a writing choice executed to excellent effect. There’s never any question that Delphine loves Cosima. She’s not a <i>mystery</i>. Instead, she’s a tough choice. Can she love Cosima in the right way? She went against Cosima’s wishes in S2 to deliver her DNA to DYAD, in an effort to find a cure. And in S3, with the crisp emotionless exterior of New Rachel on her shoulders, she went full-fledged monitor - tailing, investigating, and ultimately threatening torture to Shay in an effort to keep Cosima safe.<br />
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“History Yet to be Written” allows Delphine to live in these sins, and demonstrate that she has done terrible things for the one she loves - and still sells it, flaws and all, as the genuine peak of Romance this show will likely ever ascend. She atones for her sins with Shay, and gives Shay and Cosima the foundation that Cosima and Delphine were never able to have: honesty, on Cosima’s terms. Delphine and Cosima began their relationship tangled up in a lie, and never quite succeeded in maintaining a relationship that didn’t hinder Cosima’s personal power, because of Delphine’s affiliation with DYAD. Delphine’s sins were lying, and making decisions <i>for</i> Cosima - and here she is, offering the truth, and giving complete power to Cosima over the choice to tell it.<br />
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It’s difficult, in retrospect, not to compare Delphine’s potential exit with Paul’s earlier this season. Here we have two monitors who continued to work with their respective groups despite having developed personal relationships with their subjects. Here we have two people who revealed themselves to be squarely Team Leda in the episode leading up to their demise. Yes, there are many similarities between Paul and Delphine. But Paul was a mystery. Delphine is a tough choice.<br />
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This difference is manifested in clear, sharp focus: Paul’s last words to Sarah: “It was never Beth I loved.” Delphine’s to Cosima: “Give your sisters all my love.” Paul’s moment played like a reveal, and isolates Sarah as the recipient of his love. Delphine’s, however, plays as a payoff - to the conversation in Season 2, where she first tells Cosima she loves her. And when Cosima replies that she comes with a small army of clone sisters, Delphine says, “Then I love all of you.” On a Family Show, with a table of World’s Best People sitting in solidarity with the sisters they’re fighting to protect, this is the only declaration of romantic love that has any weight. This is not a show about boyfriends, girlfriends, wives, or husbands. Remember, Kendall Malone took away her daughter’s husband and gave her a little girl. This is a show about moms and daughters. Delphine loves all of them.<br />
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It’s incredibly sad, then, that Delphine could very easily be dead. My first instinct - if it’s not a shot to the head, then anything’s possible. At the same time, her narrative was very neatly wrapped up, with a balls-out heroic ending. It could be a question of, “Is there any story left?” Even so, getting shot certainly would provide new material, and I still want to see Delphine operating in the narrative, in her point of view and complicated position. Sure, you can’t sustain a mystery, but tough choices are always the stuff of good story. You just need to let the audience see her do more than drink scotch and brood.<br />
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Of course, this all leads to the question: who shot Delphine? Given the focus on neolutionists hiding in plain view, it is likely that the person who pulled the trigger has ties to the movement, making it fairly full-circle for Delphine as well. It is also probable that we already know this person. Shay, perhaps? Who knows. <br />
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Because, truly, I’m not in it for the mysteries. The third season ends on Sarah’s reunion with Kira, as they take Kendall Malone to hide in Iceland. Four generations of moms and daughters defying the odds, and a little girl with her mom in the snow - not unlike little Rachel Duncan and her mom at the start of the hour. It’s choices like this that set <i>Orphan Black</i> apart - yes, this is a chase show, a mystery show, and don’t forget, a science fiction show. But at its heart, this has always been, and will always be, a show about family.<br />
<br />
<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>I really love Sarah teaching the Castor boys a lil’ somethin’ about clone swap. Castor may have been trained for strength and power, but Leda knows how to use what they’ve got to get themselves out of a sticky situation. And even though they’re much more varied than Castor, they stick together, and work together.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I mentioned nothing about Helena shepherding Rudy through his death, but it’s a lovely moment in that plays in both genuine sadness and honest truth - Rudy is to be both pitied and loathed, and that’s okay. That’s human, sometimes.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>God bless Jesse Towing. Neolutionism couldn’t reach a simple country truck driver, right? RIGHT???</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I really love the little detail of Donnie saying “we” found Jesse for Helena, like he and Alison did it together.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Kudos to Ksenia Solo for rocking what could otherwise be a thankless, one-dimensional role. Shay has the narrative misfortune of being the unpopular leg of a love triangle, as well as the mystery of POSSIBLE THREAT or POOR UNSUSPECTING GIRL WHO JUST GOT EMOTIONALLY ABUSED BY HER NEW GIRLFRIEND’S EX. It’s a tough hand to get, and I think she makes a great choice playing the seeming reality of the situation with 100% honesty, and letting the narrative work the audience’s suspicion. </li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Helena and Sarah exchange exactly two words in the episode and they’re perfectly delivered. The way Sarah says “Sugar?” is both fond and strict - perfectly older-sister.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The only moment from 3.09 that I really want to talk about is Delphine’s face when Cosima calls mid-torture with important information and opens with “Hey, how’s it going?”</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-86021257539970049102015-06-13T17:32:00.002-04:002015-06-13T17:36:39.253-04:00Orphan Black 3.08 - "Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method"The structure of <i>Orphan Black</i>’s third season is, fittingly, a story of two halves - a first and a second, paired together to complete a whole. Where the first half was Castor, the second half has been Leda - perhaps too literally, as the focus shift from one to the other has only served to highlight the audience’s greater investment in our lady clones than their (creepy-ass) brothers. <br />
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As such, the second half of Season 3 has delivered three great episodes in a row. 3.06 accelerated quickly and explosively, 3.07 featured all the Leda clones in an Alison-centric ‘burbscape, and 3.08 combines the the best elements of its two predecessors and spins a fantastic hour grounded in characters and relationships we care about, with the quick twists and turns of a classic OB outing. For me, it easily dethrones 3.06 as the best episode of the season thus far.<br />
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<b>ORPHAN BLACK 3.08 - “RUTHLESS IN PURPOSE, AND INSIDIOUS IN METHOD”</b><br />
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A major reason this episode works well is the continued focus on the Leda clones - not just on the sisterhood as a whole, but equally distributed on its individual members, and the relationships they have with each other. Every clone is deployed in this episode, and they co-exist in the same space in a way that makes the world feel more intimate, instead of spiraling out of control. Even as the show reveals yet another layer of power by episode’s end, we, as an audience, still feel tight to the core group of clones under pressure from outside forces.<br />
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Yes, the group is as together as ever. Helena and Gracie move in with Alison to help with the soap front, Cosima and Sarah devise a plan to reclaim Duncan’s code, and Felix and Sarah carry out morally grey errands at the behest of Rachel - who’s with everyone, until she isn’t. All three of these aspects are wonderful choices, for different reasons. <br />
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First, it’s lovely to see Alison’s previous declaration of “mother hen” being taken seriously in an effort to move these characters around in believable ways. Alison graciously bringing Helena and Gracie under House Hendrix also allows her story sphere more relevant screentime, by sheer force of numbers. Not only that, but it allows Helena the opportunity to demonstrate her mom skills, simultaneously letting us actually see the Hendrix kids, a clamor I may as well tattoo on my forehead. Cherry on top: it’s a comedy goldmine.<br />
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Cosima and Sarah also have a sweet Skype conversation, in a fond callback to their main communication of seasons past. This scene was a lovely way to deploy some exposition and outline Clone Club’s intentions for the situation, and the writers sweeten it with Cosima opening up a bit to Sarah about her relationship with Shay. Later, these two are the brains behind the plan to trick Delphine and Rachel into getting Duncan’s book back. Altogether, this dynamic is one of my unexpected favorites - while relationships like Sarah and Felix and Sarah and Helena are more outwardly meaningful, the interactions between Sarah and Cosima are quietly poignant. They’ve grown to love each other at a distance, with mutual admiration for both the traits they share and the traits that distinguish them. Some of my favorite scenes in the second season belong to Cosima and Sarah interacting (the phone call in “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings,” and their conversation in “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried” both come to mind). It’s always nice to see their dynamic deployed in another quiet moment of unity, and even used to position them as two strategic brains of the operation.<br />
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Sarah and Felix’s task in the episode also provided a lot of material, refracting into a spectrum of well-developed threads and choices. On a base level, it’s lovely to give Felix something to <i>do</i>, especially when it involves the trappings of a Sarah con - deceit, theft, identity swap. It’s also fundamentally delightful to see these characters play different versions of themselves, reiterating the same face in a range of dynamics. With this notion, “Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method” gives us a glorious gift: we meet a new clone, and she interacts not only with Felix, but also Delphine. <br />
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Krystal Goderich is perhaps the episode’s greatest success, simply because of the redirect that happens with limited screen time. Here is a character purposefully introduced as a somewhat vapid Leda clone - she works in a nail salon, talks with a Valley-ish affectation, and spills her scandals to anyone who will listen. She is designed to be poked fun of, a study in contrast - this woman has the same DNA as Sarah the Grifter, Cosima the Scientist, Alison the Mom, Rachel the Ice Queen, and Helena the Feral Assassin. What a world! Krystal is little more than a show pony to emphasize the power of nurture over nature.<br />
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But in less than seven minutes of relevant screentime, the OB writers pivot Krystal Goderich, and make her perhaps the most sympathetic character this series has ever developed. Not only is she actually <i>smart</i>, but she’s confused, and alone, and destined for a life of disappointment without understanding. She’s fully aware of her bizarre life, but unable to identify what exactly is conspiring around her. Not only this, but she has no idea that her DNA has fated her to fall victim to Rachel’s growling bid to leave the country and assume a new identity. And despite these horrible things in her life, she’s rationalized everything with a tragically optimistic motto: You can’t crush the human spirit. Um, how is this not the most <i>heartbreaking</i> character? The writers do a beautiful job not only dimensionalizing Krystal, but also affirming her through Felix’s fond encouragement for her, and his revulsion at doing something so horrible to a good person in order to appease Rachel, of all people.<br />
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Maybe the Mexican cantina owner can swoop in and save Krystal Goderich from her fate. ¿Por favor? <i>La Camarera: ¡Salvando a las clones Leda, una a la vez!</i><br />
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Beyond the character work, “Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method” employed a classic <i>Orphan Black</i> plot structure: the world spins madly underfoot as Sarah & Co. make difficult decisions trying to keep their power when it’s under direct threat of DYAD. It’s difficult to go wrong with this outline, although I have to imagine it’s probably challenging to reiterate it in fresh ways. That being said, this episode used the structure to great effect. The stakes were both comedic and horrific at once, even more so than Alison’s disturbed suburbia. Through Rudy’s threat to Scott’s cat, OB created a really low-level danger that actually operated in a huge, frightening way. I was screechingly terrified for poor Scott and his cat in that moment, even through the slight absurdity of the situation. The fact that we have a clear, consolidated villain in Rudy and Coady is also welcome, and the focus helps immensely.<br />
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The levels of manipulation also worked well in the episode. For one, it was interesting to see Rachel squirm through the hour as both an unempowered victim, and a powerful woman who still holds all the cards - and uses that to her advantage. Rachel’s place this season has been nothing short of fascinating in that she has been both heartbreaking and fearsome, not a shadow of who she was but of the security she was privileged with. She is still the same coiled snake, ready to strike at anyone who gets too close. The fact that she is in many ways trapped by her own body is a tragic manifestation of her own emotional restrictions and her discomfort with a lack of personal power.<br />
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The manipulation of the hour also brought us another layer of DYAD to fear - Dr. Nealon, and whoever the hell oversaw Rachel’s surgery at episode’s end. This is certainly welcome, from a plot standpoint, but I’m more concerned with the third result of manipulation: the scene with Cosima and Delphine. These two are playing a fucked-up game of chicken that is unfortunately quite grounded in real feelings. It’s more and more evident that their circumstances are destroying their relationship, slowly, certainly, and incontrovertibly. The show has done such a good job believably breaking them apart, without it feeling like an unmotivated romantic obstacle as story fodder for an ultimate endgame. <br />
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Cosima and Delphine have very real issues, and at the same time, very real love. That Cosima confessed her near-death experience as a way to distract Delphine from her plan is a perfect embodiment of their complicated relationship. The core sentiment is nothing less than true, and perhaps the most romantic thing any human could say to another - and yet circumstances conspire to wield that moment in complete deceit. The question with these two is always this: is their situation insidious enough to nullify their true feelings? Can they survive the amount of mistrust that’s permanently wearing against their relationship? Or are they doomed to their consequences, where their power imbalance will tear them apart? <br />
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Thankfully, Cosima lives another week to perhaps answer these questions in future. But, we have much before us in the last two episodes. Rachel is now in a coma, Shay is perhaps a Castor mole (for some reason), and the team is little closer to breaking Duncan’s code, which is not only encoded, but also in RIDDLE FORM. Goddammit, Duncan. I don’t know why I expected anything different.<br />
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Regardless - after three solid episodes in a row, and with a homecoming field trip to London in front of us, I am altogether excited for the last two episodes of Season 3. Though it was slow going at the beginning, the Leda half of this Janus season has turned towards great character work, plot development, and unique expansions of the world we’re in. <br />
<br />
STRAY OBSERVATIONS<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>“Identical twins are so creepy,” says Krystal. <i>Tell me about it,</i> Delphine thinks. <i>One time I totally made out with my girlfriend’s genetical identical and that was really weird. And this coming from someone who enjoys lovers!</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Donnie continues to be an unsung hero used perfectly in relation to Alison. “I may be a bitch, but I’m Alison’s bitch!” Bless you, Mr. Hendrix.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>“How are you gonna know without me?” Cosima and Delphine’s relationship flirts with toxicity again through this vaguely threatening imposition of Delphine’s power in Cosima’s life. I mean, we’re pretty sure you mean <i>DYAD</i>, Delphine, not <i>you</i>… but… this just reiterates Cosima’s restricted access to treatment and knowledge in a totally unsettling, fuck-you-Delphine kind of way.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Half an episode later it’s impossible not to feel all fluttery and emotional about their kiss. FINE, <i>Orphan Black</i>. You win!</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Scott’s cat is named Denise. Internet, I love animals with very human names.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Speaking of, shout out to Josh Vokey, who plays Scott. He’s already done a great job playing small but impacting moments as a tertiary character, but this episode cemented some fine work as he becomes more integral to the story, as well as Cosima and Rachel.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Gracie wears Alison’s checked pajamas from the house party in Season 1. Hopefully no one told her Alison tortured Donnie in them.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-12477135482954527572015-06-06T10:03:00.002-04:002015-06-06T10:05:45.863-04:00Orphan Black 3.07 - "Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate"Step right up, folks, it’s time to review <i>Orphan Black</i>’s annual circus event! Mundane situations contrasting dangerously high stakes! Wacky clone swaps! Pastels! Yes, it’s our traditional return to Planet Alison, and the only thing missing on this year’s carousel was glitter torture.<br />
