Spoilers Orphan Black Season 4 Discussion

[tomalak301]

I was also wondering about episode 1. Beth left her bag on the platform, and she very much noticed Sarah. She supposedly didn't know her, yet she still left her bag there before her and jumped. She should have known her bag would be taken—if only for the answers it held. So I keep wondering how aware she was of Sarah and would any of this come up. Beth had the police resources to find her, Sarah had a criminal record and was easy to find, yet her name was nowhere in any of the documents Sarah found in Beth's possession. That's very weird.

When I was rewatching the series a month ago, I had the thought that Beth was aware of who Sarah was and that's why she was there at that moment. It seems highly coincidental though, but I'm still wondering why she took off the shoes and left the bag there for Sarah to pick up.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

The shoes seemed like an invitation for Sarah to step into her shoes, and her despairing look said “I can't do this any more, you take over from here”.

But that's wishful thinking, and reading too much into it. The reality is that Beth just thought, “Oh great, yet another one, if only things wouldn't get worse.” And that deepened her desperation and could have reaffirmed her decision to jump, sadly. That seemed to be the intent behind the scene. The shoes may have been her indecision speaking, taking off her shoes to bide the time, or may have been a sign to Art. I don't think you can interpret the actions of a person in her state.

The thing is, Sarah's decision to take on her life is still iffy, and the dream sequence with Beth shows that she has misgivings about it, even if all her past friends accepted it, and even if it turned out to be the right decision. Like there's some need for Beth's posthumous approval.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm so freaking excited for tonight. Orphan Black is back and that means ten weeks of new Tatiana goodness. I've been ready for this for about a month, having rewatched the series and seeing the various trailers.

I do really wonder if we will find out what happened to Delphine or if that will come later. Either way, my favorite series is back and Wiah it was already 10:00.

 

[Christopher]

But the problem is... this wasn't some dinner date or attendees at a wedding... 2 people burying a dead body. We all would have rolled our eyes if it was a heterosexual couple as well.

Hey, guess what? Turns out it was a heterosexual couple. The smaller member of the pair wasn't a man, it was a short-haired woman.

 

[tomalak301]

Orphan Black, I fucking Love You!!!!!!

I'm way too excited for 11:00 at night but that episode was amazing and put the entirety of Season 3 to shame. I've always wanted a Beth flashback episode and I got one and it did not disappoint. I saw some comments about people being confused by it, and I have to say I am so glad I rewatched the entire series before this season started. When we see the scene where Beth shoots Maggie Chen, it was like this entire series made all the sense in the world. In just 45 minutes, the writers took all these peices of this jigsaw puzzle, put them all together and this season we are in for a hell of a ride.

I was looking forward to this episode all day long. At work I was thinking "I can't wait till Orphan Black, I can't Wait till Orphan Black". Heck, I was more excited about the series than my favorite Hockey team winning Game 1 in LA. That episode was the best season premiere this show has had, I already don't regret buying the season pass on Itunes, and I will probably rewatch it this weekend. Holy Moly I want it to be next week already.

 

[Christopher]

I was basically able to follow the flashback, but there are some details I don't clearly recall from before. Was this fully consistent with what we've learned about Beth and Neolution before?

And will we get more Beth flashbacks, going all the way up to, err, the moment Sarah met her? Or has that part of the story already been adequately fleshed out by what Sarah learned about Beth in season 1?

So Maslany essentially got two new characters to play here -- Beth, more fully fleshed out than she's gotten to be before, and M.K./Mika, who seems to be somewhere on the autistic/neuro-atypical spectrum. That should be an interesting acting challenge. It looks like M.K.'s the one who got Beth involved in the first place, whereupon Beth got Alison and Cosima involved. Could we be getting more flashbacks going earlier, maybe showing how that recruitment happened?

