Orphan Black Review 4×04′ “From Instinct to Rational Control”

Orphan Black struggles to shine as some characters begin to fade

Orphan Black continues to step up it’s game with intriguing character driven plot points week after week. Episode 4×04 didn’t shy away from this tactic and continued to shed a little more light into the mysterious, crazy, yet oddly adorable MK (Tatiana Maslany). Starting her day as one would, she brushes her teeth, cooks her breakfast, flosses her teeth and oh right, she just so happens to nonchalantly connect blocks of c4 to some detonators. In what seems like a methodical and well thought out investigation, MK searches Topside’s database in order to find Ferdinand (James Frain) for what appears to be a revenge mission to avenge YET ANOTHER Leda clone naked Nikki (Tatiana Maslany). Before she heads out the door for the day she mumbles:

“Never forget.”

Meanwhile, Ferdinand, Sarah (Tatiana Maslany), and Mrs. S, (Maria Doyle Kennedy) have formed an unlikely alliance in order to locate Susan Duncan (Christy Bruce) so that she can remove the Neolutionists worm from Sarah’s cheek. Why is Ferdinand so willing to help find Susan? Turns out, the sketchy, murderous rat actually fell in love with Rachel (Tatiana Maslany). He received a message from her about being held captive by Susan and now he’s trying to track her down. Will this alliance last? Can he be trusted? Probably not, but for the time being he’s on their side. The best bet for all 3 to locate Susan and Rachel? Unknowingly locate the woman who wants to find Ferdinand so that she can get revenge on him.. MK.

Sarah knows just who to contact in order to get in touch with MK; Dizzy (Joel Thomas Hynes), her connection from Club Neolution. When MK gets wind that Sarah is working with Ferdinand, she disappears after telling her that she can’t be trusted. Never one for giving up, Sarah uses Dizzy to track down where MK works, by actually telling him that they’re clones. Is this guy legit? Can he keep their secret? Who knows. For now though it appears he’s just in it for a fun ride with no ulterior motive. When they venture into MK’s rigged to blow trailer, they discover her actual name is Veera Suominen and she happens to be the only known survivor of Topside’s murder spree in Helsinki. It becomes apparent that MK is seeking revenge on Ferdinand for his part in Helsinki and for murdering her sister and only friend, Nikki.

Showing her true colors, MK tricks Ferdinand into meeting with her at Beth’s (Tatiana Maslany) apartment. She gets him to sit on a chair rigged with the c4 she was putting together earlier. After explaining her anger and hatred for him, she pours gasoline all over him in an attempt to light him on fire. Sarah bursts in and gets MK to leave without setting fire, but not before MK gets Ferdinand to transfer over 3 million dollars into her account. Did MK set this entire thing up? Did she lure Sarah back from Iceland just to pull off this heist? We’ll find out.

The most uncomfortable moment of the show award goes to…

Alison (Tatiana Maslany) and Donnie (Kristian Brunn) had phone sex. Yes, phone sex. Their version of phone sex at least. While usually, any and all Alison and Donnie scenes make Orphan Black worth watching, the moment Alison started to “talk dirty” to Donnie while he was trying to masturbate into a cup in the fertility clinic, things got weird. Unlike their hilarious underwear dance scene in season 3, this moment felt genuinely uncomfortable. Chalked full of bad puns, horrible accents, and jarring body movements, nothing seemed to fit. There was a certain comedy that came along with being so thrown by the scene and Tatiana and Kristian are master class when it comes to creating unique funny moments, but it felt like the writers were trying too hard to be funny. The general awkwardness of Donnie and Alison is always so intriguing and fun and although this scene wasn’t out of place or poorly acted at all, it was just uncomfortable for the minute or so it was going on. Orphan Black certainly doesn’t shy way from raunchy or sexy moments, with good reason, but for some reason however, this scene didn’t hit the mark. In theory, it should have been hilarious and a stand out scene, but all the audience wanted to do was turn away.

Goodbye Helena?

How does she do it? Week after week Tatiana Maslany makes already lovable Helena even more enjoyable. From dark angel avenger to excited mom to be, Helena has completely stolen our hearts. In episode 4×04 of Orphan Black, Helena breaks our hearts once again as she decides she needs to leave Alison and Donnie’s house because Alison is jealous and hurting that she can’t have her own babies like Helena. While Alison and Donnie are off at the fertility clinic trying to get to the bottom of more Neolution mysteries, all is takes is a simple:

“Goodbye Hendrix’s”

for the audience to completely lose it. Earlier in the episode, Helena is crafting a baby book for her unborn twins using a lot of supplies and when Donnie comes in she gets worried that she’s too all over the place. In what now feels like a metaphor for her character she says in the most naive and heart wrenching way:

“I make mess.”

Helena still hasn’t found her place in the sestra world. She’s not sure what she should be doing or where she should be doing it. She’s such a kind spirit at the end of the day. She wants her sestras to be happy and she would do anything, literally anything for them to stay that way. She feels the only way she can make Alison happy is to leave her life behind and start again somewhere else. Where is she going?  What will she do? And most importantly, will she come back?

Has anyone seen Cosima?

Where on earth has Cosima (Tatiana Maslany) been? Obviously she’s spending all of her time in the lab studying face worms with Scott (Josh Vokey), but it feels like she’s barely gotten any screen time this season. She’s around so little that finding a promo pic of her this episode was difficult to say the least. One of the highlights of Orphan Black is the character of Cosima. She’s fun and interesting and such a genuinely good person that when she’s not on screen, her presence is missing. She pops in from time to time with hilarious lines like,

“Who’s the science now, bitch?”

But it feels as though there could be so much more for her character to be doing. The writers haven’t even addressed Cosima’s personal life at all so far in season 4. Delphine? Shay? Her health? Really not much at all. Cosima is such a rich character with such an interesting story that it would really be a shame for her to have such a back burning story line. Hopefully we see more of Cosima in the weeks ahead.

Final Verdict: Orphan Black needs to find a balance

Orphan Black has been and will continue to be one of the most unique story telling shows on television. Episode 4×04 was good, but it wasn’t great. Creators Graeme Manson and John Fawcett need to get back to finding a balance between having enough plot and also delivering character driven stories. While MK’s story is fascinating and intriguing, and the Neolution story is very full circle, we miss seeing the core 4 Leda clones as they struggle with their personal lives and each other. This episode was  a little too heavy on plot and hit the mark a few times with character development, but it left us wanting more.

Questions/Comments Orphan Black 4×04:

• Is Ferdinand trust worthy?
• Where is Helena going to go?
• Hopefully Cosima has a big story line coming