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<b>ORPHAN BLACK 3.07 - “COMMUNITY OF DREADFUL FEAR AND HATE”</b><br />
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Given the episode title and the fact that this is an Alison-centric endeavor, I was expecting something far more sinister than what actually transpired. Alison’s storylines are usually marked with high absurdity and tragedy, as she’s completely disenfranchised and struggling to exert her independence. A control freak in a uncontrollable world, Alison is frequently the narrative’s fool - to great comedic and empathic effect.<br />
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Yes, the hallmarks of Hendrixica are there - at its most basic, this is a sidecar episode set in a domestic environment, where high-stakes dangers threaten the picture-perfect suburban normalcy, rendered broadly in hijinks and clone swap. And of course, in traditional OB absurdist fashion, a lot of ridiculata is mined from Donnie - the fact that his name is Donnie Chubbs, the reveal that Alison’s mother is poetically named <i>Connie</i>, and, naturally, Donnie’s basic fluency in Portuguese.<br />
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But this episode balances these little choices with two very weighty reminders, that are grounded very purposefully in theme and character. Number one: Alison <i>chose</i> Donnie. Number two: Alison is capable as... well, holy freakin' Christmas cake. “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate” stays put and stays sentimental where previous episodes have swerved into tragedy: it allows Alison a moment to defend her choices not only verbally, but in action. She sticks up for Donnie, she stands up to her mother, she gives Cosima advice not out of ego but compassion, and she nails her school trustee speech and gets a standing ovation. Not a bad episode for ol’ Ali, eh?<br />
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From all angles, Alison doesn’t just provide the setpiece for the hour, this time she’s actually the <i>hero</i> of it. Sarah doesn’t swoop in and save the day; Cosima doesn’t take over and hold down the fort. <i>Alison</i> keeps everything together, meeting her own needs and extending herself to the people around her. She is finally the main character. As such, it’s the perfect opportunity to showcase her character in a way the show hasn’t yet tackled - and generally, the episode did exactly that. <br />
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First - back story. This arrives in the form of her mother, the woman who raised her, and we quickly realize that Alison was brought up in a tightly compressed childhood of unachievable expectations and constant negative commentary. Alison is very much the product of her upbringing - <i>nurture prevails</i> - both in propagation and reaction. However, with Sarah and Cosima - her “cooler” sisters - out of the way, we are shown that Alison’s weaknesses can be her strengths. She can meet demands; she can check boxes; she can organize and command and prepare and succeed. Not only this, but the episode goes out of its way to portray these characteristics as not only fundamental skills, through compliant medical reporting to DYAD, but also <i>attractive</i>, through her potential romance with Jason Kellerman. <br />
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So we get a new light on Alison’s pre-established characteristics, and on top of that there’s a huge sign of character development, one I wish were underlined, highlighted, and circled in the episode. Point an enormous flashing arrow at three little words: “My clone, mother.” This is spoken by a woman who refused to use to use “the ‘c’ word” at the beginning of the show, and lived in deep denial about the reality of their situation. <br />
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It's true that Alison’s choice to introduce Cosima is motivated by defiance, given that it follows another attempt by Connie to belittle and control her daughter's life. But I don’t think that makes the choice any less earnest, or important for Alison. If anything, infusing that moment with a defiant act of rebellion only serves to show us what Alison is truly made of: moxie. Remind us of anyone else? For all the disparate characteristics of our Leda Ladies, there’s at least one thing they all share: nerve. Ali gave her mom a test, and her mom failed by refusing to acknowledge her daughter’s point of view. It’s almost as if the moment cements Alison’s place firmly in Clone Family - she didn’t choose them, but they’re hers.<br />
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Considering the layering triumphs in this moment, I do wish the episode emphasized just how <i>big</i> this was for Alison. Yes, she got a standing ovation, saved her man, stuck it to her mom, and even technically got another guy to kiss her - but there was one important element of Alison’s involvement in the episode that I would have liked to seen punched up and made more noticeable: her level of empathy. <br />
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Alison’s behavior in the episode is hallmarked at every turn by a fairly uncharacteristic level of outward compassion. This is not to say that Alison hasn’t been a compassionate person, but she’s thus far been shown as largely uptight, discerning, and manslaughter-y. Yet, in “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate,” Alison really does live up to her self-bequeathed title of “mother hen” - particularly towards Cosima. She’s downright nurturing to her, most notably after Cosima completely effed up her trustee speech. Alison’s a mom too, everybody! Welcome reminder!<br />
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I found myself wanting “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate” to take a pink highlighter to these moments, to draw particular attention to this development for Alison. Perhaps if Ali were a bit impatient with Cosima before understanding the situation, or less willing to talk about Clone Club goings-on at the venue; perhaps if she and Cosima had a longer conversation about Cosima’s health, or if her kids actually made a meaningful appearance in the episode - these little things could have served to punch up her genuine care for her family. <br />
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It’s a minor quibble, but of particular importance, because not only is this - family - the <i>theme</i> of the episode, it’s also delivered directly through Alison’s trustee speech, in a rather sweeping grandiose moment. It would have been nice to see that theme more clearly embodied in her actions, not just her words. Even so, it’s a very sweet theme, and it’s always lovely to see a unified front between the Clone Club. Mrs. S. is gonna be a granny! May she be added to the guest list of Helena’s fantasy baby shower.<br />
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Of course, “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate” also dealt with Cosima’s trust issues, and the renewed seriousness of her condition. I’m still wanting more straightforward insight into Cosima’s emotional state this year, although it makes sense that Cosima would hold back her true feelings. Her trajectory is interesting; in the first two seasons, she was entirely complicit with DYAD, submitting herself not only to testing but also the monitor system. She knowingly <i>began a relationship</i> with her monitor, and has largely been okay with that, because her feelings for Delphine were real. Cosima the Scientist has always let discovery and passion guide her open heart.<br />
<br />
Now, though, she stubbornly refuses to even submit to a urinalysis. This begs the question: does Cosima’s change of heart correlate to any new information about shady DYAD, or is it exactly that - a change of <i>heart?</i> Delphine’s clearly attempting to exert her power over Cosima not only at DYAD but in their relationship, and the two spheres remain as overlapped as ever. Cosima still can’t separate her emotions from the relationship with DYAD, even with a differently-defined situation. If Delphine thought anything about her position would be easier without dating Cosima, this is looking entirely naive in retrospect. The anticipation that comes with waiting for this to blow up is one of the more deliciously tense aspects of the season.<br />
<br />
But, there were no meltdowns or blow-ups in the episode, as “Community of Dreadful Fear and Hate” honored the traditional hallmarks of an “Alison episode,” yet added the rather genuine and grounding elements of theme and character development for the most-fringed clone. Alison’s success in the hour is welcome, given Cosima’s worsening condition, and the inevitable messiness of Rachel, Sarah, and Delphine coming together to decode Duncan’s sequence. With only three episodes left, we should be ramping up nicely for the end of the season.<br />
<br />
<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Admittedly, it felt a bit odd to focus on Helena’s forgiveness of Mrs. S. when this season has thus far made a point of Sarah’s grudge against her. I would have loved a beat of forgiveness before the “I’m so tired, mum.” Nothing fancy, just a lil somethin’.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We talked about mundane situations with dangerous stakes, but were the <i>obstacles</i> also a touch mundane? The “wrong briefcase” trope is pretty tired, especially given that they devoted a specific shot to “grabbing the wrong envelope.” We all saw it coming. Other obstacles: nebulously faked panic attack, and the time necessary to count money. Hm.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I am ENDLESSLY FASCINATED by the role the cantina owner plays in this episode. Surely this was foreshadowing, right? Surely she’s going to bust out with something awesome in a future episode, right? There was so much attention paid to her understanding of and involvement in Helena and Sarah’s situation… but <i>why?</i></li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I want to meet Cosima’s family now too. I’m guessing they don’t know she’s dying. They could also be halfway across the world doing research projects to benefit developing countries, and therefore with limited internet access. Still. Cosima could totally send an e-mail.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>“There are not two Pouchies, darling.” Line delivery of the season? Also, Felix + Alison 4-ever.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Sarah Stubbs loves Alison so much. What an angel.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-28977884395697839942015-05-29T21:49:00.000-04:002015-05-29T21:49:01.439-04:00Orphan Black 3.06 - "Certain Agony of the Battlefield"Before airing, there was a lot of hype surrounding the sixth episode of season 3. Excitement! Intrigue! Promise! And yes, it lived up to the expectation. “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” is the best we've seen since the beginning of the season, and there are two main reasons for this: movement, and connection.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 3.06: "CERTAIN AGONY OF THE BATTLEFIELD"</b><br />
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Movement is the most basic reason this episode works as well as it does. Things HAPPEN, and they happen to characters we care about. We learned things, and this new information spins events in a new direction, stimulating characters to make choices and DO things. The episode had not only ACTION, but REACTION, from Felix’s torture of Rachel, to Delphine’s return, to Paul’s discovery and subsequent sacrifice. We are given refreshed stakes, a new villain, and reiterated themes. This is the episode that revitalizes the season.<br />
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But this episode proffers more than movement; it gives us <i>connection</i>. And this, I would argue, is what truly sets “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” apart from its in-season predecessors. Connection is what gives us meaning, and grounds us in characters and relationships we care about. As this show sprawls bigger and deeper, connection is what holds the far-reaching pieces tight to center.<br />
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The biggest connection of the episode was the tether to the original construct of the show: runaway girl steals identity of suicidal woman. During Season 1, learning more about Beth was intrinsic to the plot, so that Sarah could believably live her life -- but as the show has developed outward, it’s been altogether too easy to forget who started this investigation in the first place. Yes, Sarah is our main character, but she is carrying a blood-stained mantle. “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” reminded us of this death toll, as it confronted us with Beth in Sarah’s fevered hallucinations, and what happened to send her - and us - on this journey.<br />
<br />
The entire Beth sequence was fantastic, simply because there were a lot of layers to parse. On a fundamental level, the stakes are refreshed for Sarah: the woman who came before her, a sister she never knew, fell victim to this pursuit. She will not be the last. Moreover, Beth is a projection of Sarah’s own point of view. This Beth contains shades of Sarah, and it’s fitting that Beth screams at Sarah and calls her a liar. Sarah herself is frustrated and disappointed and disbelieving in herself - in her ability to be a leader, compared to a cop with a nice house and beautiful life. After all, Beth <i>chose</i> this fight. Sarah just got sucked into it, in a moment of desperate self-preservation. Will it consume them both?<br />
<br />
But it’s through the divine anything-goes nature of dream sequence that we were given some truly lovely details of connection and meaning. It’s not only a question of <i>who</i>, but <i>where</i>. Sarah is led to Mrs. S's kitchen by a young Leda clone - herself? A young Beth? Or perhaps even a young Rachel? As she finally arrives home after the journey from her prison cell, she’s greeted with Helena’s drawings on the fridge, and Beth holding two cups of tea. This is a projection of Sarah’s family, fractured and fucked-up as it is. At home with Mrs. S, with her sisters; these are the people who truly created her. And this is, too, a happy ending, a drawn and dark surreality of what could have been.<br />
<br />
Now, contrast that to the bright opening sequence in the first episode of this season, “The Weight of This Combination,” and we have another connection to draw meaning from. Sarah’s fantasy both parallels and contrasts Helena’s, fittingly, and it seems that this season’s structure is therefore bisected into two halves. It also serves as an extension of fantasy and reality that's been used throughout this season, from the very first moments of episode 1. “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” defines this motif more in surreality vs. reality, but Alison and Donnie’s rap video sequence, Helena and Pupok, and Sarah's fever dreams still all contribute to a disorienting and delightful tension between what is real and what isn’t. <br />
<br />
Finally, these moments of connection trickled all the way down to the editing. During Sarah’s dream sequence, they match cut Sarah’s horror-stricken face to her shots from Beth’s suicide in the Pilot. Holy shit. Even moments of reveal were stitched together across the continent, as Paul and Mark reached the same conclusion about the Castor STD at the same time as Cosima and Delphine. Little choices like that help to connect the disparate characters and locations. For me, the flashback cutaways to Paul felt a teensy bit less motivated, but I did appreciate the “What kind of guy am I? You know what kind of guy I am” snippet simply because it’s such a non-answer that reminds us that Paul was so good at vaguely defining himself in a way that could easily be perceived as charming. What a line, Major Dierden. <br />
<br />
It bears stating, though, that Paul <i>was</i> deployed to best effect in this episode - which is the least they could do, since they were going to kill him off. But in all seriousness, I love that Paul sprang to action when he realized that Coady was experimentally sterilizing women without their consent. While Paul’s loyalties were purposefully nebulous throughout, this is a story fundamentally about women fighting for the right to their own identity and decisions - and to see Paul go out blazing in support of that was both rewarding and resonant. <br />
<br />
Even beyond Paul, “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” used its characters and the story around them to excellent effect. At the most basic level, it was lovely to have all clones at play and in action - we had substantial moments with Sarah, Alison, Helena, Cosima, Rachel, and Dream!Beth. (Did Tatiana Maslany sleep at all when they filmed this?) One step deeper, the specific choices regarding these characters were grounded in emotion, and not plot. Felix tortures Rachel because he loves his sister, and he’s afraid she’s in danger. Rachel breaks down because her life is in pieces now, and she’s left only with her own memories and a paintbrush. Helena returns to save Sarah because they are sisters, and the guilt was too much to bear. Cosima acts with compassion towards Gracie because she is not just Geek Monkey - she is life, and humanity, and warmth. <br />
<br />
Actually - let’s talk about Cosima more, because I wish the show would. I admit, I yawned a bit at the idea that she has a new love interest, because, well, lady-loving aside, who cares? The start of it was a bit sudden, and looking too much like a Triangle for me to be truly engaged. But the choices being made about Shay and how the relationship develops are providing some welcome insight to Cosima’s emotional landscape this season. With both Delphine and Shay in the episode, the contrast becomes apparent: Cosima went from dating Science Chic, who is currently flat-ironed to within an inch of her structured wardrobe, to Zen Buddhist Babe, who specializes in spiritual counseling, flowy robes, and juicing. <br />
