Orphan Black: The Devastating “Guillotines Decide” Might Be the Series’ High Point

A grisly opening, as uncommon for Orphan Black as spending this long examining consequences, brings back a fan favorite: Ferdinand (James Frain). Similarly uncommon, “Guillotines Decide” eschews large dramatic strokes for a series of intimate reminders, and is all the more effective because of it. The psychosexual seesaw between Ferdinand and the recently re-cyclopsed Rachel (Tatiana Maslany) is one of the show’s most indelicate yet novel pleasures, emphasizing the show’s post-patriarchal philosophy in every submission and domination. Their continuous reversals of power build up to yet another climax here, though we visit almost every character in Clone Club at some point as the episode pushes its drama to a deliciously slow-burning backseat.

“Guillotines Decide” is defined more by postulation than by information, which can be a frustrating tactic for a series that’s known for its dramatic saturation. When they don’t tell us things, it’s almost entirely transparent, even if it’s still fun. Sarah’s concern about the evil left unfaced never seems like the overreaction Orphan Black would like us to believe it is, so the unsurprising reveal that Delphine (Évelyne Brochu) and Mrs. S (Maria Doyle Kennedy) have been working with Ferdinand (gasp!) fails to shock. Who else could their shadowy contact have been, anyways? It was either the spindly little murderer or an entirely new character, so I suppose it’s best that it was him as their inside man. The point remains that Rachel is now, circumstance dictating, against Neolution with the rest of the PT Westmorland truthers.

These truthers, meanwhile, are trying to remember normalcy. Cosima and Delphine’s cute morning debate between playing a couple’s guessing game or focusing on the more serious aspects of the news is entirely too relatable, and the closest the series has gotten to commenting on current events. It juxtaposes, in a small moment, the dread and weight of the outside world with the desire to protect oneself from it—the microcosm of love—and the inability to enjoy life while so much hate, fear and injustice threatens is scarily relevant when every proposed law attempts to kill our least empowered citizens and every vote requires our constant effort to stop it. The scene is the most realistic the couple’s relationship has ever been, speaking to a larger world where balancing the good fight and the goodness for which we’re fighting is an increasing and ever-present difficulty.