When it was hinted last week that the identity of the Castor original may be revealed in tonight’s episode, I wasn’t sure what to expect. I suppose I didn’t think it was too big of a deal because we weren’t given the impression that **who** this person actually was really held any significance. More than likely, he was just going to be some old man who may hold a resemblance to an older Rudy, Seth, Mark, etc. So what, right? Well, we all should have known after having watched this show for nearly 3 seasons now, that nothing is ever just “ordinary” with this series. And, boy is that ever true, because the writers really pulled a humdinger on us tonight when the curtains are finally pulled back, and the Castor original steps forward.

Before I get to the big Castor original reveal, let’s talk about another shocker first. We’ve known for a while that Project Castor has a source in Leda and that likely this same source is the mole who provided information about Rachel’s book and which put poor Scott (Josh Vokey)  in dire straits last week. Some people seem to think that Rachel is the mole, but I think the vast majority have fingers pointing at Cosima’s new gal pal, Shay (Ksenia Solo).  And, after Cosima finally opens the file that Delphine (Evelyne Brochu)  gave her on the way out the door at Dyad, she seem to be convinced. Shay had been in the military which she failed to mention, and she had a lot more money than she let on. Where was all the money coming from? Was it blood money from Project Castor to keep tabs on Cosima? Both Cosima and Delphine are now on the same page, which leads Delphine to make a surprise visit over at Shay’s place. She’s pretty blunt with Shay — give up what she’s doing and what she knows about Project Castor or she’ll be left to bleed out in her own bathtub.

About the same time, Cosima learns the real identity of the mole. Gracie (Zoe De Grand Maison)  had been acting weird since the 1st minute of the episode, claiming she had a doctor’s appointment and couldn’t work that day at Bubbles’. A doctor’s appointment? Yeah, sounded fishy to me too. Well, it turns out there wasn’t any doctor’s appointment, and that she was actually meeting Mark (Ari Millen)  and they were leaving together. Yeah, even with all the crap Mark put her through and the lies he had told her, she’s still in love with him and traded information about Sarah and her sisters in order to get Mark back. But, she does call Cosima before she leaves to give her a heads up and to thank her for all of her help. Fortunately, Cosima is able to call Delphine just in the nick of time before she was about to cut Shay’s wrists. Okay, I was not expecting this, not at all. But, there is a very valuable lesson that can be learned here — if you are looking for a traitor, never *ever* overlook the quiet, sweet ones. Gracie seemed so pure and so sweet, who would have thought, right?

Now on to Mrs. S (Maria Doyle Kennedy) , Sarah, and Felix’s (Jordan Gavaris) trip to London and their quest for the Castor original. As we probably could have guessed, Mrs. S is somewhat a legend in the old neighborhood, and all of her old pals are thrilled to see her again. She doesn’t waste any time and quickly turns to her old friend (and we learn past flame), Terry, in helping herwith tracking down what the number H46239 means. Well, Terry immediately recognizes it as a number for a prisoner, and given that they changed the numbering format back in the 1980’s, the person who had this number had to have been incarcerated before that. That’s a great start, but Mrs. S wants a name, and Terry promises to get it for her. Very cool! It sounds like this trip to London may actually pay off.

Well, this is true until we see that Dyad creeper, Ferninand (James Frain), who we saw briefly in the season premiere, is back, and to make matters worse, he’s in Terry’s apartment. We don’t know for sure what this guy wants or whether he knows what is going on and what happened to Rachel, but he’s back in the game again. Apparently, Terry was supposed to contact Ferninand if Mrs. S ever were to return to London, and of course, with Terry having a romantic history with her, he didn’t. The next thing we see is Mrs. S, Sarah, and Felix arriving at Terry’s apartment, and finding him beaten badly and on the verge of death. Terry ends up dying in Mrs. S’s arms but not before he whispers in her ear what he found out. We don’t know (yet) what he said, but whatever it was, it rattled Mrs. S to the point where she tells Sarah and Felix that their trip is over, and they are leaving tonight. No room for negotiation. What? I thought the whole purpose of the trip was to track down the Castor original and kill him, which will put an end to Project Castor for good?