<br />
This leads me to a desperate, begging, impatient question: when are we going to see more of Cosima’s spiritual arc this season?! If you’ll excuse the inelegance: I want it. Gimme it. Please??? <br />
<br />
In all seriousness, I am 100% invested in where Cosima’s storyline goes from here, even with regards to Delphine and Shay. They are, after all, the two polarities of her personality, and therefore relevant to her seeming negotiation of science and faith. Even on a logistical level - how exactly does one date outside the Clone Club and its extended monitor pool? This can’t end well, right? It seems inevitable that Delphine will make some emotional decisions that will not be well-coiffed when under the pressure of hair straightening, tight zippers, and missing your girlfriend that you’re still in love with but sacrificed for the wrong reasons. Messy Delphine Breakdown: we are a go. (Maybe Shay can help her with some spiritual counseling afterward. I feel so much more at ease with a spiritual counselor in the ensemble. Everyone on this show needs it. Which means that Shay is not long for this narrative, sadly.)<br />
<br />
Even with these impassioned pleas, it’s near inarguable that “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” was the best outing this season. Not only does the episode push forward with new stakes and mysteries, it put forth an ensemble of emotional connections grounded in the show’s own strengths. More than anything, “Certain Agony of the Battlefield” reminded us not only of the original premise, but also of its central and dire themes, surrounding that with the characters we love trying to do the right thing in chaotic situations. What more could we want?<br />
<br />
STRAY OBSERVATIONS<br />
<ul>
<li>Blah, blah, Paul loved Sarah and not Beth. This felt a bit too easily-worked, especially in conjunction with Art talking about how he loved Beth. Romance tradesies only really works on sitcoms, methinks. Also: poor Beth.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>What <i>would</i> Beth think about Sarah and all this new information? I'd love a kinder, more compassionate Beth to eventually come to Sarah in hallucination, just to tell her poor sister she's doing okay. This shit ain't easy. Both ladies deserve some peace.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>We got mention that Mark was on Sammy’s team - not Paul’s, in a bit of clever cover-up for their scene last year that made no mention of dying Castor clones. Double cleverness - Sammy is presumable Tony’s buddy that sent him to Beth Childs last season. (CONNECTION!)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I love Dr. Virginia Coady in all her villainy. Is she still alive? Because from the previews, we got another mama in town, and I want Mrs. S. to get her groove back.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>If Rachel knows Duncan’s code, then why the hell did she go to such great lengths to get them last season? I assume the brain injury has something to do with the sudden information, in a dark bit of irony.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Delphine’s taking this “monitor” thing way more seriously than she ever did when she was actually a monitor. Babygirl is so non-threatening that she may as well have been swigging scotch out of a sippie cup. (I say lovingly. I'm actually really worried about Delphine.)</li>
</ul>
<br />DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-36391738738503235162015-05-22T20:20:00.000-04:002015-05-22T20:20:59.913-04:00Orphan Black Season 3 First Half ReviewForgive me Clone Club, for I have dropped the ball. In a perfect world, I would have every review individually posted the day after the episode airing, analysed corner-to-corner, free of awkward run-on sentences and full of quotable insight. Alas, the reality is this: I spent the entire premiere review babbling about Delphine and then she disappeared for four episodes and I couldn’t get my act together and write anything else. Am I that transparent-slash-lazy? (Apparently.)<br />
<br />
So, in an attempt to make up for my absence, and a compromise on the amount of content I’d otherwise have to saddle myself with -- please accept this humble review of the first half of <i>Orphan Black</i> Season 3.<br />
<br />
<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 3.02 - 3.05 - Half-Season Review</b><br />
<br />
With Season 3 halfway complete, it’s a bit easier to have some perspective on the shape of the story and how it’s being deployed. It was clear from Episode 3.01, though, that this season is ticking at a different pace. And even though it’s intentional, and organic to the current story, it also presents some issues about the way this season is forced to develop.<br />
<br />
The challenge is in the change: I would argue that this show’s DNA is built on showing Sarah Manning on the run or kicking and screaming. This fight-or-flight instinct has worked beautifully for OB in the past two seasons, because its main character is defined by a storytelling element that organically raises the stakes and demands audience investment. Yes, we are searching for answers, but we are also being <i>chased</i>, and this influence from both directions means that the show can speed forward easily with mystery and danger.<br />
<br />
Now we’re in Season 3, and every pursuant threat has been neutralized: the police are no longer on Sarah’s tail, DYAD and the Proletheans have been eliminated (thanks to a well-placed pencil and some fire), and Cosima’s illness is mysteriously ebbed. What exactly are the elements of danger urging Sarah and Co. forward?<br />
<br />
Enter the boy clones. <br />
<br />
The boy clones exist in a strange space on the show, because they are both villain and mirror to our Leda clones. This is, of course, not a bad thing - look at Helena and Rachel, after all. But this abstract is not quite to maximum effect in execution. From a plotting perspective, their existence alone doesn’t really amount to a threat level on the Leda clones comparable to what we’ve known. And on a character level, I fear we <i>just don’t care about them.</i> Selling their content in Season 3 has been contingent on the audience <i>caring</i> about them. They are in a position much like the Leda clones in Season 1 - they are dropping dead from a mysterious genetic deviation, seeking answers as the clock runs out. We should care! Hell, we <i>did</i> care! <br />
<br />
So why aren’t we caring now? I have no doubt that the OB writers know how to make an audience engage with a character. I think the bigger issue is a conflict of focus. With the Boy Clone Reveal (™) of last season, much of the audience flipped out, and we were reassured that the Boy Clones would not steal focus. (We were given no warning about Delphine and her hair straightener.) But… if the Castor Clones going to occupy the screen with Leda-style stakes and obstacles, propelled by the driving elements of mystery and danger… then we <i>have</i> to care about them, or else it all collapses. <br />
<br />
It feels like there’s a reluctance to give these clones more screentime than absolutely necessary, so we get <i>plot-relevant</i> information about Castor, but no emotional anchor or barometer. It’s the Paul Problem, but multiplied - the characters fall flat, so we are kindly not invited to care about them, but they’re still <i>around</i>. And even though the boy clones are experiencing similar dangers as the girl clones, our earned love for the Leda ladies doesn’t really translate to Castor compassion. It’s more something along the lines of <i>Why the hell aren’t my favorites onscreen more?</i> <br />
<br />
This isn’t helped by the fact that the Leda clones are largely sequestered into their own storylines right now. Scoot Alison out any further and she’s basically on her own HBO show. Cosima’s dissecting dead guys and going on dates, and Rachel is re-learning how to speak. They’re not working together on anything, because there’s little to <i>work on</i>. There’s nothing behind them chasing them forward, and the only character being pulled into action is Sarah. But even to find Helena, she gets tangled up in the Castor narrative point of view for three episodes. <br />
<br />
There are, of course, interesting elements both at play and emerging. I love that Cosima appears to have a question of science and spirituality running undercurrent in the wake of her recovery. I love that <i>Orphan Black</i> continues to proliferate its active characters with a spectrum of badass Mothers holding shit together - the latest of which, Dr. Virginia Coady, is yet another brand of tough. Where Mrs. S. is a rebel and Marian Bowles is an executive, Dr. Coady is military. She is clearly Mom-with-Sons, and wields her motherhood with weaponized grit and guilt. I’m curious to see what she’s capable of, to achieve her goal.<br />
<br />
The interaction between Helena and Sarah will always remain a core dynamic on the show, and their reunion and subsequent teamwork is full of depth and nuance. The push-and-pull of their love is a fitting manifestation of the individual frictions in their own personalities, and their inexorable tether to each other.<br />
<br />
Helena herself remains a showcase this season, pivoting yet again into another dimension of her character. Season 1 saw Helena as a monster, then a victim. Season 2 showed us a victim, a fighter, and a kid sister. Season 3 is synthesizing these ideas, keeping every aspect of Helena alive and tangible, in a fascinating dance. Helena takes two lives in two episodes, and the dichotomy sums it up: one is a mercy kill, to allow a suffering soul some peace. The other is a sudden strike, to eliminate a body standing between herself and the exit. Helena is capable of both love and torment, wrapped messily in the same package.<br />
<br />
Not only this, but Helena’s actions tell us more: she betrays Sarah, because Sarah betrayed her. Helena has been caged for much of her life, and brainwashed to recite the lines of an institution. In Season 1, she acted for the Proletheans. In Season 2, she acted for Sarah - her family. Helena’s connection to her sisters is a driving force for the character, but her role as watchdog and protector is not a huge deviation from her participation with religion. She just readjusted her faith, and devoted it to her sestra.<br />
<br />
But with Helena’s choice to leave Sarah at the compound, we see Helena acting of her own feelings. This is a different wound, and harder to identify. But she recognizes betrayal because she now also recognizes true love. There’s this wonderful thread happening with Helena’s emotional independence, that really kicked off last season with Jesse. She is beginning to seek love, and independence, and relative <i>normalcy</i>, in a way that allows for her own wishes and desires and feelings. And while the narrative is reminding us that Helena is capable of terrible, monstrous things, Helena’s betrayal of Sarah is the most human we’ve ever seen her.<br />
<br />
In all, the first half of season 3 sprawls far and can’t quite pull its weight into momentum. I suspect, though, that like other intricate world-heavy mysteries before it, this season of <i>Orphan Black</i> might be best devoured in one sitting, binge-style. Waiting week-to-week for each episode is a challenge, and certainly not an advantage to the plates they’ve got spinning.<br />
<br />
Even so, the characters at the core of this show remain wonderfully developed, performed, and beloved, and any stumbles or stretches are grounded by Tatiana’s performances and the dynamics in the Leda clone sisters and their allies. As this show sprawls further and plots deeper, the family story at the center is always the best investment and reward.<br />
<br />
<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS</b><br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>Art being in love with Beth is not something I didn’t want, but also not something I needed? I’m delighted to have Art in the fold but giving him a romantic reason after all this time feels a bit false. If you show us his dedication, it’s not necessary to declare his motivation.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The reveal of the Castor Clone STD is interesting and horrifying by the same token, in an extended grim horror about tampering with the clones’ reproductive systems. It also twists the story back into the realm of violation of womanhood, a theme this show handles with fire.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>The “us vs. them” philosophy is taking new meaning in this third season. The military clones are purposefully designed to be part of a whole, to the point where they are <i>branded</i> with their affiliation. They are not individuals, but simple participants. This also translates to a level of exclusivity. Dr. Coady tells Mark about Gracie: “She’s not one of us.” Meanwhile, Sarah’s acting like the boy clones’ genetic brother status means they’re doing Thanksgivings together now, and Mrs. S. is taking in more wayward kids like family-expanding is going out of style. I’d like to see this friction and shift explored more in future episodes.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I’m excited for Delphine’s return, but I’m not sure it could have as much impact as I had expected for the season. She hit the scene hard in the first episode and then disappeared, taking my dreams of a focused character breakdown with her. But maybe it’s not too late.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I’m curious if the reveal that Cal designed and sold weapons will be paid off in the second half of the season. Hopefully in a non-tragic, Kira-is-safe kind of way.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Strange feelings about Art and Mrs. S. interacting with shared concern towards Sarah??? Please play with this more, writers. (But mostly, I’m highly invested in getting Mrs. S’s groove back and patching things up with Sarah.)</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Sarah’s plea as Helena left her only served to heighten the horror and heartbreak we all felt. Though desperate and reactive, “Without me, you have nobody,” is also a bit cruel.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-24114995830628570892015-04-21T10:39:00.000-04:002015-04-21T10:40:50.926-04:00Orphan Black 3.01 - "The Weight of this Combination"Remember last season, when Project Castor was introduced, and we all had a collective stab of panic about Boy Clones stealing focus? WELP, turns out we had nothing to worry about, at least for the present moment. Yes, Boy Clones wreaked havoc through the Season 3 opener - BUT. There was only one party turning heads and snatching the spotlight, and she looked <i>good</i>.<br />
<br />
But more on that in a moment.<br />
<br />
<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 3.01 - “THE WEIGHT OF THIS COMBINATION”</b><br />
<br />
It’s clear from the first moments of “The Weight of this Combination” that we are staring down a different kind of animal than led the previous two seasons. Where the first two Orphan Black premieres share a similar tone and structure, the third kickoff burns at a different pace, with new elements at play and at stake. Where Seasons 1 and 2 both begin with a cataclysmic event that spins the world into a desperate chase, Season 3 rotates slowly on its own axis, requiring its characters to stand still and endure as they embark on a mental long game. Ruse, tension, and fear all mark the hour, instead of shock, acceleration, and pursuit. <br />
<br />
With things momentarily settled in agitation, “The Weight of this Combination” wisely invests in two different ventures: 1) wishful thinking, and 2) anticipation. We see the first immediately, through Helena’s fantasy baby shower, perhaps possible if only she weren’t boxed up by the military. It’s heart-breakingly earnest, with Helena as the glowing recipient of fond smiles and thoughtful presents. In this happy place, she can live peaceably with her Sestras, and Kira, and Brother Sestra, as she awaits the newest member of their family. No Thomas, no Henry, no DYAD. <i>Wouldn’t it be nice,</i> indeed.<br />
<br />
But alas, this ideal is impeded by an unfortunate reality, and when you go seeking heartbreak in the premiere, you find more incidents of real life splintering fantasy. The truth that Mrs. S. gave Helena to the military finds Sarah quickly, and Siobhán can do little but stand guiltily on her wartime decision while Sarah bruisingly casts her out of “her people.” To Siobhán, Sarah is choosing an extremist who tried to kill her over the woman who raised her and protected her, and it seems as though the family these two created is disintegrating as a result of the onslaught of circumstance. A happy possibility thwarted by reality.<br />
<br />
The next sighting of painful truth comes with Delphine and Cosima’s break-up. If you’re looking for one ultimate single moment of heartbreak in this episode, look no further than Cosima's devastatingly vulnerable “I love you,” a half-hearted protest that she knows is not enough. The irony of Cosima and Delphine’s love story is the fact that it’s so unlikely, in such unlikely circumstances, but this element that brought them together is also going to tear them apart. Like Mrs. S., Delphine is being pushed out of the Clone Circle, because they are not clones. They cannot truly be allies, not because they’re not clones, but because of what being a clone <i>means</i>. It’s no accident that Cosima also offers up a quiet “I love you” to Alison and Sarah, and is actually reciprocated. <br />
<br />
In these elements of insidious reality, we begin to see slow shifts and stage-settings for what might come. Anticipation laces through the hour, and is echoed in the structure of tension and suspense. The first half of the episode awaits Ferdinand, the cleaner, and the second half awaits his realization that Delphine is tricking him by imposing Sarah as Rachel and Alison as Sarah. We learn that two glimmer-eyed Boy Clones are skidding along a mission of violence and chaos, and we learn that Topside is also working on taking out the remaining Leda clones. We get a hint of some kind of rage trigger for the Castor Clones, perhaps a side effect in the same vein as Leda’s issues stemming from the eugenic infertility. And we even get a hint of a hint at Kira’s possible magical properties, perhaps linking her miraculous survival of being hit by a car in S1 with the dream retrieval of Cosima from death’s door. (Am I reaching here? Weigh in.)<br />
