Aurora Cormier

I never expected to hear about Jesse again to be honest, but it's always been weird to me how Kira never talked about her father after getting along with him so well...and I NEVER had ANY expectations whatsoever of getting any explanation for Kira's sensitive stuff, nor did I ever care for that, so I'm kinda glad she was barely in the finale

I think Charlotte is with Art now? I was sad that she had no lines, though, I used to like her much more than Kira, actually

I was super nervous during the first half of the episode, fearing for their lives, and honestly, that was how I expected to have felt for the entire season, so I agree, this is my least favorite overall, I think I may have liked even season 3 a bit more. But the finale really made me happy

Less Than Perfect

I absolutely loved this finale! I'm glad they got all the blood and fight out of the way in the first half of the episode and had a solid half hour on the sisters just trying to live their life post-Neolution. I didn't expect the show to do it that way and I'm so glad they did. It's so satisfying to see them all together just trying to live their lives the way they wanted to. It's what they've been fighting for all along and it's wonderful and satisfying that they finally got it. And yeah, I totally cried for like half the episode.

Sarah shooting PT in the chest and then smashing his face was so satisfying. I'm glad she got two shots at him. The can to his face totally felt like justice for MK even if he wasn't the one who killed her. I loved the Sarah flashbacks! Particularly since the conversation was all about choice. And it was great to see Mrs S again, even if she's only been gone for an episode. Helena giving birth with Sarah and Art's help didn't feel as cheesy as I imagined it would. Maybe because the flashbacks were about the struggle before Sarah's impending motherhood rather than after.

Helena living in the Hendrix's garage is pretty hilarious. And the fact that she temporarily named them Purple and Orange was amusing and I totally wouldn't have put it past her to actually name them that. It was good to see her taking on motherhood well, but also staying close enough to one of the other sisters so she could rely on their help.

Looooove Cosima, Delphine and Scott working together to cure all the other clones. Cosima and Delphine with Purple (Was he Arthur or Donnie?) was adorable. They were both so nervous about it that it was absolutely cuter than then talking about wanting one of their own. Loved that the two of them went travelling the world to cure everyone. Just them doing the science. Also, that scene with Delphine and Sarah felt like such a long time coming even if Delphine going in for the hug was kind of awkward. It was nice that Delphine got her chance to say something to Sarah since she missed S' funeral.

Surprised Alison kept the hair. Not sure I needed one last visual of Donnie in his underwear, but it could've been worse.

Sarah, Cosima, Alison and Helena all sitting together sharing their fears was so so so wonderful. I love that they all had a different take on it. That scene was everything.

I'm kind of sad that Rachel didn't get to join in. Not that she would have fit in perfectly. I'm glad that she was able to give them all one truly great gift. She did good in the end.

Felix being a successful artist in NY was great and all because of the clones. I love it.

I'm so surprised and grateful that Art didn't die. It really felt like he was going to die this season. His takedown of Enger was so anticlimactic but I'm glad he survived. Did he adopt Charlotte? Kind of bummed that she didn't get to say anything but I'm glad she was included. Like was Oscar even in the episode?

We didn't get to find out what the deal with Kira feeling the clones was, but tbh I don't particularly care. I was actually glad not to see too much of Kira in the finale. We saw enough of her to know that she finally got to be a kid and that's enough for me.

Overall, solid ending that felt totally worth all the chaos the clones have been through. I'm going to miss this show. So much.

Aurora Cormier

^ ALL of this!


And no, sadly Oscar wasn't in the episode. I wonder if even if he were sitting down he still would look too old for how old Oscar is still supposed to be on the show? And Gemma had no lines, either, just like Charlotte and Maya, but I'm still happy they were all included

Scully_fan

I think I liked it? As finale's going it wasn't the worst I've seen, but not the best either. Did I want SUCH a happy ending? I don't know. I was expecting a classic OB curveball to be thrown in somewhere and it wasn't (maybe that was the curveball ). I felt like I was watching fanfic come to life. But the slogan to this show was always Helena's question "we make a family, yes?" And yes Helena, that question is answered, you all do. So perhaps this was the most fitting end.

Lol @ Sam predicting they'd parallel the Sarah and Helena birthing scene. You were so right.

