Orphan Black S3E4 - “Newer Elements of Our Defense” Recap

Surprise! Mark's not dead! Despite his protests, Sarah insists on helping the wounded Mark out of the cornfield just in time to get him away from Gracie's mother's Prolethean goons. Mummy Dearest is bringing Gracie back to the compound and Gracie must tuck away her wedding ring for safe keeping.

As for Helena, our favourite bottle-blonde trickster ties off her arm to slow down the sedative being inserted into her system so she can go wandering around the base. She makes it back to her room in time with a the bone from a steak which she proceeds to gnaw on to mould it into something special.

Alison gets paid a visit by a henchman of the local drug kingpin because Ramon, whom they bought the drugs off of, didn't actually leave to go to college. He made a buy-and-dash and is now missing.

Sarah has helped Mark into an abandoned house where she's able to dig the bullet out per his instruction and sews him up. It seems Mark had hoped to trade what he found for his freedom but he tells Sarah that what he found instead was just a bunch of junk. Sarah goes through Mark's stuff and swipes his motel key and gun before calling an ambulance for him, as he has just passed out.

We see little from Cosima save for her wearing a Yeti-like sweater that Felix hates. Felix advises her not to do so much pining after Delphine and to move on with her life. Yeah, Cosima! Get some honest loving this time around! Felix thinks Cosima getting on a dating app is in order to find her next scratching post but Cosima is reluctant to do so.

Alison gets to meet with local drug kingpin, and it's Jason Kellerman, her ex-boyfriend from high school! Thankfully, they're on friendly enough terms and Jason doesn't seem too upset that she has moved in on Ramon's old action. We also learn that Alison's mother always like Jason. That's certainly interesting. He wants to know why she's doing this but she doesn't feel like sharing. He respects her affinity for business and admires her savviness regarding the soap idea, which he calls "genius." She promises to double his profit on the stock, if he'll just give it back first.

Sarah makes it back to Mark's motel room and goes through the journals and other papers that were recovered by Gracie. She relays the news that Mark was undercover with the Proletheans and what's news to us is that the Prolethean patriarch Henrik Johannson was Professor Duncan's lab assistant during the earliest days of the experimentation. It also looks like Gracie's mother was responsible for carrying the clone embryos in the earliest days.

Gracie ends up miscarrying and her mother is enraged by this. She spouts some religious dogma and kicks Gracie out of the compound.

Mark corners Sarah in his motel room and she shares what she has figured out after sharing the information with Cosima who could decode the scientific chicken scratch in the notebooks. The reason why there were no samples is because Johansson and his wife used the original tissue samples to make a baby. All they need to do is find him, get some tissue samples and they'll be good to go. Mark knows that Johnasson had mentioned a son so he tells Sarah where to drive. The son died so now Sarah must dig up the grave of a dead baby.

Remember that bone? Well Helena has chomped it down into a pick for the lock on her cell door. How resourceful! Once she's broken out, she discovers a castor clone named Parsons who looks to be in bad shape. He's restrained and Helena discovers that the top half of his skull has been removed and his brain exposed with some electrical nodes sticking into it. He begs her to kill him so he can be put out of his misery. Her scorpion friend advises her to not risk her one chance at escape on someone that is already dead. Helena gives a moving speech to Parsons about them both being abandoned by their families and left to suffer. It's sad to see that Helena has bought into the BS she's been fed about her sestras not caring about her. In perhaps the "sweetest" death we've seen yet, Helena takes a scalpel to Parsons' brain. Cody comes in calling Helena names but Helena snaps back by calling her a liar who claims to love her boys but really she's just a "shit mother." Bravo, Helena, bravo!

But there's one last twist to be had, as Rudy shows up to check Mark for a pulse just as Sarah has gotten the baby's remains up and out of the ground. She tells Rudy what's in the box and when he goes to open it, she whacks him with a shovel and takes off running. She may not have the box but at least she's alive for now. Unfortunately, Rudy's still awake so he comes stalking after her in the barn. Just as Rudy's preparing to kill Sarah, Mark comes in declaring that he is the superior officer and order Rudy to stand down. Rudy knocks Sarah down and keeps his stand-off going with Mark who dares him to kill the both of them if he thinks he's such a tough "little brother." Rudy stands down but Castor clones don't leave loose ends, so it looks like Sarah's going to have take a little trip...

Orphan Black airs on Saturdays on BBC America at 9PM.