<br />
But perhaps the most interesting anticipation comes in the shift with Delphine. With her newly straightened hair and ambiguous morals, Delphine skyrockets onto the scene as a Major Player of Season 3. It’s swift, it’s sudden, and it’s terrifying.<br />
<br />
This change is even more drastic when I consider the fact that I personally have never felt compelled to delve into the character, simply because her existence on the show could be summed up as a well-meaning soft-heart who loves science and Cosima and is thus very bad at being a monitor and/or double agent. I actually want to take a moment to bring in one of the few things I’ve put down about Delphine, from <i>last</i> season’s premiere review:<br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i>…it bears stating that Sarah’s enemies affiliate with a tribe, whereas her allies are all individuals. It’s more apparent than ever in the “Nature Under Constraint and Vexed.” [... ] The help that Art, Paul, and Delphine provide to the clones relies on the idea that they’re betraying the organization to which they belong by acting of their own individual accord. [They] know the clones as humans, largely because they share human relationships with them. Art sees a partner, Paul and Delphine see lovers, Helena sees a sister. Like Delphine said: they’re invested. The humanity afforded the clones directly correlates with the help these people provide, which fosters the idea that they are thinking free of - and acting against - their embedded tribe.</i> </blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i><br /></i><i>Of course, OB is still playing with the idea of loyalty, particularly with Delphine and Paul. Does loyalty to Cosima mean heeding her verbalized wishes, or does it mean turning over blood samples to DYAD because they’re the ones who can save her? The cast and writers have been very clear that Delphine’s feelings for Cosima are genuine (mercifully side-stepping the evil/manipulating/doomed lesbians trope) and so what’s interesting is how Delphine processes these feelings and how that manifests in her choices. This particular decision clearly indicates that she still has some faith to her tribe, in spirit if not motive. Delphine is not being blackmailed, unlike Paul, and therefore her lingering loyalty to DYAD and Leekie speaks more of her faith in science than anything else. Ironically, this characteristic that’s “betraying” Cosima is probably also what connects her to Cosima. Even more ironically, Delphine’s approach thus far in S2 is very reminiscent of S1 Cosima: she knows she’s being played, but she still plays, through some faith in the system and her own power. She believes she can use her affiliation with DYAD as an advantage. But this is group vs. individual, and it’s difficult to be optimistic about that in this universe. It seems inevitable that Delphine’s conflation of science with a group of scientists is going to burn her this season.</i></blockquote>
<br />
Damn!!! In last season’s premiere, it seemed inevitable that Alison, Rachel, and Delphine would experience harsh breakdowns because of an inability to cope with messy entanglements. Alison and Rachel have already experienced theirs, but Delphine…? Season 3 may be her time. The shift from Being Played to Major Player is huge, and it happens quickly. How much time has passed from 2.10 to 3.01 - a week? In this time, Delphine swiftly ascends the cold throne of DYAD, straightens her hair, and assumes the role of Rachel. “We all have our part to play,” she tells Cosima, and we can safely infer that Delphine believes this is hers, and the only option for her. <br />
<br />
The fact that this realization and transformation is offscreen is a damn shame, because watching Delphine learn to inhabit the skin of Rachel Duncan would not be unlike watching Sarah Manning learn to inhabit the skin of Beth Childs, an iconic montage in the original Pilot. (Sarah’s makeover into Rachel is a half-callback, certainly welcome but not weighty. <i>You’re damn right.</i>) Delphine begins to straighten her hair, and dress differently - more structured, more crisp, more severe. But more than the look, Delphine has the walk. Who has two thumbs, speaks unlimited French, and made Rachel Duncan cry today? Au revoir, chiot.<br />
<br />
There’s another detail of note that embodies Delphine’s shift - in 2.01, she stands apart from her organization because she sees the clones as individuals. Cosima, and her sisters. However, by 3.01, as The New Rachel, she must see them all as equal. They are a group, and for the purpose of self-preservation and larger goal, Cosima can no longer be unique upon Delphine. These are their parts. It is also Delphine’s part to ask Rachel’s doctor to prioritize Leda as a project over the individuality of its components. Delphine’s perspective has forcibly shifted, from individual to group, as she steps into power in the only place it exists in this narrative - with the group.<br />
<br />
The fundamental question here is this: can Delphine sustain this level of armor? Can a woman who tripped and fell in her own feelings for a test subject really separate her heart and her reality? What is she capable of, and will it be the thing that finally breaks her - an inevitability set up one season ago? She can barely contain her sobs until Cosima retreats into Felix’s apartment, and while Cosima is certainly a soft spot, it’s still a glimmer of weakness in Delphine’s sleek facade. The holograph flickers, and we see reality underneath. And because this image is clearly adopted, it begs the final question of this shift: how will this change her? Will we lose another ideal happiness to the cold clutch of circumstance? The answer, standing at the start of the season, points drearily to <i>yes</i>. <br />
<br />
And we were worried about <i>boy clones</i>. Although. We probably <i>should</i> be worried about Boy Clones because two of them are picking people off and exercising naked, and neither of these threats can be ignored. Regardless, The New Rachel Delphine was the surprise magnet of the episode, and this transformation is poised to be a fascinating and complex time bomb throughout the season.<br />
<br />
In all, “The Weight of this Combination” keeps its hand steady as it tasks our clones with new challenges and dangers, surrounding them with fresh enemies and an ever-shifting circle of allies. Even though this premiere breaks pattern, it still holds promise, as the first gulp of a breath-held season filled with difficult choices, unavoidable circumstances, and the inevitable interplay between reality and what we <i>want</i>.<br />
<br />
STRAY OBSERVATIONS<br />
<ul>
<li>Guess Alison and Donnie are gonna take out a School Trustee this season. I really hope they just mean metaphorically. #littleHendrixThings</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>"I don't want to participate in any more Secret Shit," says Scott. "I see your point," Cosima nods. "But what about THIS Secret Shit?"</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I want to know what kind of store Bubbles is. I MUST know.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-39339903677011578012015-03-18T18:36:00.000-04:002015-03-18T18:36:49.170-04:00The Legend of Korra: Season 2 ReviewOne thing that I didn’t initially realize about <i>Avatar</i> was the scope and pace of the show - all three seasons span one overarching story, with a consistent narrative pull. Most TV shows segment their plot into individual seasons, and it seemed unexpected to spread one large plot across the whole show. Then somehow it was equally unexpected that <i>Korra</i> does quite the opposite. After finishing the S1 finale, with the villains vanquished and the protagonist embodying new powers, the question is immediate: what’s Season 2 going to be about?<br />
<br />
Well, turns out there was no possible way that anyone could have accurately predicted what was coming next. Because HOLY NARRATIVE SHIFT, BATMAN.<br />
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<b><i>THE LEGEND OF KORRA</i>, SEASON 2</b><br />
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Okay, let’s get it out in the open: Book 2 has some flaws. It’s definitely an imperfectly-executed season, that’s top-heavy in content and overstuffed with side plots that either a) aren’t unraveled with maximum interest, or b) ultimately don’t matter. This leads to a strange paradox where the whole thing is somehow both rushed and slow to pace, both thematically intricate and undercooked. This also makes it very difficult to parse, and even harder to evaluate unilaterally.<br />
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For my purposes, the shining core of the season belongs to Korra, her relationship with the spiritual world, and the mythos of the Avatar role. Korra’s spiritual development is something that was touched on in the first season, and Book 2 evolves her even further, with deliberate and organic growth. The season doesn’t start to gel until Korra is swallowed by a dark spirit and connects with the Avatar lineage, and from there, this thread is the strongest through to the finale.<br />
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What I love about Korra in Book 2 is the way the narrative handles her. She is very purposefully a flawed protagonist. The first we see her in this season, she uses the Avatar State to win a race with Tenzin’s kids. Not exactly the picture of responsibility. More than that, she’s decidedly stubborn with her parents and Tenzin, and puts her faith in the wrong guy. She’s belligerent with authority, argues endlessly with Mako, and she definitely makes some mistakes. But what’s lovely about her arc in Book 2 is the subtle transition that is best identified simply as <i>maturity</i>. I love a good growing-up arc because its hallmarks are difficult to identify, and therefore more challenging to devise and track from a writing perspective. <br />
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In doing this, <i>Korra</i> develops its main character without deploying the oft-used device of “one fatal mistake.” Yes, there is inherent tragedy in the fact that Korra has fundamentally altered the lineage of the Avatar - but there’s also the solace that she really didn’t do anything <i>wrong</i>. Some shit went down, she did her best to stop it, and even though she was ultimately successful, some bad consequences snuck through. She didn’t have a fatal flaw; she didn’t make that One Doomed Mistake; her weaknesses weren’t her undoing. In fact, the show takes time to develop her out of her weaknesses, and doesn’t rub her face in her shortcomings. The narrative teaches her by guidance, not through punishment. Korra is not humiliated or shamed; she <i>tries</i>, and she <i>learns</i>.<br />
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This is beautifully supported in the origin story of the Avatar. It would be very easy to dramatize Wan’s mistake of helping Vaatu, and to portray his subsequent responsibility as tortured penance for his errors. It would also be very easy to invent an Avatar back story where the first Avatar is blessed with powers because he is Chosen, Special, and Good. <i>Korra</i> isn’t interested in unilateral incarnations of Good and Evil in stark contrast to one another. Why else would Vaatu and Raava be intertwined? No, there is no good or evil - there is only choice. Wan made a choice with some bad information, and his eventual responsibility of power is directly correlated to this concept of human error anchored by good intention.<br />
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What’s fantastic about this decision is that it’s echoed thematically throughout the season. If you ignore everything else in Book 2 but Korra’s spirit-related storylines, this shit is <i>tight</i>. (A bit heavy, yes, but TIGHT.) The key learning point for Korra is that the spirits are neither good nor evil, but rather a reflection of the humans they interact with. “A New Spiritual Age” is the best episode of the season for me, simply because it’s such a keystone moment for Korra’s development. A surreal dreamscape painted with metaphor and parable, Korra’s journey to the spiritual world is actually a journey within, illuminating the relationship between fear, faith, and the reality you manifest from inside yourself.<br />
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That your world is colored by your own perspective brings to light another of Book 2’s strongest storylines - the explored dynamic of Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi. Like with the origins of the Avatar, it would be all too simple to portray Aang as an amazing hero, person, and father. The Aang-and-Katara family is in prime position for fawning and glory, given their roles in <i>Avatar</i> (and also that they’re awesome). But <i>Korra</i> once again doesn’t dally with flat dynamics where it counts - Aang’s family is not perfect, and many of the issues stem from his role in it. <br />
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It is so refreshing to see a protagonist and all-around narrative hero portrayed critically and dimensionally, without judgment. I loved watching the push-and-pull between Tenzin, Kya, and Bumi, and each new way that their issues surfaced. <i>Of course</i>, Bumi’s experience is unique because he isn’t a bender. <i>Of course</i>, Tenzin’s experience is unique because he carries the airbending tradition. <i>Of course</i>, Kya’s experience is unique because she played a strong caretaking role, especially with Katara. And I love that Katara isn’t used as a wizened motherly figure to step in and sort all this out. She sits back and lets it play out, which is maybe bad, maybe good - but definitely real, and imperfect.<br />
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Tenzin’s spiritual storyline is also strong, and full of refreshing choices that reflect <i>Korra’s</i> commitment to dimensional and thematic storytelling. First, it’s a lovely choice to give Korra’s spirit guide role to Jinora, not the traditional spiritual mentor. Then we learn that Tenzin’s never actually been able to visit the Spirit World, which is another fantastic choice. The resolution comes with Tenzin in the Fog of Lost Souls, fittingly, where he reconnects with his true identity and sheds the self-imposed burden of his father’s legacy. <br />
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Were this not already an excellent convergence of theme and metaphor, its effect extends from Tenzin to Korra, when Korra rises to the occasion even after the spirit of Raava is pulled from her. As Tenzin is not Aang, a powerful good who came before him, Korra is not Raava either. Their worth is not wrapped up in the legacy of Good, because good versus evil is a complicated concept. Good versus evil only exists because people make decisions to look for the light, or only see dark. People with good intentions make mistakes, people with misguided ideas try to apply them to everyone, and everyone struggles with a false perspective that limits their light - their true selves.<br />
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So, that’s the good stuff - and oh, is it amazing-level good stuff. It handles archetypal ideas with such light and shade, and grounds its mythos in theme and character. But chances are if you are not Korra, a blood relative of Aang, or directly tied to the myth arc of the Spirit World, then your part in Book 2 was some iteration of well-intentioned mess, theoretically awesome but effectively underwhelming by comparison. A brief run-through:<br />
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Issue 1. The social politics of Northern and Southern Water Tribes are ultimately lost on the season. It <i>should</i> be interesting, but the story affords very little time to understanding the cultural context for each place, and altogether it’s not enough to resonate. It is not promising when you have a Civil War in the first act of your season that peters out in relevance halfway through. What works really well about the social politics is the idea that the Northern condemnation of the Southerners having abandoned their connection to the spirits, but unfortunately this barely even serves as relevant backdrop.<br />
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Issue 2. Connecting Korra to the conflict through her family didn’t work for the same reasons - why do we care about her parents? It’s unfortunate, but there’s no <i>time</i> to care. Ma and Pa Korra are standard parents without any defining qualities, and their presence feels flat and unnecessary. To boot, staging another brother-vs-brother waterbender conflict seemed a bit thin, especially when the Big Bad is the protagonist’s uncle. Could be interesting, yes, but it wasn’t made unique or individually developed in the narrative. Unalaq and Tonraq’s conflict didn’t connect to Korra in any meaningful way except the baseline that they’re family - but this choice never has any life breathed into it.<br />
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Issue 3. Varrick is another example of a potentially-interesting political and social thread. He is a delightful deployment of chaotic capitalism, funding both Team Avatar and the Southern Water Tribe to instigate the capital’s involvement in the Civil War. His use of propaganda is another interesting facet on the season’s brief exploration of the powerful mindlessness of public entertainment - but there’s not enough commentary there. The narrative spends too much time trying to create mystery about him being Good or Evil when it just doesn’t matter. Isn’t it more interesting if we know all along that Varrick serves his own needs, for better or for worse? Isn’t it more interesting to posit a flawed and narcissistic force technically acting for Good? And isn’t a runaround detective plot revealing that Varrick might be a Bad Guy counterintuitive to some of the main themes of the season?<br />
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Issue 4. This same need for “mystery” plagues Unalaq’s villainy storyline as well, primarily in the beginning of the season. It’s painfully obvious, given Korra’s stubborn rebuke of Tenzin and Tonraq, that the Avatar is making a Huge Mistake with her alliances. The audience is screechingly aware that Unalaq is not going to have good intentions. So why not lean into that and show us some of his scheming? With both Varrick and Unalaq, it would have been better to not waste time with intrigue and skip straight to dramatic irony. Show us their maligned plans so that we can feel fear for what Team Avatar doesn’t yet know and what possibly might befall them.<br />
