Orphan Black: S3 E8 Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method

Tatiana Maslany in Orphan Black

Orphan Black, season 3 episode 8 is “Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method” or, as it could also be called, “Rachel Outsmarts Everyone.”

Krystal Goderich

I’ll start with the most interesting and important part of this week’s episode, Krystal Goderich (Tatiana Maslany, a multitude).

We saw Krystal briefly making out in a hotel elevator with Rudy, but now we get to meet her in more developed form. When the episode begins, she’s giving Delphine (Evelyne Brochu) a manicure and talking about some strange twins who were suspicious and scary. Delphine leaves with a good manicure, a conviction that Krystal is still naive, and a look on her face that is so hard that it makes you question whether or not Delphine was ever one of the good guys.

Krystal is American pop culture perfect: blonde hair, elaborate makeup, a pushup bra, a chirpy personality, posture worthy of a starlet, and a breezy way of talking. In short, another miracle on the part of Tatiana Maslany.

Rachel promises Cosima to translate “The Island of Dr. Moreau,” but only for Sarah and only if she’s taken out of the Dyad Institute. Further, she insists to Cosima that Sarah must steal the identity of Krystal, so Rachel has papers to get to Taiwan.

Felix and Crystal

Sarah and Felix set off to find Krystal, who lives in some unspecified place 300 kilometers away. After Felix talks with her, he can hardly stand to walk away with her wallet while leaving her naive about her situation. He sees a note book in her purse as he’s grabbing her wallet that makes him think she knows more about what’s going on that she’s revealing.

Later that night, Dr. Nealon (Tom McCamus) snatches Krystal up, takes her to Dyad, and puts her in a medically induced coma. I’ll explain why in a bit.

Everyone wants the “The Island of Dr. Moreau.” Rachel wants it, and Castor wants it. Nobody knows how anyone from Castor knows about it. Early in the episode we see that Dr. Coady (Kyra Harper) escaped from the Castor compound relatively unhurt. Someone from Castor reveals to her that he has an inside person in the Leda camp. There’s a rat somewhere but we don’t know where yet.

Ari Millen as Rudy

Rudy (Ari Millen), who also escaped the explosion, waits for Scott in his apartment and gets the original copy of the book from him by threatening his cat. When Rudy leaves, Scott calls Delphine and Cosima.

Cosima and Scott in Scott's apartment

Now Delphine knows about the book. And everyone knows that someone in Dyad is telling all to someone in the Castor camp.

Cosima and Delphine

There’s a lot of arguing about who the rat could be, why Cosima kept the book secret from Delphine and the possible lines of research ahead. Delpine wants Cosima to get another stem cell treatment from Kira, which Cosima says she won’t do.

Cosima reveals her near death experience to Delphine, saying, “I came back for you.” Delphine kisses Cosima, but Cosima pulls away. Earlier Cosima told Sarah that Shay (Ksenia Solo) was what she needed right now. Delphine says her issues with Shay are not jealousy.

At Mrs. S’s (Maria Doyle Kennedy), Rachel starts to translate the photocopied book. Dr. Nealon comes in and tries to take to book. Rachel gets out of her wheelchair and falls on the floor having some sort of seizure. Nealon takes her back to Dyad.

But not really.

Rachel is behind a number of things that happened in this episode. She knew about Krystal and arranged her identity theft and arranged for her to be brought to Dyad. Now Krystal is in a coma, wearing an eye patch, and Nealon is telling Delphine and Cosima that it’s Rachel in a coma and Rachel may never wake up. Rachel is really off somewhere getting a new artificial eye and planning heaven knows what mayhem for her sisters when she’s back on her feet. And she has the photocopied book.

What a mess for Sarah and Cosima. Both books gone. They think it’s Rachel in a coma. There’s no hope of translating the book now. Cosima quits Dyad and Delphine fires Scott. As they are leaving, Delphine tosses a file folder with Shay’s name on it to Cosima. Ominous.

The one translated book page that Rachel completed mentions London and Castor, so we are off to London in the next episode to search for clues there.

