After nearly a year long hiatus, Orphan Black is finally back with its final season. I know, Clone Club, I am so not ready either! Nevertheless, the end is almost upon us, so before we dive into the absolutely fantastic season premiere, let’s do a quick recap of where we left off last season:
Cosima had joined Susan Duncan on the island, in order to try and find a cure for the condition that affects nearly all the clones. They were finally successful, but before Cosima had time to celebrate, she found out that what Susan really wanted was to find a way to start human cloning again. She did manage to tell Sarah the good news, though, before all communication was severed on the island.
Cut to a frantic Sarah, desperate to know what happened to her sister. After finding out from Ira how to get to the island, she leaves Mrs. S and Kyra with Felix and Art and goes after Cosima. When she gets to the island, however, Cosima is no longer there, Rachel has gone absolutely insane and stabbed Susan. What follows next is an amazing – and painful – showdown between Sarah and Rachel, and the crazy, power-hungry clone stabs Sarah and beats her within an inch of her life. It’s hard to watch, but somehow Sarah manages to escape.
Meanwhile, Cosima took little Charlotte and ran, but she’s not doing so great and collapses in the woods. A team saves them and, when she wakes up again, Delphine is with her and she is safe. Sarah, on the other hand, tries to contact Mrs. S, only to find out that Ferdinand has them.
Fast forward to last night’s season premiere. Let’s break down what happened to each of our favorite clones:
Sarah
Our fearless leader is in bad shape. Her phone is dying, she is bleeding from the stab wound in her leg and she’s at great risk of dying from hypothermia. She manages to get through to Felix and tells him that Mrs. S and Kyra were taken, and that she is not leaving the island without Cosima. After that, she patches herself up as best as she can and gets a fire going with the few matches she has on her. Just when she thinks things are finally looking up, some kind of human-like creature attacks her. My guess is that this was a Neolution experiment gone wrong, but whatever it was, she manages to fight it off.
Poor Sarah has been through hell at this point and, to make matters even worse, there are people out in the woods looking for her – as per insanely old Neolution founder P. T. Westmoreland’s instructions. She does make it to the village where Cosima is being held and finally reunites with her sister.
Later on, she makes it to the boat house and is nearly home free, when one of Rachel’s goons finds her and shoots her with a tranquilizer dart.
Cosima
Guys, I can’t tell you how incredibly happy I am that Delphine is alive and well and that Cophine lives! Cosima can hardly believe she is really looking at her girlfriend, but that bearded guy – the one who Susan called a messenger, remember? – doesn’t really let them have a lot of alone time.
He assigns a young girl, who calls herself Mud, to look after Cosima, and she’s the one who explains where they are. They are at a place called Revival and this is the heart of Neolution. It’s a completely self-sufficient place and there are people from all over the world, who have come to contribute and/or find a way to extend life. They have everything – a clinic, a farm, a school, which is where Cosima finds Charlotte. The little girl is scared and thinks this place is insane.
Meanwhile, Delphine managed to steal the cure for Cosima and hide it in a safe spot in the clinic. Before the Messenger sends her away on a research trip, she tells her girlfriend where she hid it in the midst of a really sweet moment between them. God, have I mentioned how happy I am that Delphine is alive? Because I really, really am.
Our girl Cosima is resourceful, so she waits until Mud falls asleep and makes her way to the clinic undetected. When she finally finds the cure, exactly where Delphine told her she had hidden it, Sarah finds her. Now, I love the sister’s relationships, but I particularly love Sarah and Cosima together. Their friendship and kinship is so strong and full of love – and Tatiana Maslany is such a master at playing them – that their scene together was easily one of the best moments in the episode for me.
Cosima tells Sarah to leave and find Mrs. S and Kyra. She needs to stay on the island, so she can find out once and for all how to end this, especially now that she has the cure in her hands. So Sarah leaves, and just as Cosima is about to inject herself with the cure, the Messenger finds her. Rachel is right behind him and she actually surprised me when she helped Cosima to a gurney and injected her with the cure. She is still a crazy bitch, but I am grateful she didn’t hurt my baby Cos.
Rachel
She is on an insane power trip. Now that she has met P. T. Westmoreland and thinks she is the chosen one to lead Neolution, Rachel is crazier than ever.
Helena and Alison
These two were still hiding out on the woods, running from the police and Neolution. Donnie is with them and seems to be having the time of his life. That is, until some Neolution’s goons show up and capture Alison, while Helena was out hunting. It turns out that Art got a new partner, who ambushed him into giving up their location. Is anybody not Neolution in this show? It feels like everyone is involved somehow.
So New Partner kidnaps Alison and threatens Art by putting a gun to his head, saying she will shoot if Alison doesn’t talk. She genuinely doesn’t know where Helena is, though, so New Partner decides to cut her loose, which felt like it was entirely too easy.
Meanwhile, one of the guys chasing them catches up to Donnie, but Helena is obviously there to rescue him. They manage to take the guy down together, but Helena gets hurt in the process, when a stick stabs into her belly.
So, to wrap it up – Sarah has been captured; Cosima has received the cure – fingers crossed that it will actually work; Alison has been captured and then released – apparently; Helena is hurt and babies are in danger.
Oh, and Felix, Scott and Ira are tracking down MKay, so she can help them find Sarah and Cosima.
This season has barely started and it’s already so intense. Only nine episodes to go. I am so not ready to say goodbye. Are you?