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Issue 5. Another bad side effect of “concealing” Varrick’s alliances is the fact that Mako chases a remote for four episodes. Mako as a hardboiled detective is a mostly useless story thread, because it’s tied to many things that narratively don’t weigh enough - the Civil War, Varrick’s evil plans, Asami losing her business. The sting episode is completely pointless, as it not only tangles dramatically with plot threads that don’t matter, but it also hints at Mako’s past gang affiliation without actually acting on it. Most importantly, it affords us only the briefest glimpses of Lin Beifong in Season 2, so what’s the point? <br />
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Issue 6. This leads me to the last issue - the season does its best to incorporate supporting characters, but the execution just isn’t there. Bolin’s character takes a turn for the south with his stint as a self-important actor/lovesick boyfriend. Asami is barely relevant, showing up when it’s time to pilot something or cause romantic tension. Lin Beifong’s shining moment is swinging the president to safety, which is awesome, but otherwise she is a mere accessory to the season. And it’s definitely a challenge - I don’t know that there would be an organic way to push Korra forth on her spiritual journey and effectively include the rest of Team Avatar, given the overarching themes of the season. That being said, it was especially disappointing to see the reduced screentime for Asami and Beifong, considering the strong moments afforded them in Book 1.<br />
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Ultimately, though, this season went <i>hard</i> and did a massive amount of storytelling. It set out to change the show’s universe as we understood it - and it achieved that. It created real stakes for Korra and Tenzin, and let them experience failure and undoable consequences. Once again, I’m left at the end of the season wondering how exactly the show will spin this world anew. We move forward into the unknown, choices made, Avatar lineage severed, and the worlds connected to bring spirits and humans together again. Even with the issues of execution, <i>Korra</i> Book 2 puts forth a damn impressive display of character, theme, and storytelling - all in pursuit of a massive narrative shift that fundamentally alters its main character and the world around, and within her.DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-72384721973582481002015-02-19T12:27:00.001-05:002015-02-19T12:27:18.190-05:00The Legend of Korra: Season 1 ReviewRecently, I started watching <i>The Legend of Korra.</i><br />
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And I love it.<br />
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So, in the interest of writing about things I love - I’m endeavoring to jot down some of my ideas as I watch. At first, I planned on a casual liveblog, as a new format that encourages brevity and faster updates… but then I consumed the entire first season way too quickly to give any kind of play-by-play.<br />
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The good news is that I’ve pressed pause between Seasons 1 and 2 so that I’m able to write a season review! Half live-blog, half-analysis, I intend on it being a bundle of my thoughts and feelings in season-long batches. Those of you who have seen the whole show can point and laugh at all the things I don’t know yet, and all the emotions that haven’t yet destroyed me. (I do know the final shot though. I don’t live under a rock.)<br />
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<b><i>THE LEGEND OF KORRA</i> - SEASON 1</b><br />
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A dear friend of mine introduced me to <i>Avatar: The Last Airbender</i> maybe four years ago, and I’m embarrassed to say it took me a stupid amount of time to get through the show. (Three of those four years, basically. I told you it was embarrassing.) For some reason, I needed time to adjust to the world, and my fondness for the characters was a slow build - almost as slow as me getting around to watching each next episode. But eventually, something hooked, and I started snowballing. I’m happy to say that, in the end, I love the show dearly. It does very lovely things with its characters and themes, and there’s so much heart and humor at its core.<br />
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I tell you about my experience with <i>Avatar</i> not because it’s particularly interesting, but because it’s necessary. At first <i>Avatar </i>was presented to me on the mere premise of<i> I think you will like this show</i>, but then <i>Korra</i> premiered, and the recommendation leveled up to <i>you must watch this show because Korra is waiting for you</i>. And after just one season of <i>Korra</i>, I can say that this is true. <i>Korra </i>feels like a heart-and-soul show for me, but I can’t imagine loving it as much without the foundation that <i>Avatar</i> built.<br />
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This is absolutely part of the show’s construction, though. <i>Korra</i> picks up 60 years after <i>Avatar</i> left off, giving itself perfect opportunities to cash in on the immediate questions the scenario entails. What happened to each of our kids? Where are Katara, and Sokka, and Zuko, and Toph? What kinds of lives did they lead? What kind of world did they help create? How do the events of <i>Korra</i> relate to the events of <i>Avatar</i>? Katara shows up in the first five minutes, as if to say, “Don’t worry, friends. You’re home.” Then we meet Tenzin, and Lin, and eventually Iroh, and we have connections to the old world that immediately draw us in and make us want to learn more. The mere premise of the show invites devotion, and as it marches on, the showrunners employ this emotional engagement with panache.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Have I mentioned I love the art of this show?</td></tr>
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But it’s not like <i>Korra</i> relies solely on its history without creating anything of its own. The show wastes no time expanding its world in one swift motion - and oh, what a world it is. Republic City is brand-new and bustling, gleaming with art deco extravagance and looming threats of danger to come. (I love the STYLE of this show. It’s so unique and dynamic and textured.) There’s organized sports, organized crime, social unrest, and a well-orchestrated police force - all introduced and made breathing within the first two episodes. <i>Korra</i> takes its pre-existing world and isn’t lazy with it; rather bursting it forward with its own life and unique conflict.<br />
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With this distinct world comes distinct differences, mixing uniquely with distinct characterizations. The role of the Avatar in <i>Korra</i> is not the same as the role Aang played. Aang, as a hero, functioned in the narrative as an “only hope,” with extinction behind him and a long path to rebuilding a world of promise. This is a classic hero’s journey - he is chosen, to vanquish an evil and restore balance to a burning world. But by contrast, Aang’s emotional journey isn’t as archetypal. As any hero, he has to overcome internal obstacles, but unlike most heroes, these fears are connected largely to guilt and grief.<br />
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Korra, on the other hand, is inverse. She is not chosen in the embers of a once-great civilization - she inherits a vibrant world that may still be too new to stand strong. She is burdened not with building, but with maintaining, and where Aang was tasked with staying hidden, Korra must exist in the spotlight. The Avatar is a public position, and she is in full view of an entire civilization, with its own political strife, criminal robber barons, and social division. Her mistakes are on display for all to judge, next to the expectation of her status and the yet-developed mastery of her skill.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Korra smash! Korra has archetypal Hero weaknesses!</td></tr>
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What makes this even more interesting is that Korra is the one with the classic hero’s flaws - her emotional obstacles align more closely to archetype. She is impatient; she has a temper; she struggles to connect with the spiritual world. She is fearful of her mortality, headstrong - maybe even a little arrogant - and she occasionally rebels against the teachings. This is the Young Hero as we know him - which is why Korra is even more unique; this is the Young Hero as we know <i>her</i>. Plug that into her context of maintaining a civilization instead of building one and we’ve got ourselves a fresh and dimensional take on the typical tropes we’ve seen before.<br />
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Between Korra’s role in a fully-developed new world, and the conflicts created by the Equalist movement (Amon), the government (Tarrlok), and the corporation (Hiroshi Sato) -- <i>Korra </i>excels at dimensionality right out of the gate. What’s frustrating, then, is the one part of the show that is disappointingly flat: the love triangle.<br />
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Love triangles are tropy, risky business. They are often sexist, boring, trite, and oversimplified. Rarely are triangles a worthwhile endeavor, purely because there’s little to do: Character A likes Character B! Character B likes Character C! Character B is confused! Character A’s feelings are hurt! Character C feels awkward! Character A doesn’t <i>hate</i> Character C, but maybe a little bit! There’s no easy resolution, and yet that doesn’t necessarily propagate compelling drama along the way. Triangles are best when no one’s a bad guy, everyone’s developed, and all the relationships are earned. (Bonus points if the relationships connect thematically to the narrative. But not too much. They’re supposed to be people, not ideas.)<br />
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The love triangle on<i> Korra</i> is not ship-shape (no pun intended) with this criteria, frankly. Yes, no one’s really a bad guy. Two-thirds of the characters are developed. But… none of the relationships are earned.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Asami knows a bad triangle when she sees one.</td></tr>
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Let’s start with Asami and Mako. They just seem to be paired off because they had a nice meet-cute and two hot people start dating, right? Especially if it will anger the main character. (Sucks to be you, Character A!) They have a mildly charming date, sure. They seem to like each other, sure. But nothing’s really <i>constructed</i> for them. They’re just… there.<br />
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But hold your sky bison: Mako-and-Korra is equally left-field-adjacent. Mako’s original brooding-grumpy-guy facade fades into… generic attractive talented guy? Korra’s a catch because she’s… the Avatar? There’s not <i>enough </i>to support the relationship. There’s not even a moment where Mako makes a choice to help Korra fight the Equalists. At first he needs to save his brother. Then, after that, he just… does.<br />
<br />
So both suggested sides of this triangle suffer from a complete lack of deservedness, and during most triangle-related scenes, I found myself chanting “you haven’t earned this” at my screen. Thankfully, I know how this all ends, so my patience wears a little stronger than it would otherwise. (The anticipation also helps.)<br />
<br />
There’s the fact too that Mako hasn’t quite earned his place as the Romantic Lead and Alpha Male that the show has tried to bequeath him. This wouldn’t be so bad, except he’s the hinge Character B, which frankly is the load-bearing element of a Love Triangle. Character B has to be well-developed and sturdy. We need POV, we need motivation, we need backstory, we need empathy. With Mako? We have little. He has the typical orphan origin story, but the show didn’t find any reason to give us more information. He makes no real choices that define his character, and the only time he’s shown any exceptional pluck was fighting off blood bending to save Korra’s life. (In episode 12 of 12. We waited awhile.)<br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY8ZxFE73Dx2w77kiB2HWN5hX6b9HMy-O8uka0owEFRtuy-QCkGo7Bejin2Skn_KGg4dJzW5CVgUkNXs1pDixzmJgtNVGZaLlf05qxQhpQYAIedL4RIVdXQZN6ZwhijBNOIxtldNRZQP3z/s1600/samekorra.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgY8ZxFE73Dx2w77kiB2HWN5hX6b9HMy-O8uka0owEFRtuy-QCkGo7Bejin2Skn_KGg4dJzW5CVgUkNXs1pDixzmJgtNVGZaLlf05qxQhpQYAIedL4RIVdXQZN6ZwhijBNOIxtldNRZQP3z/s1600/samekorra.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Same, guys. Same.</td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Meanwhile, supporting characters are far outshining. Namely, Asami Sato, daughter of the city’s richest businessman. The city's richest businessman who also happens to be funding the bad guys, and a super terrible dad to boot. When Asami forsakes her relationship with her father and chooses instead to fight directly against him - well, this kind of choice skyrockets her one step down from Main Character status, impeded from full target mostly because the show is called <i>The Legend of Korra</i>, not <i>The Legend of Asami.</i> She defies stereotype, is sharply-defined, and makes a Big Choice. And, awkwardly, she’s the other leg of this triangle. Character B, our load-bearing character, is officially the weakest.<br />
<br />
But even despite the flaws of the triangle, Season 1 deploys a well-developed, richly-detailed, and emotionally-resonant batch of episodes. It has a strong point of view, fleshed-out characters, and the same brand of heart and humor that its predecessor embodied. Both connected to its past but rumbling towards its future, <i>The Legend of Korra</i> stands on its own as a series, with a fantastic Hero at its center. I’m endlessly curious about where things will go from here.<br />
<br />
So, if you’ll excuse me, I have more episodes to watch. But first, a Season 1 Round-up:<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li><b>FAVORITE CHARACTER</b></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
To quote several text messages that I sent during the course of my viewing: LIN BEIFONG IS MY EVERYTHING. Set up as both curmudgeonly and heroic, Lin is a badass pillar of noble stoicism and justice. She steps down from Chief of Police not because of injury or shame, but because she needs to pursue her enemies without the restrictions of her position. DAMN, WOMAN. And even though she gruffly dismisses Korra and keeps Tenzin’s family at arm’s length, she ultimately throws herself headfirst into danger to protect them. What a lady. </blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>FAVORITE DYNAMIC</b></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For a serious answer, probably Tenzin and Korra, or Lin and Tenzin. But I’m not saying I wouldn’t watch a show where Asami drives around the city while Bolin creates ramps for her to speed off of.</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>FAVORITE MOMENT</b></li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
Moments of choice will always be one of the most powerful tools that you can include in a narrative, and the biggest choice in Book One goes to Asami. That beautiful airless moment where she seems to accept her father’s offer to join the Equalists - only to refuse, and turn his electrified glove back on him. DAMN, WOMAN. This moment tells us everything we need to know about Asami, and jettisons the character into a new realm. Someone give this lady more scenes. The emotional content is too good to be left alone.</blockquote>
<ul>
<li><b>FAVORITE SCENE</b> (Look, I’m cheating. So sue me.)</li>
</ul>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
What I love so much about the final scene is the message communicated about the role of the hero in this narrative. So often, heroes, as Chosen Ones, experience a burden of isolation. From Buffy to Harry Potter, a destiny of greatness has long signified emotional alienation and disconnection. No matter the Rons or Willows, Gileses or Dumbledores - the Hero is the Chosen <i>One</i>. When the chips are down, he or she walks alone.</blockquote>
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
For the Avatar, however, deep personal challenge results in spiritual connection. When Korra is faced with her Dark Night of the Soul, she doesn’t have to be alone to weather the tumult. Instead, she has the full lineage of Avatar history at her spiritual disposal. When she is in the crucible, so are they, and our Hero is not truly alone. She is connected to power through solidarity, not isolated in her power from normalcy. What a comforting expression to impart to the audience; what a thing to show young people about enduring pain and finding strength.</blockquote>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-7375861937600646222015-01-27T14:57:00.000-05:002015-01-27T15:02:18.752-05:00Orphan Black 2.10 - "By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried"FINALE FINALE FINALE FINALE. Why bother with any preamble?<br />
<br />
<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 2.10 - “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried”</b><br />
<br />
It makes sense, in a show that is constantly shifting the ground on which the characters stand, that a season finale reorients everything. “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried” fulfills that disorder, picking up the show and setting it back down in a new landscape, calling both its characters and its audience to reevaluate what we think we know and challenging us to hold on as we tumble further through the looking glass.<br />
<br />
The finale is also full of choices for its characters, which for any story inherently engenders an intriguing narrative pull, but of course, this is <i>Orphan Black</i>. This show has been very calculated in who is shown to have decisions. Decisions are power, after all, and the power on this show has been squarely in the hands of patriarchal organizations - corporations like DYAD, religious groups like the Proletheans, government organizations like the military. <br />
<br />
