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Rewind: Orphan Black Season 1 Episode 1

I admit it, I had not watched even a few minutes of an episode of Orphan Black, yet I had read a few recaps of the show. I know that seems like a big rule of television fandom I am breaking- reading the recaps without even giving the show a chance. But Orphan Black just never seemed that interesting to me, even after reading about it! Alas, the fandom got to me! With a little coaxing from friends and after seeing #CloneClub invade my Twitter and Facebook on the regular, I decided I should give it a shot! Welcome to Rewind: Orphan Black!

I’m going to take this opportunity to do a decidedly un-thorough job of recapping Season 1 and 2 of Orphan Black as I watch the episodes for the first time. I’ll throw in some predictions, some ah-ha moments, and some musings on how awesome Tatiana Maslany is since everyone thinks she should be winning all the awards. Yes, you all will know more than I do about the plot but won’t it be fun to see how wrong (or right) my guesses are? Feel free to relive the series with me and look for my late-night Orphan Black tweets! Here we go:

Episode 1:
Wow, what a start to the show! We meet Sarah and my first thought is that I like the way she dresses, all too punk rock young for her own good. Also, my big question is why she has an accent when we are clearly not in the UK? Like, it’s really throwing me off and I wonder how significant that is going to be. Then she is as surprised as we are to discover she shares a face with some random distressed woman in the train station. What? The random woman jumps and Sarah and I are like, “What just happened?!” Yep, that opening scene is pretty unforgettable. Welcome to Orphan Black where face-twins jump in front of trains! While I’m still sitting on the couch trying to figure out what’s up, Sarah is already a step ahead and snatches the lady’s purse. Because of course that’s what you do if you are a drifter/thief/con artist. I can tell I will be learning a lot from this show!

Next, we meet Felix in the artsy New York loft I always day dreamed about during my 11th grade drawing class. What I’m saying is that it looks like a teenager’s rendition of a gritty art space. Cheesy loft aside, I do really like Felix as a character. He is a great contrast to Sarah and they complement each other like another classic duo with a Felix. We also find out that Sarah has a daughter she hasn’t seen in a while who is living with “Mrs. S”. Please note, whenever someone just goes by an initial in a TV show or movie it is because a mystery is going on. Don’t trust anyone who is identified by a single letter! We also meet Sarah’s ex-boyfriend who is an abusive, drug-dealing idiot.

Sarah of course goes to face-twin’s house and finds out that she has some nice stuff and a large wad of cash in the bank. In what makes perfect sense if you are a grifter, Sarah assumes face-twin’s identity and fakes her own death to get the cash and rid herself of her ex-boyfriend. Freaking brilliant (even if we already know it will all go wrong)! We get an underwear and accent montage and I think, if I am ever going to assume my face-twin’s identity I have to make sure I not only wear her clothes, I need to also wear her underwear. Of course it all fits because face-twins are also body twins!

Of course the bank dude is clueless and she gets access to the cash and a safe deposit box full of info on other face-twins. The plot thickens!! Who are all these foreign face-twins and what is the link? Cue dramatic music! Or, just cue Paul the face-twin’s boyfriend getting home early from his trip. Here is another lesson in identity theft and impersonation. If you want to distract a significant other, blind them with sex! Sex melted Paul’s brain and now he can’t tell that his girlfriend is a completely different person (literally)!

I’m going to take this moment to mention that I just don’t really like Paul. He gets way too close up in Sarah/Beth’s personal space. Even for someone he is supposed to be intimate with, Paul just lingers within centimeters of her no matter what they are doing. It makes me think Paul is a little possessive and creepy. Something is up with him and we’ll see if that turns out to be correct as I keep watching! Also, I didn’t realize BBC America allowed this much nudity and booty shorts! Thank you foreign TV!

So, Sarah is impersonating a cop because the writers of the show need to include intrigue and plot. I admit it would be boring if face-twin Beth was a school lunch lady or lawn mower mechanic. No offense to those professions, I just don’t think it would make exciting TV. Also, it’s convenient that face-twin has some drug/emotional issues so people can’t tell that she is being impersonated. Although I think her partner, Art, thinks something is up.

Then a bunch of stuff happens including Art keeping the wad of money until Sarah/Beth gets put back on active duty. Felix visits the morgue to hit on the medical examiner and ID Sarah’s body. A funeral/memorial service takes place for Sarah since everyone thinks she’s dead. Then we have Sarah/Beth watching her own memorial service with binoculars hilariously chatting on the phone to Felix about all the sad sacks at the service. She jumps in the car to get out of there when another face-twin pops up from the back seat of the car! SURPRISE! I hate it when that happens in TV shows cause it always freaks me out! It’s the German face-twin who matches the documents in the safe deposit box! She is blabbering on about people hunting them until Sarah agrees to take her out of there. They get in the car and BOOM – German girl has a hole blown through her brain! Sarah zooms the heck out of there while dodging bullets and broken glass. INTENSE!

So now we are left with a preview for the next episode when we learn they are not just face-twins but clones. Great way not to spoil the show through previews! So far I give this episode a rating of two clones up with a shot to the head! Yes, it was intriguing and I wasn’t always able to tell what was going to happen next but I am ready for a little more story to get me hooked instead of just introducing everyone and the central mystery so I’ll give it a few episodes.

Things I want to know: How does the Russian fit into everything and who blew her brains all over Sarah/Beth’s car? Does Art know more than he’s letting on? Why is Paul so creepy? Clones?? We’ll see what happens next episode besides the obvious Russian body disposal.

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3 comments

Bonnie Barlow July 8, 2014 at 6:49 am

Nice job! It is fun seeing the show thru the eyes of a newbie. Will look forward to more, and I predict the obsession will strike in 5..4..3..2..1..

Rick Fox July 8, 2014 at 7:24 am

Katja is German (Berlin), not Russian. The show is set in Toronto…the announcement in the train station during Ep. 1 says something about the next train arriving from New York.

Julie HB July 10, 2014 at 3:46 pm

Hi Rick! Thanks for the information! Many apologies for the Russian – German confusion and I address it in my next recap. And yes, the train is headed to New York. Not too bad for my first recap ever but I endeavor to do better! So much happens in these episodes- which is nice because I feel we actually get some story happening instead of some shows that are just cut short! I have a feeling I’ll need to start a spreadsheet just to keep track of the clones…

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