****. They are never going to give us that series. I'm a bit annoyed they are teasing it with us.

Less Than Perfect

I gotta say, I'm so glad that Sarah decided to keep the house after all. It can't be easy living in the house that S died in, but I think the good times probably outweigh the bad in this instance. I hope Sarah got her GED in the end.

I felt like the clones needed a happy ending, but I totally didn't expect so many of them to get it! None of the core clones died, hell, Rachel didn't even die!

At least they're giving fanfic authors something to go with, I guess. But still, god how good would that have been.

SRBleyton4ever

What can I say, when I'm good, I'm good

This has been me for a little while now. Unpopular opinion I know but I really didn't think the finale was that good. Having everything was PT and Coady over in the first 20 minutes, after a whole season of build-up didn't really feel right. There were no consequences to anything that happened, just Helena/Art + Sarah killing them and jump forward to everything being rosy. When I watch a show like Orphan Black I'm expecting drama & chaos not shiny happy endings, so the last 20 minutes was really different and I didn't need 20 minutes of a happy ending. But this is probably because I'm a massive drama Queen who loves angst, and is used to series finales having a load of people dying + chaos

Scully_fan

Lol when Sarah turned around in the school I was like....... oh god is S1 Sarah is still here? SARAH. SARRRRRAH!? I'm not sure she'll ever get her qualification and she's going to wing her way through life. Which I guess is fine, but I thought we'd see more growth with her responsibilities.

I'm also wondering how Helena is going to support her twins unless Alison and Donnie are going to keep them forever? Maybe she'll publish "Orphan Black" and it'll become an international bestseller.

Can't believe I'm saying it but I'm glad in the end Rachel didn' diet? She was almost my favourite character this year. She is humbled now, she has to live probably an unextraordinary life, with nothing she thought she wanted, and she's lonely. Perhaps all of that is comeuppance enough.

Maybe it can be the next comic series? I'd buy it in a second.

I'm beginning to think they should have ended PT/Coady in 509 and then had 510 clearly be the fanfic episode they wanted it to be.

Less Than Perfect

I'm glad the series didn't end with lots of people dying and chaos. Watching this show has been so great, but holy crap, it has aged me. I spent almost every episode on edge. I need a rest as much as Sarah does.


ME TOO! I'm torn over thinking that she went back and did it once she started recovering a bit and accepting that she didn't have to be the perfect mother, or her acceptance of not being perfect meant that she just didn't do it. I guess her not selling the house and staying put was her way of showing that she'd grown and wasn't going to run any more.

With all the drug money that the Hendrix's probably still have and now this big job that Donnie has, I feel like they're probably set for a while?

In the end, I am glad she didn't die and she was strangely one of my favourite characters this season as well. I think they wrote her really well this season. This was the Rachel we've been waiting for. Guess they couldn't redeem her too early on. Her line about the uber driver was great.

Can't lie, I would too.

hopeless romantic

Blankety-blank.

This was the series finale I needed but didn't know it until we got it.

I have never hoped for grisly murders, even though we've gotten quite a few in the series, so it was such a relief to not have to fear for Art or Sarah for long while Maddy, Coady (I had genuinely hoped she was dead at the end of 5x09) and P.T. went down fairly quickly (although not without the ugliness of knowing that, when it came down to it, P.T. was just a meth junkie at the end).

But -- and you can call me anything you want -- watching Helena give birth, supported by Art, with flashbacks to Mrs. S.... Mrs. S, of all people!!!! talking to Sarah about how deciding to carry Kira to term was a solemn decision, and to seeing her tell Sarah to stay present as she was giving birth -- telling her to look her in the face, then seeing Sarah give Art (you know, I had never realized just what a powerfully mythological name Beth's ex-partner carried until Helena decided to name her son "Arthur," but that's me getting a bit ahead of myself) the power/responsibility to support Helena's body, then telling her sister to do precisely what Mrs. S. had instructed her to do when she was giving birth -- to take strength by looking her in the face... all of it just made me realize that the entire history/continuity of human life was somehow encapsulated in that triptych.

Life begins however it happens, whether it be in cabins in the wilderness, in petri dishes, in loving homes, in back allies, or what-not: It only ever thrives when there are strong, self-sacrificing men and women who are part of the promise we give to the children who come into the world.

