Orphan Black S5 E1 The Few Who Dare

Orphan Black season 5 begins with “The Few Who Dare.” We’re right where we left off, with Sarah injured on the island, Cosima and Charlotte in the village on the island, Delphine looking after Cosima, Mrs. S and Kira held by Ferdinand, and Rachel thinking she’s conquered the world. Spoilers ahead, this is a recap.

Sarah (Tatiana Maslany AKA everyone) gets in one last phone call before her battery dies. She warns Felix (Jordan Gavaris) that Ferdinand (James Frain) has Mrs. S (Maria Doyle Kennedy) and Kira (Skyler Wexler). Ira (Ari Millen) is with Felix and tells Sarah about the boat and the village. Then the phone dies.

Sarah isn’t going anywhere without Cosima, so she patches up her knife wound with a tampon and a torn strip of cloth. She builds a fire with her last match using Kira’s photo as kindling to get it going. Sorry, Monkey. Sarah keeps passing out or falling asleep and dreaming Kira tells her to wake up.

Rachel climbs a long flight of stairs to meet 170 year old P.T. Westmoreland.

Some sort of monster-being attacks Sarah. They fight while rolling through the campfire. Later Sarah finds a wolf with half its stomach eaten away, presumably by the same genetic experiment gone wrong that attacked her. She sharpens a long stick into a cross between a walking stick and a spear. She goes limpabout in search of Cosima.

Cosima wakes up feeling good – much better than before. She finds a note from Delphine (Evelyne Brochu) telling her to follow her lead. She is greeted by a girl named Mud (Jenessa Grant). Mud says they are in Revival, which has been there since 1908. Mud gives Cosima a pair of wellies and shows her around the village. Mud reveals that people from all over the world are all there to genetically improve the human race. She says they are all children of P.T. Westmoreland.

When Cosima asks about her missing science material, Mud says that they know about Rachel.

Cosima finds Charlotte (Cynthia Galant). Charlotte is in a children’s school but wants to know about their treatment. Cosima says Delphine has their backs. Mud tells them she heard Susan (Rosemary Dunsmore) will pull through.

Art (Kevin Hanchard) and Felix both go to the safehouse. They find nothing but a bloody corkscrew. Art tells Felix to warn the Hendrixes to stay put. They talk about where Ferdinand would take Mrs. S and Kira.

When Felix tells Donnie (Kristian Bruun) and Allison to sit tight with Helena, Allison immediately packs up to leave. Her sestras are in a dire situation, there will be no sitting in the woods.

Art gets a new partner, Det. Maddie Enger (Elyse Levesque). Rats, that’s going to put a crimp in his style.

Back on the island, Sarah learns that men with guns and dogs are hunting for her. They will take her to Revival with “the other one.” Rats, that’s going to put a crimp in her style.

Delphine takes a cheek swab from a young Afghan girl who tells her, “We came for the fountain.” She hides Cosima’s treatment in the back of the fridge just before she’s summoned to see “him.” P.T. I presume.

Scottie (Josh Vokey), Hell Wizard (Calwyn Shurgold), Ari, and Felix are looking at satellite maps of the island. They are blurred, but Ari points out where things should be. They want Felix to go save everyone, but he reminds them he travels by bike. Another crimp. Hell Wizard hatched a plan. He’s trying to raise MK through game sites. Felix says Kira talked to her via Minecraft.

No surprise, Det. Maddie Enger is neolution. She takes Art out in the woods and gives him a file on the Hendrixes. There’s a photo of Helena with her backpack. Maddie wants to know where the psycho is. Art keeps a straight face and pretends to know nothing. But, talk about crimps, behind the photo of Helena is a photo of Art’s daughter. Maddie says they will stop at nothing to bring Helena in.

Donnie and Helena communicate in the woods with loon calls. Helena sees men and does the emergency loon call. Allison gets snatched by the men and Donnie runs, dragging his wheeled suitcase through the woods behind him.

Felix goes to the safe house to check Kira’s Minecraft game. He is snatched by Mr. Frontenac (Andrew Moodie) who tells him everyone is safe because Rachel has a special interest in his family.

A van with Allison inside stops beside Art and Maddie. Art tells Allison to be calm. He asks where Donnie and Helena are. Allison says she doesn’t know. Art (remember the crimp) tries to get her to tell the truth. Maddie says she isn’t supposed to harm a hair on any clone head. Then Maddie puts a gun to Art’s head. Convinced to tell the truth, Allison says Helena is in the woods.

Speaking of woods, Sarah is still limping her way around the woods on the island, looking for Cosima.

Cosima and Charlotte are talking about myths when Delphine comes in. She has but minutes. She’s on her way to Sardinia. Damn, that probably means she won’t be in the next few episodes. She was listed as a special guest star in the credits for this episode. Are we going to see Evelyne Brochu in the list of regulars in season 5? Please.

Delphine quickly tells Cosima that the science is real. They are doing a decades long pro-longevity study that involves stem cell therapy, cryonics, caloric restriction, immunotherapy, and cloning. She says Revival is the heart of neolution. Rachel is ramping it all up. When she kisses Cosima goodbye she whispers to her that her medication is in the fridge and tells her to follow the crazy science.

The men with dogs are getting closer to Sarah, but the sight of the half eaten wolf scares even them away. They go back to the village.

Cosima is eating in the village when music comes over the loudspeakers. Everyone rushes to the foot of the long stairway to P.T. Westmoreland’s big house. Rachel is at the microphone. She says, “We, here, shall drink from the fountain first.” There’s another reference to the fountain, which can only mean the fountain of youth. Or some sip of eternal life. Definitely not Kool Aid.

Donnie is back at his car when a man with a gun stops him. Pregnant Helena has to save Donnie, of course. In the process she gets, “Stick in baby.” They are off to the hospital. Let’s hope they make it. We need to take good care of those babies.

It’s dark. Cosima sneaks into the infirmary to get her meds. Sarah shows up talking about a boat and getting off the island. Cosima wants to stay where the science is. She wants Sarah to insert a long tube of meds into her uterus. Noise outside alerts them to the fact that they are searching for Cosima because she isn’t in her yurt like a good girl. Sarah says there’s a monster in the woods and takes off.

Cosima gets a syringe with needle about 6 inches long and prepares to inject herself. In comes Rachel. She tells Cosima she’s as invested in this as Cosima, and will give her the injection. One conversation with P.T. Westmoreland and Rachel switches from clone-killer to angel of deliverance. We’ll see how long that lasts.

The technical parts of having two clones in the same space and touching have grown smoother over the seasons. They are really good at stitching it together. I did read that they will only have 2 clones at a time in any scenes in season 5. Alas, I love those big, impossible dances and dinners they pulled together in earlier seasons.

Sarah is at the boathouse ready to flee into the ocean in a tiny motorboat when a man with a gun shoots her with a tranquilizer dart. Ah, nice to know the guns didn’t contain bullets. But now they’ve got Sarah, too. Rachel walks in and says, “It’s a new day, Sarah.”

And we’re out.

Some Thoughts

Every clone we know about except MK is in the hands of some captor or other. Not a good situation. But hang on, season 5 Orphan Black previews tout that our girls fight back.

Several new characters appear in this episode of Orphan Black. Some of them could be interesting.

With the crazy science working and illness in Cosima and Charlotte being treated, we should be on to new challenges. Like freedom. But MK was coughing up blood last season, too.

Rachel the narcissist thinks all this is about her and she has command of everything. I can’t wait to see that conceit torn to shreds.

I haven’t found a reference to where the titles for season 5 of Orphan Black are taken from. I’m looking. Have you seen anything about it?