Orphan Black season 4 is underway and I’m currently fighting the urge to just hop into the show myself and off one of the five main clones.
Anyone who knows me will tell you that I absolutely love a good character death. Yeah, it’s a little weird and creepy and somewhat concerning, but I feel like nothing adds drama and raises the stakes more like a character death you weren’t expecting. It’s one of the reasons that Game of Thrones is one of my favorite shows, and partly why I love Orphan Black — because they’re not afraid to kill people.
But they are afraid to kill the clones we already have had three seasons to get to know and love, and I feel like that’s a problem.
As I’ve mentioned, Orphan Black isn’t afraid to kill the characters we love — look at Paul. He was definitely a fan-favorite and one of the more central characters, but he wasn’t a clone. And that matters.
I’m not saying we need to kill off a clone for the sake of killing a clone, but in a world where people get killed every day and clones are falling like flies, it just doesn’t make sense that all five are alive still. So I’d like to point out why each of the five clones could be up for elimination, should the showrunners choose that route.
Helena is alive and well, but I don’t think, nor do I want, her to die any time soon. Or at all, really. Being pregnant with twins is so full circle for her story and it’s so perfect, so I definitely want to see her figure out how to be a mom. The only problem is that I can’t picture it. Yeah, I can see it in a cute little fanfic story about Helena and Sarah raising kids together, but in the actual show? It’s hard to imagine because Helena is still very much a kid herself in so many ways; she’s still learning basic communication skills and how to be polite in public and she eats sugar on everything for goodness’ sake!
Helena can’t be a mom, so maybe that’s why they’d kill her off. She’s not ready to handle parenthood, and seeing her give up those kids for adoption is something that I think just wouldn’t happen. Helena would be far too attached. An easy out of parenthood for her would be killing her off. You have to admit, the death of a woman pregnant with twins would definitely be a shock, but even that’s going a little too far for me. Helena is the character I’m most confused about, really. It can go either way.
Sarah is the protagonist of the entire show, and while usually I’d think that would mean she’s safe, recent TV deaths have gotten me thinking that it’s a bigger possibility than we realize. The Vampire Diaries got rid of their central character and the show is still going strong, and Castle just announced that one of their lead actors is leaving as well, but the season will continue without her. Plus, I don’t know if you’ve been living under a social media rock or anything, but you may have noticed that almost every show on TV has killed off someone this past month. It’s the year to die on TV, apparently.
That’s what makes me think Sarah could definitely bite the bullet this season, but while I think it’s possible, I don’t think it’s probable. She’s just so central to absolutely friggin’ everything that it wouldn’t make sense to kill her off. She holds the family together, and I feel like without her, several of the characters in the show wouldn’t even talk to each other. But maybe that’ll be the huge twist! Who knows.
Cosima is an obvious go-to for fans to bet against, but they won’t because she’s so loved. Despite her insanely popular shipping fandom on Tumblr, her health is a major concern. She’s not getting better and the path to a cure for her respiratory illness is only getting more unclear, so her chances of surviving are already pretty slim.
If you were going to kill any of the five clones, it’d be easiest and most obvious to kill the one that’s been struggling with her health the entire series. However, because it’s the most obvious choice, it also makes it slightly less probable now, doesn’t it? It’d be a pretty boring out if they decided to kill Cosima and only Cosima because of her health problems. Maybe if Cosima was on the chopping block, then another will die with her to make it even more shocking.
Of course there’s the one clone that mostly everyone hates, or loves to hate. Rachel has made enemies both in the show and in the fandom when she destroyed Cosima’s only chance for a cure (Kira’s bone marrow) and then she went and got herself kidnapped. Now she has a bionic eye and has been re-introduced to the mother she thought was dead for the majority of her life, so her chances are pretty slim.
The reason I say they’re slim is because Rachel’s story is still developing. We still don’t know a lot about her and she’s got a lot to learn, both about herself and about her mother. It just doesn’t make sense to kill Rachel off at this point because we want to see her grow and learn. And she did just get a bionic eye, so I’m sure the creators will want to live that one up and show us what that puppy can do.
Last but not least, there’s Alison, the housewife clone who wants nothing more than to be a normal part of society, away from all of this Neolution clone business and back into her PTA meetings. I’ve said this before on my podcast Orphan Black Chat and I will say it again: If you’re going to kill off a clone but you don’t want to sacrifice the story, Alison is the one to die.
Alison’s death would do nothing but propel the storyline forward because she has no actual part in the Neolution, no part in the science, no part in the government aspect. Nada. Zip. Zero. It would be so easy for her to be shot and killed, and how ironic would it be that the clone trying so hard to get away is the one to suffer the consequences?
I truly think that if Alison died then the story would just get that much more interesting. Donnie would be more inspired to be a part of this and bring down whoever killed her, Felix would want to get back into the game because Alison was the one clone that really showed him she cared constantly through this whole ordeal, and Sarah and Cosima would be pissed that their most innocent sister is now dead and it would drive them even harder to solve this damn mystery. It would seriously be such an epic game changer, and this is the one I’m most hoping will happen.
We want to hear your thoughts on this topic!
Write a comment below or submit an article to Hypable.