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"By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried" is the tenth episode and Season 2 finale of Orphan Black that first aired on June 21, 2014. It is also the twentieth episode overall. The live U.S. ratings for the episode were 0.538.[1]

Synopsis[]

The war with DYAD is all but lost when Rachel's latest ploy forces a broken Sarah to concede. Clone Club springs into action, uniting in a reckless gambit to save Sarah. As they fight to gain their freedom, Sarah encounters a new ally and uncovers a terrifying new dimension to the conspiracy.

Summary[]

The opening shows Sarah being stripped, poked, prodded and interrogated. Mixed in with this horror is a flashback of Sarah and Mrs. S fighting about what happened at the hospital, while Felix, coming off whatever drug Rachel shoved in his neck, starts to panic and blame himself for Kira’s kidnapping. In the middle of all the yelling, Sarah just stops and hugs Mrs. S. She still doesn’t know how Mrs. S plays into all this, but she knows she loves Kira, so Sarah trusts her to do what she needs to in order to keep Kira safe. Mrs. S tells her to be strong, and Sarah leaves.

Sarah 1

Sarah sits before an unseen source and tells them that her name is Sarah Manning and she is surrendering. She calls it “unconditional surrender". She is handcuffed and put in a room, where a man comes in to have her sign a contract. His name is Dr. Nealon.

Nealon

He tells them that they are going to harvest Sarah’s eggs next time she’s ovulating and need her consent. Sarah scoffs at the contract but signs it anyway, on the condition that she can see Kira.

In her room, Kira tries to resist having her mouth swabbed by a nurse. Eventually she caves, but she swipes the nurse’s cell phone out of her pocket.

Sarah3

She dives under the covers and dials the first number that comes to mind. In the DYAD, Rachel and Delphine are riding an elevator, and Rachel tells Delphine that she’s no longer assigned to 324B21; in fact, she’s being sent to Germany. Delphine is distraught. She feels used, she didn’t even get a chance to say goodbye. Rachel coolly says it’s not personal; people get the things they love taken from them, that’s just the way of the world.

Sarah4

Delphine is desperate now and says, “I love her, and if you let her die without me, it is personal,” before the elevator closed.

Cosima is being told that she’s being assigned a new physician, and that "Dr. Cormier is no longer in charge of her care." Cosima and Scott fight against this, demanding to know why, but Cosima then gets an email from “Eskimo Pie” with the subject: Urgent. The body of the email simply says, “it’s up to you now,” and Cosima knows what it means. She switches gears, saying she’s sure the new physician will be great. Scott is confused but Cosima ignores him and asks if she can see Sarah or at least Kira. Also in that email, Delphine sent to Cosima is Rachel’s itinerary. At 1PM, Sarah Manning is booked for an OR with Dr. Nealon, so Cosima and Scott have to come up with a plan.

Kira is having a tea party with some of her stuffed animals when Rachel comes in to pay her a visit. Sarah watches through a two-way mirror while Rachel tells Kira that her mother has been a "bad girl." Kira remembers all too well that her mother ran away a few times, but she says her mommy is all grown up now. Rachel says that sometimes even mothers have to do what they're told, and says it pointedly into the mirror. Mrs. S is on the phone ordering a car bomb when she hears a knock on the door. She grabs her gun, peeks out the door, and relaxes when she sees a man who introduces him as Cal, Kira’s father.

At the DYAD, Sarah is led around in handcuffs when she sees Duncan in handcuffs as well. He looks at her and simply says, “don’t despair,” which is difficult, provided the situation.

When Felix gets to Art, Helena tells them the story of Jesse, her boyfriend, and as usual, no one knows how much truth to take from the story. Art mentions the fire at the Prolethean plantation, and Felix directly asks her if she burned down the “fish people’s ranch” but she just shows her classic smile and says she did not. Back at the house, Cal tells Mrs. S about the time his computer got hacked. Not one to take intruders lightly, he hacks them right back and chats with them; he thinks they’re on the inside. The other person says that Cal should ask Mrs. S about Castor.

Mrs. S waits in a shady location for a hummer to pull up and a few army guys open the door for someone. That someone is Paul, in full uniform.