In positioning its female leads opposite these oppressive agencies, <i> Orphan Black</i> has delineated a clear feminist message, giving screentime and visibility to women whose power, personhood, and access to choice are all under threat. The point of the show has been to point the camera at women under watch, under knife, under pressure - and watch them struggle to make decisions denied to them.<br />
<br />
But “By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried” finds us in a brave new world. We are on shifted ground, because suddenly we realize that the familiar bastions of power have fallen away. Gone is Leekie, gone is Henry, gone are Tomas and Daniel and Olivier and even the concept of oppressive monitors. <br />
<br />
What’s left are the playmakers, and the playmakers? Are all ladies. We have Sarah, Cosima, Rachel, Mrs. S, and Marian Fucking Bowles, each taking decisive action in the finale, grabbing a toehold and making choices that spin the world in new directions. Not only this, but the men in the narrative exist basically as extensions to these decisions. Cal returns, not to kick down any doors, but to offer up his hacker knowledge on the altar of Mrs. S.’s badass direction. He and Paul both act as liaision between Mrs. S. and Marian Bowles, twin beefcakes serving secondary to juxtaposed warrior mom-babes. Art and Felix take a backseat so they can help Sarah handle Helena’s return. Ethan Duncan and Scott give their time and knowledge to Cosima’s service and Sarah’s aid, and Jesse exists simply as a fair prince for our heroine to quest to.<br />
<br />
In short: the menfolk carry out the intentions of the take-charge ladies and don’t utter a peep of protest. And not only that, but their roles are defined by passivity and communication, things that are traditionally prescribed to narratively-sidelined females. Cal and Paul trade in information, peacekeeping, and negotiation; Art and Felix basically babysit; Ethan and Scott simply facilitiate. And Jesse’s in a goddamned tower waiting for true love’s kiss. These are the definitions of female-bound narrative function, and in the <i>Orphan Black</i> universe, they are purposefully doled out to the gentlemen without question or argument.<br />
<br />
So the topic of gender on this show spins anew, at a slightly different angle. The remnants of the patriarchies we knew are being run by Rachel Duncan and Marian Bowles, and the surviving members of the Proletheans are Gracie and Mark. Finally, for the moment, the women are running the narrative as well as the show - is that permanent? Does this twist in nurture change the fundamental nature of this show? And, beyond that, how is the big reveal going to work?<br />
<br />
Because yes, it’s even more interesting, then, that this same episode introduces the concept of Project Castor. Turns out that there’s not just the batch of female clones, the group of Tatiana Maslanies running ‘round, but there’s also a batch of <i>male</i> clones. They are property of the military, and for one brief millisecond, everyone’s blood ran cold at the possibility of <i>more Pauls</i>. But it’s a small army of Ari Millens, and regardless of the actor, it blows this universe wide open.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_V5nP22a61x4qPp4bOySalxRMBncEpT0-4-Yindr1mX9mOwddRrWher5Dk13lh9gLYAo_ktg9qTl_D4u6-RSuOhfnErCjXd1hDcb6H1dRsnsgy4ZKNFmNJnIiTjzhu_cCKlcBvErS8qi/s1600/OB210.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh2_V5nP22a61x4qPp4bOySalxRMBncEpT0-4-Yindr1mX9mOwddRrWher5Dk13lh9gLYAo_ktg9qTl_D4u6-RSuOhfnErCjXd1hDcb6H1dRsnsgy4ZKNFmNJnIiTjzhu_cCKlcBvErS8qi/s1600/OB210.png" /></a></div>
<br />
<br />
Ground shifted again, and <i>Orphan Black</i> challenges us to stay in the spiral. And that’s the question - is the audience willing to follow a herd of Ari Millens in the same way we have the pack of Tatiana Maslanies? Will we care about Castor as we’ve cared about Leda? Will characters like Alison and Art remain relevant as the universe tilts anew? And will it fundamentally change the show if we extend the narrative of cloning to <i>men,</i> considering the effort made to illuminate the power imbalances of gender, the claims made on women’s bodies, and the concerted fight for agency in a world that denies it?<br />
<br />
Obviously, I have no answer for these questions. The fact remains, though, that this is, at the very least, <i>interesting.</i> Men harvested by the military is, after all, another facet of feminism, the prescription of strength and aggression sacrificed to emotionally-detached hegemony. Using women’s bodies as vessels for reproduction is not a far cry from using men’s bodies to serve state-appropriated violence. Masculinity and femininity are two sides of the same coin, and they remain interrelated, no matter the “men’s right’s activists” trying to divorce them. These concepts prescribe limiting standards based on preconceived values of behavior, and taken to this conclusion, deprive the participants of identity, agency, and individuality. Sound familiar?<br />
<br />
In shouldering Project Castor, <i>Orphan Black</i> is reshaping and reiterating their conversation about nature, nurture, gender, identity, and order - especially as an extension of systems vs. the individual. The military is the least-explored of the systems that <i>Orphan Black</i> has introduced, so it seems like a natural - and potent - progression of focus. Provided that the show continues with its modus operandi (and all their Latin episode titles), I’m guessing that the chaos of life and deviation will tear through the rigid demands and shape something new, much like Sarah, and Cosima, and Tony, and Helena, and the entirety of Project Leda. The thematic concept embodied in these women doesn’t just vanish with a batch of boy clones.<br />
<br />
So, that’s the season, eh? The world we’d learned in Season 1 continually expanded throughout these ten episodes, and blew wide open at the end. Because of this, I’d say that Season 2 wasn’t quite as tightly paced as Season 1, and the writing was burdened with the challenge of including everyone in the multiplying narrative threads. It was no small feat, and overall, I think it was successful. But moving forward, with a new sprawl of concepts, I’m definitely curious about how both the characters and pace will balance with it. April can’t come fast enough.<br />
<br />
STRAY OBSERVATIONS<br />
<br />
<ul>
<li>This episode does some excellent editing work, particularly with sequences. There are two main sequences that thread together several disparate ideas, to help keep the pace up. The opening sequence with Sarah’s interrogation and her reaction to Kira’s abduction is a tour de force of acting and tension, and the sequence of Cosima and Kira winning science works well as a swift setup to build the climax. There’s also the final mini-sequence, revealing the subject of Project Castor over hallowed organ music - a tonally delicious cap.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I wish very dearly that we got to see the moments <i>after</i> Duncan took his own life. It’s horrific to imagine a man you know as father committing suicide right in front of you, and this hooks fascinatingly into Rachel’s complicated relationship with Ethan Duncan. In the moment of panic, Rachel shrieked, “You cannot leave me again,” in a heart-wrenching outburst of childlike neediness and fear. I would have loved to see the aftermath of this, that moment <i>after,</i> of grief and horror and stillness. Instead, the writers just use the moment for shock, as it serves as an Act Out.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Who else experienced severe heart palpitations at JUST HOW LONG it took for Cosima to wake up in the morning? Not cool, <i>Orphan Black</i>. NOT COOL.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Cosima and Sarah end their season arc with a bed scene, of all things! All kidding aside - I loved the shift that these two took towards each other this season. Cosima’s life was suddenly on the line next to Kira’s, and the friction of what Sarah and Cosima, individually, were willing to sacrifice to ensure Cosima’s wellbeing has been a lovely way to etch their relationship. This season saw Sarah fighting to save Cosima’s life, and the finale saw Cosima fighting to save Sarah’s.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Clone dance party? Now they’re just showing off.</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-37897354807152636562014-11-19T11:03:00.000-05:002014-11-19T11:11:34.708-05:00Orphan Black 2.09 - "Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done"So hey, this is the penultimate episode of <i>Orphan Black</i>’s second season, which means that a lot of loose ends get tied up, and new events push the storyline forward into the finale. Alison and Donnie bury the hatchet (and the body), Cosima buys more time with Kira’s bone marrow, and Helena burns down the whole damn Prolethean complex to return to her sisters. Most everyone is out of the woods by episodes’ end - except, of course, Kira, and by extension, Sarah. This is the natural order of the show, echoing last season’s finale, and we hope this is going to drag everyone back into the woods - the natural order of the show. After all, this season has marched steadily from EVERY CLONE FOR HERSELF, back towards CLONE SISTERS.<br />
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<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<br /></div>
<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 2.09 - “THINGS WHICH HAVE NEVER YET BEEN DONE”</b><br />
<div>
<b><br /></b></div>
Truthfully, the two most interesting clone sisters this episode were the two that have never interacted - Rachel, and Helena. But despite having never met face-to-face, <i>Orphan Black</i> actually interacts them quite a bit - thematically. Rachel and Helena are both products of their contexts, bequeathed entitlement through their affiliations with corporation and religion, respectfully. They stand on opposite sides of Sarah, given inverse relationships with control and chaos, but the same relationship with power. They dye their hair blonde to differentiate themselves, to assert their own identity - which is ironic, considering that their identity is not derived from themselves, but through their alliances. They feel power because of their belonging - to DYAD, to the Proletheans - and the narrative of <i>Orphan Black</i> has been slowly tugging the rug that these two stand on. As an audience, we watch them reorient themselves, and wait for the big yank.<br />
<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCgu6z0oeJpkqSVc6bcuW3yNAjql4HjrAs5cDpwjyrhftDOZSE0Im7rddjfUzAfCFeIgbiLrcZLU5Ct0bGU1qH4_a5X22zCQikiIwijfoDIGqFaITimn7Ra6Fx7hjiNygRkycwgYI9nzA/s1600/ob209.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEglCgu6z0oeJpkqSVc6bcuW3yNAjql4HjrAs5cDpwjyrhftDOZSE0Im7rddjfUzAfCFeIgbiLrcZLU5Ct0bGU1qH4_a5X22zCQikiIwijfoDIGqFaITimn7Ra6Fx7hjiNygRkycwgYI9nzA/s1600/ob209.png" /></a></div>
<br />
“Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done” puts Helena and Rachel forward in the narrative, and through this, lets them demonstrate their similarities and differences. The episode does this mainly by letting us watch their relationship with a) their institution, and b) children. We witness Helena begin her willing reintroduction to life with the Proletheans, an off-shoot of the context she was raised in, and we are shown Rachel completely ensconced in DYAD. And within those respective walls, we see Helena interact with a child not too different from herself, and we see Rachel interact with Kira, and the opportunity to raise Kira through DYAD. Basically: both women are faced with children that might echo the life she herself lived, raised in the snug empowerment of a stringent affiliation.<br />
<br />
But in their reactions to the same basic stimulus, the differences between Helena and Rachel are illuminated, in the synthesis of chaos and control - we see the ability for these characters to <i>change</i>. Helena connects with Faith (an ironically-named little girl) because Faith echoes to Helena her own self. They zero in on each other, equally fascinated. And when Faith is chastised by Alexis much like Helena was chastised by a nun in Ukraine, Helena protects Faith. She steps between Faith and the life Helena got, and acts as an agent of change. It’s echoed again with Grace - Helena puts herself between Gracie and the life her father’s forcing her into, and protects her from it. And it ends with the ultimate change agent: fire. Helena levels the whole compound, wildly burning it to ash for a better rebirth.<br />
<br />
But where Helena destroys pain by fire, Rachel preserves it in ice. In the throes of her original context, Rachel has a similar opportunity as Helena. She’s kidnapped Kira to harvest a cure, yet she still puts her up in a pretty bedroom that’s decorated very carefully to be a home for a little girl. She sits with Kira, waits for her to wake, and greets her warmly. (Or as warmly as Rachel greets anyone. Kira probably still felt a chill cascade over her.) And the icing on the cake: she tells Kira, “You may even grow to like it here, just as I did.” Here Rachel is, facing a child who might walk down the same path she did, and she says, “YEAH I KNOW IT SUCKED TOO BUT I LEARNED TO LIKE IT AND SO WILL YOU.”<br />
<br />
So where Helena is an agent of protection, Rachel is an agent of perpetuation. Helena, who was tortured, brainwashed, and caged, is capable of change. Change is chaotic, and Helena thrives there. Rachel, however, is not capable of change, because it can’t be controlled. It is predicated on letting go, and Rachel is fundamentally incapable - and unwilling. All season long, I’ve been waiting for some crack in Rachel’s exterior - to watch the hard shell split away and let all of Rachel’s issues come roaring out. And yet, when this happened, it still felt dissatisfying to me. Rachel reset right back to zero and pretended she didn’t just have a screaming fit where she broke things and threw plants. <br />
<br />
It’s frustrating, and yet at the same time, this episode provided the saddest justification for that: unlike Helena, maybe Rachel is not capable of change. And what else would make that difference but her sisters? Helena can be an agent of change because she herself was changed - by Sarah. She jailbreaks out of Prolethean Land because she belongs somewhere else, with her sestra. She is no longer trapped by her context, because someone gave her a new place to belong. Rachel doesn’t have that. Not unlike Dr. Frankenstein’s creation (thanks for the thematic assist, Henry), Rachel is a monster because (cheese alert) she wasn’t shown love.<br />
<br />
Or wasn’t she? That somewhat thin conclusion doesn’t stop there, because <i>Orphan Black</i> has developed something deeper and more complicated for Rachel. We have actual home videos that indicate Rachel was shown love in her life. Not only have we seen these home videos, but Rachel <i>traps</i> herself with them. She locks herself in a glass room with a martini and watches her own happiness, and tells herself it was all a lie. Rachel was shown love, but she rejects that it could be real. Helena may have tortured herself with a blade, but Rachel tortures herself with memories, and feelings she won’t allow herself to feel. So like the home videos she watches, she’s stuck in a loop of self-torment until she implodes. Then, she carefully reconstructs her facade, and the whole process is nothing short of fascinating and horrific.<br />
<br />
I used to wonder how Helena could ever survive in this narrative. How could she truly live in this world, all teeth and violence and remorse? But <i>Orphan Black</i> has successfully resurrected the character for Season 2, and given her a believable chance at change and belonging. Now, I find myself wondering if <i>Rachel</i> can survive this narrative. “Things Which Have Never Yet Been Done” shows that she is similarly-derived as Helena, but suffers fundamental differences in how she moves through her own life, and what she allows herself to feel and do. Can the writers feasibly keep her as a villain, in a time loop of tragedy and outburst? Can they develop her, and let her change? Or is Rachel the Javert to Sarah’s Valjean, doomed to pursue her endlessly, until she decides to step over the edge of her ivory tower?<br />
<br />
<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS -</b><br />
<ul>
<li>Rachel/Marian interactions are deliciously loaded. I like extending the idea of Leekie as surrogate father to the idea that Marian is Rachel’s surrogate mother, and their interaction was delightfully laced with a daughter’s false respect and a mother’s polite disappointment. I practically screeched at Marian’s backhanded insult to Rachel about Sarah. She may as well have said, “Why can’t you be more like Sarah, Rachel? You’re genetically identical, and yet Sarah’s pretty much outsmarting at every turn.”</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>I also dearly enjoyed Marian asking if Rachel, too, was intrigued by Sarah. “BIOLOGICALLY,” Rachel replies with a barely-suppressed eyeroll. “I MEAN I GUESS SHE’S COOL IN LIKE A GENETIC WAY LIKE IF YOU WANT TO LOOK AT HER SCIENTIFICALLY BUT MOSTLY I THINK HER LEATHER JACKET IS DUMB AND HER ACCENT IS STUPID AND I’M NOT INTERESTED IN HER UTERUS AT ALL SO I DON’T KNOW WHY YOU WOULD ASK, <i>MOTHER</i>.” Then she goes back to reading Tiger Beat, and muttering under her breath how <i>embarrassing</i> her mom is.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Kudos to Orphan Black for giving Kira the decision about her bone marrow donation, and double kudos for letting Mrs. S. be the one who points it out. On a show about choice, and agency over women’s bodies, it’s nice to see it echoed down into plot decisions and applied to young girls. Kira’s body, Kira’s choice. They gave her all the information going in, they didn’t sugarcoat it, and Kira was courageous and made her own choice. Sure, this was a plot thing that had to move forward anyways, but it was still nice to see it pushed there by Kira’s own decision.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>Did Rachel really say that Delphine makes a good interim director because she’s <i>telegenic</i>? I won’t lie; I looked that word up to see if it had a scientific definition - telomeres? genes? science things I vaguely remember from high school? But NOPE, it literally just means, “Delphine looks good on TV.” “Well… <i>yeah,</i>” says all of the audience like this isn’t news at all.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>“I’M NOT AS PERFECTLY COMFORTABLE WITH MANSLAUGHTER AS YOU ARE.”</li>
</ul>
DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-69272535374877944222014-11-05T11:12:00.000-05:002016-06-23T14:11:22.562-04:00Orphan Black 2.08 - "Variable and Full of Perturbation"Hello, universe. Remember when I wrote <i>Orphan Black</i> reviews? Yeah, me neither. And if it turns out that I barely remember <i>Orphan Black</i> itself, just leave me a little comment to nudge me towards accurate information. Additionally, since this is the episode with Tony, please let me know if I inadvertently demonstrate ignorance towards his trans identity, or the trans community. I will absolutely make corrections.<br />
<br />
So let’s do this, shall we? It’s only five months later!<br />
<br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiykuPyKjj7QLLNrteWoCXbMXtgfWGBJNjcp_RGCzdPKEykhyuC70k7WubbzHi3oSY5Wl4Wvj8jmptLi5LzlRXRQOEncdjb-cHtDhE-gJ1b38Rrfjcm7vgGorzza36xnRI4SICOuiEwE5O/s1600/ob208.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjiykuPyKjj7QLLNrteWoCXbMXtgfWGBJNjcp_RGCzdPKEykhyuC70k7WubbzHi3oSY5Wl4Wvj8jmptLi5LzlRXRQOEncdjb-cHtDhE-gJ1b38Rrfjcm7vgGorzza36xnRI4SICOuiEwE5O/s1600/ob208.png" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i>Hey guys, remember us?</i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 2.08 - "VARIABLE AND FULL OF PERTURBATION"</b><br />
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<i>Variable, and full of perturbation</i>. There’s a fairly linear connection between this phrase, and Tony himself. After seventeen episodes of dealing with the Clone Club identified as women, the showrunners now give us Tony, from the same batch of clones -- Tony, who identifies as a man. That’s a pretty significant variance, given our understanding of the words “genetically identical.” <br />
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Clearly, the writers have introduced Tony to do exactly that: raise questions about what it means to be genetically identical, and the biology of gender identity and expression. They’ve wheeled out a substantial topic to parse, and yet they concurrently do something kind of wonderful: they don’t <i>try</i> to. No one says, “Hey, how can this be?” They only say, “Oh, I guess this can be, then.” Which is lovely, because that means that Tony’s identity, itself, is never called into question. Questioning the existence of a trans clone is not any different than questioning the existence of a trans human, and OB’s not playing that game.<br />
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What’s nice about this portrayal is that it falls in line behind the LGBT representation that Orphan Black has already casually yet firmly displayed. Cosima’s sexuality is never questioned, and so neither is Tony’s. Gender and sexuality will always slide back on the list of main identifiers for these characters - like Cosima told Rachel, it’s not the most interesting thing about them. Sure, they’re <i>clones</i>, and that’s always going to hold the trump card on interesting, but also, it’s quietly prescriptive: clone or no clone, that’s how it <i>should</i> be. <br />
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As a result, this plugs into grander, more universal themes. Humanity is a central tenet of this show, and every clone expresses the need to be treated as a person and not a project. We are not what defines us; we define ourselves. This contextually-LGBT philosophy is actually central to the show, echoed across <i>all</i> the main characters, regardless of sexuality. The ability to express one’s own identity is a human right, regardless of gender, sexuality, science, or nature. It blows my mind a little bit that <i>Orphan Black</i> is thus a show that doesn’t narratively sequester LGBT themes in a “niche,” but rather carries them over to <i>all</i> the main characters. <br />
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So really, “variable and full of perturbation” is not just a phrase for Tony, a trans clone. A major theme this episode was, “It’s not just me; it’s all of us.” We’re not talking about Tony being variant or perturbed because he’s trans. <i>All</i> of the clones are variable, and full of perturbation. There are two previous episodes that have some version of the word “variable” in the title, and if you look up “perturbation,” you don’t necessary get the synonym “disturbed” (a word you really don't want to see applied to anyone identifying as LGBTQIA) - you get the emotional application, “anxiety, mental uneasiness,” and the scientific application, “a deviation of the system.” If that doesn’t describe everything about <i>Orphan Black</i>, I don’t know what does.<br />
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Moreover, we get a few narrative connections between Tony and the other clones - mainly Cosima, and Sarah. In this episode, both Cosima and Tony demonstrate the idea that they too, don’t call into question their own identities. There is no crisis in key moments that would cause breakdown for others - Cosima casually strolls up to her maker and shakes his hand, and Tony has the biggest non-reaction to being told he’s a clone. Identity issues are long since sorted through, and these two are the most resilient and adaptable in the bunch. (LGBT themes may not be “niche” on this show, but it’s still important to acknowledge how they might manifest uniquely in context.)<br />
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There’s also Tony and Sarah. Of course, Felix says, “He has some of your worst qualities,” about Tony the clone, but we also get a little scene with Rachel that illuminates the concept of variance. What exactly is it about Sarah that makes her so different? Why - not how, <i>why</i> - did she succeed in fertility when they were designed to be barren? Like Tony, she was raised out of the control of DYAD, unmonitored, and that has cultivated a whole host of “chaos” on her identity. Can we say exactly what happened, biologically, genetically, environmentally? No. It’s just who she is. And the same goes for Tony.<br />
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The idea that “it’s all us” is specifically voiced by Cosima, as she struggles to forgive Delphine for betraying her trust in favor of protecting her. (What’s that about respecting what people express about themselves?) Delphine can’t make decisions for Cosima, because a) that’s a basic human no-no, but also, b) Cosima comes with Sarah, Kira, Helena, Alison, Tony, and yes, even Rachel. No clone is an island; their fates are entwined. Rachel herself voices this as well, as she uses the phrase “all of us” not once but twice in this episode (once with Delphine, once with Duncan).<br />
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So, from a thematic perspective, Tony slides easily into the world Orphan Black has created for itself. Welcome to the family. But from a narrative perspective? Admittedly, the introduction of Tony feels something like proof of concept. He whisks in, from nowhere, and whisks back out, into the black, with only the Clone Phone as a direct line back to the narrative. In the grand scheme of the season, it’s likely that he will lift right out without any consequence. Hell, in the <i>episode</i>, he lifts right out without much consequence. They had to really work the timeline to pull Sarah out of her own plotline to even <i>meet</i> him. <br />
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Yes, they invented a reason to make Tony relevant: he comes bearing a message. Mystery! Intrigue! Suspense! Well - theoretically. Tony’s message comes from Beth, via his dead partner (or monitor?) Sammy. Narratively-speaking, messages from the dead are usually good devices. But this one fell short. There weren’t enough stakes generated during the time Tony held onto the message (except the looming threat that Felix was going to kiss a genetic identical of his adopted sister) - and the reveal of the message, which should ramp everything up, felt more like the air going out of a balloon. Something about Paul, or something? At which point Sarah screwed up her face and said, “Paul?” Like she was trying to place him. Us too, Sarah. Us too. His absence isn’t all that inconvenient, nor his is silence all that irksome, contrary to what Rachel says.<br />
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In all seriousness, bringing a message that Paul is military and is “on it,” is not all that revelatory, mostly because that message seems to baseline “he’s a good guy, DON’T WORRY” and not much else. Yawn. Orphan Black has long-suffered from a Paul Problem, and this message pretty much sums it up. He’s supposed to be a mystery, which is supposed to invest us - but the problem is, there’s not enough <i>there</i> to make us care. And they can’t give us more information to hook us, because a) then there’d be no mystery, and b) this is not Paul’s show. As a viewer, I would probably be annoyed about following Paul through a mysterious adventure, thereby taking screentime away from more interesting elements of OB. <br />
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In a way, “Variable and Full of Perturbation” reminds me of a one-off episode that borrows elements of a different genre - in this case, a crime mystery. We begin the hour in the middle of a car chase, where we meet a brand new character, and then wonder how this all connects to the main narrative thread. In other words, the pre-credits sequence was exactly like one in <i>Bones</i> or <i>Castle</i>, with a hint of <i>Lost </i>sprinkled in. Then, Tony has a mysterious message, and won’t talk until he gets more information - which Felix isn’t willing to give up until <i>he</i> gets more information, through Art. Stand-off. Art conveniently gets information, with no obstacle. Added to that, there’s the suspense that someone’s going to come after Tony and shoot him too - except it doesn’t even come close to happening. It’s very cop show-ish, without much air in it.<br />
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Let it be said, though, that genre-borrow isn’t necessarily a bad thing - but it definitely makes itself noticed. In another way, the hour reminded me a bit of the <i>Lost</i> outing that “explained” Nikki and Paulo, distracting itself with a conceptual hook and letting an element of tension and dramatic irony carry through the diversion. (And then promptly ending with only a remote possibility that this would be brought up again.) But the bad thing about Nikki and Paulo - and the risk of genre-borrow and one-off episodes on serialized shows in particular - is the nagging question <i>who cares?</i> Why care about these yahoos when Jack and Kate and Sawyer are traipsing around?<br />
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This same nagging question surfaces with Tony, unfortunately. Would it have been better to parcel off some of Tony’s screentime to another character - Cosima, or Helena, or even (dare I say it) Paul? If there weren’t another story thread or emotional beat that could have benefited from more clocktime, I wouldn’t necessarily say yes. The problems in Tony’s storyline could be fixed within Tony’s storyline. But in “Variable and Full of Perturbation,” there <i>was</i> another area that could have used the extra time - with Rachel Duncan’s meltdown. <br />
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That sequence should have been great! Here’s this character who’s been buttoned-up for so long, pressurizing her emotions in fragile glass, and finally - she combusts. It’s a huge deal, right? Except it wasn’t, really. The cutaways were, first of all, <i>confusing,</i> because it was difficult to tell the time and place for of her breakdown. The sense of disorientation pulled the audience out of the moment, and we weren’t so much <i>feeling</i> anything as <i>wondering</i> where we are. You could argue that the cuts helped to make her explosion more jarring in contrast with her usual demeanor, but I personally feel like we should have seen a stone-faced Rachel slowly crack and then unleash her tornado of pain and anger. Cutaways just don’t do it justice, especially when they untether the audience from the emotions. The scene would have benefitted from more screentime to build that emotional climax, and unfortunately, Tony’s part is the storyline with excess time to give.<br />
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So, in the end, the point of bringing Tony into the fold kind of remains on the idea that the OB writers wanted to demonstrate that a trans clone is, indeed, possible. And y’know, given the space that Orphan Black has created for LGBT characters, and the way their presence is fundamentally thematic in <i>all</i> of the main characters -- it’s hard to argue with that. This is the concept episode, the genre episode, the proof of concept, and the proof that identity - gender, and sexual - is in a person’s voice, not their DNA. But in the realm of television writing - story building, plot threading, stakes and obstacles - “Variable and Full of Perturbation” was a little left of target.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS --</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>How much did I love Kira’s exasperated “MO-OOOOM!” at Sarah questioning if Dr. Moreau was appropriate for kids. How lovely that they still get to have some hints of “normal” mother-daughter interactions.</li>
</ul>
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<li>Kudos to Josh Vokey, who plays Scott, for the scene where he finds out that Cosima is 324B21. It’s a lovely little moment of realization and compassion, as suddenly the science becomes very human for him.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>THE KIDS ARE TRUANT. Alison’s manner of speaking is still the best thing ever. Also, of course she would criticize Donnie’s sloppy handling of Leekie’s body. And of course she’d be irate that Donnie used one of her guns. Of course, Alison.</li>
</ul>
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<li>“You cannot imagine the strange colourless delight of these intellectual desires. The thing standing before you is no longer an animal, a fellow creature - but a problem.” This week, on meta-relevant excerpts from in-narrative novels!</li>
</ul>
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<li>Did Tony remind anyone else of Apolo Anton Ohno? I mean, it’s Canada. He probably skates.</li>
</ul>
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<br />DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-39862717684411963582014-06-03T10:30:00.000-04:002014-06-03T10:30:07.704-04:00Orphan Black 2.07 - "Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things"Let’s just break this down for a second: this episode of <i>Orphan Black</i> was both sinister and absurd, equal parts mania and measure, comedy and disaster.<br />
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Ladies and gentlemen? I believe we have found the episodic incarnation of Alison Hendrix.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK</i> 2.07 - “KNOWLEDGE OF CAUSES, AND SECRET MOTION OF THINGS”</b><br />
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It’s obvious that Alison was meant to be the centerpiece of the episode, and it makes sense that her character traits sprawl outward from her place at the epicenter, wreaking havoc in both funny and awful ways. This calls back to the delightful season 1 outfit “Variations Under Domestication,” which served as a little sidecar of pastel suburban horror to Sarah’s squeeze between the cops and the corporation. Sarah imitating Alison? Check. Hiding a body from Alison’s peers? Check. Craft supplies in conjunction with bodily harm? Oh, check.<br />
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Of course, when it comes to Alison, absurd ridiculata is usually followed by genuine terror and heartwrenching tragedy. So not only did we have the hijinx of trying to dispose of Vic and cover for Alison, but there was also Cosima learning that Delphine betrayed her trust, Alison discovering that Donnie participated in a “social experiment” with no knowledge of its real repercussions, and Rachel finding out that Dr. Leekie killed her mother. And of course, the errant gunshot that capped the episode and dropped all of our jaws - rounding out the hour as absurd, tragic, and violent - just like Alison herself. <br />
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But Alison wasn't the only focal point of the episode - there was also Rachel Duncan. Helena was absent, and while Sarah and Cosima certainly had their emotional moments, the bulk of the screentime was devoted to Alison and Rachel, and the rapid unraveling of their worlds as they know it. Remember a few weeks ago, <a href="http://www.drshebloggo.com/2014/05/orphan-black-205-ipsa-scientia-potestas.html">I charted Alison and Rachel</a> as characters both wildly resistant to vulnerability? Neither of them can cope with a loss of control, and they both take great efforts to construct the world around them to the exact specifications of their liking. <br />
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In “Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things,” both Alison and Rachel receive new information that nudges their worlds off their axes, and watching them struggle to deal is a fascinating character study, both individually and together. Of course, Alison has been perpetually unempowered since the start of the show, and her unraveling has been a slow, steady, and tragicomic descent. Learning that Donnie’s betrayal was foolish instead of malignant is just another disintegration of an already-crumbling world. Rachel, however, is buttoned-up in an apex of power, and the news that Leekie killed her mother is the trigger on a what will likely be a sudden implosion. In other words: we only just witnessed the early tremors of the inevitable self-destruction of Rachel’s carefully-selected identity. What more, Rachel has power - where Alison is locked up and disenfranchised in rehab, Rachel has the ability to start a war. (Cue Miley Cyrus' "Wrecking Ball.")<br />
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This connection between Alison and Rachel also makes the final moments of the hour more inspired than mere plot shock and gun horror. After all, the newest chasm in Alison’s life comes with the knowledge that Donnie’s affiliation with DYAD is laughably innocuous, even though it destroyed everything anyways. And the first crack in Rachel’s world comes with the earth-shattering truth that Leekie killed her mother and raised her in DYAD's image. So with these control-centric ladies spiraling into terrifying and uncharted new worlds, who should cross paths at the end of the episode but the two men whose actions were the cause?<br />
