TV Review: Orphan Black 2×02, “Governed by Sound Reason and True Religion”

The theme in this episode is discovery. Mainly in finding out who is really on whose side, and finding out more about the groups orchestrating everything. For now, everything seems a lot less chaotic compared to the season opener. We can take a breath and assess our situation. While Sarah and Art use every clue they can to find Kira and Mrs. S, Kira calls from the motel room she is being held at. Tracking the number, Art and Sarah go to the motel and ask around, but are separated when a man [who we later find out is named Benjamin (Julian Richings)] lures Sarah away and tells her to get inside the trunk if she wants to see Kira. Sarah is brought to the woods, where she encounters Mrs. S, who apparently staged the entire abduction scene.

Meanwhile, our favorite evil twin Helena seems to have survived her shot in the heart because she doesn’t have a heart, at least not where it’s suppose to be. Because they were twins, Sarah and Helena have mirrored internal organs, with Helena having everything on the opposite side. We find this out after the leader of the Prolethians, Henrik Johanssen (Peter Outerbridge), brings Helena to his center of operations/farm-side home/possible cult commune, but not before eliminating her religious-fanatic handler. We find out that Henrik isn’t a complete religious fanatic like Helena’s handler lead us to believe he was, but instead a guy tempered with religion and science. So far, the difference between the DYAD’s Dr. Leekie and the Prolethean’s Henrik is that Leekie seems to be trying to use science to become gods, Henrik’s goal seems to be to use science to augment his religious beliefs. What their end games are still elude us, but that’s what this episode seems to be setting up for this season.

As for the other clones, we find Cosima doing damage control with Dr. Leekie, reassuring/lying to him about her involvement with Sarah. She decides to take Leekie’s offer, and Delphine helps her set up her new lab. Meanwhile, Rachel is licking her wounds and gives Cosima her first assignment, to find out why Sarah can have children and the other clones can’t. Alison isn’t having an easy time either, dealing with the death/debatable-murder of Aynsley, she finds out that it was in vain. With the help of Felix, she is able to prove her suspicions that her husband Donnie is in fact her watcher. Unfortunately, Felix and Sarah are otherwise occupied so Alison must take care of this herself. It’s going to be interesting to see how she reacts now that her perfect family plan of returning to normalcy has been shattered. Having her emotionally on the edge since the beginning of the season will pay off soon, and in probably a catastrophic way.

Sarah is still very doubtful about which side Mrs. S is on, but she is introduced to an underground, rebel group called the Birdwatchers, the same group that brought Mrs. S and family into the country all those years ago. Despite the significantly slowed tempo of the episode, we do finally get a bit of long overdue background on Mrs. S, who we now know knew all about Sarah being a clone, but are still unsure just how much she truly knows about Project Leeda. Sarah can’t trust her or her old acquaintances the Birdwatchers, so she decides to leave at the perfect moment, but not without a little opposition. The Birdwatchers, much to the surprise of Mrs. S, have sold them out for money to the Proletheans. Mrs. S makes up for this deception in the most exciting scene of the episode, where she kills a mother and son. Mrs. S wasn’t as safe as she thought. Her allies betrayed her, so out of shame, she let’s Sarah and Kira go on without her.

This episode is a necessary evil. It lays the groundwork for what we should expect throughout this season, and what questions to be asking. Not just that, but we are also made to question every relationship and reevaluate our allies and enemies. To call this a filler episode would do it an injustice since many key people and information is introduced. That being said, some might find it a bit dull compared to the first episode of the season, but it should be thought of as a breath in between action sequences. We all need to breathe after all.

RATING: ★★★★★★★(7/10 stars)