Orphan Black, S4 Ep9, The Mitigation of Competition

A lot was packed into Orphan Black‘s penultimate episode of the season, as large strides are made in the fight against Brightborn.

Evie’s plan to widely spread her robot maggots as a new form of gene therapy is threatened by an anonymous threat to release a video of Brightborn doctors euthanizing a newborn with birth defects. In addition to suppressing genetic disorders, the maggots would also give Evie the ability to change the DNA of her clients’ children without their consent. Two pregnant women – carriers – had recently fled the Brightborn facility, and Rachel and Ira attempt to team up with Sarah and Felix to find the women and use information from them to take down Evie. But Sarah doesn’t want to work as a group, insisting she and Felix do it on their own, “our people, our way.”

After Art calls with a tip, Sarah joins him to check out a shelter where two women had checked in the previous day that matched their descriptions, one pregnant and the other with a newborn. They arrive to find the shelter full of police activity – the pregnant woman, Tabatha, apparently hung herself. While Art takes a look at the scene, Sarah slips back into her Beth persona to talk to Trina, who was conveniently there and a friend of both women who escaped. I wonder, are we ever going to find out what happened to Trina’s baby? Does that have something to do with how anti-Brightborn she now is?

Anyway, Trina doesn’t believe Tabatha would have killed herself, and tells Sarah that the other woman, Kendra, might have gone to Tisdale. Art and Sarah drive off and manage to track down Kendra and her baby, but while they convince her they’re not a threat, they can’t sway her to come forward and testify against Brightborn. She’s willing to hand over the video she took of the euthanized baby, but won’t speak up herself for fear of Brightborn retaliating against her and her two sons, like they had Tabatha killed. When Sarah struggles in her attempts to sway Kendra, Rachel and Ira step in – one phone call from Rachel to Kendra threatening her older son, and Kendra sneaks out of the house to leave with Ira, who was waiting outside.

Now with both Kendra and the incriminating video in her possession, Rachel goes to negotiate with Evie, just moments before Evie’s press conference is set to begin. Hearing of Rachel’s plans, Sarah was convinced that Rachel would turn on them, as she only wanted power for herself. And really, I didn’t have too much faith in Rachel myself, so it was a pleasant surprise when she turned the tables on Evie. After recording Evie (via hidden camera) admit and defend the euthanasia, both her confession and the original video from Kendra were sent to all major news networks. Evie’s press conference has barely begun before it spirals into chaos, with the reporters in the audience watching the videos on their phones and interrupting to demand answers.

Also this week, the Clone Club almost gained another member in Adele. While she was ranting to Felix about the craziness of his family, and her suspicions that they’re hiding something about Duko from her, Helena finally returns. And yeah, introducing her as Sarah’s triplet sister didn’t go very well. Adele demands the truth, but Felix isn’t willing to drag her into the crazy mess, and asks her to leave instead.

“Genetics doesn’t really make a family, does it?” Adele asks Felix right before she leaves, and just in case that wasn’t too on-the-nose regarding Felix’s angst at the start of the season, she follows it up with, “I’m gonna leave you with your real family for a while.” So I guess this is supposed to wrap up Felix’s family-searching storyline? Surprise, surprise, he was with his family all along? The whole Adele storyline has felt clunky, and I’m still disappointed that Felix and Sarah’s fighting from the first half of the season was just swept under the rug. It’s not that I wanted to see a big heart to heart – that would hardly be in character for them anyways – but just a few lines at least acknowledging what changed would be nice.

Elsewhere in the Clone Club, Donnie’s out on bail, and Alison convinces him they should run away to Niagara. While I’m somewhat intrigued to see where the writers are heading with Alison’s struggles with her faith, considering that she never seemed very religious in the first place, it all just feels a little off. They don’t even end up making it out of their house, let alone to Niagara, when a man from Brightborn breaks in, seeking answers about what happened to Duko. He’s threatening to implant Alison with a first gen robot maggot when Helena saves the day, showing up and shooting him straight in the neck with an arrow. Please don’t disappear again, Helena, clearly your sestras need you!

Out on the island, Cosima and Susan continue to work together towards finding a cure, and Cosima reads an old book on Neolution. She also meets Charlotte, whose favorite part of the book is a picture of the island they’re on. I mention this because Rachel’s visual glitches are continuing, and becoming more and more detailed – she’s seeing a group of people at some sort of campsite that she believes was on the island. So I’m guessing that’s all connected somehow.

Finally, finally, we have confirmation that Delphine is alive! It’s only a few seconds of her sitting at a desk in what looks to be some sort of cabin, with wind howling outside, but it’s proof that somehow she survived that shooting.

So, what role will Delphine play in the finale? Will Kira’s vision of Sarah being set on fire materialize as we close out the season, or is it being held for the future? Any last predictions for how things will conclude? Leave a note in the comments below!