What a tense episode for Alison! Last week, Orphan Black proved that it could have tense scenes with blood and death, but this week, the series also proved it could be just as worrisome with domestic problems.
Alison’s plotlines consistently deal with how detrimental it would be if her community discovered that Alison look-a-likes exist. Of course, when maintaining her image is most important, Alison’s clones show up! However, Cosima’s appearance helped Alison’s image in the end.
Poor Alison has a horrible relationship with her mother, who owns a soap shop. Before they meet, Alison accurately predicts everything her perfectionist mother will point out. Her mother even goes so far to hang a poster for Alison’s competition in the store. Later, Alison’s mother calls saying she’s having a heart attack. Unfazed, Alison goes to her mother to find her completely well and learns that she will not sell the soap business to her and Donnie.
Speaking of Donnie, the poor man is trapped waiting for Jason to return with the correct envelope full of money and not campaign buttons. Jason hurries to Alison to exchange the envelopes and shows up just as Felix poses Cosima up for photo-ops as Alison, and in that same moment, Alison’s mother walks into the building. What a disaster. This situation is certainly not as life-threatening as Sarah’s last week, but this scene had me screaming at the television.
Cosima only showed up at the campaign looking for urine samples from Alison to hide her own illness from Delphine. I know Delphine is Cosima’s ex now, but I don’t think she should cover up her illness from anyone. She looked absolutely horrible in this episode, and we thought she was getting better, too. While Alison has an irrelevant conversation with her mother about her father not actually being her father (newsflash, she’s a clone!), Cosima stands in for Alison’s speech, and she does quite a bad job. Not that there were any expectations she would do well, but she almost said that she (Alison) was gay. Whoops!
After Cosima and Alison trade off mid-speech, Jason kisses Cosima, who he thinks is Alison. This can only lead to trouble because later Alison seems giddy that Jason kissed her. However, Alison revamps her campaign speech to focus on family and includes a fantastic metaphor about expanding your home to fit your family instead of telling them to move out (this referred to redistricting the schools, which would push Alison and Donnie’s kids out of the district).
Alison’s mother finds her in the bathroom and tells her how proud she is of her, agrees to sign the shop over to her and Donnie, and states that she is sure Alison will leave Donnie for Jason when the time comes. In her frustration, Alison introduces Cosima to her mother, and she doesn’t believe a bit about the Clone Club. What a shame! Alison may not win over her mother, but hopefully, she’ll win over her school district.
Scott is such an angel in this episode. Cosima tasks him with finding a way to have Rachel help them decipher the book Duncan left them. While Delphine tests Rachel, Scott discretely shows Rachel the book, and she says that she wants to stay and play a farming board game with Scott. Rachel obviously has no interest in playing the game, but he cutely tells her that the only way she gets to see the book is to play the game with him. I found this scene hilarious and such a relief from the terrible scene with Rachel and Felix last week.
Sarah, S, and Helena have a miniature cowboy showdown in some bar. Seriously, where is this Castor base and surrounding desert located? One of the biggest issues I’ve had with this season has been the undisclosed locations. Orphan Black definitely takes place in Canada, especially obvious in the money we saw in this week’s episode. What desert is near Toronto? What bar in what desert speaks mainly Spanish near Canada? I need answers, Orphan Black writers! Anyway, S and Helena make up when S forcefully hugs Helena into forgiving her. Classy, S, real classy. S and Sarah catch up, which really reveals how much has happened since Sarah went missing.
Cosima is definitely very sick, and I still do not trust Shea, but I can’t pin down why just yet. Hopefully, we’ll learn more about Shea in the upcoming episodes.
Overall this was a fantastic episode! There were so many moments where I was nervous that Alison’s secret would be revealed, and in the end, she told her mother about it on her own terms. I can’t wait to see if Alison wins the election!
[Photo via BBC America]
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