Orphan Black 4x6 'The Scandal of Altruism': Everyone believes they're right. Including t

Orphan Black 4x6 ends with resonating heartbreak and a beautiful shot. But it takes muddled backroads to get there.

Reviewed while listening to a cover of Running Up That Hill this episode's ending made me think of. Also with a golden oldie in the wake of the awesome new Star Trek Trailer.

Uncertainty is the true core of drama. It’s hard to be invested in a story if it’s too predictable. When many possible paths are laid before us, and the stakes are high, the tension of fearing the worst holds the audience as we go deeper into the story. ‘The Scandal of Altruism’ suspends chips in midair, making us wait to see how they’ll fall. This was most felt when Scott reveals that all of their data, everything they were trying to save Cosima, was wiped in a virus. That, added on to Kendall’s assassination, means there’s no foreseeable hope for those who needed a cure. Cosima. Ira. Basically anyone who isn’t Sarah. Evie Cho calls them ‘obsolete,’ and makes sure to make this- well, certain. Truly everything is gone, and the villain of the piece seems to have complete victory. But since we know the sisters aren’t merely going to fall back to the shadows like Evie wants them to, since they’re absolutely going to fight back and wreak havoc (especially now that a specific fate has been revealed), Orphan Black is able to tap into the uncertainty of its story here. Since last season, it’s been about the original genome, in Kendall’s body. It was about everything Cosima and Scott were collecting. Now that’s all gone. They have to start from Square one. The show must be applauded, for holding that tension in the critical moments of ‘Altruism,’ when everything was in balance, and it tipped to a new antagonistic force. There is a gripping emotion here, and it culminates in a visceral shot of defeat as we watch Cosima break down against the backdrop of a purging fire. Cosima’s pain is that of losing everything. Of accepting, at least in that moment, hopelessness.

So in many ways ‘Altruism’ works. And honestly much of its issues are not really faults of its own as an episode. The problem though is that, yes, there are many threads to follow, many paths for the story to go, leaving us in uncertainty and intrigue to watch and see what happens. But the episode is at times choppy in its editing of these plot beats and other times hard to follow, because we’ve forgotten certain contextual information necessary to understand why one thing is happening or another. Game of Thrones at times suffers a similar affliction. Por ejemplo: the show did not do enough to build up Kendall’s relationship with any of the sisters. Or even her own daughter. I had totally forgotten that Siobhan was Kendall’s kid, or what the dynamic of their relationship was. And Cosima did not have much time to build one of her own with her creator. If these things had been better established and clarified in previous episodes, that last scene with Cosima and Kendall in the empty field would be have been stronger. It could have supported the weight of a major death. The death itself is important, but mainly for plot purposes, and less for character and emotional depth. Kendall’s speech to Cosima has little in it, because there’s not much she can say. There are no motifs or dramatic bridges between the two characters for the dialogue to fall back on and make this last moment resonate.

‘Altruism,’ to be fair, would be possibly a great episode on its own, if given better foundation. It suffers for much of its show's larger mistakes. Evie Cho, at least so far, is not a compelling villain. And she also has not been introduced enough to get the audience to feel any real anger towards her… at least not until she says what she says to Cosima. But even then, one can’t help but feel that the blow would’ve been harder dealt with someone more interesting and more familiar. Evie’s too fresh, and too bland to be the one delivering the heartbreaking truth here. And it also leaves the mystery of what Beth did in that blond wig kinda underwhelming. It's somewhat a disservice to the strength of Beth's suicide, the act that started this all, when we find out it was more or less orchestrated by Evie and Duko. The moment of Beth threatening Susan Duncan was itself a solid one. It's the decision that would come to define Beth and how we will remember her. Her leaving Duncan was a loosening of muscles, that only got tight again when the trade off of cancer cells and Sarah's operation took place. These alone kept the relevance of Beth's sacrifice. But to learn Evie was manipulating her, and to watch Beth confront Evie in a small confined space with wanting dialogue, weakens that relevance.

