Orphan Black season 5 recap: “Ease for Idle Millionaires”

Orphan Black gets political, P.T. Westmorland hosts dinner, and Susan Duncan makes a Faustian deal in a Cosima-centric episode.

I like it when Orphan Black gets political. Obviously, the entire series can be read as an allegory about the patriarchy—especially as it pertains to reproductive rights—but the show rarely lets its characters have an explicit soapbox. So it was a welcome surprise when this season’s fifth episode, “Ease for Idle Millionaires,” allowed Cosima a polemic moment.

When Cosima discovers that Yannis (aka the mysterious predator in the woods and P.T. Westmorland’s “deepest regret”) had been tested, held in captivity, and genetically “dismantled to extend life,” she is horrified. As she berates Westmorland about his selfishness and cruelty, I half-expected Ilana Wexler to wander in and go off on a tirade about useless white men. And she wouldn’t be wrong: an elderly, rich white dude screwing over everyone else for his own personal gain isn’t exactly unheard of right now.

Cosima is a fun personality but she’s not Orphan Black‘s best-defined character. Instead, she’s a bunch of characters rolled into one. She’s the exposition machine, the resident science is cool! mouthpiece, the chill pothead, and the tragically ill victim. So it was gratifying to witness Cosima’s aha moment—she seemed like an actual character for once and not a storytelling device.

Here are some other key takeaways from “Ease for Idle Millionaires”:

Guess who’s coming to dinner

Holy crap, Cosima and Delphine pulled a Leslie Knope and Ann Perkins! And let me just say, Cosima looked rad in that tux. I just wish the show had made time for a black and white dance sequence…

In any case, Cosima and Delphine join Westmorland, Susan Duncan, Rachel, and Ira for a gathering that was one part Clue and one part Gilmore Girls‘ Friday Night Dinner. The rag-tag group discuss LIN28a, the fountain of youth gene, and their plans for Kira. Back in the bad old days, you see, Westmorland, Susan, and Virginia Coady synthesized Yannis’ LIN28a gene and used it for the Leda project. But the gene’s self-healing/cell regeneration attributes didn’t express themselves until the second Leda generation: Kira and (possibly) Helena’s unborn children. Best laid plans, ya know?

This means that Kira’s regular visits to Auntie Rachel at Neolution probably won’t be non-invasive for long. The good doctors and Rachel & the Corporate Overlords want to find out whether LIN28a will express itself again in the third generation, and 1,300 surrogates are lined up for the moment Kira’s eggs are harvested. Which means…

Kira has a purpose after all!

I’ve always considered Kira the least interesting Orphan Black character. I don’t care about her miracle child capabilities and I find it annoying that her cherubic little face is doled out to remind us that all of this is So Much Bigger Than Clone Club.

However, “Ease for Idle Millionaires” did succeed in convincing me that Kira is narratively important. Her value is about much more than her heartstrings-tugging psychic connection to her mother and the other Ledas; her biology could produce a whole new generation of female clones. Kira could be the key to Clone Club 2.0, a burden none of the Ledas would wish on anyone.

Susan Duncan is white feminism at its worst

If you ask me, Susan Duncan is an older, more maternal version of The Handmaid Tale‘s Serena Joy. She’s an educated, privileged white lady who helped build a morally bankrupt system for her own agenda but for some reason still isn’t happy. And yet she’s not unhappy enough to denounce her previous actions. Basically, she sucks.

Prize that she is, Susan is also willing to jettison her own principles and sense of right and wrong for the sake of power. She parleys with Rachel in the empty greenhouse (which is definitely haunted) and makes an uneasy compromise with her daughter: Susan will accept that “corporate runs the science” and respect Rachel’s authority if she can continue her work on the Leda project.

Susan must be after the Nobel prize or something; I really can’t see why she would form an alliance with her matricidal daughter or a sadistic, Machiavellian 170-year-old otherwise. She obviously doesn’t approve of Westmorland’s methods or of Neolution’s plans for Kira. At this point I’m hoping she redeems herself by turning out to be Mrs. S’s famed Neolution source.

Side note: As sociopathic as Rachel is, it is always fascinating when she faces off against her mother. There’s so much rage and pain behind Rachel’s cruelty towards Susan. And Susan’s coolness towards Rachel belies disappointment and regret. I literally didn’t know who to root for when Rachel confronted Susan in the greenhouse. Wait, yes I did, actually: Ira. His flippant “I’ve hidden the knives” remark to Rachel killed me.

Misc.

Really, Orphan Black? No Alison, Felix, Donnie, or Helena this week? I like Sarah and Cosima as much as the next person but this episode definitely could have used some more one-liners.
When P.T. Westmorland made his “delicate balance between the clinical and the humane” comment, I sort of wanted Ron Howard to intone, “Hey, that’s the thesis of the show!”
Cosima admires Westmorland’s taxidermy decor: “You have a lot of dead things in here.”
A tuxedoed Cosima and vintage wedding gowned Delphine made me retroactively love the “Frock that” line.
I really hope Mrs. S pays Scott and his comic book store friend to do her bidding.