Orphan Black: Echoes, thoughts on the Pilot episode

Orphan Black: Echoes is releasing an episode a week in the U.S. As of now, all I’ve seen is the Pilot episode. The series is airing on AMC+ and has 10 episodes. As a big fan of the original Orphan Black series, I definitely am curious about this one and will be watching. There are many spoilers ahead, beware.

Orphan Black: Echoes is a completely different story about a different kind of science. It relates to the first series only because of some of the characters and scientists involved in the science. It takes place almost 40 years later in the 2050s.

When Lucy (Krysten Ritter) wakes up on a couch, she sees this woman, played by Keeley Hawes. We learn late in the episode that her name is Kira Manning.

Lucy is genius level smart and a perfect physical specimen, but she doesn’t know who she is. The scientist merely tells her she’s had a procedure and her memory should return. Lucy loses her temper and she is sedated. When she wakes up the second time, she escapes the room and finds a big tank full of pink goo.

The tank is used for 4-D printing of human organs, bones, flesh, etc. In other words, Lucy was printed.

John Fawcett and Graeme Manson, who created the original Orphan Black, are part of this new series. One thing I really enjoyed about the original was that the science of cloning the series was based on was real. Printing human parts is real, too, although nobody has printed an entire person yet. So I’m expecting this new series to be just as interesting in terms of science and give the pilot bonus points for that.

Like cloning, printing raises questions about who we are, what it is to be a woman, personal autonomy, and human rights. That is fertile ground for story lines.

The story jumps ahead two years and we find Lucy living in a small trailer on a remote farm. She’s in love with Jack (Avan Jogia) and his deaf daughter Charlie (Zariella Langford). Lucy uses ASL with Charlie.

Lucy has some memories of the past but they are broken and scattered. Some are dreams.

Lucy earns money as a farm worker. There’s an accident and she’s taken to a hospital. While there, she’s given a body scan. When Kira Manning hears about the scan, she sends a man to return Lucy to the lab. While struggling with the man Lucy learns that she has a code imprinted under her skin.

Lucy goes on the run and insists Jack and Charlie go to a safe place as well.

Lucy visits Craig (Jonathan Whittaker), a man who helped her get herself together when she escaped from the lab. He helps her find a clue as to where the man who came to her farm started from.

When Lucy goes looking for the building the man started from, she meets Jules Lee (Amanda Fix). Lucy thinks Jules is her, or the blueprint she was printed from. She has vague memories of Jules’ face in her mirror. Jules runs from her.

The episode ends with Kira calling her Auntie Cosima on the phone because she thinks she’s made a big mistake. I’m sure they are talking about making crazy science.

Part of the wow factor in the original series was Tatiana Maslany playing all the clones with such skill. Krysten Ritter is playing a single character here. This series is going to depend on solid storylines and one-of-a-kind characters. I’m looking forward to seeing how it develops.