No amount of time would be enough to grieve the latest loss, but in this Orphan Black episode, Sarah hardly gets any before news reaches her that her sestra has been taken (again). Finding and saving her means making some bold moves (especially on Art’s part) and having to rely on Rachel for information.
“One Fettered Slave” also offers a look at Helena’s life, at how she became the blonde sestra-killer we met in Season 1 who once cut into her own back.
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In a series of flashbacks, we see how Helena catches a nun masturbating. That nun bleaches Helena’s hair and locks her in a closet, where she remains until Tomas takes her away and trains her to hate the “dirty copies” that “pervert His original, His light” and to “cleanse them from this Earth.”
But after he deems her “ready” to do just that and kills a Leda in a church, she’s shocked to find that this “copy” look just like her. She’s the original, Tomas tells her.
Saying Goodbyes
Before the clone craziness begins again, everyone (or at least everyone who can be there) gathers to say goodbye to Mrs. S. And while Alison and Cosima aren’t there to see it, they know that Sarah’s being strong for Kira. “She always has to be strong,” Alison says. “It’s not right.” But they’ll be there to pick her back up.
“Some of you know what we’ve been through more than others,” Sarah says at the funeral. “But you all knew S didn’t go anywhere without a fight, and that fight was for all of us, her people, her network, her family.”
S left them a letter, and while Sarah comforts her daughter, Felix reads it: “Just remember, my loves, death is nothing at all. I’ve only slipped into the next room. You can call me by my old familiar name, put no sorrow in your tone. I promise we will laugh at this difficult passing when we meet again. All my love, S.”
Soon after Art has made sure Sarah knows that “whatever you need, however, whenever,” since S’ sacrifice was for his family too, Sister Irina shows up at S’ house with Helena’s journal. They realize she was taken, and Gracie likely sold her out to Coady again.
What they don’t know is that Gracie is dead — and neither does Mark. Coady tells him she’ll join them after the birth as they transport Helena to a makeshift hospital room in an abandoned building.
But this is an instance where Sarah knows she can’t go off chasing down leads; Kira needs her after she just lost her grandmother. (Let’s pause here for a moment to appreciate Sarah stopping in front of the height chart for her, Felix and Kira at S’ house and holding one of her jackets.)
Instead, Felix joins Art in visiting Rachel to find out where Coady might have taken Helena — and they learn she’s not necessarily going to the island.
That’s because John, formerly known as P.T. “I’m a lying liar who lies” Westmorland, is no longer there. Instead, after sending Mr. Frontenac to continue with his cleanup (Al-Khatib is next on the list), he’s pretty much dropped the charade (along with his hair) and can’t wait for Helena to deliver the twins. No, really, he can’t (and won’t) wait, ordering Coady to cut them out if she has to and settling for hormone induction.
It’s not safe on the island for John anymore, Rachel explains. Everyone rebelled and abandoned him, and powerful people have been exposed and are vengeful. Enger going AWOL the day of Helena’s abduction likely isn’t a coincidence because the detective is devoted to the cause. Since they don’t want Rachel skipping town when she can be useful, Felix and Art leave Scott to watch her.
At the police station, Art finds out that Interpol has taken over two fresh murder cases, and Enger’s saying enough about him that the agency is listening. Fortunately, his lieutenant is police like Art and Beth, and he sends Art off to dig deeper on the DL, with the case files of the Neo murders (Van Lier and Francine Bernard). With information from Rachel and research by Hell Wizard, Clone Club is able to figure out that three (out of nine) Board members are still alive, including Al-Khatib. Rachel says he may know John’s plans. Now to find him.
Since they’ve synthesized the Castor pathogen, John is ready to move on from the male clones, and that means that he wants Coady to put down the last of them, Mark. She knows he ordered Gracie’s murder to force this, but he’s not leaving her with a choice.
Just when I think that Coady might show a tiny sliver of humanity … there’s none of that left in her. I don’t know why I’m the least bit surprised, considering this is the woman who sent her boys out to sterilize women and chose which one of them to send away by drawing straws.
Poor Mark. Even though he was working for Coady and led her to Helena, he thinks Coady is giving him the cure as he chatters away about his and Gracie’s plans for the future and remembers swimming races with his brothers. But this is his end, and Coady tells him as much (though he doesn’t know it) with her assurance, “When you wake up, you’ll be that much closer to Gracie.” What’s even worse is his “goodnight, Mom,” to which she replies, “goodbye, Mark.”
How Far Will They Go?