In Duncan’s room, Rachel has tea brought in, but Duncan only needs hot water, since he has his own teabags. Rachel asks for his cipher, his sequence; the science that started it all. She doesn’t understand why he wouldn’t want to repeat the experiment. Duncan says that he gave her the sequence needed to save Cosima. Do that, and the rest will be considered. She says that the exchange will be the other way around—give her the sequence and then she will save Cosima.

Rachel is mid-sentence when Duncan starts to seize up and fall to the floor. Rachel’s collected and polished demeanor crumbles and she shouts at him, tells him that he can’t leave her, not again, and starts to cry.

Meanwhile, Operation Save The Clones is going on behind everyone’s backs. Cal gets out of a limo and Mrs. S introduces him to Paul. Marian is the one in the limo, and she tells Paul that she can get Sarah and Kira out, but staying safe afterward would be up to them. He hands her a file and the shady dealings begin.

In Kira’s room, Cosima is sitting on the bed asking Kira if she likes her new toys. When Kira says she doesn’t, Cosma asks if she’d rather do a science experiment. Kira probably misses going to school like a normal child, so she is pretty pumped about the prospect of an impromptu science class. While Cosima has Kira try to stab a pencil through paper to teach her about force being comprised of mass and acceleration, we flash back to Cosima and Scott doing a science experiment of their own. Cosima’s having a rough go of it; it’s clear she’s running out of time, and Scott doesn’t even think this plan, whatever it is, will work. Cosima can’t think of any other way, and Sarah needs her sestra, so she just powers through. Scott holds up an ID card and says that he’ll do what he can to help. Present-time Cosima tells Kira to use a little more speed and the pencil breaks through the paper easily.

Elsewhere in DYAD, men take Sarah and strap her to a gurney without so much as a “calm down” and take her into an OR. While doctors work to restrain her onto the hospital bed, one leans in and loosens an arm strap, whispering, “Cosima says hello.” Rachel comes in and asks for a moment alone with her sister. Which is an awful ballsy thing to call her, considering. To her credit, she gives Sarah a drawing Kira asked her to give to Sarah, and Sarah does a bit of a double-take when it’s of a person and a fire extinguisher.

Rachel tells Sarah that Duncan is dead, and while she’s listening, Sarah notices that there’s a fire extinguisher next to her bed that reads, “Squeeze me.” Rachel holds up the vials of Kira’s bone marrow and asks Sarah where Duncan wrote down the sequence for her. Sarah says she has no idea what she’s talking about, Duncan never gave her any science that she knew about, but Rachel, who is barely holding it together at this point, doesn’t believe her. Then, Rachel “Proclone” Duncan, does the unthinkable. She smashes the vials of bone marrow on the floor.

She starts to leave, but Sarah stops her, and since she was already down the rabbit hole anyway, follows the instructions on the fire extinguisher. There’s a whoosh and a bang and then there’s a pencil flying through Rachel’s eye.

She falls to the floor and Great Scott rushes in and gives her the DYAD passkey, telling her to go get Kira, and to make haste. When Sarah gets to Kira’s room, Marian has her dressed and ready to go. Marian opened the doors, and tells Sarah she’s on her side. She also says that she has information Sarah might be interested in, and that Cal can arrange a meetup tomorrow if she so desires.

At Felix’s Loft, Cal says goodbye the Sarah and her sestras. Sarah starts to walk him out and when she turns back, Alison mouths to her that she thinks Cal is hot and Cosima gives a wink and a nod of approval.

Cal asks what will happen to Cosima now, but Sarah doesn’t know. It will be six weeks before they can get more bone marrow from Kira, and she isn’t sure Cosima has that much time. Cal is about to say something else, but Sarah kisses him instead. She needs a moment to feel normal, to feel safe. Just a moment. Fee walks in and interrupts, asking Cal if he would join the ever-growing list of people who have sex in his bed. Cal says it’s a Clones Night In, but Felix says he’s allowed because he’s a brother sestra.Felix enters the apartment with Helena following behind him. Helena enters the loft tentatively. Cosima hugs her, fascinated by her and empathetic of everything she’s been through. Cosima tells Helena she’s beautiful and Helena returns the compliment.

Alison also meets Helena and is more reserved in her interaction. Kira enters thrilled to see “Auntie Helena.” . Everyone smiles at one another and things are going so well.