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It’s also a huge statement to set up Leekie as a powerful villain in this episode, and let <i>Donnie Hendrix</i> kill him with an errant bullet. We learned Leekie was the Mad Scientist, the Villain, and Donnie was the Fool - and yet it’s the fool who puts a bullet through the Villain’s brain. For a man attempting to design an outcome, it's awfully ironic he was felled by happenstance. For Donnie, it's accidental vengeance, an irony of agency - suddenly the extension of Alison has power, just as the extension of Rachel does not. Moreover, it's a new Secret Motion of Things to push us forward into the final act of the season. <br />
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Of course, with Aldous Leekie’s demise waiting at episode’s end, <i>Orphan Black</i> revealed a new stratum of power within the DYAD corporation: Dr. Marian Bowles. Here’s a new shadowy figure for us to observe and suss out - because with DYAD in particular, power dynamics are nebulous and shifting. Every episode adds new information that reveals a different dimension to the chain of command. The heads of this beast twist and snarl, and we only learn how it operates if we pay close attention. <br />
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Here’s what we know about Dr. Marian Bowles: upon first glance, she appears to be a scientist. But then, you realize her pristine white coat is not of a laboratory but of an office. She is a well-groomed businesswoman, silver-tongued and shark-toothed. She gives Leekie the impression it’s the two of them against Rachel (she’s even costumed the same as him during their meeting - white exterior, black underneath) - when in fact, it becomes her and Rachel against <i>him</i>. After all, she and Rachel are to sit in the big chair. Not the lab coat, but the businesswoman’s coat. Marian is obviously meant to be another interpretation of Rachel - perhaps an amalgamation of Rachel and Sarah - and I’m curious to see if the show will present her as a pseudo-mother figure to Rachel, to match Leekie as her pseudo-father, and foil Mrs. S. as a mother figure to Sarah.<br />
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Which leads me to another instance of having to Pay Very Close Attention to understand the true structure and inner workings of a design: in this case, of Rachel Duncan and her Nebulous Tucked-Away Emotions. She meaningfully interacts with two father figures in the episode: first with her adoptive father Ethan, who’s probably a shell of how she remembers him, and then with Aldous Leekie, the man who took her in and raised her as one of DYAD. Leekie hijacked Rachel as he hijacked Project Leda - and yet, Rachel shows him mercy when he’s meant to be disposed of. “Nurture prevails,” she says, without a single tear in her eye, leaning coolly against a desk, rattled but keeping it together.<br />
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Compare this to her interaction with Ethan - who, it bears stating, is just the previous Nurturer for Rachel. He is not her nature - that we know of - he’s simply the man who came before Aldous Leekie as a Father Figure. We are not privy to the conversation that they share; however, in the moments leading up to it, we see tears shining in Rachel’s eyes and a fairly recognizable struggle for composure. Combine Rachel’s lack of emotion with her action of mercy, and a big question mark for how she interacted with Ethan - and we’re looking a mysterious puzzle of a lady. I’m guessing Rachel Duncan understands her own emotions even less than we do, so watching this shake out is going to be interesting.<br />
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“Nurture prevails” is of course a big statement to come out of the mouth of one of the characters on this show, given the constant push and pull between nature and nurture as indicators of someone’s identity, appearance, and behavior. It's also applicable to a few other situations in the episode. Nurture leads Rachel to make her choice; Nurture gives Sarah similar destructive calculations as her adoptive mother; Nurture connects Alison to her adopted children; Nurture brings Felix to Alison’s aid, and Sarah to Alison’s aid, and Sarah to Cosima’s aid. Nurture is fingerprinted all over the episode, with one notable exception: Cal Morrison. Cal is biologically connected to Kira, and, while having been absent from his role as Nurturer, takes up the mantle through his biology as genetic dad.<br />
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The idea of a study in nurture spins a few facets in new light. What exactly comprises nurture? If nurture is caring for someone, cherishing and fostering and encouraging - then <i>Orphan Black</i> presents us with a variety of flawed expressions. Delphine is tragically intent on nurturing Cosima, at the expense of Cosima’s agency and Kira’s potential safety. Alison loves Donnie, but the way she shows it can be destructive for him. Mrs. S does what’s best for Kira at the occasional expense of Sarah; Leekie cares for Rachel but hides a devastating truth from her; Donnie loves Alison but allows for social experiment on his family. In short: Helena is not the only character on Orphan Black that loves imperfectly through misaligned expression, and thus nurture is rendered in a gray area as a function of good intent, personal agenda, and difficult circumstance.<br />
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As we move forward, it seems the best example of nurture is perhaps exemplified with Sarah: with Cosima's life on the line, she seems ready to bring Kira in to DYAD and negotiate a cure. Given that Sarah's original character construction hinged on Kira and Kira alone, it's a huge statement about her development if she makes this choice - even if she's running a con. Sarah and Cosima may share identical DNA, but it's the relationship and the circumstances that are informing Sarah's decision. Nurture prevails, indeed.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS --</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>“FINKS AND RATS AND SNITCHES AND FUZZ” is the greatest assembly of human language, ever.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li><i>WHAT’S NEW WITH PAUL</i>: we found out he likes pottery! And that’s it for this week on <i>WHAT’S NEW WITH PAUL!</i></li>
</ul>
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<li>When Cal told Sarah he has people in Reykjavik, I half-expected her to say, “But I have people here.” And then I would’ve cried. Sarah Manning's family arc, everybody. Sniff.</li>
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<li>Can’t lie; I felt a genuine pang of sympathy seeing Cal watch Sarah go - probably wondering if he would ever see her or Kira again.</li>
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<li>I very dearly enjoy when <i>Orphan Black</i> reminds us that Alison has children, and is family-oriented not just in the comedic-soccer-mom way. Motherhood is such an important facet of this show, and Alison’s kids should be included in that. Not only that, but it’s a way to connect Alison to Sarah, and Mrs. S. - narrative connections that are personal faves - and a handy construction to keep Alison in the fold.</li>
</ul>
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<li>Where does Rachel’s power hit a brick wall? When is she limited, because she’s a clone? I wait anxiously to find out.</li>
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<br />DR SHE BLOGGOhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03247285649344958174noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1583232612899692330.post-32928992898823489012014-05-28T13:55:00.001-04:002014-05-28T13:58:51.378-04:00Orphan Black 2.06 - "To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings"Remember how the story of season 2 has been less CLONES ASSEMBLE and more EVERY CLONE FOR HERSELF? And remember how that’s inherently upsetting? Well, turns out that defining this thematic switch as an actual LACK for the characters, emotionally, is infinitely more upsetting. I need about ten thousand years to cry about clone sisters, and the way this episode underscored the concept of family by crossing it with a main theme: the assertion of humanity.<br />
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<b><i>ORPHAN BLACK </i>2.06: "TO HOUND NATURE IN HER WANDERINGS"</b><br />
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The title sets it all up: this season, our clone sisters have set out on their own paths, isolated from one another. We’ve seen it in every episode, and it’s a tragic pang of reality about their individual situations. But this episode doesn’t just unequivocally present this story as the new normal; it wistfully shows us a few hints of what might possibly be, if only our heroes weren’t under constant duress. If only Cosima and Sarah could go break Alison out of rehab right now. Maybe Helena and Sarah really could be true sisters, having adventures. Maybe Helena could have a relationship with a boyfriend. Including these moments of connection served to highlight the fact that the clone family is splintered right now, and created a beautiful kind of yearning in the audience that they could <i>actually</i> be a family, and maybe even one day, free from this. They are, after all, stronger together.<br />
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This emphatic inclusion of emotional unity amongst the clones is thus a big indicator about the theme of the episode. The concept of family is the big throughline, the empathy anchor. It anchors emotional moments like Sarah and Cosima’s phone call. It’s mentioned casually, like when Mrs. S refers to the clones as “Sarah and her sisters.” It’s embodied in larger storylines, as Helena and Sarah have the most absurdly wonderful sisterly interactions on what is basically a road trip. It emerges in small details, like Helena’s cover story at the bar comprising the identities of her sestra clones. It even reveals in dialogue: Alison judges Vic for abusing Sarah; Sarah tells Cosima they’re stronger together; Cosima worries about her illness putting fear in Sarah over Kira; Helena is momentarily fooled when Gracie refers to herself as her sister. <br />
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This episode deploys the concept of family in full force, and its purpose is more than just to tug at our heart strings. After all, we also reunite with the shady Mrs. S, and meet the elusive Ethan Duncan for the first time. These are both examples of family - Sarah’s foster mother and Rachel’s adoptive father - that have ulterior motives for their loved ones. Siobhán Sadler continues to be maddeningly (delightfully) gray in her actions and motives, and Ethan Duncan reveals himself to have been Rachel’s first monitor. “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings” brings into sharp focus the repeated conflation of family with experiment, to fantastic and horrific result. Because this, even more than individual isolation, is the reality of the clones’ situation. Who can you trust, when you are a loved one but also a project? How can you forge genuine human connections when it’s possible the other person may not see you wholly as human? <br />
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<i>Orphan Black</i> has danced with all these ideas in the past, but “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings” brought them to the forefront, and fused the clones together with these shared bounds. Helena is supposedly a member of the Prolethean’s family, but she’s also their science experiment and the womb for their new generation. Delphine loves Cosima and wants the best for her treatment, but we’re reminded that their relationship is not just love: it’s a science experiment, and a power imbalance due to restriction of knowledge. Paul and Mark sit in dark corners of a bar and talk about Sarah and Helena like property: “You take your girl, I take mine.” Even innocent Scott, upon realization that DYAD has clones, asks bluntly if he can see one, like he’s at a zoo - not realizing the woman he has been working with is in fact a human AND a clone. And Alison, adrift Alison, who thinks she may finally have another human caring for her recovery, is in fact being tasked with another kind of monitor. <br />
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Basically, this episode was filled with relationships that are blemished by the other party treating the clone as something other than simply human - whether object, target, possession, task, or even womb. This has always been a core theme of the show, and a great source of tension: how do the clones assert their humanity, when they’re derived from science, and patented property? Not only that, but their existence is, as Ethan Duncan so succinctly put it, proof of concept. They’re a project, conceived on paper but made breathing and living and loving - only to be owned and monitored. What results is a painful and fascinating tension, and another important theme for the clones: the importance of asserting their humanity.<br />
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<a href="http://www.drshebloggo.com/2014/05/orphan-black-205-ipsa-scientia-potestas.html">Last week</a>, I charted Sarah as the character defined by chaos and vulnerability, and her capacity to find power in that space. This week, it was demonstrated completely, as the emotional pinnacle of the episode came with her confrontation of Ethan Duncan. She doesn’t threaten Duncan with violence, or attack him with reason. She humanizes herself, and Cosima, and Alison, by telling Duncan who they are as people. A brilliant scientist; a mom. She confronts Duncan with their humanity, which is so often denied them because of their origins. She forces him to look her in the eye, and tells him that she is not a concept: she is a human consequence for his actions.<br />
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What’s even more beautiful about this moment is that it pays off the quietly-building theme of family. Sarah doesn’t assert just her own humanity; she asserts the humanity of her sisters as well. The reality of the situation really <i>isn’t</i> “EVERY CLONE FOR HERSELF.” Her situation is also Alison’s, and Helena’s, and Cosima’s. They are stronger together, through their vulnerability, in the sanctity of a family that knows the importance of humanity unmarred by treatment as object, target, possession, task, or womb. <br />
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Of course, the implications of Sarah’s conversation with Duncan is also interesting under the lens of gender. While it’s true that Sarah uses her and her sisters’ humanity to appeal to Duncan, it also manifests in a gendered way: “your little girls are dying.” Typically, <a href="http://www.drshebloggo.com/2013/06/orphan-black-motherhood-and-humanity.html">the show draws parallels between humanity and femininity</a> - which makes the expression of strength through vulnerability all the more powerful. <i>Orphan Black</i>’s female clones may be unempowered, they may have flaws - but they are active, and strong. <br />
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But this is an expression of the clones shared solely with the audience. For the purpose of Duncan, Sarah just wrangled them all into “daddy’s little girls,” to incite fatherly love and paternal protection. Combine this with the fact that Duncan claims that they pursued cloning because they wanted not just babies but <i>little girls</i>, and we’re very squarely in the idea that gender is of huge importance to this show’s narrative. It is no coincidence that this alignment comes in an episode where our leading ladies are engaged in relationships with individuals who see them as less than human, and where they voice their strength through togetherness. Under the lens of gender? This is a big statement about women, the right to their own bodies and identity, and the power in women connecting.<br />
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In short: “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings” is a damn good hour of television. But it’s also something <i>more</i>: it’s a damn good episode of <i>Orphan Black</i>. It inhabits its own universe and harvests its own themes and creates more meaning with them, putting them to use not only in the plot twists and narrative turns, but also in the characters’ actions and emotions. This show sprawls in the most engaging and thoughtful way, and “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings” demonstrates that near-perfectly.<br />
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<b>STRAY OBSERVATIONS --</b><br />
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<ul>
<li>Helena’s boyfriend storyline seemed bewilderingly out of place at first, until the slow dance revealed why it’s important to this episode in particular. Here is Helena allowed to <i>feel</i> finally. Her whole life has been a series of interactions in line with the theme of the hour: families manipulating or dehumanizing her. She even perceives her relationship with Sarah in some level of mistrust, leveraging her knowledge to achieve togetherness. But dancing with Jesse in a bar? Helena’s heart is finally ungoverned, free of constraint, and achingly human hoping. What could have been a goofy storyline actually ended up being thematically resonant and beautifully important.</li>
</ul>
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<li>Alison basically has two monitors now. Ha. Ha ha ha. (I cry.)</li>
</ul>
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<li>So much comedy in this episode, which made the heartwrenching moments even more poignant by contrast. Plus, each clone had funny moments in her own specific way - which means that Tatiana Maslany is not of this planet, basically.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>After several rewinds and a best-effort attempt to understand Science, we’re on with the idea that Cosima’s stem cell donation came from Kira’s baby tooth, yes yes? In which case, it seems to point to the idea that Mrs. S. is responsible for that.</li>
</ul>
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<li>Speaking of Mrs. S, I am so all-in on the Murder Lady of the Night intrigue, it’s not even funny. She’s the protagonist’s MOTHER, which has its own archetype at this point, and yet here she is, in a t-shirt and beanie and wielding a gun. Motherly protection, indeed.</li>
</ul>
<ul>
<li>And, finally, I am also very ready to see what the show does with Rachel’s father, especially as it might mirror Sarah’s relationship with Siobhán.</li>
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