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When subplots collide, there can only be two kinds of results
– explosive or comedic. “Variations Under Domestication” followed the latter
with genius results. Suspecting all clones—or genetic identicals—have watchers,
soccer mom Allison is convinced it is her husband. She knocks him out with a
golf club to the head and then ties him up in her craft room and tortures him
by dropping hot glue onto his chest. Sarah comes to the rescue, switching
places with a drunken and self-medicated Allison. She calls Felix in to
bartend. If that weren’t bad enough, who should show up but Vic and Paul. The
comedy ensues watching Paul brutalize Vic and seeing Sarah try to keep the
neighbours--at Allison’s for a block party—out of the basement where Allison is
unconscious and Donny is tied up, eyes covered with a pink sleeping mask and
pink fuzzy earmuffs. With Allison’s neighbours convinced she is having an
affair with Paul, Sarah and Paul sneak out to the garage where Vic has taken a
nail through the hand. Sarah gets rid of Vic and she’s left to deal with Paul,
who seems to be as in the dark as Sarah and her duplicates. Canadian Eric
Johnson (whom I miss from his prior Rookie Blue gig), plays a randy
neighbourhood husband. Hilarity, some slapstick (as in the torturing of Donny),
some darker (as in what poor—yes, poor—Vic has gone through with respect to the loss of fingers, beatings
and now nailings, since the start of the series.
In the mean time, Cosima is at university, getting to know a
blonde woman whom she suspects is her watcher. The blonde has ties to a
scientist who preaches taking control of your own, personal evolution (played
with gusto by Matt Frewer) and you just know he figures into the story behind
Sarah and her “sisters’” cloning.
The episode begs the question of whether the clones really
do have assigned watchers. If Paul was Beth’s watcher, Allison suspects Donny
of being hers, and Cosima suspects her new friend of being hers, who is Sarah’s
watcher? Maybe it’s Vic and that’s why he refuses to leave her alone. I’m
voting for Felix in the role. Think about it…they’ve known each other since
they were kids and he knows exactly what’s going on. Felix’s primary role is as
Sarah’s confidant and fixer, but other than that, he’s comedic relief on his
own. Aside from fencing stolen drugs and prostituting himself, Felix has to
have a larger role. Wouldn’t it be great if he were simply playing the fool
when instead he was the mastermind of the whole affair, or at least in league
with the masterminds?
One more thought occurs. Allison adopted her kids because
she couldn’t have any on her own. All of the sisters were surprised that Kira
was Sarah’s natural-born child. What if that’s because Kira is another clone?
Sarah could carry her to term because Kira’s DNA would have been genetically
identical to her own. Keep in mind that other than the fact that Kira’s father
isn’t Vic, we have no idea who the father really is. What if that’s because
there is no father because Kira is yet another Sarah clone?
Time will tell, I guess, and we have a lot of that,
considering that it’s been reported Orphan Black has been renewed for another
season.
About the Author
Elise Abram, English teacher and former archaeologist, has been writing for as long as she can remember, but it wasn’t until she was asked to teach Writer’s Craft in 2001 that she began to write seriously. Her first novel, THE GUARDIAN was partially published as a Twitter novel a few summers back (and may be accessed at @RKLOGYprof). Nearly ten years after its inception Abram decided it was time to stop shopping around with traditional publication houses and publish PHASE SHIFT on her own.
Download PHASE SHIFT for the price of a tweet. Visit http://www.eliseabram.com, click on the button, tweet or Facebook about my novel and download it for FREE!
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