“Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method” is the best episode of Orphan Black Season 3. The pace of the episode kept me on my toes, and Josh Vokey (Scott) and Jordan Gavaris (Felix) stood out with their acting, which is a compliment usually reserved for Maslany.
“Ruthless in Purpose, and Insidious in Method” stood out as the best episode so far in this season of Orphan Black. The pacing felt just right, and the plot had plenty of turns I did not see coming. While the show is usually lauded for Tatiana Maslany’s acting skills, we saw exactly why Josh Vokey (Scott) and Jordan Gavaris (Felix) are vital to the cast.
After a few establishing scenes with Helena, Alison, and Gracie the episode dives right into the important stuff. Scott negotiates to remove Rachel from Dyad in exchange for her translation of Duncan’s book. She requests that Felix and Sarah steal another clone’s identity. Her name is Crystal, and she works at a nail salon.
Felix enters the salon with a suave American accent, and proceeds to flirt with Crystal to get password information from her. Crystal has a bad habit of telling her customers about her horrible encounter with two Castor clones, she is extremely paranoid that something is happening and she’s missing the bigger picture. Felix wants to fill Crystal in on the Clone Club, but Sarah strictly tells him not to tell her because she doesn’t need to ruin her life knowing about the clones. This is a really sad moment in retrospect, because the doctor in charge of Rachel’s care confronts her late at night and Crystal meets a terrible fate as a result. Sarah spent too much time worrying that she would lose a new addition to the Clone Club when the security in that knowledge could have helped Crystal in the end.
Meanwhile, Scott comes home to find Rudy holding his beloved cat. Somehow Rudy knows about Duncan’s book, and he clearly threatens Scott’s cat if Scott refuses to give up the book. I’m marking Josh Vokey down for an excellent job during this episode because his character is so lighthearted and occasionally a goofball, so these intense scenes with Rudy stood out to me. Also, who wouldn’t be just as nervous for the life of their pet in that situation? I’m glad that when Cosima found out she was sympathetic to the situation.
I loved that Delphine sat Scott and Cosima down as if they were her misbehaving children. However, I did not like the rest of Delphine’s plan. Scott and Cosima lie about copying the book that Castor stole, and Cosima turns in her resignation to Delphine. She urges Cosima to stay because Dyad is the only place where they can actually help her get better. They even kiss, a bit of closure, I think. Delphine warns Cosima that Shea may be a spy for Castor, but Cosima shrugs it off.
Meanwhile, Scott helps Rachel escape the Dyad building, even at a slow pace of two miles an hour; they succeed and arrive at S’s house. Rachel translates a page into a poem that ends in “The original has a number. H46239.” Before Rachel can translate anymore, the same doctor who confronted Crystal enters S’s house with many armed men. He takes the book from Rachel, she reaches for it, falls out of her wheelchair, and seizes.
Delphine was in on the operation to move Rachel out of Dyad in order to get the copy of the book. Delphine is furious when she finds out that Rachel may not recover and promptly accepts Cosima’s resignation and fires Scott.
However, everything that just happened was a double cross. The Dyad doctor replaced Rachel with Crystal (I have no idea what they did to get her into a convincing state, and it’s terrifying to think of that) and he sent Rachel abroad. From what we see it looks like doctors are working on her eye, so maybe Rachel will come back for revenge soon. Now, Delphine outsmarted Scott and the Clones, but Rachel outsmarted everyone. Sarah, Felix, and S decide that going to London is the next step in discovering the original Castor DNA. I am definitely looking forward to a reminiscent episode for that family in their original home.
This was the strongest episode of the season. It even had a few moments with the other clones, and it did not detract from the suspense and pacing of the main plotline of the episode. I was overjoyed with the twists and turns and the impeccable acting from the minor actors. There are only two more episodes left for Orphan Black; I can’t wait to see how this is resolved.
[Photo via BBC America]
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