“He has his socks on.”
Orphan Black‘s current season concludes with cliffhangers for everyone—and one year left to go.
Title: “From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths”
Cast and Crew
Director: John Fawcett
Writer: Graeme Manson
Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning / Krystal Goderich / Alison Hendrix / Cosima Niehaus / Helena / Rachel Duncan
Jordan Gavaris as Felix Dawkins
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
James Frain as Ferdinand the Cleaner
Kristian Bruun as Donnie Hendrix
Josh Vokey as Scott
Gord Rand as Detective Marty Duko
Calwyn Shurgold as Hell-Wizard
Evelyne Brochu as Delphine Cormier
Andrea Davis as Evil Boardmember #2
Lucie Guest as Zoie
Joe Pingue as Troy Collier
Kathryn Alexandre as Tatiana Maslany’s double.
Premises
A flashback shows us how Delphine survived.
The cure appears to work.
Evie Cho pays the price for failure, and Rachel Duncan vies for her position.
Krystal meets Sarah and doesn’t see the resemblance, but she’s figured out some aspects of the plot.
Sarah faces mortal danger; Cosima and Mini-Me try to escape the island, and stumble across new secrets. It’s television; an island can never just be an island, apparently.
It’s not just Delphine who remains among the living. An unexpected person may still walk the earth, and the solution to that mystery could make or break the final season.
High Points
The plotting and counterplotting play nicely against Rachel’s scenes. The absurdities get a pass, since the scenes themselves are so entertaining.
Low Points
I’ll accept Rachel’s re-emergence as a cackling supervillain, since it’s very much in character and credibly played, but the Evil Corporation goes too far into comic-book territory. As for Evie Cho, she may be the most ineffectual Evil Genius since Heinz Doofenshmirtz.
The Scores:
Originality: 3/6
Effects: 6/6
Story: 4/6 The story is compelling but choppy. Sarah and the Doctor both go into danger alone a little too easily, when it is not, strictly speaking, necessary.
Acting: 6/6 As always, Tatiana Maslaney rises to the occasion
Emotional Response: 5/6 Even with the return of a character we assumed was likely dead, the danger to other principals feels very real.
Production: 6/6
Overall: 5/6
In total, “From Dancing Mice to Psychopaths” receives 35/42
The comicbook-esque evil corporation was definitely the low point for me, and the table in a bunker scenes in particular just seemed out of place given all the flashy and prominent office with a view sets we’ve seen in the past. Yes, they are on the run from the media, but even if they suspected a more direct threat there’s not all that much difference in security between a plush top-floor meeting room and a basement that didn’t even appear to have particularly robust security.
Really looking forwards to which way they go with our new big bad (at least, I’m assuming that will be the case given the comments about it not being safe), even it if it does mean wrapping up the show; always preferable to axing something after a cliffhangar.
PS. One small typo: “Rachel meets Sarah” should be “Krystal meets Sarah”. Pretty sure Rachel understands what clones are and would recognise one when she sees it… :)
It totally says “Krystal meets Sarah.” What are you reading?
Okay, thanks for the typo alert. It’s just that they all look so much alike.
My low point: “Yeah, I’m going after Rachel alone. No, Mrs. S, I have to do this alone.” I mean, seriously. Why would you not take a trained professional with you??? S would never have let her guard down like that.
…except that she does, which was insult-to-injury. I don’t buy that someone would get the drop on her in her own house.
Also I never liked Delphine. But if she saves Cosima, all is forgiven.
There is a lot of (justifiable!) Rachel hate out there right now. I have a friend named Rachel and I had to warn her not to read Orphan Black forums for a bit.