Orphan Black recap: ‘Let the Children and Childbearers Toil’ – EW.com (blog)

Science has always been one of the core components of Orphan Black, but so has power who has it, who loses it, and what those people do to wield or gain it. Now, with P.T. Westmoreland in the picture and Rachel by his side, were seeing more of those inner workings than ever before. Were also getting revelations about those early attempts to push the boundaries of human evolution yep, that thing in the woods was an experiment gone awry and the splintering effect it had on the top of the Neolution pyramid.

So while Ss plans uncovered a wealth of information (and a familiar face or two), Kira also did some experimenting of her own in hopes of learning more about her special abilities. In honor of these revelations, this week well run the clones through our trusted Orphan Black Clone Status Hyper-Sequence Generator Calcutron and export them by whos discovered the most this week. Please enjoy the data set below. (#Science!)

Sarah Much to Sarahs displeasure, Kira wont tell her much about her meetings with Rachel but Sarah does uncover a nasty cut on Kiras arm, which she thinks Rachel inflicted until her daughter admits she did it herself to see how fast she could heal. Unable to provide the answers she seeks and with three days until she has to go back to Dyad, S asks Felix to take Kira while she takes Sarah on a recon mission she has a lead that may help them get some leverage.

Their mark is a Dr. Elizabeth Perkins, who, S tells Sarah, could have a key to P.T. Westmoreland but they need her wallet. Ss intel (the woman likes to drink and has a rough relationship with her own daughter) gives them the perfect setup: They stage a fight, and Sarah throws a drink at S and grabs Dr. Perkins wallet as Perkins makes sure S is all right and then invites her to sit down for another drink.Turns out, Dr. Perkins is a psychologist studying, in her words, how PTSD co-occurs with major depressive disorders, and shes in town for some case studies. One person shes supposed to meet is an Alex Ripley, who is supposedly a high-level Neolution defector who may be being held against her will at a nearby mental health facility. S and Sarah are going to go in as Dr. Perkins and her assistant to check it out. (Sarah, meanwhile, realizes theres no way Ss usual methods would have known about the Neo. She wont say where her intel came from, but Im pretty sure we already know remember when Delphine stopped by her door?)

Once the bespectacled Mrs. S and Sarah-posing-as-a-bumbling-assistant con their way into visitors passes, they sneak into an unauthorized ward and find Alex Ripley, who is actually (drumroll please) season 3 baddie Virginia Coady. Oh hey, blast from the Orphan Black past!Shes initially very drugged up and unable to speak, but Sarah still calls her a genocidal bitch by way of greeting and gives her a slap across the face courtesy of Helena once she comes to. Virginias surprised when they ask about P.T., but after S hints they may be able to help her escape if she talks, she says an old friend had her locked away someone who shared her goal of controlling human genetics but didnt always get it right.

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That old friend, it turns out, is Susan Duncan, and here we get a wealth of backstory on their early attempts at Neolution-inspired human experimentation. Susan and P.T. recruited Virginia to their cause when she was young, and before they found Kendall Malone or started human cloning projects, someone else was their first human subject. He was P.T. Westmorelands original obsession, but too many mistakes were made on this child who possessed a unique genome. Their science wasnt as refined then, and he began growing tumors and suffering brain damage Susan wanted to stop their experiments, but Virginia disagreed, and, in her words, they created a monster. Susan never forgave her for it, and they split assets in the friend/science divorce: Virginia took Castor, Susan kept Leda, and P.T. kept them apart.

But before she can tell them anything more, the doctor whom the real Elizabeth Perkins had supposedly been there to visit interrupts the intel party. Seeking a means of escape and knowing shell soon be drugged into submission again, Virginia attacks Sarah and steals her visitors pass (which contains a key card), and when the orderlies and doctor restrain her, S and Sarah use the commotion as a means to sneak away. This definitely doesnt seem like the last well see of her.

Cosima They dont explicitly say it, but its pretty obvious the thing Sarah glimpsed in the woods during her little vacation on Evil Mystery Island is the now-grown boy from Susan Duncan, Virginia Coady, and P.T. Westmorelands early days of human experiments and via Cosima, we get out first real (albeit brief) glimpse of him.

After Charlotte and Aisha hear him and spot whats presumably one of his teeth in the woods while going to look for a missing pig from the Revival menagerie, Cosima confronts Mud asking for answers. She already suspects that whatever took a bite out of Daisy the Pig has something to do with Westmoreland. Were on the Island of Doctor Moreau here, she says. Whatever weird s is happening, its coming from the big house. All Mud will say is its not his fault(probably talking about the man in the woods, but possibly Westmoreland), and she warns Cosima to stay out of the woods.

Later that night, Cosima follows Mud as she makes her way in the dark up toward Westmorelands house. Inside, P.T. is hooked up to some sort of IV treatment (is that a dialysis machine? Science people, drop some knowledge in the comments if you know!), and Cosimas snooping brings her down into the basement, where she finds not just old medical equipment but photos of painful-looking experiments/procedures and, more disconcertingly, a cell with chains and blood on the walls. When Mud finds her down there, Cosima demands to know what they did to the man in the woods, but Mud just begs her to get out and frantically sends her out a side door. Still not deterred, Cosima stays close enough to the house to see Mud bring a blanket out to the man and try to talk to him, but he only appears for long enough to growl and bare his teeth before taking her gift and running back into the shadows. (Recap continues on page 2)

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Orphan Black recap: 'Let the Children and Childbearers Toil' - EW.com (blog)