Orphan Black, season 2, episode 6: To Hound Nature in her Wanderings

Guest starring Patrick J. Adams from Suits, in a completely unnecessary though fun cameo.

This week’s episode begins with a very short but very funny and the much needed roadtrip promised at the end of the last episode. Helena and Sarah are off to Cold River, but along the way we get to see what they could have been – sisters. We see them bond, annoy each other – well Helena annoys Sarah – but Sarah can’t stay mad at her for long. It’s, to be honest, lovely. Sarah has needed to see Helena as more than just the killer of last season, and Helena needs to see that someone can be on her side.

However, we find Paul is tracking them to Cold River – which actually isn’t a place but more of an institution instead. Helena leads Sarah to a church, where Duncan came to look through their archives. Sarah is sidelined for much of this episode in the archives searching and while she does, Helena gets into trouble.

She goes to a bar, proceeds to make a fool of the big burly guys trying to hit on her and is rescued by Jesse. With Jesse, Helena realises she can be anyone and proceeds to spin a tale of lies – of the things she wishes she was, I guess and Jesse believes her. She also beats him in several arm-wrestling matches, which was fun to watch too!

While she’s enjoying herself for the first time in the show’s run, Mark, the creepiest of the creepy Prolethans arrives. How he finds her there, the show doesn’t explain either. Hot on his heels is Paul, there to make a deal for the two of them to take their clones and leave the other alone – like Sarah and Helena are things to be had, which yes, in the grand scheme of the show they are considered as such by the Prolethans and Dyad. It’s a barter by two men who believe they have the right to Helena and Sarah, and despite the power than the women on this show wield in the narrative, I truly hated that scene and sincerely wished Helena would see them and run. But the other contrast is, Jesse through this whole scene treats Helena like a woman – respectfully compared to pretty much everyone else around her at this bar.

Anyway, Alison returns this week – she’s in rehab undergoing therapy and who should walk in but Vic. The most superfluous character next to Angie, but guess what? He’s actually working for Angie, trying to get dirt on Alison while inside the rehab centre. Do two superfluous characters make one marginally relevant character? Only time will tell!

Vic succeeds in gaining some of Alison’s trust, who continues to be the most blind character there is. Where is her suspicion of everything of a few weeks ago? I hope it reappears because she’s just gone through a stage where she’s realised she can’t trust anyone, not even her husband but she’s willing to warm to a stranger in Vic? And her blind trust of Donnie cost her Aynsley. Then again, she’s alone and has no one to trust, so perhaps it’s understandable? I don’t know, I didn’t expect this of Alison – she’s stronger than this.

Scott, Cosima’s friend who’s been helping her on the sly with blood testing suddenly finds himself with a job at the Dyad Institute – and once his confidentiality agreement is signed he says the blood samples he’s been testing aren’t from the clones, but from someone related to the clones – Kira? And yes, he knows about the clones, but not that Cosima is one of them. Delphine though asks him not to tell Cosima. I would hope he does tell Cosima, because really we need to know what exactly did he find out?!

We have another odd partnership – or maybe extremely logical one – Art goes to check up on Felix at Sarah’s request. Felix is drunk and gropes Art before he promptly passes out. When he awakes, he sees Art has taken over his apartment and is putting together everything from Maggie Chen’s locker in a effort to build a picture of what they’re dealing with.

When Sarah exits the archives, she sees Helena being arrested after a bar fight, but doesn’t go to her – instead, Mark and Gracie come to get her out of jail, and Helena goes with them because it’s the only way to get her child back.

Through Art, Sarah discovers Duncan living under a pseudonym – Andrew Peckham – not far from the church and there finds Siobhan getting ready to move Duncan. Siobhan explains that her group hid Duncan years ago, along with Amelia and they’ve been running ever since.

Duncan is … a sad creature. He loved Rachel and believed in what he and his wife were doing for a time until as it turns out Leekie and the Neolutionists inside Dyad turned Rachel against him and killed Susan. The project began as a military project before Dyad offered the Duncans the money and the facilities to continue their work after the military cut their funding. Duncan, I think, has only ever considered Rachel “real” and the other clones these abstract ideas or “girls”. Rachel is the one he loved and the one that turned against him in the end. Sarah tries to convince him to help them because Cosima, and all the remaining clones by extension — are (or will be) sick.

While this conversation is going on, Siobhan realises Paul is outside and goes out to offer him tea… and a deal. She knows what happened in Afghanistan and she offers Paul a way out of being stuck between two masters. What that deal is no one knows.

This is just past the halfway mark for the season, and while there are more questions, we do have some answers. Everything is coming full circle – back to Dyad and Leekie.