Back In Black

It's that time of year, where, once again, I marvel at how one woman can play approximately 2,034,185 characters so distinctly that I consistently forget one actress is portraying all of them. Clone Club is back, y'all! Spoilers for Orphan Black, season four, episode one lay ahead. 

I've been a fan of Orphan Black since the summer of 2013, after the first season had finished airing. I watched the entire season in less than 36 hours. No ragrets. Tatiana Maslany is just so freaking talented. And sexy. I couldn't look away! I have a big, lesbian crush on her and her mad acting skills. 

Her acting skills are so mad that each new season of Orphan Black has introduced us to new clones. (We're up to 11 now.) Episode one of season four brings us MK, a clone who's incredibly (and understandably) paranoid. While MK's knowledge of Neolution and backstory is certainly intriguing, the real star of this episode is Beth, whom we've known about since the show's first episode when Sarah watched her step in front of a train.

While Beth is definitely livelier in these flashbacks, her story is still as depressing. Her drug problem has been mentioned by characters in previous seasons, but I wouldn't have guessed it was as severe as it's portrayed here. Cosima was not kidding when she told Sarah in season one that, "Beth was losing it, like, clinically." Still, I don't think anyone will be able to see Beth as anything but awesome, given the circumstances. In Beth, we see an incredibly strong character reacting realistically to the weight of the world being placed upon her shoulders. Her suicide has always been a crucial moment for Orphan Black's story—it's what set Sarah's story in motion, after all—but seeing the days (weeks?) leading up to it has only made it resonate that much more. 

Since the majority of the episode was a flashback to the events more or less leading up to Beth's death, the plot obviously didn't advance much this episode, though in the final minutes, present-day MK contacts Sarah to let her know Kendall Malone (the original source of the LEDA clone DNA) is in danger from Neolution. Or DYAD. Or the Proletheans? Possibly (probably) all three. 

I will admit that I'm not relishing the prospect of Kendall Malone featuring heavily in the plot moving forward. I'm not sure if it's the entire concept of her, or the execution (Siobhan Sadler's mom? Really? What a wacky coincidence...) but she wasn't my favorite part of season three. 

I loved that this episode went back to the beginning to focus on Beth, but many fans will be furious that there was no mention of Delphine, who was ambiguously killed at the end of season three. To me, Delphine has never been a particularly engaging character, so I can't say I really missed her in this episode—though for a lot of fans, the anger over Delphine's death may be less about missing Delphine as a character and more about being fed up with another dead lesbian. 

As understandable as the outcry is, I still continue to love Orphan Black for the same reasons I did when I binged the first season. This show has a palpable suspense and my stomach is in knots the entire viewing, though somehow I still manage to laugh at least a little most episodes. I'm looking forward to seeing how the plot progresses this season, and anticipating that for every question that's answered, another 10 or so will arise.