Orphan Black - BBCA

[SpaceChampion]

Not enough Felix, definitely.

I wonder if Allison's descent into Helena-levels of madness might be in the cards for next season. Or maybe the poor girl just needs a spa weekend to straighten out her head.

Helena couldn't remain alive and free without consequences to her killing people. Sarah gave her way too much leeway. As she was being hauled away, she should have told Art "the killer's tied up in the basement!" Even if just for Art to see her face before she escaped.

Cosima's blood cough is worrisome, but perhaps stem cells from a healthy clone like Sarah or from Kira might save her.

And Kira, that kid's premonitions is not my favourite part of the show. It's totally unneeded since no one is going to listen to a child anyway. I don't want silly supernatural powers muddying up the show.

Cosima's interpretation is almost certainly not true. The patent thing is most likely just on the DNA sequence and its products, not the person. That's why they need them to sign contracts instead of strong-arming them. They need their cooperation to continue being studied, without risking media exposure and legal troubles. Kidnapping a kid though, that's just dumb. They can't get away with that.

[denstorebog]

I also found this episode to be in the bottom half of the series, quality-wise. There were plenty of great scenes and characters moments, but the pacing seemed a bit off. It moved too quickly to establish a proper sense of paranoia between the members of the Clone Alliance. I felt that they were going for a sense of all-out urgency, but there wasn't time for it to sink in properly.

Also, the patent cliffhanger - whether it's implausible or not - wasn't very strong. The reason is that we already know that Neolution is possessive, powerful and ethically compromised. They run nightly tests on their subjects, for chrissakes. That there's some sort of legal clause in a DNA string is just a very small pebble on an already very large mound of nastiness. It doesn't really change the game in any way. I wanted the last episode to reveal more of the Big Picture. Right now, I don't have a clear picture of the series' top-down concept. Is it still a mystery show? Or is it more going to be about the war of attrition between Neolution, the Ukrainian Nuns and the Clone Alliance? If it's the former, the last episode should probably have set up a new mystery angle.

Still, a decent finish to the show of the year. I find myself wondering what Allison's role will be from now on. She's signed the agreement and she doesn't have any particular skills or knowledge that the Clone Alliance can use. I guess we'll find out... in 2014.

[delete this account pls]

The finale wasn't the strongest, but I wouldn't say it jumped the shark. The show did such a great job all season of avoiding the usual sc-fi cliche of having characters act stupidly to propel the plot along, but I thought they lost that in the finale at times (Sarah just goes with the lawyer rather than staying and confessing everything to Art? Sarah decides to reject Pro Clones offer, knowing it will piss them off, but doesn't think to maybe call ahead and give Mrs S a head's up?) and kept it in others (sorry to see Helena go, but I dont think they could justify keeping her around much longer) It also felt a little rushed at times, like Paul's hurried confession of what happened in Afghanistan. And yeah, definitely not enough Felix ("Delphine's here.....and she has baggage")

But it's only a not-great episode because of the high standards the show has set. I'm still looking forward to next season.

[Raskolnikov]

Well, that was a crowded finale. The Cosima/Delphine scenes were annoying. Does anyone understand what they were talking about and was it actually scientifically possible or was it just treknobabble? I think the final scene with Kira's disappearance was as weak as it could get, and a very minor cliffhanger that should be resolved very early on next year.

Alison though, there's no going back from that. She went full Walter White.

[SpaceChampion]

Well, that was a crowded finale. The Cosima/Delphine scenes were annoying. Does anyone understand what they were talking about and was it actually scientifically possible or was it just treknobabble? I think the final scene with Kira's disappearance was as weak as it could get, and a very minor cliffhanger that should be resolved very early on next year.

Alison though, there's no going back from that. She went full Walter White.

Ha, I was watching that thinking "she's Breaking Bad".

Yes, it's scientifically plausible. Encoding a sequence as a marker, and using the base pairs to indicate binary numbers, and that being ASCII code, none of that is technobabble.

[~ZombieWife~]

Why is the patent thing so hard to believe? The breast-cancer "gene" is patented, correct? Look at what Monsanto patents with its crops and seeds.

For me, this is huge commentary about where things might go in the future and it's not at all "unbelievable" imho.

Alison was completely believable, imho. She took a golf club to her husband and tortured him with a hot glue gun, FFS. Girl was a hot mess from the start. This was just a culmination of a whole lot of bad mojo, paranoia and so forth.

[Reposado]

i think the patent thing is unbelievable because its just not how patents work. you can patent a gene, but you do it by filing a patent, not just encoding a declaration of having it.

and also, i really dont think the claim to owning that person, once created can be owned, especially since laws against human cloning were clearly broken in the process of creation

[Larkstongue]

Actually, I thought having some characters on a sci fi show babbling some actual science was kind of refreshing!

Space Champion - I'm really not all that excited about Kira being some kind of super mutant who has premonitions either. I still think it would have been better had Kira just been Sarah's kid, a normal child. But that boat has sailed.

hopes for next season:

- Have Sarah get a bit of a handle on her impulsiveness. It may have made sense (in a way) character wise for her to tell Proclone to fuck off before she had secured Kira (because impulsiveness!) but come on. Has she learned nothing?

