In the Religion of the Insecure
ORPHAN BLACK: ECHOES – Episodes 1.9 and 1.10 – (limited spoilers) ⁓
Delphine and Kira
Delphine (Evelyne Brochu) drops by to reassure Kira (Keeley Hawes) and to offer her own philosophy of identity: “It doesn’t matter how you came to be. What matters is your passion. That’s who you are.” Rhona (Alice Hamid), after learning about the people printing process from her boyfriend Lucas (Jaeden Noel), tries to blackmail Kira into printing a copy of her dead father. Kira refuses, and at the insistence of Eleanor (Rya Kihlstedt), tells Lucas about it, causing him to break up with Rhona. Afterward, Lucas tells Eleanor: “I know Quakerism isn’t your thing, but what I like about it is that what matters, what’s meaningful is in other people – in connection. So, you know, if that’s something that you can find with Mom, then maybe it’s worth holding on to.”
Tom
After subduing Tina (Eva Everett Irving), Tom (Reed Diamond) successfully kidnaps Charlie (Zariella Langford). He tells Tina he wants to use Charlie to get to Lucy (Krysten Ritter) because: “She kind of put me in a really awkward situation with my boss, and it’s not just a job for me, which is obviously something I need to prove to him.” When Tom brings in Jules (Amanda Fix), who exchanged herself for Charlie in Lucy’s stead, a pleased Paul Darros (James Hiroyuki Liao) tells him: “I have this theory that some people are only at their best when things around them are at their worst. Maybe that’s something you should keep in mind, hmm? Negative inspiration.”
Lucy and Jules in Darros’ bassement
Lucy explains to Jack (Avan Jogia) why she called herself Lucy. “It was an old kids’ book, ‘Lenny and Lucy’. It was in the rec room at the Settlement House. Well, it’s about a little boy and he has an imaginary friend, and he builds her out of blankets and pillows. And he calls her Lucy. And she came to life.” “Lenny and Lucy” is a book by Phillip C Stead, and its storyline is more complex than that. Peter is the little boy, who has a dog named Harold, and whose father has moved to an unfamiliar and (to Peter) frightening place. The first creature Peter builds is Lenny, and he calls him “Guardian of the Bridge”. Then he makes Lucy to keep Lenny company.
Jack takes Charlie to a safe location to protect her from further harm. Like Emily (Tattiawana Jones), it seems they have departed permanently. Jack’s friend Tina did not leave with them.
Eleven face molds made by Kira of people selected by Darros for reprinting. (Darros selected twelve but one was mysteriously unreadable. At bottom are the three names Eleanor identifies from the US Census database (Sophia Papatanopolous, Peter Mayfield, and Ailee Hopkins).
Darros has access to a Central Medical Records Database which enables him to select the best and the brightest of the American population. He prints copies of his selections and places them in foster homes. They are given every financial and educational advantage in the hope they will achieve great things. They are unaware of who they are but retain memories of that somewhere inside. Darros doesn’t think that’s a problem. Lucy, Jules, Eleanor, and Xander (Vinson Tran) know better.
The identity difficulty is further illustrated when, after remembering terrible deeds committed by the man with whom he is genetically identical, Xander decides that is not the sort of person he wants to be.
Given the access Darros has to supposedly secure medical records, any of his employees could be 4-dimensional printouts of other people. Kira tells Emily (in “Pegasus Girl” – Episode 1.3): “You worked for the State Department until three months ago. That’s code for CIA. Who leaves the CIA to go and work for Paul Darros?” Darros’ sister Zora (Milan Deng) wore a necklace that bears some resemblance to the CIA seal.
Six of the selections, their whereabouts and true nature a secret, as shown on television by Darros. Their whereabouts and true nature are kept secret.
Showrunner Anna Fishko told Nick Caruso of TV Line that a second season is “definitely on the table and a conversation that’s ongoing with AMC.” Asked if Tatiana Maslany was approached to be on the show, she said: “Yeah, she was. We talked about it a lot actually. We had a whole episode set aside for her in the back half of the season, but it just didn’t work out in terms of schedule. Unfortunately she was shooting at exactly the same time we were shooting and we just couldn’t make it work out…If we could bring one of the original sister clones back, I think that would be fun and we’d love to do it.”