When Helena begs Coady not to take her babies away because they need their mother, Coady maintains that that’s not true, that Helena’s a killer, that she killed her own sisters. “What kind of mother could you possibly be?” she asks the clone. (Oh, I can’t wait for Coady to get what she deserves.)
Al-Khatib meets with Mr. Frontenac in the Board room and tries to convince him that he won’t talk despite opening up a dialogue with Interpol on the advice of his lawyer. He’s basically begging for his life when Art and Felix show up, and when Mr. Frontenac raises his gun, Art kills him.
Mr. Frontenac was their best shot at finding out where John took “the science,” Al-Khatib claims, and we get a nice, unexpected moment of Rachel correcting him with “her name is Helena.” (Listen, Rachel is never going to be a member of the Clone Club family, but as has been proven, there are worse people out there.)
Once Sarah calls to inform them that Kira senses that Helena is in trouble and the babies are coming, Rachel offers the money man two options: they hand him over to John, or they hand him over to the authorities. But Art offers a third option: he pulls the trigger for the second time that day. (Remember when Art pulled a gun on Enger earlier this season and there was a question of whether he’d have pulled the trigger? I don’t think we have to ask that question anymore.) All Al-Khatib can offer is that Rachel has the biggest target on her back. That means they give her up.
And yes, giving up Rachel means having Al-Khatib leave a car with Sarah-as-Rachel in the trunk for Enger to pick up for John, with a tracker on the car so Art can follow them. Rachel knows John will want to talk to her, so Sarah just has to keep him busy.
But they better hurry, because despite being resourceful enough to get her hands on a pair of scissors, Helena can’t cut her way out of the cuffs keeping her bound to the bed. “You deserve better than me,” she tells her babies. “You will not be an experiment too. I set you free.” And with that, she stabs the scissors down into her wrist, and by the time Coady sees what she did, Helena’s lost quite a lot of blood.
But where do John and Coady have Helena? As the others realize when Art follows Enger, the old wing right next to the Dyad building. Thanks to Hell Wizard’s time working security there, he can get them in.
Enger delivers “Rachel” to John, and he orders the detective and Coady (who reminds him that it’s his turn to snip loose ends like she did with Mark) to leave them. He knows her secrets, he tells the clone, all the things he saw through her camera eye. “Father, you could have had everything if you trusted me,” Sarah says. That stops him. Father? Rachel never called him that before. He knew it was how she felt, she says, and he cups the side of her face and … pulls off the eye-patch and wig.
One Problem Solved, But …
No longer having to pretend to be Rachel, Sarah swipes at John with a knife and manages to cut the side of his neck. When Enger comes in to restrain her, John takes the detective’s gun, ready to end Sarah. But Coady rushes in, stopping him because Helena needs a compatible transfusion. Sarah can save her sister.
Sarah protests when Coady wants to perform a C-section since Helena is unconscious; her sestra has lost enough blood as it is. Fortunately, Helena comes to, and when Sarah asks why she did that to herself, Helena tells her she’s sorry.
Meanwhile, Hell Wizard gets Scott into Dyad under the pretense of transporting a live organ; the cooler really holds his gear so that he can get Scott into the old wing. There, Scott lets Art in, the alarm sounding when he opens the door to the Restricted Area so Art can get first drop on whoever checks it out. (And Art should be happy since Coady sends Enger to do just that.) Scott wants to help, but Art tells him it’s his turn now.
After Coady gets Helena the water she requests, all it takes is the clone’s look to Sarah to have a good idea of what she’s about to do. Helena slams Coady’s head down on the bed over and over until she’s no longer a problem. But freeing the sisters from their bindings is the easy part, because when Helena goes to stand, her water breaks. “Babies coming,” Helena says. Uh-oh.
Do you wish one of the Castors had survived until the end? What did you think of the plan to get to Helena? Should Scott have maybe stuck around to help Sarah get Helena out while Art takes care of Enger? Are you ready for the series finale?
Orphan Black season 5 airs Saturdays at 10/9c on BBC America. Want more news? Like our Facebook page.
(Image courtesy of BBC America)
Contributing Writer, BuddyTV
If it’s on TV — especially if it’s a procedural or superhero show — chances are Meredith watches it. She has a love for all things fiction, starting from a young age with ER and The X-Files on the small screen and the Nancy Drew books. Arrow kicked off the Arrowverse and her true passion for all things heroes. She’s enjoyed getting into the minds of serial killers since Criminal Minds, so it should be no surprise that her latest obsession is Prodigal Son.
