Orphan Black episode 8 is “The Redesign of Natural Objects,” an episode full of tension, surprises, possible betrayals, danger, and new hope. If you don’t mind holding your breath in fear through an entire episode, then this is the episode for you.
Donnie (Kristian Bruun) is in jail where he is threatened with a sharpened toothbrush in the eye by a hulky neolutionist (Noah Danby). Felix (Jordan Gavaris) brings Adele (Lauren Hammersley) to give him legal advice. Felix introduces Alison (Tatiana Maslany – you’re not seeing in triplicate) as Sarah’s identical twin. Since Adele reeks of alcohol, Alison isn’t sure about her, but she comes through with good legal advice for Donnie.
Donnie’s an idiot, so the legal advice came a little late.
The endangered species that is Det. Duko (Gord Rand) tells Alison if she doesn’t give up Sarah’s location to Evie Cho’s (Jessalyn Wanlim) disposal crew, Donnie will be killed in jail.
Who to save: Donnie or Sarah? That is the question.
Kira (Skyler Wexler) shows her mom, Cosima and Siobhan (Maria Doyle Kennedy) how to talk to Mika inside Kira’s hacked game. Mika has video of Evie Cho talking with Susan Duncan (Rosemary Dunsmore), Ira (Ari Millen) and Rachel. They hear the plans to ditch the Leda clones and kill all the self-aware sisters. Mika wants to come back into the fold and Sarah agrees. Mika knows where the island is and how to contact Susan Duncan.
Mika is coughing up blood, too.
Cosima, Susan and Rachel have a long talk about science. Cosima has the brilliant idea that they might be able to recreate the genome if they create a blastocyst from the union of Sarah’s eggs and Ira’s sperm. All the science people think this is a great idea. Sarah isn’t so fast to agree.
Scott doesn’t want to work with Rachel about anything AT ALL, but he is overruled by Cosima.
At the conclusion of the episode, we see Cosima helicoptering off to an island in the far north with Sarah’s egg donation in a container. All they need now is Ira’s sperm donation.
Siobhan takes her rifle and goes in search of Det. Duko. She finds him, but sees him talking with Alison. She doesn’t shoot him. Instead she calls Felix and Sarah with the news that Alison may be getting squeezed by Duko.
Felix goes to talk to Alison where she is rehearsing Jesus Christ Superstar at the church. They have a talk about Donnie, Sarah, and Det. Duko.
It’s fast paced and exciting – Donnie in danger at the jail, Alison prancing on a stage in a cape, Felix with phone in hand keeping everyone up to the moment, Det. Duko at the comic book store looking for Sarah. Yeah, Alison told him about the comic book store.
Then, ta da, out pop Art Bell (Kevin Hanchard), Siobhan, and Sarah all prepared to do bad things to Duko. Siobhan sends Art and Sarah away. She hooks up jumper cables to a car battery and uses the jolt to get Duko to talk about how to stop Evie Cho. Then she sits down about 4 feet in front of him with that great big rifle of hers pointed right at his chest. She says, “This is for my ma.” The gun goes off. Yep, it splattered Duko all over the comic book store.
Random Plot Points
A few random happenings that you need to know. Rachel, who can almost walk without crutches now, still glitches out by seeing a swan with her biotech eye. Now she’s seeing a bearded man, too. A mysterious new character to bring into the genetic manipulation drama.
Cosima’s in a better emotional place since the news that Delphine might be alive came in.
After weeks of hopelessness and a colossal drunken binge, Sarah is back. She’s showered, her hair is brushed, she looks rested. She’s focused on helping the sestras. When Sarah is focused, she’s a force of nature. W00t!
Some Thoughts
The rifle Siobhan uses looks just like the bolt action 30-06 rifle my dad used to hunt deer when I was growing up in southeastern Colorado. If someone really fired it into a human body from 4 feet away it would have made a hole the size of Canada and probably blown right through the surfaces Scott got drafted to clean blood off of, too. I may not know much about genetic engineering, but I know something about hunting rifles, so that’s my scientific contribution to the facts of this episode.
Didn’t the Castor clones have toxic sperm or something? All the women they had sex with got sick. Maybe that’s why they mentioned earlier that Ira is not a Castor clone but a Libra clone.