During the season finale of Orphan Black (BBC America, Saturdays, 9/8C), Mrs. S orders a mysterious someone to make a car bomb. That is not the explosive that the finale, By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried, delivers (maybe in season three…). No, there’s something much, much bigger – a revelation that seems inevitable in hindsight, but is pretty much WTF when it happens.
By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried opens with a sequence that finds Sarah (Tatiana Maslany) in a dark room being interrogated. As the finale progresses we see how she got there and learn there’s much more going on than we could have ever imagined.
There are misdirects (see: car bomb) that are amusing and terrifying; a character we haven’t seen in a while returns; there is a major death – but it’s not the one that seemed to be coming. There is also one scene of perfect joy amidst the tension and the convolutions and the drama.
I found the season finale to be breathtaking. Series co-creator Graeme Manson provides a script that circles back on itself like Ouroboros, while expanding the mythology and co-creator John Fawcett amps up every element of it to an almost unbearable pitch – before and after that one moment of joy.
While Orphan Black’s supporting cast is, as always, terrific (Jordan Gavaris and Maria Doyle Kennedy, especially), there’s a reason why Maslany just won her second Critics’ Choice Television Award for Best Actress in a Drama Series and it is on display throughout. Think four clones, one scene.
Michelle Forbes gets a few lovely scenes as Marion Bowles – pivotal scenes, in fact (this is a character who is ‘invested!’), and Skyler Wexler gets to show off something cool she’s learned from her mom (also a key moment).
Needless to say, on top of an amazing script and superb direction, the FX are stunning.
By Means Which Have Never Yet Been Tried is, quite possibly, the best episode yet. I want to just blurt out all the key plot points, great lines and show-stopping moments. If you are as into Orphan Black as deeply as I am, you just might plotz after the last scene.
Fair warning…
Final Grade: A+
Photos by Steve Wilkie/Courtesy BBC America