Orphan Black S3 Ep 4 “Newer Elements of Our Defense” | Review

Orphan Black’s Weekly Episode poster. (From BBC America’ Orphan Black’s website)

Prolethean mother hen, Bonnie Johanssen guns down Mark out in the open. (Photo from BBC America’s Orphan Black website).

In last week’s episode, we witnessed Mark being gunned down by Mrs. Johanssen (Bonnie) in the cornfield of the deceased William Finch’s farm as a terrified Sarah watched from the barn. This week’s episode, “Newer Elements of Our Defense,” written by: Russ Cochrane, opened with Bonnie emerging from the field like a huntress sensing another big kill near by as she stalked her way over to the barn.

Sarah makes her way out of the barn and takes cover beside Mark’s truck; she finds Mark’s discarded handgun on the ground and slips into the cornfield. Sarah does not get far in when she comes across a badly wounded, but still very much alive Mark.

Sarah outside of Finch’s barn. (Photo from Orphan Black’s wiki page).

She manages to get Mark to an abandoned house a few miles away from Finch’s farm where she helps him remove a bullet stuck in his leg once the two come to a natural truce—in terms of Mark answering Sarah’s questions in exchange for her help. It is not long, though before the loss of blood causes Mark to pass out and with the discovery of his hotel key, Sarah calls an ambulance for Mark and leaves.

Whilst Bonnie has taken Gracie to their new Prolethean home run by Mr. Appleyard where she and the rest from her ‘fleet’, (perhaps the better term is flock) have taken up residence after the fire at their home. Mr. Appleyard examines Gracie and seems to sense something is off either with Gracie or the baby she is carrying. I should mention that Mr. Appleyard is blind, so perhaps he has heightened senses (I am not a hundred percent on this). Later that day, however, Gracie looses the baby. Convinced that the miscarriage was punishment for Gracie running away with Mark, her mother (Bonnie) shuns Gracie and banishes her.

Else where, Helena cleverly plans to out smart her captors by stashing (what looks like a pork chop) bone away and staging an outburst to be taken from her cell in an attempt to plan her escape, (with her trusted talking scorpion) only to discover Dr. Coady doing tests on one of her own Castor clones, Parsons. This affects Helena’s actions later when she chews up the bone into a makeshift key and gets out of her cell, but more on that a little later.

Meanwhile, Mother Alison and Donnie attempt to close up shop, or at least put a pin in their operation until they can figure out if they are being watched by the cops when it turns out the true owner of the pharmaceuticals they bought from Ramon wants answers from them. As luck would have it, Alison and Donnie are summoned to meet with drug boss, Jason Kellerman whom turns out to be an ex-boyfriend of Alison’s’. Impressed with Alison’s homemade-soap cover for selling the drugs, Jason agrees to let Alison and Donnie continue their operation.

Jason Kellerman, Alison’s ex-boyfriend from high school and neighborhood drug boss (Photo from BBC America’s Orphan Black’s website).

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