Relationship Spotlight: The Clones (Orphan Black)

Even if I just focus on the main players, today’s posts definitely highlights more characters than I ever have in a single Relationship Spotlight before.  If you’re wondering what spurs me to attempt such an undertaking, I refer you to the picture above.  I’m pretty sure there are few problems which can’t be solved with “clone dance party.”  (Some spoilers ahead.)

There’s a lot to love about Orphan Black, but without a doubt, my favorite part of the show is the assortment of ever-growing relationships between the sestras.  For most of them, their lives were only recently upended by the realization of what they are.  They used to glide heedlessly through what they assumed was an ordinary existence:  soccer moms and students, convicts and cops.  Then, each of them experienced a total paradigm shift when they discovered that they’re parts of a top-secret, highly-unsanctioned human cloning experiment.  Shadowy eyes are watching them, nefarious groups wish them harm, their DNA is augmented by a synthesized patent sequence, and they find a mysterious illness worming its way through their genes.  That’s far too much for any one person to process and carry alone – no wonder they turn to the only people who can understand what they’re going through.

Forged together in the fire of what must seem like an insane sci-fi story, the sisters cling to one another.  The frequent meet-ups, phone calls, and Skype sessions go beyond their shared goal of sorting through the many questions that surround them.  Sure, Sarah is good at sneaking around and unearthing secrets, Helena can hold her own in any fight, and Cosima knows her way around a laboratory, but it’s so much more than that.  Sarah will pose as Alison to get her out of a bind of her own doing, who will in turn shoo her husband and kids out of the house so she’s ready to fight alongside Sarah if she’s needed.  When Cosima starts succumbing to the illness that threatens them, the others will do whatever’s needed to help her.  There are plenty of characters who will go to extreme lengths for one another, of course – the clones aren’t alone in that regard.  What makes their relationships stand out more is their depth coupled with the relative youth of their associations.  Less than a year out, and their concern for each other trumps basically anything else.  Their sisters come before romantic partners, before old allegiances, before work, and before personal safety.  Sarah falls out hard with Mrs. S when it comes out that S sold out Helena, and Cosima makes it clear to Delphine that if she puts Dyad ahead of Cosima’s sisters, they’re done.

The fact that they’re not just sisters but clones makes their bonds go deeper even aside from all the sci-fi craziness happening to them.  Although each woman is so different, to some extent, she regards all of the others on some level as extensions of herself.  It’s why Helena, Alison, Cosima, and Rachel almost feel like Kira is, not just Sarah’s daughter, but theirs, too.  It’s why Felix and Mrs. S. have taken them all in as something of a surrogate family.  It’s why, despite Helena and Rachel’s sins against their own, none of the others can bring themselves to take either out.  Helena is being brought closer and closer to the fold, and her tentative relationships with her sestras is helping to cut through her destructive programming at the hands of the Prolethians.  And while Rachel has wreaked all kinds of detached havoc on their lives, I think there’s a part of her, somewhere (very deeply buried,) that longs for the same, to have the kind of family that the other clones have found in each other.  The show can get bogged down in its ever-evolving mythology, but when it focuses on the women at the heart of the series, it hits home every time.