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Orphan Black: Deviations — Episode 125

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Orphan Black: Deviations is a six-issue comic book miniseries published by IDW, written by Heli Kennedy, and with art by Wayne Nichols and Sebastian Cheng. The series is a “what if” setup asking what the plot of Orphan Black would have been like if Beth hadn’t died. The series touches on a lot of events from the entire five seasons of the show. Kris and Stephanie share their thoughts about the comic miniseries and discuss the differences in the timeline, such as the very different body count and changes in character arcs.

Quick Reviews

  • Stephanie: This miniseries is certainly an interesting rabbithole to go down. I definitely didn’t dislike Deviations, but I can’t say that I really liked it either. There were moments that I liked a lot, but I feel like the writers may have tried or had to tackle too much in six issues. I felt pretty engrossed in the beginning, but toward the end, I felt bounced around in the storyline. It’s very plotty, and there’s not a lot of time for character development, so I feel like I was not the ideal audience for it because I most enjoy characters and character arcs.
  • Kris: I’m not really sure how I feel about this miniseries. It’s an interesting premise, and I do like that we get to spend more time with a couple of characters who die very quickly in the show. But I often found myself very confused about what was happening, and I’m not sure if that’s because of me or the comic. (I do tend to have a bit of cognitive dissonance when I see a familiar story played out in a way that I know is different.) I definitely didn’t like the way the story ended.

Major Differences Due to Beth Surviving

Dyad, The Maggotbots & MK
  • Clone Club as a whole becomes aware of Dyad and the maggotbots much sooner.
  • Sarah becomes a catalyst for Beth sharing information from her investigation with MK.
  • MK’s presence also brings Ferdinand into the mix more quickly.
Body Count
  • Katja survives: her reunion with MK was actually pretty sweet.
  • Olivier survives: nice tail shot!
  • Amelia survives: she doesn’t even appear in the miniseries
  • Vic dies: he came across as a much more sinister figure to Stephanie
  • Rachel and Ferdinand die: so he wouldn’t be around in the future to kill Mrs. S. Yay!
  • Sarah dies: Nooooo!
Orphan Black: Deviations #6 Cover Art

Cover art by Cat Staggs

Redemption Arcs
  • Helena doesn’t connect with Sarah, so she doesn’t start her redemption arc. She is also less present in the storyline
  • Delphine and Cosima meet-cute later in the timeline, and Cosima isn’t revealed to be symptomatic. It was difficult to know where Delphine’s loyalties lay at the end of Season 1, and I find it even more difficult to know here, even though she does help rescue Kira. (She gave Kira’s name to Dr. Leekie!)
  • Rachel doesn’t…become slightly less terrible? MK kills her before she can get angry enough about being the pro-clone to throw off her Dyad/Neolution allegiance in Season 5.

Favorite Moments

  • Alison: “Shaming is for priests, Beth.”
  • Beth answered the identity riddle!
  • Felix breaking up Beth and Sarah’s argument: “You’re both ridiculous — walking proof that flakiness, righteous indignation, and idiotic violence are genetic.”
  • Beth swearing to get Kira back no matter what
  • Recontextualization of plot elements
  • Clothing: Cosima has a great spy hat, Sarah looks adorably ridiculous in Alison’s jumper/onesie pajamas, and Stephanie enjoyed the artistic rendering of some of her favorite Cosima and Delphine outfits

Additional Music

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