Orphan Black type TV Show network BBC America genre Sci-fi

Thriller

[SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Saturday’s episode of Orphan Black.]

KIDNAPPED! Orphan Black’s penultimate episode of season 2 ended with Rachel disguising herself as Sarah to steal Kira. But for what purpose? In other news, Helena gave Henrik a taste of his own artificially inseminated medicine — taking out the Prolethean leader while burning down his cult-like compound. We spoke to Orphan Black co-creator John Fawcett to get the scoop on these two big developments and more, while also obtaining some clues about next week’s big finale.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: This episode was very heavy on insemination and people in stirrups. What’s up with that?

JOHN FAWCETT: It wasn’t something that we were purposely trying to do, but there is a nice mirroring thing of Helena at the beginning and then kind of matching that and having Gracie have the same procedure happen. It just gets to this creepy ongoing saga of the Proletheans and their grand plans for Helena.

EW: Speaking of people in stirrups, I suppose it’s time to offer a eulogy for the dearly departed Henrik. Why decide to take him out and in such a painful fashion?

FAWCETT: He kinda got what we deserved, don’t you think? Listen, it’s a fun and a sick way to dispatch one of your villains. And I think Helena has had a little revenge on her brain for a while.

EW: The Proletheans have been such a big part of this story for the first two seasons. With Helena torching that place and taking out their leader, are they now not going to be a big part of the show? Are we sort of done with them, or will they continue to be a part of this saga?

FAWCETT: We have not seen the last of the Proletheans. What this represents is a kind of a win for our team. But it’s definitely not a “we’re done with them.” It’s not the end of the empire. Darth Vader’s still spinning off into space.

EW: And you gave a nice role to Tatiana’s acting double Kathryn, who played Alexis the midwife. We actually got to see her face on screen for once! How did that come about?

FAWCETT: From the beginning of the season we had wanted to find a part for Kathryn. Because we love her so much and she works so hard and so [co-creator] Graeme [Manson] and I were actively looking for something. Back at the beginning of the season I asked her to come in and read for Gracie and then we kind of realized that part was just a little too big to cast Kathryn because there was interaction between Gracie and Helena and that was just going to turn into a mess if we cast her. So we were looking for a smaller part that we could give her to get her on camera. I think it’s a fun little role. It’s finally really great and exciting that you get to see Kathryn on camera rather than just the back of her head.

EW: Donnie’s really stepping up here in taking on Vic and Angie. It’s as if he got an accidental taste of being a badass by shooting Leekie and now he wants more.

FAWCETT: It is a nice little thing. Obviously we have brought Alison and Donnie back together, bonding over the fact that they’re both kind of involved in manslaughter, more or less — and disposing of Leekie’s body in the episode. And Donnie has this newfound sense of purpose. He’s sort of breaking out of the shlumpy Donnie thing and he’s taking the bull by the horns a little bit. Hopefully we’ll see a little bit more of that kind of Donnie. We like the idea that Donnie is evolving a little bit.

Image zoom Lewis Jacobs/NBC

EW: You’ve certainly done plenty of one clone impersonating another clone type scenes, but it’s fun when you don’t let the audience in on it, as you did here with Rachel pretending to be Sarah and kidnapping Kira. You fooled me up until the point where she jabbed that needle into Felix’s neck.

FAWCETT: Well, that’s great. That’s really what we want. We really wanted it to be a surprise. We wanted the audience to believe that it was Sarah coming in, but have it earned, so when you see it occur you kind of know why it’s happened. We’ve seen enough with Rachel to know why she would be there in the first place. So I’m glad it was a surprise, because that’s the climax of the episode.

EW: Is this kidnapping a case of Rachel trying to recreate her lost childhood and have the family unit she felt she never did?

FAWCETT: Rachel’s a little creepy, there’s no question. That could be an aspect of it. It seems to me from all the conversations that Kira is very important to Dyad, from a biological point of view. But also, this has become personal between Rachel and Sarah, and we begin the season with a war between Sarah and Rachel and this war is basically coming to a head with Rachel taking Kira. So you can imagine that this is not going to go well at this point. Especially considering that this ongoing war is really the framework and A story of season 2.

EW: Okay, now’s your chance to tease the finale. We still have a lot of balls in the air. What can we expect next week?

FAWCETT: Sarah is obviously going to have to deal with Rachel. We know who took Kira. It’s not like we’re trying to figure out who took her. We know who took her. So this is going to come to a bit of a showdown between Sarah and Rachel and that’s going to be the exciting thing to watch next week.

EW: There are some people we have not seen in a while. We haven’t seen much of Paul, who is off somewhere. Might he pop back up again?

FAWCETT: We’ve done a lot to bring all the storylines all together for the season finale, so there’s a chance you might see him.

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