Orphan Black: Conditions of Existence Recap

The pool of people the clones can trust just got a lot smaller.

After another steamy night with Paul, Sarah has a disturbing dream about being experimented upon. But it wasn’t a dream. In the morning, while brushing her teeth, Sarah coughs up a small piece of monitoring equipment that had been left behind. She calls a meeting with Alison and Cosima and Cosima confirms that they are being monitored based on the object that was left in Sarah. Now Alison is suspicious of her husband Donnie, and Sarah is ready to shoot Paul’s balls off (her words, not mine).

Just then, Raj calls to ask Sarah (Beth) to return the surveillance equipment she “borrowed” now that she’s off the force. It looks like Beth was onto Paul as well. Sarah finds the equipment in her car and decides to head to Paul’s workplace to plant it, under the pretense of bringing him lunch as an apology for running out hastily that morning.

If Paul wasn’t suspicious already due to the sudden heat between him and Beth, he definitely is when he notices the scar on the back of her neck from a biking accident is gone. Sarah simply says she’s been using a new lotion that must have faded the scar, but at this point, an alarm is going off in Paul’s head.

Donnie appears to be on red alert too. Alison comes home to find him going through her drawers, which leads her to start going through his things. At first, all she finds is trashy porn DVDs, but then in the garage, she finds a locked black box. Donnie returns home before Alison can get it open, and when she confronts him about it, he simply takes the box back, saying he deserves some privacy. Alison would later find the box unlocked, containing the porn she’d found earlier in the house. Whatever was in the box, Donnie burned it.

So Alison gets some low-key surveillance equipment of her own. She has unfortunate timing, however, as she goes to the shopping center at the same time as Vic. Vic, who has just had a finger cut off due to his debt to his drug dealer, catches sight of Alison and assumes she is Sarah. Ever prepared, Alison gets away by use of pepper spray and a taser.

Though Vic doesn’t have all the details, he knows he’s been duped, and goes to confront Felix. There, he finds the real Sarah. Think what you want of Sarah’s character, but she truly wants to put who she was with Vic behind her, and uses the clone defense fund to pay Vic for the drugs, plus extra for his pains. But the jig is up, and Vic isn’t just going to disappear.

But for now, Sarah has Paul to deal with. The surveillance equipment picked up a conversation between Paul and another man who must be in on the clone experiment. The surprising thing is, Paul covers for Sarah, saying that “Beth’s” mental state is better and there’s nothing to worry about. But this doesn’t mean Sarah is safe. Paul calls her to come home and when Sarah refuses, he sends her photos taken of her walking Kira home, giving Sarah no choice but to meet him.

Back at home, Paul holds a gun on Sarah and she simply can’t keep the charade up. But instead of folding under Paul’s threats, she reprimands him for abusing Beth’s trust. Because Sarah has figured out that Beth loved Paul, and when Paul wouldn’t love her back, but also wouldn’t leave her, she learned the truth about him.

With Sarah and Alison each facing their “monitors,” where does that leave Cosima? Back at her school, Cosima has just met a brilliant French student named Delphine, who is dealing with a bad breakup. There’s an instant connection between the two women, and though my fingers are crossed for a canonically queer relationship on this show, Delphine could very well have been sent to keep tabs on Cosima.

Next weekend, we’ll learn more about who can be trusted, and who will turn against the clones.