If you haven’t yet heard, Orphan Black has been gaining momentum and popularity among viewers. It’s riveting all while touching several political issues of our time without outright advocating so.
Get this. Sarah Manning is an orphan who has moved to the United States from England with her foster family, which includes her daughter, Kira, and foster brother, Felix. She crash lands back into her ramshackle lifestyle after disappearing for a year due to drug affiliations. She finds herself at the subway where she encounters a young woman that looks exactly like her. However, within the first ten minutes of the Pilot, this identical woman jumps to her death in front of a train. Sarah takes advantage of this miraculous opportunity to steal the deceased woman’s identity. With Felix’s help, she eventually finds other women that look exactly like her and learns that they are her clones, while someone is out killing all these clones. Together, the “Clone Club” does all it can to keep the clones alive, while Sarah struggles to keep her family safe.
Yeah, this sounds pretty sci-fi and cheesy so far, what’s the point?
This show falls under the sci-fi genre, but it is not so out of reach. The clones are a result of illegal genetic experimentation by a higher order, and they have been scattered throughout the globe. These women were each placed distances from each other without knowledge of each other’s existences. Within the United States, the “Clone Club” is the group of clones, all played by the ever so talented Tatiana Maslany, who know about each other. This includes Beth Childs, cop; Alison Hendrix, soccer mom; and Cosima Niehaus, Experimental Evolutionary Developmental Biology PhD student. Sarah Manning eventually joins them, while Katja Obinger contacted Beth prior to her death and Helena makes an appearance later in the show. The Clone Club struggles to learn about their biological origins, their killer, and what their futures behold.
Biotechnological & Moral Implications
As the clones realize they are the product of a biotechnological experiment of the twentieth century, they struggle with their sense of identity and individuality. Early in the first season, Alison coldheartedly breaks it to Sarah that she is simply a clone and lab rat of some cruel experiment. Clearly this evokes the question of whether it is morally sound to be venturing and advancing in these directions of biotechnology. Each woman that Maslany takes character of retains her distinct, individual qualities and ideologies, and this is representative of the geographical and social influences on their lives. We see that Sarah was brought up without a solid, biological family and has the stubborn habit of running away. We see that Alison is highly organized and uptight, as she runs her household in the suburbs. We see that growing up in the highly liberal San Francisco/Bay Area, Cosima is not only clever but intensely curious about new ideas. We see that being brought up by the Church, Helena retains strictly conservative views that drives her animosity for the clones. We see that growing up self-aware of the cloning experimenation, Rachel Duncan feels superior to all the clones (alpha material). But despite their differences in personality, these women are mentally and emotionally troubled by doubts of their significance on the planet with their existence being the purpose and result of an experiment rather than that of procreation.
Meanwhile, viewers see the progress of this idea of Neolution throughout the show, which advocates self-implicated evolution and pro-choice ideologies. Side characters attain attributes like tails and other “enhanced” features on their bodies. Therefore, this prompts the question of how far humanity is willing to go and change the features it was born with, given the opportunity. How far is humanity willing to forge its physical appearance into that which it deems ideal?
With these themes recurring in our media today of experimentation on animals, we see that experimentation on humans may not be too far in the future. Orphan Black certainly offers some light on whether we are truly willing to expand the horizons of humanity in this direction.
Sexuality
“I know that sexuality is a spectrum. But, you know, social biases… codify attraction contrary to biological facts.”
One of my favorite moments of the first season is when Delphine Cormier (portrayed by Evelyne Brochu), Cosima’s love interest, declares these lines. During several interviews, Maslany and Brochu both declare their adoration for how the show does not make their sexuality the problem of their relationship but rather demonstrates an environment in which it is completely and wholeheartedly accepted — a social issue of the past. The show successfully portrays that love is love and all relationships have their issues. Not to mention that Delphine so elegantly illustrates that there is no need to label love between two individuals, while these (sometimes) daunting labels are simply an trivial imposition of society unto the individual.
Toward the end of the first season, we learn of yet another clone named Rachel Duncan who works with the biotechnological institute that so far claims responsibility for these clones. As we see in the second season, Cosima and Delphine’s relationship continues, and dialogue between Rachel and Cosima occurs in their first encounter.
Rachel: You’re gay.
Cosima: My sexuality’s not the most interesting thing about me.
Again, Orphan Black eloquently lays down that an individual’s sexuality does not define him or her but that every individual is unique and complex.
“That’s complex,” as Cosima would say.
On the other hand, we have Sarah’s foster brother, Felix, who proudly declares that he is gay. But the recurring theme is that the society no longer discriminates against the characters’ sexualities but rather moves past that in order to tackle the larger issue at hand regarding the safety of the clones — humanity itself.
While critics claim that this only represents a small portion of the LGBT community, Maslany and Gavaris speak out that the scope of relationships is too wide to grasp in a single show. Rather, Orphan Black celebrates peoples’ differences and declares that love is love. Simple as that.
Family and Equality
Still, throughout the show we find that there is not a single “perfect” family.
Sarah grew up with a foster family and has her daughter, Kira, but we see no signs of Kira’s father. From the start of the show, we see that Sarah has been running away from her abusive drug dealer of a boyfriend, Vic, and has no solid foundation of a family and home she can resort to in a time of need.
On the other hand, we have the (deceased) Beth who was in a tense relationship with Paul, as she has been suspicious of him. She lives the life of an adventurous cop, but she relies on a variety of pills which have allegedly affected her mental stability.
As we meet Alison, we understand that she lives the typical life of a suburban, soccer mom with two adopted children and her husband, Donnie. While she has the most stable familial foundation of all the clones, we see the pressures that her neighborhood imposes on her in terms of appearances and perfection. Later on in season one, we also see that Donnie is not all that trustworthy.
We have Cosima who starts out single, as she is a student, but eventually meets Delphine. Nevertheless, Cosima falls head-over-heels for Delphine despite knowing that she cannot wholeheartedly trust her, and we see the couple fight on several occasions.
Finally, we have Helena who grew up in a convent in Europe. She has no family to call her own, but she grows an interest when she learns that Sarah is her twin sister (surprise, surprise).
As these women venture out to find their identities, we observe that none of them hold a stable life but represent the diversity of familial relationships across cultures. They are strong and determined, as they lead the course of the show. Orphan Black has subtly broken one of the tallest barriers of the media — strong female protagonist(s). This show successfully shows that women and men are just as capable as the other, and with Maslany as the strong, female lead running around as five of the main characters, girls across the globe find inspiration to take charge of their lives and pursue life with the greatest integrity and determination to achieve their dreams and goals.
Maslany does great justice with her versatility and talent as an actress, and her co-stars do just as much. I’d love to see this show run for seasons on end, for it is my favorite show by far.
Disclaimer: I am in no way affiliated with Orphan Black. I am simply a fan of the show. Furthermore, I do not claim any professional knowledge on these topics, but these are simply parts of my perspective of the show and politics. Most of this information is in regards to the first season and first few episodes of the second. More has been learned since. I apologize for any misunderstandings on this post or any accidental offenses. I mean no harm, pinky promise.
Please, if there are any errors or concerns, kindly leave it as a comment, and I will fix it as soon as I can. I also apologize for any spoilers, fellow #CloneClubbers who haven’t yet caught up with Season 2.
Also, I am open to any conversation regarding the show and its ideologies and would love to learn more about its social and ethical implications if you’d like to share. ☺
Thank you for reading, and please recommend!
