S02.E04: Governed As It Were By Chance

[OriginalCyn]

Holy Shit!  TM does a fantastic absolutely terrified.    Loved, loved, loved this episode.  

 

I've read through everyone's prior posts (well trained by TWoP!), and didn't see anyone post about this:   I remember, was it in the pilot?, that when Sarah was first impersonating Beth, Paul noticed that she didn't have a scar behind one of her ears.  I think that's when Sarah then distracted him with sex in the kitchen.  Anyway, it struck me that now Sarah DOES have a scar behind her ear.  I wonder if Beth ran into Daniel's blade of horror at one time.     Also, I didn't think Daniel was going to maim Sarah's looks, but continue to cut her in places on her body that wouldn't show. 

 

 

Wasn't Beth's scar from a bike accident? Or at least that's what Paul the monitor said. But with all the cloak and dagger stuff (including actual daggers), who knows?

 

Paul picked up on Sarah's/Beth's lack of a scar when she visited him at his "work" (her reason for going there was to plant a bug in his office to see if he was monitoring her and reporting the info to someone else.  After quitting the police force, she learned from Raj (Police Department IT guy) that Beth borrowed surveillance equipment from the PD to snoop on Paul.  

 

She brought him lunch under the pretext of it being an apology for the argument they'd gotten into that morning, and when he started nuzzling her, that was when he discovered the lack of a scar on her neck.  From Orphan Black Wiki (http://orphanblack.wikia.com/wiki/Conditions_of_Existence):

 

With his calling card, Sarah is able to track down where Paul apparently works: Trexcom Consulting. His assistant Madison leads her to his office, where Sarah plants a recording device while Paul is in a meeting. When he arrives though, he tries to seduce "Beth", with Felix listening enthusiastically, only to stop when he notices that Sarah does not have Beth's scar at the back of her neck. Sarah insists that it merely disappeared over time with her new lotion, and soon leaves.

 

Paul then watches a video recording he has of Beth and sees Beth's scar, confirming his suspicions that he has been dealing with a different person this past few weeks. He tells his assistant to clear his afternoon because "something came up". Later, he is visited by Olivier Duval, asking about Beth's progress. Paul does not tell him about what he had just found out and covers up for Sarah for some reason, with the whole exchange recorded on Felix's computer.

 

As for how she got the scar, I think he it was from when she was collaring a perp (I'm typing from memory here, so don't quote me on that :)).  After she left the office, he pulled up a video on his laptop that was from a race she'd been in and zoomed in on a shot of her neck that clearly showed a scar on her neck.

 

The scene where she jumped him and then got hot and heavy on the kitchen island was to shut him up when he was giving her the third degree about her hair: 

 

http://youtu.be/wcwjwl0J0rU?t=2m52s

Edited May 14, 2014 by OriginalCyn

[shapeshifter]

Still dwelling on the odd neck knifing, and thinking about:

when Sarah was first impersonating Beth, Paul noticed that she didn't have a scar behind one of her ears

In real life, the odds of Sarah having a scar from Daniel's knife that matches Beth's perfectly is pretty much zero, especially since scars fade over time, but, with a little poetic license, Sarah could now pretend to be Beth, and claim it was Sarah who jumped in front of the train. This makes the weird (to me) knifing serve as a plot device, which I guess I can forgive. Still, if this is the purpose of the wound, I would rather have had him about to stab her in a more likely move, but then have Helena throw herself at him, causing the wound that would scar like Beth's instead of, IDK, cutting off Sarah's head or ear or something more typical. Edited May 14, 2014 by shapeshifter

[Automne]

I assumed Daniel was going to do a Mr. Blonde on Sarah. Glad he's finally dead though. My first thought upon the beginning of the unseen kerfuffle between Helena and Daniel is that somebody forgot that there's a rogue serial killing clone out there. I don't think Sarah told anybody that she had "killed' Helena, at least not anybody that would have reported it to Dyad.

 

As an aside, can we not have audio of somebody vomiting? I was eating while watching this episode. I appreciate the realism, but it was unnecessary.

 

I have mixed feelings on Helena. I was happy when I thought she was dead and not so much when it turned out she was not. I feel sorry for the girl, but she's such a wild card and I don't know if she still views the other clones as sheep and will kill them to either complete her original mission or to ensure that she and Sarah are the only ones left. I don't like characters that are so murderously possessive of another character. With Helena back, Cosima and Alison's lives are in danger, both because they're "sheep" and the fact that Sarah has a much closer relationship with them than with Helena and I don't think Helena will stand for that.

[shapeshifter]

As an aside, can we not have audio of somebody vomiting? I was eating while watching this episode. I appreciate the realism, but it was unnecessary.

Or at least added no redeeming social value for me or my sensitive stomach.

 

I have mixed feelings on Helena....she's such a wild card and I don't know if she still views the other clones as sheep and will kill them to either complete her original mission or...

I could be wrong, but I concluded that since she was glad to learn that Tomas was dead, she's no longer on a sheep culling mission. But, yes, she's a wild card.

