Orphan Black Review: Human Raw Material (Season 4 Episode 5)

Orphan Black is weaving an intricate web this season. This week’s episode: “Human Raw Material” takes us inside Brightborn and finally gives us some idea of exactly what Susan Duncan has been up to.

At the end of last week’s episode, a DVD showed Dr. Evie Cho talking about how Brightborn can help couples have a healthy child. As Donnie and Cosima find out, things are a little shady at Brightborn.

Cosima witnesses the birth of a Brightborn baby with a terrible defect. She then comes face-to-face with Susan Duncan, who is also involved in the Brightborn project.

When Cosima confronts Susan about her work on the project, Cosima is acting emotionally, not rationally. Susan expects Cosima to act like a scientist and see the benefit of sharing Kendall Malone’s genome.

The science presented in the Brightborn project is sickening. They are trying to enhance embryos and Project Leda is their baseline. Evie presents the work they do as beneficial because they have identified many genes that cause congenital illnesses.

Cosima sees it as toying with human lives.  Remember, Cosima was studying Evolutionary Development when Delphine introduced her to Dr. Leekie and the idea of a manmade evolution. Cosima never bought into this kind of genetic editing.

Cosima’s investigation is further complicated by the return of Krystal. Krystal, a beautician, was first introduced last season and was unaware of her status as a clone. While she didn’t know what she was, she was starting to dig into things.

That led her to Brightborn where it looks like she will soon be brought into the fold with the rest of the Clone Club.

Even though we only saw a bit of Krystal last season, she presented an interesting point of view to the story so far.

Orphan Black introduced to the Clone Club through Sarah who was street smart. Krystal is now gaining these skills out of necessity. She didn’t know who she was until the Castor clones attacked her.

Unlike Sarah who found out she was a clone by running into a copy of herself at a train station, she doesn’t have any chance encounter to go on. She’s also not adopted and seeing her become a self-aware clone could bring an interesting perspective.

We are curious to hear about how she got out of Dyad. Her brief mention of Delphine makes me wonder if she was busted out. That would be a great way to bring Delphine back into the story.

Stray Thoughts:

• I really can’t blame Sarah for wanting to look out for Felix. After all the ties they’ve found between the people in their lives and the Neolutionists, it’s prudent to run her own independent test.
• Kira seems to be an empathic line to all of the Leda clones? How does that work? She can tell when Cosima is sad, Rachel is angry, or Helena is lonely. How is this going to factor into the Neolution story? I can imagine empathy genes being a big hit.
• Helena sent a text telling Sarah not to worry. Is it wrong that we’re worried about her?
• Ira and Susan Duncan? Really? Didn’t she raise him? Isn’t that relationship almost Oedipal in nature?

What did you think of this episode of Orphan Black? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Orphan Black airs Thursdays at 10/9c on BBC America.

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