TV Review: Orphan Black 2×06, “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings”

It’s date night on Orphan Black. Each clone has a new man in their life, not just Sarah, who seems to have multiple men always after her. Don’t worry, she’s holding out of that one special man she tenderly refers to as the Swan Man, Dr. Duncan.

In a Thelma and Louise style road trip, we see the sisters Sarah and Helena head to the location where Ethan Duncan was photographed, Cold River. They sleep in the wilderness, share a few laughs and Helena serenades Sarah with her karaoke version of “Sugar Sugar”. We see a more playful side of Helena, but it just makes it worse knowing what kind of monster is really inside. To us, it may seem like a lot of time has passed since we had to wait almost a year or season 2, and a week for every episode to air, but in reality it’s only been a couple months at most. Not really enough time to convince you that Helena is not such a bad person and has changed, but you see them try to convince you anyway. Just in case, we see Paul is following them every step of the way, and knows exactly what they are up to.

When they arrive at the building in the photograph, Sarah goes inside while Helena goes to the bar (where we already know some sort of bar brawl is inevitable). Sarah finds out that someone previously come looking for the documents of Cold River, and from there she gets another lead: Andrew Peckham. We also find out that the experiments have been going on for over 100 years. Now, she needs Art’s help hunting down the last known whereabouts of Peckham to see what he knows.

Meanwhile, Helena is in a bar, drinking one of every kind of cocktail in close sucession. She meets a trucker dressed gentleman named Jesse, who she seems to be attracted to. In an obvious, hilarious euphemism, she offers him a white Russian. He of course accepts. They share a tender moment that quickly turns into a carnal, aggressive foreplay session. The locals (one of which tried to hit on her and got turned down by Helena with an insult) grow angry at their display (probably because it’s been a while since they got laid) and attack. Helena goes feral of course and easily takes down the head guy. But she is no match for a few cops who take her to jail and Sarah watches. One less person to watch for now. Sarah asks Art to take care of it while she follows her lead.

While all this is happening, there is a sinister deal being made in the background between Dyad Paul and Prolethian Mark. They both know of each other and neither of them wants real trouble. Almost too easily, they decide to take their twin and go their own separate ways. While Helena is in jail, she gets a visit from Gracie and Mark, who convince Helena to come and bear her child (especially so Gracie doesn’t have to). For a while, we could sense a sort of jealousy and intrigue Helena bears towards Sarah and the family she created. Desperately wanting a family, she willingly joins the Prolethians in an attempt to give birth to her future kin.

With Helena out of jail, Art has one less problem to deal with because he currently his hands full with a drunk and distraught Felix. After a bonding moment and sobering talk, Art recruits him to sort through all the evidence they found at Maggie’s locker. They are able to help Sarah point in the direction of Andrew Peckham.

Alison’s adventures in rehab continue when she runs into Vic the Dick, who now follows the path of Buddha. On the path to recovery, Alison still feels like she doesn’t have a problem, but Vic’s advice leads her to feel closer, and possibly have a romantic interest in Vic. Especially now that she knows her husband is a monitor. What she doesn’t know is that Vic is actually working as an informant for Angela to get his criminal record erased. Either way, this won’t end well for Alison. She is either going to reveal what she did to Ainsley and get arrested, or she is going to sleep with Vic and get kicked out of rehab. Either sound bad, but the second one sounds worse. Ewwww, who wants to sleep with Vic the Dick?

Cosima and Delphine have a new addition to team, who just happens to be an old lab partner: Scott. He was hired by the Dyad institute for his experience on the subject. Oh, and the fact that he knows the sample Cosima has been sending him are from real life clones doesn’t hurt his application. He doesn’t know everything, like the fact that Cosima is one of the clones, but I’m sure he’ll pick that up really soon. Scott works fast and tells Delphine that he found something interesting, inquiring is the clones had any blood relatives, like say, a daughter. Delphine tells him not to tell anyone about his findings, not even Cosima, From what I gleamed out of all their technical jargon, Kira could possibly be the cure to all of the clones’ problems. But who is trying to protect? I think Delphine has earned our trust at this point, so I’m thinking that she is trying to protect Kira, knowing that if Dr. Leekie found out just how valuable she is, Kira would be the target of all sorts of experiments. I could be wrong and she could have her own, unrevealed agenda.

Sarah goes to the address where Peckham is suppose to be, but ends up running into an old friend, Mrs. S. No, she’s not Peckham, but she has apparently been one of his keepers for a while now, ever since he faked his death in a fire that killed his wife. That’s right, Andrew Peckham is Ethan Duncan. He may be a little senile, but he remembers enough to tell us that the person who tried to murder him and killed the rest of his researchers was Neolutionist Leekie. I can’t say this reveal is much of a surprise, but we can see Leekie’s interest in the clones is much more than what he is using the Dyad institute for. Leekie’s true interests lie with his radical following known as the Neolutionists. We leave a shocked Sarah and join Mrs. S, who has stepped out to have a heart to heart with Paul, who she knows is outside the house, because, well, she is kind of a badass like that. She tries to recruit him, but in all honestly, can Paul really be trusted? I still hold out hope that he is on Sarah’s side (when he can be at least), but is being held hostage by the Dyad institute. Maybe he’s ready to break his shackles.

We see some very unusual pairings this episode, and even Sarah found her man. Felix is still in danger, but Peckham/Duncan might end up coming through just for the chance to be reunited with his daughter. Even though the reveal of Leekie as a killer isn’t surprising, the fact that Mama and Papa Duncan wanted to end the experiment to raise their daughter Rachel out of the eyes and control of the program sheds new light Dr. Leekie and his (as of yet) unknown endgame. We also get to see a new side of Helena. A more playful, innocence that she was never able to exhibit as a child because she was under the churches control. We also see how quickly she can change when she goes from making out to beating a guy on a pool table. They are trying to show us another side of her, and even though maybe Sarah might be buying into it, not everyone should.

RATING: ★★★★★★★★(8/10 stars)