Well, Sarah does too because she decides this is bullsh*t and that she and Felix are going to do what they came there to do. So, she steals Terry phone, calls his contact, and sets up a meeting. What she learns is that the number H46239 belonged to a Kendall Malone, and that he was convicted of aggravated homicide in 1981 but was paroled in 2007. And, the contact does have a current address, and so, the next step is Kendall Malone’s house, where Sarah has every intention of carrying out Mrs. S’s plan of killing him. Here comes the shocker, folks, and so, you probably should sit down.

When Sarah gets there, she doesn’t find an old man like she had expected but a middle-aged woman– and yes, she’s Kendall Malone. Say what? There has to be a mistake, right? Then, Mrs. S finally shows up, and here we learn that this old woman is actually Mrs. S’s mother. Mrs. S’s mother, this “Kendall,” had killed her daughter’s beau, John, and so, went to prison for murder. Now comes the punchline. While she was incarcerated, Duncan came around looking for the “perfect donor” for his cloning project, and Mrs. S’s mother turned out to be that perfect donor. I know very little about advanced biology nor genetics, and so, I’m not even going to pretend to understand how this is possible, but we learn that Kendall Malone is very special and actually has 2 cell lines. And, what does this mean exactly? It means that she can be the donor for both male and female clones. I.E. — she’s not only the Castor original but also the original for Leda. Yeah, I’m totally tripping, and probably 10 worse than you are! I really wish I could ask the writers of the show if this is something they planned from the beginning, or if it’s something that just popped into one of their heads while they were out binging on alcohol and getting high on weed.

Either way, how f*cked up is that? Mrs. S wanted to kill the Castor original but she can’t because her mother is also the Leda original, and so, she may be the only hope to find a treatment for the ailment that is affecting the Leda clones, particularly Cosima. Boy, I can’t wait to see what’s comes next in the season finale (and probably going into Season 4)!

Now, while all of this drama is going on over in London, Alison and Donnie (Kristian Bruun) are having their own drama back in their “soap business.” Picking a fight with Jason Kellerman was a pretty stupid thing for Donnie to do because Jason decides he has had enough and decides to boot Alison and Donnie out of his business. This also means that Donnie has to return all of the pills back to Jason’s boss. Pretty bad day for Donnie and if he had to do this alone, he probably would have come back from his visit with Jason’s boss, Pouchy, completely empty-handed (and quite possibly missing some appendages). But, he’s in luck today — Donnie mentions that they had taken the container with Helena’s embryos in them, and this means Helena will be making the trip to visit Pouchy too because she’s damn sure going to get her babies back.

If Pouchy and Luisa had kept their mouths shut, Donnie and Helena would have left with Helena’s embryos (but minus the money he had paid for the pills — apparently, no refund in this business). But, then, Luisa makes a passing threat to Donnie’s kids, and we all know how Helena loves kids.

Did you just threaten babies? You should not threaten babies — Helena to Pouchy

Helena then kicks Donnie out of the building, and the next time we see her, she emerges covered with blood and oh by the way, with a suitcase full of cash and ALOT more than Donnie had paid for the pills.

Helena, what did you do? — Donnie

I got refund — Helena

Whew!!! What a hell of a penultimate episode! So, going into the season finale, what does all of this mean? We already knew that Helena thought Donnie was hot after last week’s episode, but now, he’s also her hero because he got her babies back. As most of you know, I’ve been secretly hoping that these 2 get together especially since Alison seemed to be pretty damn interested in romping around outside her marriage with Jason. But, with Alison and Donnie no longer in business with Jason, what are the chances of an Alison/Jason hookup now?

As for the huge revelation about the Castor original, I’m not even going to fathom a guess as to where we’re going. After a shocker like that, I think at this point anything could happen.

The season 3 finale of Orphan Black  airs next Saturday at 9/8c on BBC America.

Critic Grade — A-

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