Black is Back: ‘Orphan Black’ – Episode 10 ‘History Yet to be Written’

Orphan Black is a critically acclaimed sci-fi series from BBC America featuring human clones. Its first two seasons garnered rave reviews, and its third season airs Saturday nights at 9/8c on BBC America and SPACE. Our writer, Janna Jeffrey, recaps every episode of the third season here on The Hudsucker. Orphan Black is back!

Beware: As this is a recap column, there are spoilers ahead. Read on if you dare!

Credit BBC America

Well, here we are, folks: the Season 3 finale of Orphan Black! This season we’ve dealt with dangerous male clones, a Mexican prison, suburban drug dealers, new romance, and the discovery of the Original! It hasn’t been an easy season for our Leda girls—but then, it never is. The past two season finales for this show have been wild rides, so let’s see how this one stacks up!

The episode opens with flashes of memory: Rachel’s time with her parents, the video clips from her childhood from Season 2, and Professor Ethan Duncan’s suicide. It’s obviously Rachel’s dream. When she wakes, she’s in a fancy room all alone and she doesn’t know where she is. She calls out to people, but no one answers. She moves from the bed to the dresser, slowly peeling back the bandage over her eye to reveal… a Neolutionist eye! Woah!! Now that’s exciting. Science eye!

After the credits, Art takes Sarah and Felix to an undisclosed warehouse location. Scott is already there waiting for them. The point of the place is to have somewhere safe to keep Kendall Malone, the Leda & Castor Original. Mrs S brings Kendall in, and Kendall is none too happy to be there. Scott happily explains the science behind Kendall’s condition—he is always so sweet—and Mrs S threatens Kendall’s life if she gets in touch with Castor. Mrs S doesn’t play around, Kendall. You better watch yourself.

We get a brief little scene that shows Rudy glitching, just like his brother Seth did earlier in the season—he clearly isn’t doing so well. Dr Coady sends him to track down the original… and he decides to go after Alison to do it. No!

Alison, meanwhile, is busy doing some last minute campaigning—it’s election day! While she exchanges some catty words with Marci Coates, Donnie leads Helena into their garage. She wants to know if she’s going with him on Alison’s election bus, and it turns out he has something else in mind for her: he found Jesse (Patrick J Adams), Helena’s love interest from Season 2! Ah!!!! Oh man, he is so happy to see Helena, and she is so happy to see him. Their reunion is adorable, and she also gives Donnie a big hug as a thank you. Donnie did something nice for Helena! Helena is happy! This is the best!

Cosima goes to Shay’s to try and make up with her, but Shay isn’t into it—after the d\way Delphine treated her, Shay’s pretty pissed. Rightfully so, really. Shay asks Cosima to be honest with her and to tell her who she really is, but Cosima can’t. Aw. Sad ladies in love.

Credit BBC America

At DYAD, Delphine tucks a gun into her pocket just as Ferdinand from Topside arrives. He’s both impressed and upset that she eliminated Rachel, and tells her that he wants the Original for Topside’s benefit—and then he wants to take over all of DYAD. Delphine isn’t really on board, and it turns out she’s brought a reinforcement: Sarah! Ferdinand realizes that it was Sarah he interacted with at the beginning of the season, not Rachel. Clever, Ferdinand. Sarah and Delphine want to work with him to get rid of Castor, and in return, they’ll allow him access to Kendall’s samples. Uh oh. This could really backfire for them. I’m worried already.

Cosima is sent in to get a blood sample from Kendall to help them work on a cure for Leda’s genetic disorder. Kendall is, quite frankly, acting like a surly jerk. But Cosima works with her and manages to get around that gruff exterior enough to convince Kendall to let them take a sample. Go, Cosima!

