Orphan Black - Let The Children And Childbearers Toil - Review: “Teamwork" + POLL

This was an intense episode that started to pull back some of the proverbial curtains on P.T. and his sinister ways. It was also one that finally allowed Mrs. S and Sarah to go out on an adventure together. They’ve not had nearly enough of these throughout the series. Tatiana Maslany and Maria Doyle Kennedy were absolutely incredible as they charged their characters through the tumultuous underbelly of Neolution secrets. After last week’s more laid back episode this one dove right back into all the Neolution drama feet first and hit the ground running.

At the top of the hour, Sarah tried to get Kira to open up to her about what happens when she’s with Rachel. In the process of their tense conversation, Sarah discovered Kira’s wound that she was trying to hide. It was one thing when she thought Rachel had done it to her, but when Sarah found out Kira had cut herself it was clearly a painful blow for her to handle as a mom. There are so many bad things going on around them and she’s done so many things to try and shield Kira from it all, but in the end, a mom can only protect her child from so much and Sarah is discovering that the hard way. Unfortunately for her, Kira is a very sensitive kid who is in tune with a world she doesn’t yet fully comprehend. When Sarah neared the edge of a parental meltdown Mrs. S thankfully swooped in and sent everyone off with their own tasks taking Sarah under her wing in the process. Felix was in charge of Kira and Mrs. S was going on a little recon mission, Sarah. Otherwise known as some much needed time away for Sarah.

It was that team-up, one that simply doesn’t happen enough, that produced the best moments of the episode. Mrs. S was running down a mysterious lead and it seems very likely that Delphine is her source. It was interesting to see her hold so steadfast onto the identity of her source. She’s certainly keeping her promise to Delphine if this lead was indeed one of hers. As the series winds to its end it’ll be truly intriguing to see what side of things Delphine lands on. She seems firmly Team Leda, but there is so much to this character that it’s hard to know exactly what is going on in her head. One big question is who is Delphine’s source? If she is the source Mrs. S got the information about Virginia from then who is feeding Delphine the information? Why was she so insistent on Sarah not know of her involvement? It’ll be great to see Delphine return and finally start to shed some light on everything that is going on.

For this episode, though, it was all about Mrs. S and Sarah trying to find answers. That led them on an adventure that involved an incredible amount of teamwork. When they arrived at the bar Mrs. S no sooner finished explaining what they were doing there than Sarah jumped into action. Mrs. S didn’t miss a beat getting right into the thick of things with her. They had no coordinated plan and just totally played it on trust and instinct. It was a beautiful moment of mother and daughter team work because at the end of the day Mrs. S is the only mother Sarah has ever really known. Despite their differences, these two will always go to bat for each other. Even though the lady they targeted was totally blinded to the fact she was being played, she did actually deliver onto Mrs. S some sound parental advice. However, she’s done pretty well so far, minus a few rebellious hiccups along the way, with raising Sarah, Felix, and Kira, so she doesn’t really need any help.

Someone who does need help is Virginia aka Alex aka P.T.’s unwilling prisoner, except the people that showed up at her side aren’t exactly her biggest fans. Seeing her again was actually a huge surprise, so one can only imagine all the thoughts running through Sarah’s head. The fact Mrs. S was able to keep Sarah from beating the life out of her is a miracle in and of itself. At least they got a little bit of useful information out of her before their ruse was effectively caught onto, except it wasn’t soon enough because Virginia had just enough time to recover enough strength to attack Sarah. Now that Virginia has a key card that could get her free of the institution there is no telling what’ll happen if she is set free in the world.

