Orphan Black: Echoes (AMC/BBC America) (1 Viewer)

[jayembee]

Agreed. But most of all, the show is finally upshifting into a higher gear.

Spoiler

I think that the foster mother being on Jules' side (at least seemingly, but I hope she is) is an interesting faint, as I suspect that, given her "grandpa" being a ringer, and some of the clone monitors in OG OB had close relationships with the clones have perhaps made viewers suspicious about who is a ringer, and who is not.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Darros must have some sort of leverage over Jules's stepparents because the conversation between them that Jules overheard made it clear that they were told to take Jules in, that it wasn't something they did just out of the goodness of their hearts.

But that doesn't mean they know the truth about her origins. Even the shady neuropsychologist might not know the whole truth. It seems like the whole manufacturing people in vats of magenta goo would be information that Darros would want to keep to a pretty tight circle.

I can't imagine that there are as many copies here as there were clones in the original, both for practical reasons -- all of that motion control camera work is precise and extremely time consuming -- and for story reasons. I can't imagine that Kira, knowing what her mother and aunts went through with Project Leda, would be as irresponsible as all of that.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

This was a necessary episode, even if spending the entire hour in flashback killed the momentum a bit.

We got confirmation of something I had started to suspect: That Kira wasn't involved in printing Jules, and that her technology has gotten away from her.

Just as Amanda Fix is a great teenage Krysten Ritter, I thought August Winter was extremely well cast as the intermediate Kira between Skyler Wexler and Keeley Hawes. On the other hand, I don't think Rya Kihlstedt bears a strong resemblance to Ritter or Fix as the older Eleanor. I think I would have rather they aged Ritter up with hair and makeup instead.

 

[jayembee]

This was probably my favorite episode so far. A terrific character story in its own right, while answering some questions about how things came to be.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

One thing I really like about this series, that I also liked about the original series, is that it embraces they idea that no matter where you came from you can find your people and make a life for yourself that has meaning and value.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

I appreciated that when Lucy had to choose between Jack and Charlie or Jules, there was a genuine ticking clock on both options. Jack wasn't being a whiny jerk; there was only the one window to get the biometrics done for their escape. But Eleanor 2.0 was also correct that Jules might be in danger if they've come after Kira in such a direct way.

My favorite moment in the episode was Felix, after giving Kira the pep talk about taking responsibility for her mistakes and stepping up, expressed his condolences to Kira at the loss of Eleanor 1.0. He's always been great at seeing through the scifi weirdness to the humanity underneath.

 

[jayembee]

It was a nice touch that Felix could sympathize with Kira by noting that -- if he could have -- he might've done the same thing after losing his partner. It was also nice that said partner was Colin, one of his boyfriends from the original show.

I'm also pleased that Rya Kihlstedt has managed to be a regular since the episode in which (older) Eleanor was introduced.

If there was a flaw in this episode, it was that I could easily see both Emily's and Craig's fates coming ahead of time.

 

[Adam Lenhardt]

Well that was a shitty ending, especially since the show hasn't been renewed for a second season.

Spoiler: Orphan Black: Echoes 1x10

While Amanda Fix would obviously be a part of a second season as the "new" Jules, who might be a fresh teenage Eleanor printout with a new hairdo or might be some sort of engineered Eleanor/Kira hybrid, it still feels like a slap in the face to throw out a season's worth of character development with "old" Jules.

 

[jayembee]

It hasn't yet been renewed, but according to Anna Fishko at TVLine: "We’re really hoping for a Season 2. It’s definitely on the table and a conversation that’s ongoing with AMC."

That said, I've come to hate season finales that end in a cliffhanger, given how many shows that have done so end up being cancelled, and thus there's no resolution. And it was especially annoying here in that up to that point -- or at least, up to the point that it was clear that it couldn't possibly end without a cliffhanger -- I was liking where the story was going. I was really expecting that Darros's plan was going to be printing younger versions of one-percenters who forked over billions to extend their lifespans. I was pleasantly surprised that in his own warped way, he was actually trying to better the world, and not in a Doctor Doom-y way. That he would kill Jules in cold blood was unexpected, despite knowing that he didn't think of the print-outs as being human beings. It was also unexpected that the mysterious print-out in the room was another Jules, since the script was intending the viewers to infer that it was Kira.