This week’s episode of Orphan Black is SOOOOOOOOOOO bittersweet for me (keep reading until you get to the end of this review, and you’ll see why!). It’s a game-changing episode for the Brightborn vs. Project Leda war, and it (finally!) re-introduces a character that has been MIA since last season’s finale. Yay. But, at the same, it’s unfortunately the season 4 penultimate episode, and with no word yet on a season 5, you can’t help but be a tad bit bummed. But, hey, I’m going to put that renewal vs. cancellation gloom to the back of my mind and focus on tonight’s episode, which in my opinion, is one of the strongest and most pivotal of the entire season.

BRIGHTBORN AND LEDA — IT’S TIME FOR WAR

Evie Cho and all of her Brightborn freaks are really getting out of control, and as one would say from The Godfather, it’s time to go to the mattresses. With Ira (Ari Millen)  and Rachel (Tatiana Maslany)  now in the city, it doesn’t take long for Felix (Jordan Gavaris)  and Sarah to show up and crash the party. Now that Cosima is on the island with Susan Duncan working on a cure, everyone else needs to join forces to stop Evie before it’s too late, and yes, this includes Rachel and Sarah, who we all know can’t stand the sight of each other. Ironically, Rachel proves herself useful and has some intel on Evie that could end up being helpful in defeating her. Rachel has learned that Evie already has gotten the government approvals for the trials of the bot implants, and she’s about to have a press conference to announce this very news. Of course, Evie will make the program sound wonderful and will show that the bots suppress certain genetic disorders. But, in reality, they are nothing more than Trojan horses that will alter their hosts’ DNA any way that they want. Very sinister, very dangerous, and most certainly has to be stopped.

Evie Cho may be well-spoken and beautiful, but underneath that exterior is pure evil, and the funny thing is sometimes to defeat evil, you have to fight with evil. So, it doesn’t surprise me that Rachel is the one who steps up with a plan (and, actually, a pretty good one!) to take down Evie and re-instate Susan Duncan as the head of Neolution and Project Leda. As it turns out, 2 carriers at Brightborn have recently fled, with one of them having a very damning video of a doctor euthanizing a baby that had been born with severe facial deformities. Rachel’s plan: Have Sarah track down these 2 women and convince them to expose Brightborn and Evie for what they’ve been doing. Notice that while it’s Rachel’s plan, Sarah has to do all of the dirty work.

Fortunately, Sarah doesn’t have to do this alone and enlists the help of Art (Kevin Hanchard).  This is actually pretty convenient since having a cop on your team makes finding 2 women who don’t want to be found a lot easier. With Art’s assistance, it doesn’t take long for them to track the women to a shelter, but remember, Evie also knows that they escaped and thus, has her own team hot on their trail. So, by the time Art and Sarah arrive, one of the women, as well as her unborn child, are already dead — presumably from a suicide but Art and Sarah know better.

The good news is the 2nd woman, Kendra, is nowhere to be found, and so they can only assume she was able to escape. Plus, they catch a big break when Trinna shows up at the shelter and tells Sarah about a vacant house that Kendra has and how that’s where she likely ran to. She can’t remember the city it’s located in, just that the house wouldn’t sell because the town’s economy is shot to hell. Immediately Sarah thinks of Tisdale, the same struggling town that Evie has been vowing to clean up.

It turns out that Trinna’s tip was right on spot, because after arriving in Tisdale, it doesn’t take long for Sarah and Art to find Kendra as well as her newborn baby, Jacob. Of course, Kendra freaks at first, thinking that both of them are working for Evie and Brightborn, but Art is finally able to calm her down. That’s when she shows them the video of the doctor euthanizing the deformed baby, which I must tell you sent chills down my spine. No matter what Evie’s grand plan is, no matter what the benefits are, **nothing** is worth experimenting on and killing newborn babies.

Art and Sarah finally talk Kendra into helping, but of course it’s Murphy’s Law that at that very moment, trouble shows up. You know, I found it very amusing at the beginning of the episode how Sarah was so quick to team up with Rachel. Had she forgotten Rachel’s back-stabbing nature? Well, she should have because just when Art and Sarah are about to leave with Kendra, Ira shows up and snatches Kendra up to take to Rachel. Wow. Why is Rachel doing this? Has she now gone rogue and plan to team up with Evie just to regain some of her power back?

