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  3. Orphan Black A to Z: Dive Into the Show's DNA Before Its Final Season

Orphan Black A to Z: Dive Into the Show's DNA Before Its Final Season

From Alison to Zygotes, and every #CloneClub facet in between
By Noelene Clark,  Jessica Derschowitz and Derek Lawrence June 09, 2017 at 11:30 AM EDT
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Orphan Black's Big Farewell

OB_SISTERS_GROUP
Credit: BBC America

In 2013, Sarah Manning saw a woman on a train platform — a woman with her face — and nothing has been the same for her, or fans of Orphan Black, ever since. BBC America’s twisty sci-fi thriller about a group of clones has garnered a passionate Clone Club fan base and praise for its female-centric premise, not to mention the impressive multiple performances from Emmy winner Tatiana Maslany. Ahead of the show’s final season (premiering June 10 at 10 p.m. ET), we dive back into Orphan’s DNA to get you ready for the sestras’ send-off.

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A: Alison Hendrix

OB3_EP310_D2_MAR2_SW_0091.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

She’s just your everyday suburbanite mom — aside from the drug dealing and gun toting she does when she’s not crafting, acting in musicals, or running for school trustee. She’s also fiercely protective of her husband (and former monitor), Donnie, and their two children.

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B: Body Double

OB3_EP307_D3_JAN21_SW_0271.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

How does Maslany manage to play so many integral roles on the series? Kathryn Alexandre has been the star’s stand-in for Orphan Black’s entire run. Once the show’s invisible secret weapon, she was eventually rewarded with a minor onscreen role, playing Alexis.

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C: Cosima

PUBLICITY_COSIMA_106.JPG
Credit: Nino Munoz/BBC AMERICA

Cosima Niehaus, one of the original Clone Club members, is a pot-smoking, board-game-playing former Ph.D. student specializing in evolutionary developmental biology. She puts her science smarts to use, researching her sisters’ origins and trying to find a cure for the respiratory illness that threatens the lives of almost all Leda clones — including her own.

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D: Dance Party

Clone Dance Party.JPG
Credit: BBC AMERICA

The season 2 finale brought Sarah, Helena, Alison, and Cosima together for the first time, and after all they’d endured, the sestras (“sisters” in show parlance) took a moment to cut loose. But it wasn’t all fun and games; shooting the complex clone dance party took two days. The result: Orphan Black’s most memorable scene.

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E: Episode Titles

ob_ep101_102_d10_0170[1]
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

The ethics of cloning isn’t the only topic on Orphan Black that requires analysis. Each season has taken its episode names from specific texts (season 1 used Charles Darwin’s On the Origin of Species; season 2 borrowed from the works of Sir Francis Bacon; then Dwight D. Eisenhower and Donna Haraway followed, with season 5 set to use the poet Ella Wheeler Wilcox). The titles are sometimes ominous, often telling, and always open to interpretation.

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F: Felix

OB3_EP305_D2_DEC1_SW_0045.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Honorary Clone Club member Felix Dawkins (Jordan Gavaris) is Sarah Manning’s foster brother and a loyal ally to her sestras. When he’s not risking his neck to save their lives, he can be found turning tricks or painting graphic murals in the buff. Despite his frequent forays into territory that’s not strictly legal, Felix serves as a voice of reason.

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G: Genetics

"Orphan Black" Ep205_D8_11-22Photo: Jan Thijs 2013
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Questions about DNA and identity are the very center of Orphan Black. The clones are exact genetic copies — so why are they so different from one another? Their DNA is patented — so what rights do they have to their own lives? Their creators meddle with genes in an effort to direct evolution — but at what point are they crossing an ethical line?

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H: Helena

OB_104_D6_0230.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Introduced in the third episode as “the killer clone,” Helena was raised by the Proletheans to be an assassin on the hunt for her fellow clones. Fast-­forward to now, and she’s become an integral (and deadly) part of the Clone Club, helping her earn the distinction as the most vicious, hilarious, and pregnant clone.

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I: Impersonation

ob_ep106_d2_068
Credit: Christos Kalohoridis/BBC AMERICA

Let’s be honest: There are some real negatives to being a clone (see: the whole conspiracy thing). But the best aspect — besides having ride-or-die sestras — has to be duping bad guys or undecided school-trustee voters by pretending to be another clone.

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J: John Fawcett and Graeme Manson

JOHN FAWCETT_GRAEME MANSON.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Susan and Ethan Duncan may have spearheaded Project Leda, but these two television masterminds are the true creators of our favorite band of clones. Manson serves as the primary writer, and Fawcett has directed 17 episodes, including every season finale.

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K: Kira

Kira (SKYLER WEXLER)
Credit: Ken Woroner/BBC AMERICA

Kira Manning (Skyler Wexler) is the young daughter of clone Sarah, which is pretty miraculous considering the clones were genetically programmed to be sterile — the unexpected side effect of which is a deadly respiratory illness. Kira’s stem cells may offer the key to a cure. She also seems to have an unexplained knack for predicting the future.

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L: Leda

Orphan BlackDr. Leekie (played by Matt Frewer).
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Named after the Greek myth of Leda and the Swan, Project Leda is the code name for the Dyad Institute program that created Beth, Sarah, Cosima, Alison, Helena, and the other female clones. With the exception of the villainous Rachel, the Leda clones were raised without any awareness of the nature of their birth and DNA.

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M: Monitors

monitors
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Spying on the clones for Dyad should be an unforgivable sin. Yet Delphine Cormier (Evelyne Brochu), Paul Dierden (Dylan Bruce), and Donnie Hendrix (Kristian Bruun) have all managed to redeem themselves over the course of the series, whether it be through love, sacrifice, or humor. Plus, how can we hold a grudge against half of the duo behind TV’s all-time greatest twerking scene?