- Tone down, shake up, or abandon the police procedural bits. I like Art, really, but halfway through this season I was starting to get a little fed up with them.

- Paul works best as an emotionally dead, mentally scarred, morally ambiguous beat down machine. Let's stick with that please.

- Alison is really going to have to work hard to come back from what she allowed to happen to Ainsley. While I did think it was in keeping with her character (as has been said, she tied up and tortured her husband with a hot glue gun) and the feel of the show in general, it's still a horrible, unforgivable thing she did. One of the great things about this season, for me, was slowly coming to love Alison after initially hating her. Now I just don't know what to think.

- This show seems to be good with the equal opportunity nudity, so it didn't ring true for me that Delphine and Cosima would be laying in bed without at least one boob out. Can they even do that on this show? Anyway, this point is obviously about improving the show, obviously. If Tatiana is sick of getting naked, I'll take Delphine's boob.

- More Felix. Jordan Gavaris would be the MVP of this show if his co star wasn't half the cast.

- A slightly bigger budget. They worked wonders with what they had this season, but still. I'm hoping Sarah takes off for Europe next season. Although Kira is likely going to the Diad (Dyad?) Institute, which I thought was in America...

Anyone else have some things they'd like to see?

[RedEyedGhost]

- This show seems to be good with the equal opportunity nudity, so it didn't ring true for me that Delphine and Cosima would be laying in bed without at least one boob out. Can they even do that on this show? Anyway, this point is obviously about improving the show, obviously. If Tatiana is sick of getting naked, I'll take Delphine's boob.

No.

[~ZombieWife~]

i think the patent thing is unbelievable because its just not how patents work. you can patent a gene, but you do it by filing a patent, not just encoding a declaration of having it.

and also, i really dont think the claim to owning that person, once created can be owned, especially since laws against human cloning were clearly broken in the process of creation

Who says they didn't file it? That the gov't isn't involved? Leeky admitted to being another part of the machine, not the machinist. Also, they were really pushing for the clones to sign contracts. If they did patent a certain gene and Alison (for example) signed the contract, I don't see why that couldn't be legally binding . . . at least in this world/universe.

[Reposado]

Who says they didn't file it? That the gov't isn't involved? Leeky admitted to being another part of the machine, not the machinist. Also, they were really pushing for the clones to sign contracts. If they did patent a certain gene and Alison (for example) signed the contract, I don't see why that couldn't be legally binding . . . at least in this world/universe.

well, sure maybe they did.

but if they did, why imprint it in the code. why does it being in the code matter

and why would they assume that they they could file the patent in a way which would be legally binding, giving them control over human lives

and i guess, they could live in a world with a different system of patent/slavery laws, but they havent really established that anything was different in the world other than the clone technology

[Commodore]

If Mrs S. created the clones, what are the odds Felix has clones as well?

Also, has anything ever been mentioned about Kira's father?

[denstorebog]

Also, has anything ever been mentioned about Kira's father?

Wow, that's actually... what. Why are we sitting at page 8 without asking ourselves about this? As far as I know, the only thing said about Kira's father is that it's *not Vic*, as mentioned with great emphasis by Sarah in one of the first episodes.

You're right. Who the fuck is Kira's father?

(Wait and see, it'll turn out to be Felix. That's why Sarah was so insistent that the three of them run away together. Yes, I'm just kidding.)

[Reposado]

Wow, that's actually... what. Why are we sitting at page 8 without asking ourselves about this? As far as I know, the only thing said about Kira's father is that it's *not Vic*, as mentioned with great emphasis by Sarah in one of the first episodes.

You're right. Who the fuck is Kira's father?

really good move imo not to really mention him at all. gives them more flexibility for giving him an important role in a later season

[~ZombieWife~]

If Mrs S. created the clones, what are the odds Felix has clones as well?

Also, has anything ever been mentioned about Kira's father?

omg... I just had a fangirl arm-flapping moment here. More than one Felix.

Head explodes into heart-shaped fuzzies....

[RedEyedGhost]

omg... I just had a fangirl arm-flapping moment here. More than one Felix.

Head explodes into heart-shaped fuzzies....

And as an awesome twist - they're all exactly the same :eek:

[Commodore]

omg... I just had a fangirl arm-flapping moment here. More than one Felix.

Head explodes into heart-shaped fuzzies....

it makes sense if they are looking to make multiple seasons and expand the universe

[~ZombieWife~]

And as an awesome twist - they're all exactly the same :eek:

Yes. This.

[protar]

I don't think that the clone patent necessarily indicates that Leeky is lying. I mean they made that patent years ago. If they're offering to renege on the monitoring then why can't they be offering to renege on the patent?

What's much more telling in regards to Leeky's trustworthiness is that he promised Allison her monitor would be sent away and well...he wasn't. Which is disappointing to me tbh. It would have been actually pretty unique had the mysterious, morally ambiguous clone company where actually honest to a degree and willing to work with Clone Club in a more friendly manner.

[Commodore]

what explains Helena's blonde hair?