Now that Orphan Black season 3 is officially over it’s time to go through the season to see what we found out about Project Leda, Project Castor, and the newly returned Neolutionists.
There was a lot that happened this season on Orphan Black. Like, a whole lot. But the best thing about the season being over is that now we get to really chew on all the new facts we learned and figure out what it might mean for next season.
You’re probably confused about how the clones don’t look anything like Kendall Malone, or about what exactly Neolution has to do with everything. The good thing is we’ve got the gist of the whole concept, so let’s try to explain everything to you piece by piece. Just remember: This is all of our assumed knowledge and we definitely don’t consider ourselves to be science pros.
Who exactly is Kendall Malone and how is she the ‘Original’?
That’s a great question, clone club! Let’s start off with the most basic fact about Malone: She’s Siobhan Sadler’s mother. Siobhan, of course, being Mrs. S.. Malone has had a rocky relationship with her daughter and it’s believed that she murdered Siobhan’s husband, John.
Malone was imprisoned in the 1970s and the prison that she was held at was the very same one Ethan Duncan went to search for viable donors. He found a viable donor in Malone, but got more than he bargained for when he learned that Malone had consumed a twin in the womb.
For those of you confused by the concept of “consuming a twin,” otherwise known as vanishing twin syndrome, it’s not as morbid as it sounds. Occasionally when twins are in development in the womb one twin dies in the fetal stage, and instead of the dead tissue being cast aside the second twin absorbs it. Don’t ask us how because we’re no medical experts, but this is what happened to Kendall Malone when she was in the womb – she was the living twin.
Because Kendall absorbed her twin she has two cell lines meaning she has two completely different sets of structured cells within her DNA, as most people have just one. At least, that’s our understanding of it. But according to Scott in episode 10, when you isolate particular strands of Kendall’s genome and separate lines you get what results in Project Castor, and Project Leda.
So that is why Mrs. S. never saw a resemblance between her mother and Sarah – it’s not because she’s incompetent it’s because, well, because science. And yes, this means that because Sarah came from Kendall’s DNA and Kendall is Siobhan’s mother, Sarah and Mrs. S. are indeed blood related.
How are Sarah and Helena immune to the respiratory problem?
This one was actually pretty simple for us to figure out once we learned that Neolution had corrupted Duncan’s experiments. Duncan returned to the prison a few years later and told Kendall that Neolution corrupted his wife and poisoned the experiments once they successfully cloned Kendall’s DNA, but there was one clone that made it out unscathed.
Essentially what we figure is this: Before Neolution got in and created the artificially infertile clones from Kendall’s DNA they first succeeded with creating Sarah and Helena, untouched by Neolution’s attempt to change evolution. Because these clones were so pure, Duncan had requested Kendall’s help to find a good place for them, and Kendall put Sarah with the only person she thought deserved her: Mrs. S.
Again, this isn’t the exact science here – you’d want to talk to Cosima Herter, the show’s science partner. But it’s pretty straight-forward if you try to think of it in layman’s terms. Then again, show creators John Fawcett and Graeme Manson might be reading this thinking “Oh you’re so wrong,” in which case we look forward to being completely corrected next year!
So, how exactly does Neolution fit into this?
Do you remember Doctor Leekie from season 1 and most of season 2? And how he was into this thing called Neolution? Well, Neolution is the concept of fast-forwarding mankind’s evolution with better versions of ourselves. Bionic eyes, the regrowing of tails, stuff like that. Neolution wants to expand humankind’s potential with science.
Well, it seems like Neolution is at the forefront of the entire clone drama – which makes sense, actually. Once Duncan had started his experiments he found out that people from Neolution had infiltrated every aspect of it: From the male version of the clones on Project Castor in the military to the female side with the DYAD. Neolution is everywhere. Basically, think of Neolution as Orphan Black‘s Hydra.
What we assume is that once Neolution got the gist of what Ethan Duncan was trying to do and the fact that he was actually succeeding in his human clone trials, they went out to make sure they were not only a part of this ground-breaking experiment but that they controlled where it went — because human cloning means huge things for Neolution and what they want to do.
Now Sarah and her family are going to have to figure out who exactly they can trust. They don’t only have to worry about Castor (because let’s be honest, Virginia Coady isn’t dead so she isn’t finished yet) but they also have to worry about DYAD and who in those two groups work for Neolution. It’s going to be one heck of a ride, clone club.
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