ORPHAN BLACK: ECHOES – Season 1 Episode 8 – (limited spoilers) ⁓

Kira (Keeley Hawes) meets Felix (Jordan Gavaris) at his art exhibit and tells him all about the three copies of Eleanor. Felix understands. “Kira, when Colin got sick,’ he says, “I found myself begging, praying even, for something to make him better. I’d have done anything to save him. And if I’d had the opportunity to have another weird, nerdy, wonderful Colin in my life, for even a week. I don’t know, I might’ve done exactly what you did.”

Colin was the morgue attendant who allowed Felix to examine Beth Childs‘ corpse in “Natural Selection” (Orphan Black, Episode 1.1). In “Guillotines Decide” (Orphan Black, Episode 5.8) Felix introduced Colin to Mrs. S. “This is Colin, Mom,” he said. “Someday soon, he’d like to come around for tea and ask you for my hand.” And in “Best Learn to Cope” (Orphan Black: The Next Chapter #8) it was revealed that Colin and Felix are married.

Before that, Felix addresses her as Kira Cassandra Manning and says “You have put a terrifying new technology out into the world, and it’s your responsibility to work out what it’s being used for and to destroy it.”

KIRA: “My middle name isn’t Cassandra.”
FELIX “I know. But I needed a good middle name to land that speech.”

Meanwhile, Emily (Tattiawana Jones) tries to switch sides again, and orders Kira (at gunpoint) to lure Lucy (Krysten Ritter) into a trap. Kira grabs the gun, which goes off in the ensuing struggle. Neither woman is injured but Emily reconsiders and decides to try to escape Darros by faking her own death. Emily’s employer finds a hastily printed copy of Emily’s mandible in a burned-out car, and Emily, who is now believed dead, disappears.

Before all that, Jules (Amanda Fix), Eleanor (Rya Kihlstedt), and Lucy drive to Settlement House after ramming Tom’s car (Episode 1.7). They sing the Iggy Pop song “Search and Destroy” together, and it is very much like the scene in “To Hound Nature in Her Wanderings” (Orphan Black, episode 2.6) where Helena and Kira’s mother Sarah sing The Archies‘ song “Sugar Sugar” together. The two songs differ in vocabulary, but both talk about the same thing and both are from the era of US involvement in Vietnam, a time before any of the show’s characters were born (or cloned, or printed).

Jules reveals that she has stolen an electronic device from Darros. Lucy’s former lover PJ (Dayle McLeod) is a tech expert and is persuaded to find out what the thing does. In the process, more of Lucy and PJ’s history is revealed.

PJ: “I remember the last time you needed me for something. What was it again? Oh, right. Just four months of tender loving companionship.”
LUCY: “I am really sorry about that. It was not a great time for me.”
PJ: “I’d come knock on your door every morning with fresh coffee. It was shitty, but it was hot and free. Best part of my morning for a while, and then one day you were just gone and I was alone. Nobody needed me anymore.”

Like Emily, Jack plans to disappear, and is busy getting fake passports for Charlie, Lucy, and himself, but he needs Lucy to have a face scan for hers, and she is on the way to do this when Eleanor calls with the news that Jules is missing. Craig (Jonathan Whittaker), who is with her in the car, asks if she’s going to turn around, and tells the “Paradox of Joyce” story. (This could be a reference to “The Paradox of Choice” by Barry Schwartz which argued that more choice is not necessarily a good thing.

Craig’s parable could also refer to The Aunt Josephine Paradox, (Chapter 6 of James Joyce: a Very Short Introduction by Colin McCabe), which discusses the impact of Joyce’s works on the legalization of same-sex marriages in Ireland.

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Orphan Black: Echoes can be streamed on Netflix, and is available on Blu-Ray and DVD.