The Orphan Black season two finale aired last week and I can already feel the gaping hole it’s left in my heart. To those not watching the greatest show on TV right now, here’s what you need to know: Sarah Manning finds out she’s a clone, and along with her clone sisters, takes on the people that created them and hide the truth from them. That is the simplest way to describe the sprawling, intense, and ambitious epic that is Orphan Black.
Basically, if you’re not watching it, stop reading this, go watch seasons one and two, and then come right back here.
For those of you that do watch and maybe haven’t seen the season finale, here is the mandatory SPOILER ALERT!
Alright. WOW. Am I right? Wow.
The season two finale left as many cliffhangers as anyone could imagine. I’m not even sure where to start so I’ll work my way backwards. There are male clones, and creeper Prolethean Mark is one of them. Helena has been carted off god knows where by the army. Cosima found Duncan’s synthetic sequence that could hold the key to her survival. Duncan killed himself so as to protect his sequence and take himself out of assisting Rachel. Rachel got stabbed in the eye with a pencil (I never want to watch that scene again). And Sarah gave herself up to the Dyad, rescued Kira, and they both escaped. Also hot Cal came back.
And that’s just the highlights! The second after the season two finale aired, the internet was already abuzz with theories surrounding these theories. Here’s a re-cap of these theories.
Project Castor is Breeding Male Warriors
In the final moments of the episode, Marian Bowles reveals to Sarah that a male clone is locked in her basement. We see a ripped physique descend from a workout machine, and we watch Sarah’s face as she realizes she knows this man. Suddenly, we watch as our creepy Prolethean couple Gracie (pregnant with her father’s child) and Mark, her emotionless and sinister fiance, wed. Then, we see Helena marched onto an army plane, surrounded by soldiers. As she walks past the uniforms, one man turns towards the camera. It’s Mark. When we’re brought back to Sarah, the camera finally turns and at least we see the man she knows: it’s Mark!
Because this is Orphan Black, we know they’re not all Mark but simply three clones of the same man. So who are they? My theory: the army is breeding male clones as disposable warriors. If we take Mark (Male Clone #1) as a prototype, these are super soldiers created to fight with little emotion and personality. These soldiers are instead motivated by their cause, just as Mark was dedicated to finding Helena. These boys are given a task and they deliver, plain and simple. I’m confident, however, that just like Project Leda, Project Castor discovered some flaws in their male clones. This brings me to my next theory…
The Project Castor Clones are Crazy
…They’re psychopaths. We saw it in Mark’s creepy personality and devotion to the Proletheans and his new wife Gracie, and we saw it in the eyes the moment we met Male Clone #3, these boys are all just a little bit off their rockers. This likely has large implications for all of Project Castor, and it is likely the reason that Paul was even meddling in Project Leda at all. He wants answers, and he thinks he solved this problems when he realized what Kira and her genes/bone marrow are capable of doing.
Project Castor Kidnapped Helena to Experiment on Her
Our dear Helena (what a season transformation, am I right??) was kidnapped in the final moments of the episode, off to god knows where. All we know for sure is that Paul, Male Clone #2, and Project Castor were involved. My theory: Project Castor and the male clones kidnapped her to experiment on her. If Prolethean Mark is involved in Project Castor, then they definitely know that she’s pregnant and they likely want her offspring just as much as Dyad. They know that the Lyda offspring can essentially cure the clones, and just like Rachel and good old Leekie (RIP), they want those genes to cure their own clones.
Kira and Helena’s Unborn Babies Play A Big Role
If you know the story of Castor (let’s all admit, we wikipedia’d it immediately after the show aired), then you know that Castor and his twin brother Pollux are the twin children of Leda and Zeus. Sarah and her sisters are all a part of Project Leda, and Mark and his brothers are part of Project Castor, meaning that Project Castor stemmed directly from Leda. This implies that the Dyad Institute and the military are looking to create a Project Pollux, a new line of clones that eliminate the flaws of Leda and pair them with the positive habits of the Castor clones, resulting in a Pollux. We’ve seen that Sarah’s daughter Kira has the power to essentially heal the Leda clones’ flaws, so she may very well hold the key to the next line of clones.
Season Three Is About to Get Political
When you have the military involved, how can it not be? Season three will heavily feature the army and Project Castor, meaning that there will likely be some political players heavily involved. In the finale, hottie hacker boyfriend-daddy Cal showed us the Dyad web, illustrating how far the Dyad and their webs can reach. If you looked closely, we saw a few senators and political group. This quick glimpse was no accident; this was a brief look into the future seasons to see just how far Sarah and the clones will have to go to dismantle the Dyad and protect their own lives.
Who the Hell is Felix
Ok this is not a theory, but it’s a question that I’ve had since season one, episode one. We know how Sarah ended up in Mrs. S’s care all those years ago, but how did Felix end up there? Could he be involved? My friend thinks the showrunners are saving this road for later. All I know is that my heart simply couldn’t handle an evil Felix, so please, Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, if you’re reading this, please don’t hurt my precious Felix.
And thus, we must wait for nearly 10 more months to see where Orphan Black takes us next. In the meantime, I’m probably just going to re-watch seasons one and two over and over again and convince people to start watching the show. Who’s with me?
The Nerdy Girl 