And the handy thing about flashbacks is that it lets you bring back actors whose characters were killed off. Both Dylan Bruce and Matt Frewer got return appearances.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm not sure if we will get more flashbacks but I think it sufficiently filled in the gaps to where the show started. As for Neolution, it seemed fairly consistent but I want to put Maggie Chen's story together. She was a proleathean also investigating Neolution and Beth accidentally shot her? I'm thinking that might be a plot point this season.

Tat was incredible in this episode. You'd think after 10 months I would want to see the seestras again but what we got was a gripping back to the beginning showing how Beth's life was falling apart and getting a really clear reason why she jumped. Seeing Tat portray that anguish was really the highlight of the episode. When we got to the Maggie Chen scene I was on the edge of my seat till the end. I almost forgot about Sarah and Helena because this was a Beth story and it was a damn great one.

I would love to see more Beth. As for MK she was good too but I'm sure we'll get to see more of her as the season goes on.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

That was fantastic. It's a bit weird how it answered all the questions I didn't have, and none of the questions I had. You thought you had the story pieced together, and well, you had it pieced together all wrong.

Maggie Chen's shooting was an incident after all, which makes it one hell of a coincidence, but it definitely pays off in making the show crazy... and my god, was that scene intense. I was shaking. The episode did fantastic job at showing how it's all taking a toll on Beth, and how she's falling apart, and that was before she had even confirmed her suspicions about Paul—or hadn't she?

I don't remember if it was Cosima or Alison who suggested that Katja was the one contacting Beth, before she found them two, but that too goes out of the window now. Mika/M.K. is such a nice surprise, and a character I already want seeing more of. I like her. Good on Beth for keeping her secret.

And Beth was much farther ahead in the whole mess than I suspected. It almost feels as if everyone was so far behind her. I know she didn't actually realise what she was looking at, and she didn't suspect how close she was, but still. Thankfully, Mika does, so I am glad we have her on-board.

The close call with Felix was... interesting. I almost wish it went a different way.

I'm somewhat confused about the timing. How much time before this episode and the jumping? It must be days, but it feels like there's something still yet to happen. Before I got shaken by the shooting, it felt like there's a long way there... But that accelerated things.

 

[Guy Gardener]

Half way through, I was wondering if Beth didn't die, that MK dressed as Beth died for some reason... So by the end I'm looking at MK introduce herself, as I'm thinking "Hello Beth."

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I'm for some reason thinking M.K. was aware of Sarah all along, which made me consider just the opposite thing—that M.K. knew that Beth was going to end her life, failed to persuade her not to, and not having any way to stop her, at least somehow made her do that in a place Sarah would happen to be.

Thankfully, I am full of shit. Sarah tried to impersonate a dead person to rob her and was careless enough to let people who cared for her get assassinated in London, Alison killed her friend on a hunch, Helena is an assassin, even if manufactured one after decades of abuse, Beth let her condition escalate to a point where she killed someone by accident, even if she was lucky to do it to someone who was trying to kill her. Cosima seems to be the only protagonist seestra who doesn't have anything questionable going on about her, brain autopsy on a dead body hidden from the police notwithstanding, and M.K. so far seems like she may be too, so don't let my crazy ideas mess with her character.

 

[tomalak301]

I'm somewhat confused about the timing. How much time before this episode and the jumping? It must be days, but it feels like there's something still yet to happen. Before I got shaken by the shooting, it felt like there's a long way there... But that accelerated things.

I was reading in a Facebook group I post in that there is about 6 weeks between when Beth shot Maggie Chen and when she jumped. That means there is still a lot of time and maybe more flashback scenes. I still think a lot of what we get going forward will be through Sarah (she does say she's going back to where it all started in the trailer).

I admit though I'm not good at the whole Orphan Black timeline thing but I think only a period of a couple months has past from seasons 1-3.

 

[YellowSubmarine]

I was reading in a Facebook group I post in that there is about 6 weeks between when Beth shot Maggie Chen and when she jumped.