Sarah and Felix, meanwhile, go after Castor. There’s a great little moment where Felix kicks in a hotel room door and both he and Sarah are delighted with his badassery, and then the two deal with the people in the hotel room: Mark and Gracie. Sarah isn’t so thrilled with Gracie’s decision to give Castor the Doctor Moreau book, and tells them that they need Mark’s help. Mark says he’s out of Castor, and just wants to spend the next few months with Gracie before his genetics kill him, too. Aw, oh man. I have such a soft spot for these two! I really want them to make it. Sarah tells Mark that Coady isn’t going to let Mark out of this whole thing this easily, and Sarah is likely right. Coady is one controlling lady.

Delphine and Dr Neilan are at Rachel’s bedside—except, of course, it isn’t actually Rachel. If you’ll remember, it’s Krystal! Poor Krystal, who was kidnapped and put there against her will by Neilan himself. After Neilan asks Delphine to send Rachel somewhere safe to keep her away from Topside, he leaves them alone. Big mistake, Neilan, you fool! Delphine sits there studying Rachel-aka-Krystal, and then spots the manicure on her fingernails. She’s suspicious. She’s about to lift her eye bandage to confirm it’s Rachel when Krystal wakes up, flips out, and panics. She doesn’t know where she is, why she’s there, or what happened to her eye. She recognizes Delphine, though, from the salon. Delphine lifts the bandage, and thank god, Krystal’s eye is fine! I swear, if Neilan had messed with her eye on top of everything else, I’d have been furious. Krystal has so many questions for Delphine. Oh, yeah. Looks like we’re going to have a new member of Clone Club! Welcome to the trip, Krystal!

We get another little scene with Rachel and her new bionic eye. She’s calling out, unsuccessfully, wanting to know where she is. We learn that a surveillance camera is watching her. Eep. I really don’t know how to feel about Rachel anymore. So many conflicting feelings!

Helena sits with Jesse in his tow truck, filling him in on where she’s been since he saw her last, and the way she describes her life is adorable. He’s happy to see her, and they kiss. Aww, I am so happy for these two! I’m so happy that he’s happy to have her with him again! Helena climbs on top of him and tries to get him undressed—ooh la la! They’re interrupted, however, by a text from Felix. Her sisters need her help. She apologizes to Jesse, but he understands. He says he’ll wait for her. Once again: aww!

Credit BBC America

Alison and Donnie are at the polling station, taking care of the final hours of her campaign. They’re the best power couple. And then, oh god… Rudy walks in. No! Nope! Stay away from the Hendrixes! He follows them out to their campaign bus, and gets into his van to follow the bus when it pulls away. But hooray—Donnie spotted him. Donnie saves the day! He and Alison sit together in the bus, trying to decide how to handle things.

Meanwhile, Sarah and Felix return back to the warehouse with Mark in tow. Mrs S is pretty wary about that, but Sarah asks her to trust them. Sarah then proceeds to get some real good punches in on Mark’s face. Woah, getting out a little aggression, Sarah? By the time she’s done, he’s all bloodied up.

Dr Coady is in a car, being driven someplace important, when she gets a Facetime call from Rudy. Except, of course, it’s no surprise to us—we know it’s Mark impersonating Rudy, not Rudy himself! Coady doesn’t know that, though. Mark pulls it off. He tells her that Alison and Helena led him to Kendall, and shows her that Kendall is tied up with him. He tells her to come meet him, and gives her a location. After the call hangs up, it’s clear that Mark feels bad about the deception. He’s still struggling to find his place in this whole mess. Poor thing. I want good things for Mark.

Alison and Donnie stop the bus at their home. Alison leaves the bus idling and heads into her backyard—and Rudy, of course, follows her. She’s nowhere in sight when he gets into the yard, but he hears a sound in the garage, so he heads that way. Rudy, you clearly aren’t aware of the dangers of the Hendrix garage! Sure enough, it isn’t Alison waiting for him; it’s Helena.

Clone vs clone showdown!

