Review: 'Orphan Black' Season 3, Episode 9, 'Insolvent Phantom of Tomorrow': In Which We Head to London

PREVIOUSLY: Review: ‘Orphan Black’ Season 3, Episode 8, ‘Ruthless in Purpose and Insidious in Method’: Rachel Makes a Power Move

Cloning Around

The penultimate episode brought us to good old London

town, where Mrs. S took center stage. She wasted no time in calling up her old

contacts (the geriatric wankers club, to be sure) in an attempt to track down

the Castor original, while back home Helena and Cosima took action with some

dire consequences. For an episode that was supposed to bring in next week’s

season-ender there was lots of movement, some answers, and a twist that felt

entirely too convenient for the story.

Science Class

For anyone who has ever wondered about Mrs. S’s

past, they got it in abundance when it was revealed her mother – who also

happened to have an ingested twin brother – was not only the Castor original

but the Leda original as well. Sure, that makes the Leda and Castor siblings

actual, bona fide siblings (fraternal twin clones, perhaps?) but the

compounding scientific anomalies in this show are starting to make our heads

hurt. Add in the fact that the donor was Mrs. S’s mom and the twist hit a

little too close to home. Having an outsider (a real outsider, not an estranged

parent) would have made more sense and felt less contrived. Also, does this

mean Mrs. S and Sarah are sisters?

Tortured Soul

There was plenty of torture to go around in the

episode as well, thanks to the reappearance of Ferdinand in London (poor

Terrence, we barely knew you), but it was also present on the home front.

Delphine, who looked like she enjoyed torturing Rachel with the old

fingers-in-the-eye routine earlier on this season, picked up the torture torch

(or more precisely, razor), again in a bid to extract answers from Shay. She

seemed almost disappointed when Cosima called to break up the party, like she

was genuinely going to enjoy getting to hurt the girl.

Double Crossed… Again

Just when we were starting to trust Gracie, she went

and ruined it all. We knew there was something up the moment she told Alison

she had a doctor’s appointment, although in our heads she was blowing dodge and

believed Mark to be dead. Instead she pulled a power move of her own by giving

information to Castor to help Mark. You can’t blame her; the girl does still

love him, and she seemed genuinely sad to be betraying Helena, Cosima and the

like. But boy, she sure seems to have easily forgotten and forgiven the fact

that Mark sterilized her, huh?

Unlikely Friends

Helena and Donnie Hendrix deserve their own spinoff,

or at the very least a web series. The pair added a heartwarming comedic

element to an otherwise dark episode, despite the murderous rampage that Helena

happened to go on at the end. Even that was forgivable, because in one swift

move she managed to extract the Hendrixes from their drug business, separate

ties with Jason and solve all of their financial woes. Besides, Helena’s

penchant for children is what makes her so endearing in the first place — that,

and her ability to sometimes act like one herself. Plus it was fun to watch her

attempt to impersonate another clone (Alison). She wasn’t great at it, but hey

– it worked. We just wish we could have seen her actually take everyone

out.

Lab Results

Although there were fun moments (Mrs. S taking the

stage, good times with Helena and Donnie), this week was a rather dark

installment that happened to take a strange turn heading into next week. The

cliffhanger of Mrs. S holding a gun to her mother’s head didn’t feel like a

cliffhanger at all (unless you believe she wouldn’t

kill dear old mum), and despite Ferdinand being hot on Sarah’s trail the only

real moment of suspense came when Felix was standing guard outside. Over at

Camp Castor we saw that even Rudy could succumb to the disease, but given how

little time we’ve spent with the male clones this back half of the season, it

was hard to care. Heading into next week’s finale, here’s hoping that some of

these random streams begin to flow together, and that the two organizations can

find a way to co-exist.

Quote of the Week

“They told me I can help save Mark. I’m sorry.

I love him.”

Good luck with that, Gracie.

Grade: C

“Orphan Black” airs

Saturday at 9 p.m. ET on Space and BBC America. Next time: Season 3 wraps and

Krystal resurfaces.

READ MORE: 5 Things You Might Not Know About ‘Orphan Black’ and Tatiana Maslany

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