Orphan Black Season 1 recap – “Conditions of Existence”

My introductory post

“Conditions of Existence”

(Spoilers)

Tomas starts nursing Helena back to health.  He’s in – what we later learn – is an old, abandoned ship.

With “Beth” now off the force, and since he hates his job, Paul suggests they go to Rio.  Sarah says to wait until the morning.  That night she “dreams” guys in surgical garb tie her down and examine her.  In the morning, while she’s brushing her teeth, Sarah spits out an electrode.  She also finds a needle mark on her arm. 

Sarah slips out to Felix’s and calls Cosima to show her the electrode.  Cosima figures whoever made them has to be monitoring them somehow.  They wonder if Paul is in on it.  Alison is also there and she wonders if Donnie is spying on her.  Alison gives Sarah $20,000 and a gun, which Sarah needs to help protect against Helena.  Sarah wants to go after Paul, but Cosima figures that he might not know anything and they really need to get to Paul’s boss. 

Raj calls asking if “Beth” will return the surveillance equipment she borrowed from him.  Thinking Beth must have been watching Paul, Sarah decides to go plant a bug in his office. 

She and Felix search Beth’s apartment, but don’t find the equipment.  They eventually find a case in the trunk of her car.  While searching the apartment, they do find pictures of Paul in the military and letters he and Beth exchanged.

Sarah takes Paul lunch, but he’s in a meeting.  She waits and plants the bug.  Paul comes in and they talk, but he notices that the scar behind her ear is “missing.” After Sarah leaves, Felix – listening on the bug – hears Paul tell his secretary that he’ll be out that afternoon.

Alison overhears Donnie talking suspiciously on the phone and “searching” her stuff.  She later goes through his stuff, finding his porn stash.  She also finds a locked case hidden in the garage.  Donnie catches her trying to cut into it and she goes off on him spying on her and he demands to have some privacy.

At school, Cosima has her nerdy lab partner Scott run DNA tests on Katja’s samples.  At the next lab table over is Delphine, who is upset over a breakup.  She leaves behind her grades, and Cosima snoops.  She goes and introduces herself.

Sarah reads Beth’s letters, and figures out that even though they weren’t working out, Paul wouldn’t leave her.  Which could explain why she ended up killing herself.

Sarah picks up Kira and walks her home, but someone photographs them.  At Mrs. S’s, Sarah asks for any information about where she was from, saying she wants to make sure everything is right for Kira.

Vic is brought in to Pouchy, who doesn’t care for Vic’s story of how Sarah had the coke when she killed herself.  So Pouchy takes Vic’s little finger.

Alison goes to a security store to buy a spy camera.  Vic is next door getting medicine for his hand when he sees her.  He calls her Sarah, and Alison says she has no idea who he is.  She maces and tases him.  She calls Sarah and tells her.

When Paul goes back to his office, his boss Olivier is waiting, saying they need to talk about Beth.  Paul says that everything is fine. 

Sarah goes to Felix’s, barely missing the coroner Colin leaving after a date with Felix.  They listen to Paul and Olivier’s conversation.  Here we learn Paul is her “monitor.” Paul calls saying they need to talk, he then sends her a photo of her and Kira.

Then Vic walks in.  Sarah says that it’s all part of a con that he’ll ruin.  He can’t believe she faked her death.  She gives him the $20,000 to pay off his loan to Pouchy and for some pain and suffering.  Sarah tells him not to come back.

Alison checks Donnie’s locked case to find it’s no longer locked, and contains his porn stash.  We then see Donnie in the woods burning some papers and talking to someone on the phone.  Alison sets up the spy cam in her bedroom.

Sarah goes to Paul and tells him that Beth is dead.  Sarah says she’s Beth’s “twin,” which Paul doesn’t fully buy.  She says she was just going to rob Beth, but got carried up in everything.  Paul wonders if Sarah killed her, but Sarah says that he killed her by letting men in to examine her in her sleep.  She asks if he even knows why they do that and he says they don’t tell him anything and that he didn’t have a choice.

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Poor Vic.  Vic isn’t the nicest of characters when he’s first introduced, but knowing everything that will happen to him, I feel a tad sorry. 

It’s interesting how it’s half-way through the first season, and they’re just now introducing some major characters, namely Delphine and Scott.  And there’s another major character introduced next episode.  It’s the slowly peeling back the layers of the show onion.