Orphan Black 4x2 'Transgressive Border Crossing: All Adrift

Orphan Black 4x2 blends past and present in a masterful narrative that keeps the quest for answers simple but powerful.

Reviewed while listening to Beat Ventriloquists (ft. Yukimi Nagano's sister, Sumie), and studying the New Companion!!

The narrative approach of this episode was a bold move. Essentially splicing Sarah’s present with Beth’s past, seamlessly mirroring shots of the two like shadows of each other, both chasing the same answers. But only one reaching them. Somehow, Beth found out just what the Leda clones were in for, and it broke her. Her suicide set Sarah on the path she’s on now, and all it’s done is bring Sarah to the beginning, sifting through the memories of a lost sister. Sarah is getting closer to the ultimate answers, but she and Beth are just so similar, one can’t help but see Beth’s demise as a herald for Sarah’s fate. And the tension of that fear drives us through ‘Transgressive Border Crossing’ up to the reveal of the insidious maggot in Sarah’s cheek.

‘Transgressive’ takes its time unraveling clues, obscure and frightening, about what exactly the maggot bots are, and the clearest thing we get is that they mutate and kill the host if threatened. All this leaves us at the end deftly afraid for Sarah. This might all consume her as it did Beth, but in a much more gruesome way. Sarah’s never shied from a challenge, but as we enter the fourth (and possibly penultimate) season, how much more can Sarah transgress onto secrets before the powers that be cease their experiments and observations and set the hammer on her? ‘Transgressive’ is about our clones all being lost, fumbling through the contexts of their lives at this season’s start. Sarah has to run again, and in her wild chase might be losing both her brother and her daughter. Cosima realizes just how much she loves Delphine, and has no idea if her ex is still alive. The pain of that is crushing her. Alison has to confront her inability to conceive, and doesn’t know how when she has to face Helena’s pregnancy. And Helena’s still trying to fit into the Hendrix family, trying to be like Alison.

And Beth was trapped, and hopeless, and eventually did… something rash. We don’t know what yet, just that it involves a gun, a wig, and someone else’s blood. Did she shoot that slimy Detective Duko (who’s just the right sort of menace despite sounding like Count Dooku)? Their ‘we know this is bullshit’ confrontation in Beth’s apartment was a charged storm ready to erupt. I hope Beth didn’t kill him, because he can be a golden villain, and just the kind Neolutionists like. Brilliant, with a thinly veiled capacity for malice, and an almost fetish-like fascination of the sisters. Are they marveling at the science, or simply proud of their own work? Neolution has no shortage of absurd agendas going on, and watching Beth hold firm against Duko was an awesome moment of pure defiance. Maybe that’s a sign of things to come. too. Actually, it undoubtedly is. ‘Transgressive’ just asks the question of which will come first, if the defiance will carry the sisters to victory against those trying to control them or crumble at the last. Beth was of the latter, and Sarah’s trying to pull the rest to victory.

And then there’s Mika. With Helena on effective maternity leave (she was heartwarming in the hospital), Mika, or MK, is the standing wildcard. But instead of going the way of brute bloodletting force like Helena was in the beginning, Mika does it all on the sidelines, behind a computer. It is refreshing to have a techy subplot without delving into cyberterrorism hyper drama. Cuz there’s just been too much of that lately. Mika’s hacking skills are just a means to help protect the others, and advance the plot for the show. And at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter if Mika can hack into anything and get the answers everyone else is looking for. She’s just as lost and afraid of being alone as the others, afraid of losing those she cares about. ‘Transgressive’ ends with yet another poignant moment between Mika and Beth, who we’ve only technically been following for two episodes. Yet I was shedding a tear when Mika begged Beth not to leave her. The show built their relationship so well in such a short span of time. They both already feel real, and it’s another moment for the show to nail the message about humanizing the science and conspiracy thrills and Bourne-like action edits.

All of this in the end makes for a much more focused, and by proxy stronger, start to season 4. It's a lot less confusing and more set in the emotions of the characters. Hopefully this will continue, because Orphan Black is best when it humanizes its sci-fi. These are all people who were designed and engineered, with the sole intent of control and study, capable of badass and magnificent feats. But they are well and truly people, fully fleshed out characters that we love and care about, especially as we watch their lives damaged by forces beyond their control. And the more they fight, the stronger they become through pain, the more we care. We don’t want Mika to be alone. We don’t want Sarah to lose Felix or Kira, or her sisters. We don’t want to watch Cosima grieve. We want them all to be together as a family, take what they should have as individuals, against the forces that try to bind them.

Sarah or any of the others might share Beth’s fate, succumbing to it all collapsing down on them until they break. There’s no question that the good will win out in the end. This is fiction after all. But how many tears and heartbreaking goodbyes, how much bloodshed, will there have to be to earn it? As Siobhan reminds Cosima, this is a war, and anything can happen. Season 4 wasted no time casting away the feel good feelings of the dinner scene in last year’s finale, with the sisters together and smiling, and Sarah reuniting with her daughter in joy. ‘Transgressive’ continues using Beth’s shadow to set the tone for tension and pain, and to make everyone seem adrift. Now that we’ve seen how Beth got to that point at the train station, it’s time to see how the war will play out. ‘Transgressive’ has finely laid the groundwork for fears and goals and a hint of the menace from Neolution. Maggot bots or no, all the Leda clones are preparing for defiance.

But first, they have to find their way.

Grade: A-

When I got sidetracked

-Apparently Mika's mask is a sheep, not a rabbit... Whoops. There goes the rabbit hole analogy.

-Beth tries to wash away blood from her hands before her suicide. She's now Lady MACbeth! Get it? Aren't I clever?!!

-‘Helena’s trained to kill people. We’re manslaughterers.’ Oh Alison, you can explain away anything, make up any word, in Suburbia, can't you?

-Soooo I'm cool with them burning the Icelandic house down, but... why'd they leave Kira's monkey?!! Doesn't she love that thing?