The Hendrix Drug Machine

The Hendrixes hired Gracie (Zoé De Grand Maison) to work in Bubbles. She still living with Mrs. S, but goes to work at Bubbles. Helena has moved into the Hendrix household. (It’s their turn!!!) She brings with her the long missing canister of liquid nitrogen, which she explains to Alison’s daughter contains her babies. She hides the canister at Bubbles. Helena is wearing Alison’s clothes and looks pretty hilarious.

Donnie (Kristian Bruun) teaches Helena how to make soap and makes her laugh really hard by imitating her Russian accent. Helena and Donnie may become friends.

Alison calls Jason (Justin Chatwin) to Bubbles to talk about the kiss. Instead of talking, he kisses her. She kisses him back, before she pushes him away and tells him it can’t happen again.

Donnie doesn’t trust her. He and texts Jason from Alison’s phone to meet at Bubbles.

Jason and Donnie face off

Donnie tries to scare Jason off Alison. Donnie’s idea of a fight is to slap Jason. Jason counters by knocking Donnie out cold.

Some Thoughts

Nothing is clear. We don’t know if Delphine and Shay are good guys or bad guys. We don’t know who is telling the Castor folks everything about the Leda folks. We don’t know what Rachel is up to – no good, probably. We don’t know if Krystal will ever be heard from again. We don’t know if Sarah can learn anything useful in London. They are taking us right up to the final episode with delicious suspense and many potential cliffhangers as the season ends. And, the previews of the next episode show Maria Doyle Kennedy singing!

I appreciate what Tatiana Maslany did with Krystal. She’s a vision of what every 13 year old girl thinks is perfection. I sure hope she isn’t kept in a coma forever, because I think she might be a valuable addition to the Clone Club.

I love the way Helena laughs. I noticed it way back in the episode where she met and danced with Jesse. The most wonderful sounding growl of a laugh. A masterpiece of a laugh.

The Title Quotation

Dwight D. Eisenhower said this in 1961.

“Progress toward these noble goals is persistently threatened by the conflict now engulfing the world. It commands our whole attention, absorbs our very beings. We face a hostile ideology global in scope, atheistic in character, ruthless in purpose, and insidious in method. Unhappily the danger it poses promises to be of indefinite duration. To meet it successfully, there is called for, not so much the emotional and transitory sacrifices of crisis, but rather those which enable us to carry forward steadily, surely, and without complaint the burdens of a prolonged and complex struggle – with liberty the stake. Only thus shall we remain, despite every provocation, on our charted course toward permanent peace and human betterment. “

4 thoughts on “Orphan Black: S3 E8 Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method”

  1. I thought Delphine ended up with the copy while Castor got the original?

    And I’m pretty sure Dr. Nealon is the mole. But how scary clever is Rachel that she can outsmart everyone while she has brain damage?!?

    Love Krystal. Hope Fee tries to go back for her & realizes she’s gone. He is the clone wrangler, after all.

    1. Oh, you are right. Delphine got the copy. When I wrote this I hadn’t watched the episode as many times as usual because I was driving for a couple of days.

      Dr. Nealon is in cahoots with Rachel, for sure, but is he the mole? And Dr. Coady seemed have been where Rachel was taken to get the new eye. That means Nealon and Coady are in cahoots as well.

      Krystal has potential to be really strong and smart, like Sarah, given the chance. I hope she gets more screen time.

  2. I recently watched this series – I was lucky to see it in its entirety over the course of a week rather than 5 years.
    I enjoy your recaps, but have to correct a couple of things here.
    It’s Delphine who pushes Cosima away, and then says “You should have trusted me,“ revealing that she knows what Cosima is up to – sneaking Rachel out of Dyad behind her back.
    I never doubted Delphine’s loyalty when I watched season 3. I thought Cosima behavior towards her was juvenile all season. Cosima is a brilliant scientist but an immature and naive woman

    1. Thanks for the correction. Delphine always claimed loyalty, and ultimately that proved to be the case. But during the course of things she was often made to look suspicious – I least to me.

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