Orphan Black Season 1 recap – “Variation Under Nature”

My introductory post

“Variation Under Nature”

(Spoilers)

At first, Sarah thinks that they all must be sisters.  But Alison – who’s a tad testy with her – tells her that they are clones.  And not just that, but someone is killing them.  Cosima tries to soften the blow, but she really needs the blood samples Katja had. 

Felix was waiting in the car, but after being talked to by Aynsley – Alison’s nosy neighbor – he goes to see what is keeping Sarah.  Alison catches him outside and pulls a gun on him, which pisses off Sarah.  But Felix learns about Clone Club.  Later, Sarah reiterates the plan of getting the money, getting Kira, and leaving all the mess behind.

Sarah goes to the police station to see Art and ask for the money “before Paul finds out.” Turns out, the hearing went well and she is back to being a detective.  And her first case is that of a body some idiot buried near a quarry.  The body went through a grinder and is in pieces, so it will take some time to identify Katja. 

Sarah calls Cosima wondering if the fingerprints they take from Katja will match Sarah, who has a record.  And Cosima says it’s possible.  Later they meet and Sarah hands over the blood samples.  We learn that Cosima is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota.  We also learn that some months ago Katja contacted Beth about someone killing the European clones.  Cosima asks Sarah to continue playing Beth because they could use her cop contacts to help find who made them and who is killing them.

The next day at the station, the killer – using a voice changer – calls to talk to Art and “Beth” revealing where Katja died.  Art and another detective, Angie Deangelis, go to check things out, leaving Sarah to work through some paperwork. 

Sarah flirts with Raj the IT guy, saying the shooting and everything has left her a bit scattered, and she has him teach her how to get into the system.  She also gets him to do some of the routine cop stuff for her.  Sarah goes to the forensics guy who has the fingerprint results, and while he’s distracted she goes in and deletes them.

Art and Angie find the spot the sniper shot from which has a doll’s head with Katja’s bright red hair.  They also find tire marks from a motorcycle.

Sarah meets with Mrs. S who agrees to a meeting with Kira, but also makes it clear she will do what is best for Kira.

Art is concerned about “Beth” not loading her gun when they went to the quarry, so he plans to take her to the gun range.  But Sarah has never fired a gun.  She calls Cosima for help, but Cosima is back at school.  Fortunately, Beth had taught Alison how to shoot for her safety. 

At first Alison can’t do anything because she needed a sitter and her husband Donnie was to play golf.  But Sarah sends Felix to be a sitter, and he has Alison’s son and daughter crossdress.  Sarah and Alison go out to the middle of nowhere and Sarah learns to shoot.  Later, Alison explains that Beth was a cop, Cosima was the scientist, but all that Alison could contribute to the cause was money.  The account Sarah cleaned out was for clone stuff.

Sarah and Felix discuss all this at Beth’s, and Sarah is still thinking of taking the money and going.  Paul comes back for some clothes, and he and Sarah starts some foreplay, but fortunately for Felix – hiding in a closet – they stop and Paul leaves. 

At the gun range, Sarah gets a call about a stolen motorcycle that she had Raj put an APB out for.  She and Art check it out.  The apartment has bible passages and stuff written on the walls.  Sarah catches a glimpse of the shooter taking aim at them from outside, and pushes Art out of the way.  He gets a graze on his neck.  He tells her to go after the shooter

Sarah chases the shooter, who hits her from the back.  The shooter was going to kill “Beth” with a knife until Sarah states that she isn’t Beth.  The shooter is confused and is revealed to be another clone, who we later learn is the Ukrainian Helena.  While Helena is confused, Sarah stabs her with a length of rebar.  Helena drops the knife and runs off back to her motorcycle.

Before Art shows up, Sarah pockets the knife.  After they’re bandaged up, Art returns the money, and Sarah goes to sneak a peek at Kira.  She realizes that she can’t just grab Kira and run.

We then see Helena in a bathroom pulling out the rebar.  She has cuts on her back that look like angel wings.

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As someone who has seen all three seasons, I can say that Helena is my second favorite clone (Cosima is my most favorite).  So it’s great to finally see her on the show.  But if this is all you’ve seen of her, it’s hard to see why.  And that’s another great aspect of this show, of how a villain changes over time to become a core member of Clone Club.