No offense to Jessalyn Wanlim (great name, btw), but it’s too contrived currently. Partially because it’s too much and it happens too fast. We’ve been down this road with Orphan Black before. We see an obstacle in our way, some mad crazy scientist who’s so fully committed to the cause of whatever they think is best for the ‘future of humanity’ that they trample over the Leda clones to get there. Except PLOT TWIST, there’s ANOTHER megalomaniacal scientist competing. Literally in this episode, Susan Duncan summarizes Evie’s motives as ‘Competing technologies.’

As always with too many players on the board, someone has to get booted. The Castor threat was rocky but thrilling at its best. Rudy was ruthless (alliteration!!) and Virginia Coady had an unassuming pragmatism to her motives. She didn’t brag about it because she didn’t care to. For her, raping a ton of women and being literally militaristic was for a cause she seemed to actually believe in. She was too focused for all the bravado of an Aldous Leekie or, I guess, an Evie Cho. Because of that, seasons 3’s threat made for some wonderful and electric confrontations, none of course better than the one concluding ‘Certain Agony of the Battlefield.’ And yet, the writers had such a bulk of threats and players in their plot that they had to make room, so Castor and Coady were abruptly swept aside to make way for Susan Duncan and Evie Cho. Neither are as strong as Coady, or even the Proletheans, but at least we know Duncan. And her reasons for doing things are pretty clear. Evie Cho has none of that. She’s one villain too many, and too new. And her maneuverings somewhat trivialize Duncan, and Duko and the Swedish cheeky killers, too. It’s not natural to watch Duncan cooperate so effortlessly with Sarah and Siobhan, without Ferdinand’s charisma or frittatas I might add. How did we get here so quickly, where Duncan is suddenly weaker and Duko goes from slimy insidious dirty cop to just a run-of-the-mill dirty cop who says little and is Evie’s handyman? There’s time for Evie to build a case for strong villain. But it might’ve been better to let her simmer a bit longer in the shadows. Then we can hold on to some of our earlier antagonists a bit longer, too. It would be more compelling, and less confusing.

Still, however, Wanlim’s Evie does her best. And her smothering of Cosima into the dirt with the reveal of a death (which I’ll leave out even if some of you know who it is) is some seriously cold shit. There is emotion and drive to cheer the sisters on in removing Evie now. It’s not enough, and it was a very bumpy and uneven ride through ‘Altruism’ to get there. But that reveal, and the moment with Cosima’s despair before the fire, carries just enough weight to leave interest and uncertainty into where we go from here. Evie seems to have won. Luckily, she’s one of those science nuts too cray cray to see everything before her. She's got a blindside. She’s undoubtedly missed something, and all the sisters have something to fight for against her. ‘Altruism’ wasn’t done exactly the right way, but that’s more the show’s issues.

'Altruism' must also be commended for gracing us with more of Krystal. Gods, but Krystal is just a gem, no pun intended. She's not over-stereotypical as one might think at first, and you find yourself somehow feeling her pain, as misguided and crudely conspiratorial her thoughts might be. She's trying real hard, and becomes the embodiment of 'You do you.' You do you, Krystal. She's convinced of what she believes, and that's enough for Art and Felix to let her live in ignorance of the larger truth, as long as it helps her keep herself safe. Who knows, given the plethora of plots, maybe there is a cosmetic conspiracy wrapped in this, too. At least we can clearly see that everyone thinks what they’re doing is right, for the greater good and future and all. That means they’re fully committed to conflict, and the game will be bloody.

Just, please. Let us stick with the players we've already got for a time.

Grade: B-

After The Review (Since everyone has a post-shwo show these days)

-Where's my Mika? WHERE'S. MY. MIKA?!!!

-I would totally buy Leda Eyeliner. For myself. I would buy it for myself.

-The name's Holmes. Felix Holmes.

-I've beaten down Evie Cho in this review, but Wanlim I'll say is definitely pulling off the 'Cray cray' scientist. A part of her must realize how cray cray this is.

#TV #Review #OrphanBlack