A thieving con artist. A neurotic, suburban soccer mom. An eccentric "evo-devo" PhD student. An emotionally unstable police detective. A Ukranian religious fanatic. An ice queen with ties to a morally ambiguous organization.
They come from very different walks of life, yet they all have one very important thing in common. They are all genetic identicals. An experiment by a scientific institution that pushes the limits of what is both possible and ethical.
Without question, Orphan Black was the sleeper hit of 2013. Flying under the radar, the Canadian sci-fi/drama centers on Sarah Manning, a woman who, while trying to move beyond her crime-ridden past, stumbles into a conspiracy that shakes her personal identity to the core. The series proved to be such a success with both critics and viewers that it was officially picked up for a second season on May 2nd, 2013... a month prior to the airing of season one's finale.
To the folks who will finally take the plunge into the world of Orphan Black for the first time when season two begins, below is a handy "who's who?" guide to the players thus far and how they connect to each other. Warning, spoilers ahead:
The Clones
Sarah Manning: Street-savvy and tough as nails, Sarah grew up in foster care in the United Kingdom before relocating to Canada with her adopted family at the age of 14. After giving birth to a daughter, Kira, Sarah spent much of her early twenties running cons with her drug-dealing boyfriend, Vic. Following a year on the run, she abandoned Vic and returned to Ontario where she left her foster mother with custody of Kira. Upon arriving at the train station, Sarah witnessed the suicide of Elizabeth Childs, a woman who eerily resembled Sarah, herself. With only the intention of cleaning out Beth's bank accounts, Sarah assumed the deceased woman's identity, but is soon helplessly dragged into the human cloning mystery.
Elizabeth "Beth" Childs: At the time of her suicide, Beth was a suspended police detective pending investigation of a civilian shooting. As part of her suspension, she was forced to see a police psychiatrist and was prescribed various mood stabilizers and psychoactive drugs. After being contacted by Katja Obinger, from Germany, regarding the details surrounding the clones and their subsequent assassinations, Beth used facial recognition tech to locate two other clones in North America, Alison Hendrix and Cosima Niehaus.
Katja Obinger: Very little is known about the German clone prior to the start of the series. It can be deduced that she came into contact with one or all three of the (now deceased) European clones. Somehow, she was also able to locate Beth Childs in Canada and warn her of the impending danger following the murders of their European counterparts. By the time she arrived in Canada to deliver DNA samples of the deceased clones to Beth, Katja's health was rapidly deteriorating due to a, presumably genetic, respiratory illness. She tracked down Beth (who, by now, had already been "replaced" by Sarah) but was hit by a sniper's bullet during their initial encounter.
Helena: A mentally unstable, self-mutilating clone from Ukraine who was responsible for the murder of Katja Obinger and (likely) the other clones in Europe. After the discovery of the cloning experiment by a group of religious fanatics known as the Prolethians, Helena was taken in by the group and brainwashed into believing that she was the "original" and the others were abominations to be exterminated. She often spoke of feeling a "connection" with Sarah. This "connection" is later revealed when Sarah's surrogate mother arrives in Canada. The two clones are actually twins. Enraged with feelings of abandonment, Helena stabs their birth mother to death and is then, in turn, shot by Sarah.
Aryanna Giordano, Danielle Fournier, Janika Zingler: Deceased clones who had been residing in Italy, France, and Austria, respectively. It can be surmised that they were assassinated by Helena prior to the events of the series.
Cosima Niehaus: Originally hailing from San Francisco, Cosima is a PhD student at the University of Minnesota, studying evolutionary developmental biology. Due to the nature of her studies and her personal stake in the unfolding events, Cosima was driven to find answers surrounding the origin of the clones and the reasons behind the assassination attempts. After discovering that all of the clones have been "patented," she admitted to her girlfriend, Delphine, that she is suffering from the same respiratory illness that plagued Katja.
Alison Hendrix: The gun-toting, pill-popping, suburban "soccer mom" resides in an Ontario suburb with her husband, Donnie, and their two adopted children. After learning that the institution that created the clones was using "monitors" to watch them, she became obsessed with finding out who was spying on her. At first beliving the monitor to be her husband, Alison eventually moved her suspicions to her neighbor, Aynsley. During an angry confrontation, Aynsley's scarf became tangled in her garbage disposal and she strangled to death while Alison looked on, refusing to come to the woman's aid.
Rachel Duncan: To date, she is the only known clone to have been self-aware from the beginning. This would be due to having been raised by and currently working for the scientists responsible for the cloning experiment.
The Neolutionists: The scientists responsible for the cloning experiment hold tight to their beliefs of "self-directed evolution." Some of the folks connected to the organization have undergone transgenesis in order to exhibit new genetic traits.
Dr. Aldous Leekie: The head of the Dyad Institute and spokesman for the Neolution movement is also the "handler" of the cloning experiment. With the assistance of the "monitors", Leekie and his staff conducted medical examinations and experiments on the various clones as they slept. His motives, and those of his organization, are questionable even as he attempts to provide safety for Sarah and the other clones in the wake of the Prolethian attacks.
Paul Dierden: Knowledge of a military accident involving the deaths of six marines was used as leverage against Paul by the Dyad Institute to bring him into the program as Beth's monitor. Under the guise of her boyfriend, Paul was instructed to closely watch his subject without interfering in her daily life. He was, however, given no information as to the reasons for doing so. Paul begins to fall in love with Sarah while she posed as Beth and eventually learned the truth regarding his "employment." Once he was convinced that the lives the clones were in danger, he tried to convince Sarah to take Dr. Leekie up on his offer of assistance. Once Cosima advised Sarah of the "clone patent", he and Sarah fled the Dyad Institute for parts unknown.