Helena, being dangerous as all hell, beats Rudy down. He’s glitching as he tries to fight back, but it’s no use—she completely has the upper hand. She also stabs him right through the arm. Augh! Unsurprisingly, he goes down. He’s pretty much finished, at this point. Helena, being the beautiful character she is, lies down on the floor with him. Rudy isn’t doing well, and it’s pretty clear that he won’t be getting back up again… ever. He murmurs something about his childhood, and she shares something about hers. He says that everything he and his brothers did had a purpose, and Helena counters, saying, “No. You are a rapist.” In that moment, you can see a little change in Rudy’s eyes—like he realizes he’s been fighting on the wrong side, all this time. But it’s too late. Helena gently strokes his face until he dies. It’s a beautiful moment between the two of them, wonderfully written and acted by Tatiana Maslany and Ari Millen. Rudy was a terrible person, but he was given a lovingly-crafted ending. Orphan Black is really good at that.

Dr Coady and her driver pull up to a warehouse, but they don’t get very far. Someone shoots her driver in the head almost immediately. The back door to the car opens, and in slides Ferdinand from Topside. Of course it’s Ferdinand. We know he’s working with Leda, at this point, but is he really? Can we trust him?! He’s clearly in charge of the situation with Dr Coady now, at any point. I wonder what he’s going to do with her.

Credit BBC America

Mrs S and Sarah sit down to talk with Kendall. Kendall’s come around a little to this whole thing, it seems—she isn’t as mean as before. Kendall tells them that several years after Ethan Duncan took the samples from her, he came back to see her and to tell her about the cloning and the Neolutionists who were ruining his work. He’d lost his wife, and he needed to be kept safe. Turns out Kendall sent him to Mrs S to help hide him, and in exchange, she’d had him track Sarah down in the foster system and have her sent to Mrs S to live. She wanted her daughter to have that little piece of her. It’s a nice moment for a mother and daughter who have been at odds for decades.

Delphine, meanwhile, has Dr Neilan tied up in handcuffs back at DYAD. She knows what he did with Rachel and wants to know who he’s working with. He has her turn on the screen in the room, and we see a feed to Rachel’s room somewhere in Austria. He tells her that Topside had a hand in Leda and Castor from the beginning, and that things are so much bigger than she knows.

Bigger how, you ask?

It’s the Neolutionists.

They’re back! They’ve been working behind the scenes the whole time for their own purposes, and they’re getting ahold of the Original samples to do their own work. All the while, Neilan is chewing on the inside of his cheek, and before we know it he’s bleeding from the mouth and has leapt up from his chair and onto Delphine. He pins her to the table like a madman, and he has some weird genetic worm thing between his teeth. He’s trying to spit it into her mouth! Ew! What is that thing?! Gross! Leave Delphine alone! Fortunately, Delphine is a badass, so she manages to shoot Neilan. He falls to the floor, and before he dies, manages to tell Delphine that she won’t live til morning. Oh, god. What on earth was that thing? What’s going to happen to Delphine now?

Ferdinand is let into the warehouse, along with some sidekick henchman of his. Ferdinand gets chatty as the henchman sits down with Kendall to take samples from her for Topside. Ferdinand is holding up his end of the bargain, at the very least, but now that we know about the Neolutionists being back in the game, can we trust him? Luckily, Sarah gets a phone call from Delphine at that moment, filling her in on what she learned from Neilan. She tells her not to give Ferdinand the Original samples. Sarah hangs up and tells Ferdinand that Rachel is still alive… and about the Neolutionists being back in the game. And then we get an amazing little twist: turns out Ferdinand hates Neolutionists! And turns out that the henchman taking the samples is a Neolutionist—or so Ferdinand assumes. Given that he immediately attacks the man with a baseball bat and kills him, I’m hoping he was right. Ferdinand basically transforms into this quirky dude who’s now on Leda’s side, telling them to get Kendall somewhere safe while he disposes of this guy’s body because they have to protect the Original’s genome. Hahaha. Apparently trusting Ferdinand wasn’t such a bad idea, after all. I might like this guy a bit now!