Everyone is sitting around the loft and Cosima puts on a record. The music moves her, so she takes out her nose tubes and starts dancing like the beautiful hippie she is. Fee joins her and then the most beautiful thing unfolds. Sarah starts dancing, then Helena. Fee pulls Alison up off the couch. Even Kira is jumping and dancing around, like she hadn’t just been kidnapped, like she’s just a regular kid. And she dances like a kid, too; they all dance in a way that is so fitting for their personalities. Sarah wakes up and looks to the other side of the bed, where Cosima is lying, looking at the ceiling. Sarah asks what she’s thinking about, and Cosima sciences at her a little. Cosima starts talking about her tattoo, the golden ratio, while Helena (who is curled up on the floor) listens in. Sarah looks at her sister and says, “We’re so different, all of us.” And never a truer statement has been uttered. Sarah takes Cosima’s hand and they let their fingers run across each other’s palms, identical hands fitting perfectly together. Sarah whispers that she can’t do this without Cosima and starts to cry. Cosima tears up but keeps a brave face; Sarah’s a survivor.

Helena chooses this moment to grab her trucker hat and duck out of the loft, leaving her frozen eggs behind. Unfortunately, she doesn’t get far before some men grab her, taze her, and take her, leaving only Jesse’s hat behind as a clue.

The next morning, Sarah has left to meet Marian, so Kira goes wake up Auntie Cosima. But Auntie Cosima doesn’t respond. Kira shakes her, but it doesn’t even look like she’s breathing. Cosima opens her eyes but sees only a bright light. Delphine appears in the light and says that she will never leave.

But then she blinks and Delphine is gone, and so is the light, and Kira looks relieved she’s awake. Kira climbs into the bed and asks for a story.

When Sarah walks into Marian’s palatial mansion, she finds a little girl with a leg brace who looks remarkably like the little girl from Rachel’s home videos which means she looks remarkably like Sarah would have at that age. When Marian asks the little girl, Charlotte, if she knows who this is, she calls Sarah her big sister, and says she knows about Kira, her cousin. After she leaves them, Marian mentions that technically Kira is Charlotte’s niece, but that’s neither here nor there.

After Cosima finishes a story about an explorer and a puppy. Kira brings her Duncan’s copy of The Island of Doctor Moreau. Lo and behold, the scribbles in the margins appear to be the sequence that Duncan tried to get Rachel to use.

In her mansion, Marian tells Sarah that Charlotte is the product of a failed attempt to recreate the clone experiment. Of the 400 babies, Charlotte is the only one who survived, and thereby the one Marian adopted as her own. Marian confesses that Topside steers the DYAD group, and it embraces synthetic biology. Sarah works out that what she means is, if it’s going to be the future, they might as well be the ones to profit from it. Marian says that’s only part of it, and that they have bigger fish to fry. They couldn’t have confirmed it without Mrs. S, but they know things now.

While Sarah is sitting pretty in this giant house, Helena is being taken on a military plane. A teary-eyed Mrs. S watches this happen, saying that Sarah is never going to forgive her for sacrificing one of her sestras to the military, or whatever is going on.

Back in the mansion, Marian says that the military didn’t shut down LEDA. Like the mythological Leda’s eggs, and the egg that Sarah and Helena came from, LEDA split in two. The DYAD’s project were, obviously, female clones. Sarah and her sestras, Charlotte, etc. The military, however, had male clones. Gracie and Mark get married. Which seems super random until: Sarah is lead to a room where there’s a man working out. The man turns and comes up to the glass, a scar on his cheek and wildfire in his eyes. This man, one of the military’s male clones, has the same exact face as Prolethean Mark.

Credits[]

Main Cast[]

Guest Starring[]

Cast[]

  • Millie Davis as Gemma
  • Drew David as Oscar
  • Allan Turner as Young Ethan
  • Cynthia Galant as Young Rachel/Charlotte
  • Doug MacLeod as Justice of Peace
  • Vanessa Burns as Nurse
  • Danny MacDonald as Martin Funt
  • Louise Nicol as Donnie's Mother
  • John Nelles as Male Nurse/Dialogue Coach

Music[]

All songs for the episodes have been verified by TuneFind(A reliable source)[1]

  • "Nearer My God To Thee" by Sarah Flower Adams & Randy Miller
  • "Water Prayer Rasta Mix (Matt the Alien Remix)" by Adham Shaikh
  • "Duncan's Demise" by Trevor Yuile
  • "Unconditional Surrender" by Trevor Yuile

References[]

Navigation[]

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Episodes

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