Olivier Duval: Paul's transgenically modified supervisor frequently questioned him regarding Beth's mental state following her suspension from the police force. He eventually deduced that Beth was being impersonated by another clone and assumed this clone to be the assassin. While being held in the basement of a Neolutionist nightclub, Sarah was rescued by Helena after the deranged clone cuts off Olivier's tail. Following his failed attempts to bring in the clone assassin, Olivier is killed by one of Dr. Leekie's associates posing as a doctor.
Delphine Cormier: Cosima first met Delphine in a campus laboratory. Despite her intuitions telling her that Delphine was her monitor, Cosima continued to see the Frenchwoman... even attending Neolution assemblies together. Delphine's deceit was revealed after Cosima discovered a photograph of Dr. Leekie and Delphine on a Dyad Institute website. Delphine pledged her love for Cosima and insisted that she was only giving Dr. Leekie the necessary information because she believed Cosima's life to be in danger. The couple eventually decrypted the "barcode" within the clones' DNA which was revealed to be a patent.
Donnie Hendrix: Alison's husband was eventually able to dissuade her from believing him to be her monitor and, in turn, the suspicions were put on their neighbor, Aynsley. In reality, Donnie had been reporting directly to Dr. Leekie regarding Alison since before the couple married.
The Prolethians: This group of religious fanatics believe the cloning experiments are a direct affront to God and have taken extreme measures to eradicate these "abominations."
Tomas: Tomas has displayed both violent and psychopathic behavior with regards to his beliefs. He was either directly responsible for or, at least, part of the plot to remove Helena from the Ukranian convent and train her to be the Prolethians' personal assassin. While under his control, Helena was subjected to both emotional and physical torture in Tomas' quest to warp her mind into believing that she was the original among the clones. By request of Dr. Leekie, Sarah rescued Helena and left Tomas locked in a crate.
Maggie Chen: The civilian that Beth Childs killed was, in actuality, a member of the Prolethians. It stands to reason that Beth shot the woman after discovering Maggie's connections to the religious group and their attempts to assassinate the clones.
Friends, Family, & Co-workers
Felix "Fee" Dawkins: Sarah's foster brother is her confidante, best friend, and the one person she can be completely honest with. He lives in an urban warehouse loft where he makes a living painting and by moonlighting as a male prostitute. He is often the sarcastic voice of reason with regards to some of the more questionable decisions that the various clones make. He provided support to Alison during her "monitor" breakdown and the two have developed a bond.
Siobhan "Mrs. S" Sadler: The foster mother of Sarah and Fee also acted as the guardian for Sarah's daughter, Kira, while Sarah was running cons with Vic. She gave Sarah what little information she had with regard to the girl's life prior to foster care and eventually learned about the clones when it became necessary for safety reasons. When she arrived in Canada, Sarah's birth mother warned the girl not to trust Mrs. S, impying that the foster mother was somehow connected to the experiments performed on the clones. Following Sarah's refusal to work with Rachel Duncan and the Dyad Institute, Mrs. S and Kira were discovered missing from their home.
Kira: Details as to the whereabouts or identity of Kira's father have yet to be explored. At the present time, she is the only known biological child of any of the clones. She has been shown to be very intuitive, bordering on empathic. Following a car accident, Kira recovered miraculously fast with no internal bleeding or permanent damage. Cosima speculated that this could be the result of any sort of genetic modifications that may have been done to Sarah during scientific research and then passed down to Kira. Her current whereabouts are unknown but it is presumed that Rachel Duncan and the Dyad Institute orchestrated the child's disappearance.
Amelia: The woman claiming to be the birth mother of Sarah and Helena revealed that she had been approached by two scientists, posing as a couple, looking for an in-vitro surrogate. She accepted but soon became suspicious of the couple and the nature of the children. Fearing for their lives, Amelia fled and eventually gave birth to the twins. With no means to support the children and still worried for their safety, she gave one to the foster system and the other to the Church. After being reunited with her daughters, Amelia warns Sarah to be wary of Mrs. S because the woman "is not what she says she is." Before she could divulge anything further, she was stabbed to death by Helena.
Detective Arthur "Art" Bell: Beth's partner was the first person she called after shooting Maggie Chen. Out of loyalty to her, Art helped make the shooting look more like an accident by placing a mobile phone in Maggie's hand, thus adding credibility to Beth's insistance that she thought Maggie was holding a gun. After Sarah assumed Beth's identity, Art suspicions are raised when he notices differences between the two girls' personalities. With his new partner, Angela, Art was able to identify the remains of Katja Obinger, find camera footage of Sarah on the train platform at the time of Beth's suicide, and come across Alison at her home in the suburbs... all of these women looking identical to the woman they knew as Beth Childs.
Season two of Orphan Black was greenlit for ten episodes and will expand on the Rachel Duncan character. At least one new clone is also set to be introduced. Michelle Forbes (Star Trek: The Next Generation, Battlestar Galactica, True Blood) and Michiel Huisman (Game of Thrones) will join the cast in recurring roles as Rachel's superior at the Dyad Institute and Sarah's former lover, respectively.
Trailers for the upcoming season are below...
The first episode of season two airs April 19th on BBC America and Space (episode recaps to follow).
Follow Shaun N. on Twitter at @datura1979.