Credit BBC America

Things are starting to wind down for the episode. Clone Club has a lovely dinner at Bubbles, with toasts and speeches and celebrations once it’s announced that Alison has won the election. We get so few sweet, happy moments for these characters that I really do appreciate each and every one the show gives us. I’m so invested in these people, and it makes me happy to see them in moments like this. Aww.

But of course, the show isn’t done there. We go back to Delphine, who’s clearly on a mission and making preparations. Seems like she took Neilan’s threat seriously. She goes to Shay’s to apologize and give her a DYAD business card—she tells her that Cosima can tell her everything, if she wants to. Then she goes to see Cosima at Bubbles, pulling her away from the dinner for a few minutes. She asks Cosima to keep the sequenced genome safe and to keep Kendall far away from everything. Cosima tells Delphine that she understands the hard choices she’s had to make. They have a beautiful little moment, with Delphine tearing up and the two of them sharing a kiss. Yeah, it really looks like Delphine thinks something bad is going to happen to her.

And as soon as we get a scene of Delphine driving into a parking garage, I think something bad will happen to her, too. Nothing good ever happens in parking garages. Delphine gets out of her car, walks quickly across the garage, listening for someone else’s footsteps. She stops abruptly, setting down her purse. She turns around to see whoever is behind her—show us, camera, show us!—and asks the person, “What happened to her?”

Then there’s a gun shot.

Noooooo! Delphine is shot in the stomach, and she falls to the ground. We don’t get to see whether or not she actually dies from the wound, and we don’t get to see the person who shot her. Why, Orphan Black, why? Who shot Delphine?!

We are brought back to Rachel in her room in Austria. She’s still calling out for someone, and finally, a door opens. It’s Charlotte, the younger clone from Season 2! Marian Bowles’ daughter! Rachel asks where they are, but Charlotte doesn’t know. She does know something, though: she says that Rachel is going to be her new mom. Rachel asks who told her that, and Charlotte says, “Professor Duncan.” Enter an elegant, graceful woman: Ethan Duncan’s wife. Rachel’s mother. She faked her death! And now, it looks like, is working with the Neolutionists. Woah! Crazy!

Season 3 of Orphan Black closes out on a lovely little scene in Iceland, with Sarah happily reuniting with Kira. No huge, crazy cliffhanger like last season—just a happy moment for a mom and her daughter. I like that.

Credit BBC America

So here we are, folks! The end of Season 3. The season has tossed us a whole lot of information, and now it looks like we’ll be heading into Season 4 with less Castor clones (it’s only Mark that’s left—at least, that we know of!) and a whole lot of Neolution. I think Season 3 was massively successful in what it set out to do, and turned out a season full of great episodes. The show is so good at building a story, throwing curveballs at its audience, and giving viewers characters to care about. The character development we saw for everyone this season was really well done—while I wish they’d focused on a few characters a bit more (namely, Felix), I really like what they did with everyone. They’ve left us with plotlines for next season, but gave this season a nice sense of resolution, too. I like how topics like Neolution and the Original cycled back from Season 1 with some new angles, and I’m looking forward to seeing where they go with these things next year.

But Season 4 of Orphan Black is a whole year away, at this point. And in the meantime, we’ve got some questions to ponder. What do the Neolutionists want? Is Krystal going to be inducted into Clone Club? Will Kendall be kept safe? Is Jesse going to stick around with Helena? What side will Mark fall on? What trouble will befall the clones next season? And, maybe the biggest question of all: Who shot Delphine?!

That’s it until next year, folks. I hope we’ll all be back watching Orphan Black together again next year, and for now, I’ll see you all online, theorizing about our favorite clones!

EPISODE RATING: B+

BEST LINE: Helena, during her reunion with Jesse: “I have science baby inside me, but you are my first.” True love, people.

FAVORITE MOMENT: All of Clone Club eating dinner together at Bubbles. It’s so wonderful to see the girls and their loved ones all together, safe and happy, enjoying something nice. As much as I love Orphan Black’s drama and twists, seeing these characters happy will always be my favorite.

What did you think of the Season 3 finale of Orphan Black? Share your thoughts with us in the comments below!