[Ceeg]

 

As an aside, can we not have audio of somebody vomiting? I was eating while watching this episode. I appreciate the realism, but it was unnecessary.

Heh, I guess anything is fair game, since they showed (with audio) Alison "tinkling" in the cup and Sarah peeing in the grass.

 

 

I feel sorry for the girl, but she's such a wild card and I don't know if she still views the other clones as sheep and will kill them to either complete her original mission or to ensure that she and Sarah are the only ones left.

I think that's why I'm interested in her, though. Don't get me wrong, I love the other clones and I'd be heartbroken if any of the Main Three died, especially at Helena's hand, but the fact that she's a wildcard makes her interesting to watch, for me anyway. I have no idea what she's going to do or say next, and I look forward to seeing her interact with some characters other than Sarah or the religious nuts. And also, I think Tatiana is pretty incredible when she plays her too, so I'm always here for a good performance.

[millahnna]

I just find Helena heartbreaking.  I mean she's totally dangerous and scary as fuck but only because someone else made her that way.  And I don't think she can be completely unmade.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

I think, at first, they were going to try to sell the city as New York but gave that up rather quickly.  In the first scene of the pilot, when Sarah's in the subway station, you hear the announcer talk about the "next train to New York City departing at xxx."

If they were trying to sell it as NYC, they wouldn't be announcing a train going there.

[halgia]

If they were trying to sell it as NYC, they wouldn't be announcing a train going there.

In the greater New York area the trains often refer to Manhattan as "New York City." When watching I initially thought they were trying to sell the train station as Jamaica, a railroad hub in Queens that kind of looks like whatever Toronto train station they were using, where I think they actually say "train to Penn Station" but I wouldn't be surprised to hear "train to New York City."

 

(Also, thanks for bringing that up @mjforty – I knew there was a reason I initially thought it was supposed to be set in New York, but couldn't remember it.)

[Boundary]

I say it every week and I'm not gonna stop now, this year Tatiana getting nominated for an Emmy isn't enough, it's about time somebody in that organization put craft ahead of marketing. I think there's more to Cal but he's not the bad guy, he knows more than he's letting on. Did he target Sarah instead of the other way round? I doubt he's Dyad but I can't shake his lack-of-hesitation. It's not suspicious (yet) but it's giving me more questions each time I consider it.

[LoneHaranguer]

 

In the greater New York area the trains often refer to Manhattan as "New York City."

I've never seen that quirk portrayed; writers always use the borough names. Of course, the writers aren't generally from NYC, and those that are, or their producers, could think it would be confusing to some viewers.

[DioxinBlues]

My gut reaction to Cal's reaction upon hearing the name "DYAD" wasn't that he was part of some long-game conspiracy involving Sarah but rather that he recognized the name of the company since it's pretty huge, as Leekie alluded to in his episode one speech, and that it's entirely possible Cal has some basic business dealings with them along the way, possibly even selling them his pollination experiment. I don't think he was ever Sarah's monitor or any of his dealings 8 years ago were related to DYAD since DYAD didn't even know about Sarah's existence until Delphine told Leekie last season. But, there is something there. 

[hardy har]

Yeah, I can't see Cal being her monitor either. If he was then he get the title of Worst Monitor Ever because he only lasted a month and got fleeced for 10k. It would make sense that his pollination tech would've been on DYAD's radar though. In a general sense, would pollination tech and immunology have any kind of overlap at all?

Edited May 17, 2014 by Dougal
Clean up accidentaly double-post.

[ShaggyDog]

Immunology , I am not sure. But I could see pollinator drones used to locally deliver airbourne chemicals. Its a stretch for Orphan Black, but in the real world, genetically modified cells frequently have a chemical resistance (say, ampicillin) inserted into them. In a mixed population, when you want to get rid of the non-engineered cells, you just add an amount of ampicillin that we kill off the non-resistant cells.

Edited May 17, 2014 by ShaggyDog

[Grammaeryn]

Rewatching this episode, I either caught an error or am confused. The videotape Sarah watched with Rachel and the doctors Duncan was dated 1991. But I was under the impression that the lab fire took place in the 80's. Am I missing something? I guess the camera man could be Leekie but who is the woman? Or that video isn't of Rachel, just another clone. 

[ElectricBoogaloo]

I checked the newspaper article and there was no date listed for the accident. Rachel was born in 1984 so she was only 7 in the video that Sarah watched. I would guess the fire took place a year or two after that.

[SoWindsor]

The scene where she jumped him and then got hot and heavy on the kitchen island was to shut him up when he was giving her the third degree about her hair:

http://youtu.be/wcwjwl0J0rU?t=2m52s

Thanks for posting. That scene was so hot. I'm confused why folks don't like Paul. His and Sarah's chemistry is really intense. I loved how he fell for her and am not sure why the show abandoned them. I'm not feeling Cal at all and am disappointed with the disappearance of Paul. Edited November 30, 2014 by SoWindsor