Orphan Black introduced fans to yet another Project Leda clone this season, making the list of characters played by Tatiana Maslany longer than the entire cast lists of some other shows. If our count is correct, that’s 13 clones under Maslany’s belt. What was all that noise about the male Castor clones earlier this season? The sisterhood still is where it’s at. The season three finale, “History Yet to be Written,” gave us many answers about how the clones came to be, but it also set up a brand new mystery that will test the sisterhood in new ways next season. The finale also gave fans another scene featuring several clones together. Think back and decide which Leda clones deliver the most awesome. [Warning: Season three finale spoilers ahead.]
Janika Zingler, Aryanna Giordano and Danielle Fournier are among the European clones seen only in the documents Sarah Manning found in Katja’s room back in season one. Not a lot is known about them except that they all were killed by Helena. No doubt they were all awesome in their own ways.
We met the Midwestern Jennifer through a series of video journals she kept at the behest of her Dyad Institute doctors. In them, the once promising swimmer and teacher went from cheerful and positive to sad and defeated as her condition steadily declined. The 28-year-old, wracked by a form of the illness that plagues Cosima, made a final entry in which she said, “Dr. Leekie (Matt Frewer) said that he could help. But he lied… I’m gonna die here.”
When the German clone suspected Sarah was posing as Beth back in season one, she uttered the riddle the clones had been using as a secret code, “Just one. I’m a few, no family, too. Who am I?” Her courage and determination allowed her to uncover the Project Leda clones’ existence, but she never learned exactly who she was. Helena put a bullet between her eyes before she discovered the whole truth. She would have been a terrific ally for Sarah.
Like, we just got to know Krystal and she is put into a coma? Not fair! Sarah and Felix (Jordan Gavaris) thought they were protecting the curious manicurist by keeping her in the dark, but see how that worked out? Poor thing has been a target of the Castor clones, Topside and, it turns out, the Neolutionists in the form of duplicitous Dr. Nealon (Tom McCamus). Apparently she still doesn’t know about her sisters, because she wasn’t celebrating Alison’s election victory at Bubbles.
Born Antoinette, Tony now identifies as a man and is happy and confident in his skin. Tony didn’t seem all that shocked about the history of the clones, maybe because he’s already had a major identity crisis as a transgender person. Here’s hoping we get to see more of the randy playa who smooched Felix back in season two.
The physically challenged child clone Charlotte (Cynthia Galant) was born 20 years after the Project Leda batch that includes Sarah and the others. She and Kira made awesomely creepy dream guides when Sarah had the bizarre reaction to the Castor clones’ defective DNA this season in “Certain Agony of the Battlefield.” Charlotte’s position on this list gets bumped higher after her surprise appearance in the finale. She’ll soon be calling Rachel mommy dearest.
Without Beth, Sarah never would have discovered she is a clone. Sarah also would never have shagged hottie Paul Dierden (Dylan Bruce), and that would have been a shame for viewers, too. Beth’s suicide may have kicked off the series, but she hasn’t been far from Sarah’s heart ever since. Sarah toasted Beth in the finale’s celebration scene. Certainly Beth’s advice via a fever dream this season still haunts Sarah: “We do terrible things for the people we love… Stop asking why. Start asking who.”
It would be sexist to call a powerful woman a bitch. But beotch, please! Not even a pencil to the eye and part of her brain can make the former director of the Dyad Institute realize how evil she truly is. She may have been physically impaired for most of season three, but the schemer still had tricks up her sleeve. At least she thought they were her tricks. She orchestrated her escape from Dyad and her sisters, but really the Neolutionists were working all the angles. Now Rachel has a freaky new eye and a renewed relationship with her mother, the supposedly dead Professor Susan Duncan (Rosemary Dunsmore).
For being a topnotch scientist, the perpetually smitten smarty Cosima seems to have her head in the clouds when it comes to love. How can she think about matters of the heart at times like these?! But that hopeless romanticism in the face of her illness and the Leda clones’ travails makes her special. That compassion spills over into her devotion to their cause; she’s trying so very hard to find a cure for the illness that has claimed clone lives and possibly could take hers.
Alison brings the laughs to this dark clone world. When she and Felix got together in past seasons, they created some of the best comic scenes of the show. Alison’s storylines often seem superfluous to the clone action, but they entertain. Who can forget Alison and Donnie (Kristian Bruun) twerking in the shower of money? Now that Helena is with her sisters, what better couple to show her what a normal life — well, sort of — can be?
A combination of all her sisters’ best traits, Sarah is unapologetically herself. Over three seasons, her bad-girl, lone-wolf pose has melted away to reveal a woman with an unstoppable drive to defend her family, a fierce will to live, clever adaptability and ability to go under cover as any of her sisters. She’s become less selfish, too, and more understanding that there are gray areas in the dark clone world. Tough decisions have to be made, yet she makes them with a compassion that rivals Cosima’s. She is the ultimate clone sister and probably the most awesome clone, but…
Without a doubt, Helena is the most complex of the clones. She’s scary and sweet, a fighter and a lover. She can dispatch a foe as easily as she bonds with kids. She’s a bit crazy, but in her case it’s a plus. Her growth over three seasons has been astounding. Seeing her in the finale, sitting down to celebrate with her new family, it’s hard to believe that Helena was once a clone assassin. After the abuse she suffered in her life, it’s amazing she’s able to muster up any feelings other than hate. Hopefully all that sisterly love — and motherhood — won’t make Helena too sane. Turns out the Neolutionists were puppet masters of all the players in the Castor-Leda clone drama, and they’re coming to get their Adam and Eve.
Curt Wagner the former TV critic for RedEye Chicago and current editor of TV Show Patrol. Follow him on Twitter at @showpatrol and read his reviews here.