She’s not the only unexpected return in this episode. They couldn’t bring back the head of Project Castor without miraculously bringing back her Leda counterpart. Thanks to a weird and sordid relationship with P.T., Susan Duncan somehow survived the horrific attack from the season finale. When Ira visited her he got all the horrific details about what has been going on all these decades. While she seems to want to protect the Leda clones she doesn’t necessarily have the best track record for making the right choices. After all look what happened to that poor soul lurking in the woods. Susan being alive will certainly complicate things for Rachel, but will she use her miraculous second chance to help all the Leda sisters or side with the one she raised? She clearly has a very complicated relationship with P.T. so it’s hard to say if she’ll be able to overcome their history to do the right thing. When even Ira looks a bit disgusted regarding what he’s being told that’s reason to be concerned. Susan has been involved in some crazy things with P.T., so for the sake of the sestras let’s hope that this near death experience has tamed her a bit. If not, there is no telling what she could help P.T. do to them. He pretends to care, but it’s very obvious that he’s using them for his own purposes and once they become irrelevant he’ll toss them away or worse.

It was already made clear that some freaky things were going down at Revival, but between what Virginia and Susan told their respective visitors topped with what Cosima witnessed, things are even crazier than was at first evident. The boy who was experimented on and effectively abused by P.T.’s diabolical experiments is now roaming the woods in some hyper-violent mutated state. What is interesting is that its Mud who is left to tend to him and even though she seems to care for him she’s also clearly terrified. Is it just compassion that keeps her protecting him or is she somehow connected to him? Is he the reason that Mud is so loyal to P.T.? She seems to know more than most plus she oversees or assists with whatever dialysis type procedure P.T. seems to have done routinely. Is that connected to how he’s lived so long? Mud’s purpose at Revival and in P.T.’s life continues to grow more puzzling with each episode.

Mud could be an invaluable asset if Cosima can get her to open up. There was some moderate progress in that department. At least when she caught Cosima sniffing around in P.T.’s place she ushered her out versus turning her in. At the cafeteria like tent, Mud came very close to opening up. She was right on the verge like she wanted someone to confide in, but at the last moment decided better of it. That girl is a wealth of information if Cosima can just work some of her charm and turn her. Now that Cosima has seen inside that sordid lab of horrors perhaps she’ll be able to get Mud to open up a little. Mud clearly needs someone and P.T. seems more like a means to an end versus someone she has a real bond with.

While Cosima and Sarah were busy, Felix was left on Kira duty. He got to have some really nice scenes with her. Even though he knew she didn’t want to hear it he had to be honest with her about Rachel. Doesn’t seem like he got very far with her, after all, she is her mother’s daughter and very stubborn. Once he finally got past that awkward encounter and got her to sleep he then had to deal with the surprise Mrs. S had warned him about. Calling Adele a surprise was a pretty accurate description. Even more surprising is just how much Mrs. S told her. She didn’t just get basic vague information, but full on details regarding Neolution and the clones. Was contacting Adele another suggestion from Delphine or a bold move by Mrs. S? There is definitely some bigger plan going on in the background just out of sight. It’ll be fun to watch these siblings work together, but it’ll be sad to see Felix so far from the others. They need to follow the paper trail to P.T. and get back home quickly. At least Adele and Felix will get some serious one-on-one bonding time.

This episode revealed big blocks of information about P.T.’s past and some hints as to what he could be up to. Old foes returned as did some allies. Sarah finally got to check in on Helena and they had a beautiful sisterly moment where Sarah even apologized for not always being the best sister. That was a beautifully tender moment. It was nice to see two sisters in the same place since the family is struggling to remain connected in the midst of everything going on especially given that they keep getting spread all over the place. Kira is growing to be more like her mom every day but also growing to trust Rachel more which is a very bad thing. This episode put a lot of new information into play, so it’s only a matter of time before they have enough information to target P.T. in their ploy to take down Neolution once and for all. Another terrific outing of this show that highlighted all the reasons it’ll be so dearly missed when it’s over.

Be sure to tune into the next episode when it airs next Saturday, July 8th at 10/9c on BBC America.

Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Was Delphine behind the lead Mrs. S was following? Will Mud turn and help Cosima? Will Virginia get loose and go after the clones or P.T.? What do you think Felix and Adele will discover on their mission?