Orphan Black: “The Weight of This Combination”
(Episode 3.01)
“It’s hard to tell who’s who these days.’
These words are spoken by a character in “The Weight of This Combination,” Orphan Black’s Season Three premiere, but it’s not hard to imagine some variation on this notion being voiced by some of the show’s more casual fans. Naturally, a series involving one actress playing multiple clones is bound to result in no shortage of convoluted, confusing storylines. What was a great novelty in Orphan Black’s first year, however, got perhaps a bit too pretzel-like in its sophomore outing, with characters switching sides at an almost dizzying frequency.
Certainly, if the show’s labyrinth-esque plotting was not immediately apparent, the premiere episode’s extended “recap” portion does a great job of illustrating this. In many ways, it ends up feeling like the hilariously complex “Previously On…” segments that play before each Children’s Hospital episode.
Right away, the show is determined to throw Tatiana Maslany right into the thick of it. As a heavily pregnant Helena lounges in the sun, her “sisters” (as well as Felix and Kira) all gather around her for what seems like some kind of idealistic, Norman Rockwell-influenced barbecue. It’s a sequence that’s reminiscent of the “clone dance party” from last season’s finale, in that all of the Maslany characters appear together in several distinct shots. Whereas that sequence felt like ill-conceived fan service, however, this one at least is actually designed to be a bit cheesy, as it turns out this is all a dream and Helena is actually locked in a crate with a scorpion.
Meanwhile, we find the rest of the clones trying to move on with their lives in the wake of last season’s events. Sarah is living outside the city with Felix and Kira, Cosima is slowly recovering from her brush with death and Alison is attempting to get back in the community’s good graces after her rehab stint (though Donnie’s abrupt decision to quit his job does somewhat through a wrench in this).
Of course, things have become much more complicated after the reveal that the Castor/boy clones are now at play. As played by Ari Millen, these clones are not given the kind of immediate defining features that helped instantly differentiate Maslany’s clones—one’s in a military outfit, one has facial hair and one has a noticeable scar and a Tintin haircut. And while Millen certainly manages to hit the proper “creep” level in his brief scenes, it remains to be seen whether his various characters will be given much more depth beyond the blatant villainy. Then again, unlike the Maslany clones, the Castor clones were all raised together, so it’s not horribly surprising that they would all follow each other’s examples.
These new clones are only the tip of the iceberg though. After Dyad captures one-half of a murderous clone tag-team (the Tintin/scar one), Sarah learns that Helena is missing. She goes to Siobhan, who reveals that she sold out Helena to the Castor military in exchange for Kira’s safety. Sarah is understandably furious, though it is a relief to know that we will (for now) no longer have to worry about Kira being kidnapped, which has provided the basic gist of Sarah’s motivations for the better part of two seasons.
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