Orphan Black - Manacled Slim Wrists - Review: “The Veil Is Lifted” + POLL
16 Jul 2017
AM Orphan Black ReviewsThe push to the endgame is clearly on as things start to fall apart for Westmoreland and Revival. Though, thanks to decades of living a sinister existence, his reach is still quite large. The façade may be rapidly falling apart, but he’s not giving up without a fight. The first proverbial shots have been fired and the war is on. Until now they’ve just been dealing with skirmishes, but that has all changed now. The race is now on to see which side will prevail. One thing is a guarantee, neither side is going to go down without a fight.
While Westmoreland was busy proving how big of a psychotic sociopath he is, the sisters and their friends were closing in on the next stage of his plan. This big breakthrough was thanks to Krystal of all people. As is noted in the episode, this woman has this incredible ability to just accidentally stumble into things. She has proven to be an unlikely source for more than a few big revelations since she was introduced. This one, however, might be the biggest one to date. Thanks to her and her roommate, Brie (Cara Ricketts), they discovered Dyad’s new mysterious plan to deploy the next stage of their endgame.
Before Krystal showed up they were already closing in on what was going on. Mrs. S finally revealed to Sarah that she was working with Delphine. She also revealed what she and Delphine had been up to, but the mysterious person that led them to Coady remains a mystery. To buy Delphine time to rendezvous with Felix and Adele they launched a plan to keep Kira away from Dyad a little bit longer. Seeing as Kira seems to be a willing participant now it seems as though she may indeed be firmly back on the side of her family. It was nice to see the three generations collaborating and working together again. Kira could be a critical piece of the puzzle when it comes to taking down Dyad for good, so it’s smart that they’ve included her. It was also nice to finally see her and her mom getting along again. They had a lot of adorable scenes especially when Sarah was preparing to try and take Krystal’s place at the meeting with Leonard Sipp (Tom Cullen). Seriously, after this whole saving the world thing is over, Sarah has a promising future as an actress. She’s exceptionally good at mimicking all of her sisters.
The plan had been for Krystal to stay at the lab with Scott and Brie while Art and Sara confronted Sipp. Unfortunately, Scott is an adorable scientist who is a sucker for a pretty woman. He got tricked when Brie distracted him so Krystal could make a break for it. That meant that Krystal actually is the one who confronted Sipp in her apartment. As it turns out that Krystal is actually not a horrible operative as she tricked Sipp into spilling Dyad’s secrets. Fun fact, Tom Cullen who played Leonard Sipp is Tatiana Maslany’s real life boyfriend. It’s clear that they had a ton of fun filming these scenes together. They have a really fun dynamic that played perfectly into whatever it is that Leonard and Krystal have going on. While these scenes delivered a lot of new important information to Art and Sarah who were outside watching and listening in, they also served the purpose of giving this heavy episode so fun lighter moments. Krystal can always be counted on to come through in the most unexpected ways and she certainly did this time. Thanks to her they now have in their possession a very important piece of the puzzle and are one step closer to figuring out the final endgame.
While all of this was going on, Cosima was on the island trying to figure out how to get herself out of the mess she was in. Her best hope was Mud, who proved to be a hard nut to crack. With the sinister Virginia Coady back things got even more serious for everyone involved. Susan finally realized how serious the situation they were in was and convinced Ira that they needed Cosima more than ever. Unfortunately, like all the clones, Ira is a curious soul who wanted to know more about the woman who oversaw his clone line. So before he went to work trying to help Cosima he sought out Virginia. Through his encounter, he learned that there might be a cure for him and most importantly he learned that P.T. has had the children of Revival bled to harvest their youthful blood. That is the last straw for Susan and after convincing Ira that Virginia had lied to him about a cure, they set out to take down P.T. once and for all. Though, in the end, they would fail at the cost of Susan’s life thanks to the intervention of Virginia.
They only got as close as they did to ending P.T. thanks to Mud. After a lot of convincing and heartfelt pleas, Cosima finally got through to the young girl who was revealed to be a former drug addict who overdosed herself into a vegetative state. She felt like she owed P.T. her life until Cosima and Ira opened her eyes to what was really going on. Ultimately, Ira was able to set Cosima free, but his glitch was too severe that he couldn’t join her. He went to find Susan and found her life snuffed out by the very chemical concoction that they tried to use to end P.T. Ira, who by now was bleeding badly from his nose, wasn’t looking so good. He collapsed at her side as he mourned.
While the end to Susan’s story was sad, she was able to provide Cosima with the photo that ultimately destroyed Revival. P.T. Westmoreland was revealed to be a man named John and a photo of him as a young man with Susan Duncan in the 1960’s was the final piece of evidence the villagers needed to revolt. In return for the truth, the villagers who moments earlier seemed ready to condemn Cosima ended up setting her free. She wasted no time gathering her things back up and escaping with Charlotte. Sadly, in the end, they were forced to leave without anyone else. Thankfully Cosima apparently has boating experience thanks to her parents and seems equipped to get them back home. Free of Revival, at least Cosima and Charlotte are on their way to rejoin the family, but the fight is far from over. Even though P.T.’s world is falling apart around him he still has many cards left to play. They’ll need all hands on deck to end the insanity that is Neolution.
That means Kira as well, but unfortunately, as things were falling apart, P.T. exploited his control over Rachel and got her go retrieve Kira. While Kira might be in Rachel’s custody, the young girl is her mother’s daughter and won’t go down without a fight. She seems poised to trick Rachel in order to help the rest of her family. Knowing what Dyad wants to do with Kira and knowing she’s in their custody is sure to spurn the family to storm the proverbial castle to get her back. They have to buy enough time for Delphine, Felix, and Adele to return with the results of their money trail mission. Only with all the pieces in place will they be able to successfully end the fight in their favor.
This was an intense episode with a high body count. As we stand at the beginning of the end, the bodies are starting to pile up at Westmoreland’s feet. Innocent lives were lost in Revival and Susan Duncan has met her permanent end. Ira looks as though he could soon join her as the Castor defect stands to take down the final brother. Though, Ira is a fighter, so he's not likely to go down so easily. Hopefully, he won't end up some pawn in P.T. and Coady's sinister plans. Only thanks to Susan, Ira, and Mud did Cosima escape the island just in time with Charlotte.
There are sure to be more losses before the series ends, but it’s a guarantee that no one will go down on the side of the clones without one hell of a fight. They are fighting for the ones they love and that inspires greater strength and courage than anyone working for P.T. can possibly fathom. His time is running out on all fronts and with the sisters and their friends and family coming for him he’s not long for this fight. But, they also say cornered animals are the most dangerous, so expect him to start lashing out in big dangerous ways. In the end, Mud was revealed to be shattered as she looked at the picture that Cosima left behind. If she can channel that anger against P.T. she could prove to be very important as the final battle looms. If Ira somehow survives and becomes the only surviving Castor then he could also prove to be an invaluable asset. Things are certainly about to get much more intense, which is impressive because most of this season has been quite intense already.
Don’t miss the next episode when it airs next Saturday, July 22nd at 10/9c on BBC America to find out what happens to Kira while she’s at Dyad.
Hit the comments with your thoughts about this episode. Are you going to miss Susan? Will Ira survive and be the last Castor standing in the end?