Ari: You really don’t like her.
Rachel: She put a pencil in my brain.

In this season’s penultimate episode, some long-unseen characters reappear, the clones bear down on their enemies, and the island mystery deepens.

Helena goes full Ollie Queen.

Title: “The Mitigation of Competition”

Cast and Crew
Director: David Frazee
Writer: Alex Levine

Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning/ Cosima Niehaus / Rachel Duncan / Helena
Jordan Gavaris as Felix Dawkins
Kristian Bruun as Donnie Hendrix
Jessalyn Wanlim as Evie Cho
Kevin Hanchard as Detective Art Bell
Maria Doyle Kennedy as Siobhan Sadler
Rosemary Dunsmore as Susan Duncan
Ari Millen as Ira
Skyler Wexler as Kira
Cynthia Galant as Charlotte
Lauren Hammersley as Adele
Joe Pingue as Troy Collier
Allie MacDonald as Trina
Miranda Edwards as Roxie
Ian Matthews as Frank
Lisa Codrington as Kendra Dupree
Taylor Trowbridge as Tabitha
Josh Vokey as Scott
Scott Wentworth as Dr. Van Lier
Evelyne Brochu as Delphine Cormier
Kathryn Alexandre as Tatiana Maslany’s double.
George Stroumboulopoulos as himself

Premises

Donnie gets out of jail, but Alison experiences a crisis of faith and both find themselves facing grave danger.
Sarah and Art try to find some important witnesses before Neolution does.
Helena makes a dramatic return.
Cosima and Susan make progress.
Adele becomes increasingly confused, but at least she understands who Felix regards as family.
Rachel plots, even as her swan visions grow into something else, possibly next season’s plot.
Evie Cho holds a press conference no one is going to forget.

High Points

I suspect most people saw both moments of clone-retribution coming a mile* off, but they were satisfying nonetheless.

Low Points

The show’s clone effects remain excellent. However, the Tisdale watertower is awful, and the baby in the video looks very like the doll it is.

The Scores:

Originality: 2/6 Tell me we’re not getting flashbacks to an Island with a Mystery.

Effects: 4/6

Story: 5/6

Acting: 6/6

Emotional Response: 6/6

Production: 5/6

Overall: 5/6

In total, “The Mitigation of Competition” receives 33/42

Lingering Questions

1. Does the Evie Cho situation just disappear, at least for awhile? The company is about to come under unprecedented scrutiny and investigation, as the characters prepare to get lost in an island mystery.

2. *Or a kilometer off? This episode’s script contains at least three, very specific Ontario geographical references, and a noted Canadian media personality makes a cameo. Adele uses a specifically American legal reference at one point, but she does hail from down south.