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N: Neolution

ob_106_d7_0281
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Darwin this isn’t — Neolution is a movement that believes mankind can use scientific knowledge to advance its evolution as a species. It has a corporate face in the Dyad Institute but will be best remembered for its body-­modified believers.

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O: Original

Kendall Malone.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

All the clones — female and male — originate from one woman: Kendall Malone (Alison Steadman). She absorbed her twin brother in the womb and possessed both male and female DNA, which scientists harvested while she was in prison. Kendall is also the mother of Siobhan (Maria Doyle Kennedy), who raised Sarah and Felix.

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P: Proletheans

Prolethean Symbol.JPG
Credit: BBC AMERICA

A secretive group that believes synthetic biology should only be carried out in God’s name, their views on clones are divided — ­traditionalists see them as abominations, but another sect, which saw them as miracles, kidnapped and forcibly impregnated Helena.

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Q: Queer

Cosima (Tatiana Maslany) and Delphine (Evelyne Brochu)
Credit: Ken Woroner/BBC AMERICA

Orphan Black has been embraced by the LGBTQ community because of its treatment of queer characters, including Felix, bisexual Cosima, and transgender clone Tony Sawicki (Maslany).

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R: Rachel

Rachel (TATIANA MASLANY)
Credit: Ken Woroner/BBC AMERICA

Unlike her fellow Leda clones, Rachel was brought up knowing that she’s part of an experiment, and she works for her creators. Ruthless, manipulative, and cold, underestimate her at your own peril.

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S: Sarah

ob_ep107_d6_023.JPG
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Brash, British, and totally badass, Sarah Manning began her journey to discovering her clone identity on that fated train platform where she crossed paths with Beth Childs. What’s come next has included deep levels of conspiracy and intrigue, not to mention high doses of danger, but it also gave her (plus Felix, Kira, and all the Orphan Black fans) the best sisterhood — or should we say sestrahood? — around.

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T: Tatiana Maslany

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Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Arguably the hardest-­working actor on TV, Maslany’s played nearly a dozen characters so far on Orphan Black, including the five distinctive women at the heart of the story. Her performance earned her one Emmy, but she deserves a trophy for each one of the clones.

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U: Unknowns

ORPHAN BLACK (2014)Cosima (Tatiana Maslany)
Credit: BBC America

Orphan Black has revealed a lot about Neolution and the clones’ origins, but there are plenty of unanswered questions: How many more clones are out there? What’s up with Kira’s prescient abilities? Is there a cure for the illness that threatens Cosima and her sisters? Here’s hoping season 5 offers some answers.

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V: Village

The Messenger (GEZA KOVACS)
Credit: Ken Woroner/BBC AMERICA

Yet another quandary for the clones to unravel is this mysterious colony on the show’s very own Island of Dr. Moreau, whose inhabitants include a man seen in Rachel’s visions. Who they are, why they’re there, and why Delphine is with them will be among the questions fans will be looking to have answered before the series’ end.

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W: Westmorland

PR Westmoreland_The Science.JPG
Credit: BBC America

The clones’ long and often perilous journey has led them to 170-year-old Neolution founder P.T. Westmorland (Stephen McHattie). Described by co-creator Manson as the “most evil man in the world,” the mysterious figure is finally stepping into the spotlight in Orphan Black’s final season.

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X: Experiments

"Orphan Black" Ep 208 Day 6Photo: Jan Thijs 2013
Credit: Jan Thijs/BBC America

Cloning may be Orphan Black’s signature scientific foray, but it’s not the only one. Neolutionists push the boundaries of human evolution — and our stomachs —­ with wild body modifications and implanted “maggot-bots,” while Cosima logs ample time in the lab searching to cure her own health issues before it’s too late.

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Y: Y Chromosome

OB3_EP302_D14_OCT31_SW_0087
Credit: Steve Wilkie/BBC AMERICA

Clone Club was an all-girls’ club no longer when Ari Millen arrived in season 2 to play Project Castor’s Mark, Rudy, Seth, Miller, and last (known) man standing Ira, Rachel’s brother and adoptive mother’s boyfriend (you read that right).

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Z: Zygotes

Orphan BlackSeason 4Air Date : 2016Pictured: Helena (Tatiana Maslany)
Credit: Ken Woroner/BBC AMERICA

Sarah and Helena, who shared a surrogate birth mother, also share a genetic mutation that allows them to have children, unlike their sestras. Helena is currently carrying twins — and still kicking ass. (Don’t mess with her babies.)

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    Everything in This Slideshow

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    1 of 27 Orphan Black's Big Farewell
    2 of 27 A: Alison Hendrix
    3 of 27 B: Body Double
    4 of 27 C: Cosima
    5 of 27 D: Dance Party
    6 of 27 E: Episode Titles
    7 of 27 F: Felix
    8 of 27 G: Genetics
    9 of 27 H: Helena
    10 of 27 I: Impersonation
    11 of 27 J: John Fawcett and Graeme Manson
    12 of 27 K: Kira
    13 of 27 L: Leda
    14 of 27 M: Monitors
    15 of 27 N: Neolution
    16 of 27 O: Original
    17 of 27 P: Proletheans
    18 of 27 Q: Queer
    19 of 27 R: Rachel
    20 of 27 S: Sarah
    21 of 27 T: Tatiana Maslany
    22 of 27 U: Unknowns
    23 of 27 V: Village
    24 of 27 W: Westmorland
    25 of 27 X: Experiments
    26 of 27 Y: Y Chromosome
    27 of 27 Z: Zygotes

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    Orphan Black A to Z: Dive Into the Show's DNA Before Its Final Season
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