It all started with a train. Actually, it was 3 young women in the suburbs who realized they were identical. It was a mysterious Ukrainian murder with a specific M.O. A father who couldn’t face ever seeing his daughter pass away.
No matter how it began, Orphan Black finished its final season last weekend. After five seasons and many casualties, the LEDA sisters – Sarah, Helena, Allison, and Cosima – have finally taken down the threat of the Neolutionists and are living happy, healthy lives with their families.
For anybody who is unaware of Orphan Black, the series centers around a cloning project which is discovered when three unaware subjects find each other and begin researching others like them. After witnessing a woman identical to her step in front of a moving train, Sarah Manning poses as the twin, inadvertently becoming part of the investigation into the hidden corruption behind the Dyad Institute. Meanwhile, Sarah tries to become a mother to her daughter Kira, whom she left behind with her adopted mother a year prior, now trying to also keep her safe from the dangers that have come for their family. With the help of Sarah’s mother and brother Felix, detective Art Bell, and many others, the group learns about their past, and the history of both the LEDA and CASTOR cloning projects, fighting against organizations working to stop or manipulate the girls.
The success of the show fell on the shoulders of Tatiana Maslany, who played nearly half the cast of characters, amounting to at least 11 characters by the end of the series, most of the time acting against each other in the same scene. While Ari Millen took on similar responsibilities later in the series once Project CASTOR, the male clones, were revealed, his presence was not as impressive during the final two seasons. As each of Maslany’s characters had their own integral parts to play in the story, each was so different that casual viewers would be unable to see they were all the same actress, not only through costume but voice and attitude. While watching episodes not containing certain clones, I would find myself often wondering if that actress needed time off, only to realize I had just seen her in the previous scene as a different character. Had another actress been cast in the part, as Évelyne Brochu (who went on to play Delphine) had originally been considered, I don’t see the show having worked as well.
Overall, I feel the show had an excellent 5 seasons, and I’m grateful that the creators could end it on their terms and were not forced into a cliffhanger ending. Nonetheless, while the show has a perfect ending, the final realization of the number of LEDA clones in the world provides a lot of room for a movie or graphic novel continuation. This, I must say, I would follow without question. Orphan Black is about sisters, it’s about family. The stories show what a person will do to protect those they love, but also how far a person will go when they feel there is nobody to turn to. Sarah and Allison showed that we all get into situations we wish had never happened, while Sioban and Donnie showed that we are still loved despite our screw-ups and whatever is going in their lives at that time. It is not blood which defines us, but those who actually raise us and who we grow up around. To me, this is “what Orphan Black means.”
If you haven’t checked out the Orphan Black finale, I recommend finding it on demand, or on DVD when it is released. If you have never seen the series, you can find the entire series on Amazon prime, as well as DVD/Blu-ray.