Seems about right. That gives her enough time for Beth to catch Paul in the act, teach Alison to shoot a gun, gain her trust and get her money in the account, befriend Cosima, arrange for meeting with Katja, who I assume is still in Germany, and uncover enough about the Neolutionists to break down completely.

 

[Aldo]

This was a great season opener. I suppose in retrospect it feels a lot better than Season 3, but I'm one of the few (I think few, I think it was pretty derided) who liked Season 3.

I really loved that we went back and explored Beth, even if it's not progressing Sarah's current story line it is making the universe feel richer. So it appears that someone other than Beth was the one that was investigating Project Leeda, MK contacted Beth, and it was Beth who got Cosima and Alison involved. If it was also her who got Sarah involved in a roundabout way (as someone above suggested) than she could be a much more important character than we think, if she is manipulating all the pieces. Or I could be reading more into this than it warrants, but it's certainly an interesting theory, and I can tell she's going to be a fun character, especially that Tatiana modeled her after Bjork.

Also, and maybe this is just me, but each season has a different feel to it. Season 1 takes place primarily in the City, and has an urban feel to it. Season 2 they expand into the countryside and feels more rural, finally season 3 includes a desert setting. I'm curious if Season 4 will continue this trend, so far we've just stayed in the city.

 

[tomalak301]

This was another great episode, but it felt more like a catch up episode. While last week hit all the emotional notes (I think it might have been the best episode of the series), this week we caught up with everyone in present day and the investigation started further into Neolution. The scenes with Beth are still the most compelling, and it was so sad to see Beth leave MK, especailly since we know where she was going. In present day, it was great to see what the clone club has been up to. Loved the scenes with Donnie and Helena, and Alison still has those quirky one liners "She's a murderer, we're manslaughterers".

Anyway, still a really great episode and a really strong start to the season. That final scene was really eerie though.

 

[Forbin]

I'm ashamed that I had to have the Sheep mask explained. I should have gotten the reference to Dolly right off the bat.

Do we know what the cheek worm does?

 

[Christopher]

I was thinking about Helena's adventure in prenatal care, and it occurred to me: How much would it screw up this whole show if Tatiana Maslany got pregnant in real life? No way could they justify having all the clones -- most of whom are infertile -- getting pregnant at the same time. They'd either have to put the whole production on hold for at least 6 months or make even more extensive use of body doubles with Maslany's face digitally stuck onto them.

Speaking of the passage of time, I'm surprised to learn that it's only been 6 months since Beth died. I know it hasn't been advancing in real time, but I hadn't realized it was moving that slowly.

Is it safe -- or legal -- to drive while wearing a full-face mask like M.K. was at the end there? Not great for the peripheral vision.

 

[tomalak301]

You know the question I had this week seeing some clips had to see with Tatiana being in really great shape. I mean Alison was fit and those abs were insane but I don't think Cosima would have those kind of abs, and Helena is pregnant. I wonder how that works even though I think it's all about what she is wearing. I read something in another group about what if she had to play a fat clone and how that would work.

 

[Seven of Five]

I'm loving this season so much, whereas last season I only caught up with recently. I'm so glad that Netflix has the episode the day after the US.

The Beth flashbacks are a great idea. I'm enjoying the new slant on what we thought we knew already.

 

[tomalak301]

The Beth flashbacks are a great idea. I'm enjoying the new slant on what we thought we knew already.

I love how they are incorporating the Beth flashbacks this season. You have the survallience stuff, might as well use it.

Something else I forgot to mention in my review is I hope to love what they are doing with Felix this year. He's kind of become the lapdog of the Seestras and I want to see him get some character development. I do have a feeling his origins might have something to do with Neolution, which I might dread.

 

[Christopher]

I liked the twist of Sarah being put in the position of having to play M.K. without any prior knowledge. She hadn’t even heard enough of the accent to give it a try. We’re so used to seeing her have time to prepare her impersonation, but here she was totally unready.

Do they say “flat” for “apartment” in Canada, or was that just Art going along with Sarah’s British usage?