Well, at first I thought so. This is especially true when Rachel crashes Evie’s big press conference and appears to blackmail Evie with Kendra’s video in exchange for a seat at the Brightborn and Neolution table. In other words, she basically wants her old job back. Not having much choice, Evie agrees, but then, Rachel makes a very interesting move. She asks Evie about the babies that were euthanized and why she felt they had to do that. After all, this is Brightborn, and so, don’t they have the resources to be able to save them? It turns out this is one big trap with Rachel recording the whole conversation. Then, sweet Ira does his thing and broadcasts the recording, along with Kendra’s video, to all major news sites, as well as to all the journalists at the press conference. Oops! With a move like this, is Brightborn now dead — oh yeah, very likely. But, is Evie Cho done — don’t count on it. A bitch like that definitely won’t go down without a fight.

HELENA, HELENA — WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!

I think most of us knew when Helena took off to spare Alison any further pain, she’d be back before the season’s end. And, just like anything else tied to Helena, we all should have guessed that her re-entrance would be big and felt by everyone around her. After all, Helena never does anything small, right? Well, Helena is officially back tonight, and boy, does she make her presence known!

After Donnie (Kristian Bruun)  is saved from a violent prison death by Mrs. S in last week’s episode, he is finally released on bail, and he and Alison’s lives can finally get back to normal. Well, sort of. During his short stint as a jailbird, Alison has gotten pretty damn weird and super-religious, so much so that she insists on praying after sex. Okaaaaayyyyy. All of this is a little too much for both of them, and so, they decide to take a short holiday to Niagara, even with everything going on with Brightborn, Sarah, and the rest of the sisters. Too bad they don’t get very far.

As we know, Detective Duko met an unfortunate end last week, and because he worked for Evie Cho, she gets into a panic thinking that Sarah somehow got to him. So, Evie sends some of her Brightborn thugs to visit each of the sisters, hoping to scare them into giving up Duko’s location. And, one of the first on their list is Alison and Donnie. The happy couple is bound, gagged, and the Brightborn hitman threatens to given Alison her very own bot implant unless she gives up Duko and whether he told Sarah anything. Things don’t look good at all.

But, then, before anyone realizes what has happened, Evie’s hired muscle is shot dead with an arrow to the neck, with blood splattering all over Donnie, Alison and their living room. WTH?! Oh, wait… it’s Helena! Hot damn, girl! From what we can tell, Helena has simplified her life and has been living on nature since her departure earlier in the season. Well, it looks like she picked up a new skill or 2!

CONGRATULATIONS MY #SAVEDELPHINE PEEPS — DELPHINE IS ALIVE!!

Whew. What a crazy, action-packed hour, don’t you think! Even though the entire episode is one big roller-coaster ride, the punchline doesn’t come until the final moments. Just when we think the episode is over and are about to change the channel, we are taken to a scene where we see a blonde woman sitting at a desk. It looks like a cabin, and we can hear the wind whistling when the door opens. I can be slow about these things sometimes, but I honestly had no clue who the woman was when I watched for the first time.

But, then the man who walked in comes over and puts his hand on her shoulder, and when she turns her head….. holy shit!! It’s Delphine (Evelyne Brochu)!! Then, boom, the episode is over. Talking about the teaser from hell! Where is she and where in the hell has she been? Who rescued her after she was shot and why? And, how is she going to fit into all of these crazy, twisted storylines as we head towards the season 4 finale? Argh, this week is going to be hell!

All in all, another fantastic episode, and in my opinion, one of the best of the season. And, one of the main reasons for that is the fact that the plot actually moved forward — in fact, quite a lot. Cosima makes progress with Susan Duncan in finding a cure. Rachel finally leaves the island and acclimates back into city living. Evie Cho is brought down (we hope!) thanks to Rachel and her quick and sinister thinking. Helena is back and in a big way. And, then, now the moment most fans have been waiting for all season — confirmation that Delphine is alive. This made for one heck of an hour of television, and as most of you can attest, there was definitely not a dull moment. Kudos and plaudits to all who were involved in making this episode!

The season 4 finale of Orphan Black  airs next Thursday at 10/9c on BBC.

Critic Grade — A-

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