So getting to see Sarah struggle with her demons (to be honest, I'm not at all surprised that she bailed on getting her G.E.D., given that she was having trouble even pronouncing the word "Pythagorean" or finding the hypotenuse, which probably means that she still needed to study up quite a bit), then seeing her lie to everyone (except Adele, who seems to have gotten the memo immediately, which gave me joy that her... step-foster-sister has her back?!?), only to see all of the sestras gather to support her enduring grief... felt... real rather than schmaltzy.

It felt like she/the show was finally facing up to the aftermath of the harrowing journey that has been her "usual Sarah ****estorm," but now she doesn't have to do it all alone, because she knows where she came from, she knows (at least as of their trip to ****e Beach) that she's far stronger than she ever knew she could be, and that strength is enabling all of the sestras no-one ever knew about to be cured by that single egg she gave up, which was fertilized by her Castor brother Ira, essentially sacrificing the entirety of the agency of a discrete human life for what we now know were 274 "test subjects" who are "property" no longer, if our final new clone (OMG, how am I going to deal with the knowledge that I'll never get so see Tatiana Maslaney "invent" a new version of the humanity of identical genetic material! ) is any example.

But the line that broke me was hearing Cosima say, "We're all scared" as she squeezed Sarah's hand.

Because that's what it truly means to be human.

majesdane

agreed 100% tbh.

they really should have.

and fanfic episode is right. i wish i knew what the original ending they had planned was. this didn't feel like OB at all to me. yes, OB always had light and happy fun moments, but this was just ..... blah. like if i knew after s1 how the final season would play out, i would have passed on watching anything but the cophine scenes.

i still think rachel should have died, but i guess becoming an irrelevant nobody who will never be a part of clone club is at least some kind of punishment. i'm glad she was never actually fully redeemed and accepted as part of the group.

hopeless romantic

I don't think I'll ever get over seeing/listening to Allison play "Endless Forms Most Beautiful" on her keyboard.

I've always loved that theme, but I never really thought about the meaning of the name.

I feel quite verklempt about the idea that maybe I, too, am one of those endless forms.

about the idea that I probably should have known that a long time ago....

___________

This is probably going to sound obsessive, but am I the only person who's noticed the number of people who have choked to death this season?

I was re-watching 5x08 and noticed that Ferdinand tried to kill Rachel by almost the same means he used to kill MK, which involved him choking off their supply of oxygen.

Then I realized that Siobhan's shot to his throat caused him to die by choking on his own blood wasn't very different, in the sense that he was rendered unable to speak.

Finally, last night, Sarah was almost cut off by that plastic, until she brought Art's gun to bear.

I'm fairly certain there are other examples of people losing their ability to speak throughout the show, but I do find these sorts of confluences... interesting....

Scully_fan

Yeah that's true about the house. I don't blame her for not wanting to live where her Mum was found murdered though.

Is that a pun on Donnie's new job?

I was thinking about it and remember the dream sequence that kicked off 3x01? That's actually what this was... and I think that's why I felt so thrown off by it because it didn't seem quite real for the show. It's like I kept expecting Helena to wake up and find herself locked in a box in the middle of the desert.

Aurora Cormier

It seemed unreal, yeah, but that's what was so great to me. I would've hated it if we'd been tense for 40 minutes, to then have like two minutes of everyone smiling and that was it. The way it was done, I could actually enjoy their freedom and happiness, and get a good sense of how their lives continued after all the craziness was over

BrooklynFan

Well, there are things that I could quibble with in this finale (the cheesy predictability of intercutting Helena's childbirth scene with Sarah's; the unresolved threads, most notably Kira's "feelings"), but all in all it was a generous and open-hearted conclusion to the show, so I'm going to respond to it in the same spirit.

I was glad that Sarah landed the last blow, killing Westmorland and ending Neolution once and for all. It was fitting that after sitting on the sidelines for too much of the season, these last two episodes were so much about her.

I thought it was interesting that they diminished Westmoreland so much in these last episodes, taking his wig, revealing him to be basically a jittery, drug-addled loser whose followers no longer seemed to trust or respect him (Coady spoke so dismissively to him toward the end, and so did that toady doctor whom he shot). On the one hand, it made him a not terribly satisfying villain (Coady was much more formidable) but on the other hand it was fitting that he and his whole brand of toxic masculinity was revealed to be so phony.

I know not everybody liked this, but I loved that they resolved the Neolution conflict halfway through and devoted so much time to how the sisters are moving forward with their lives now that they're finally free. This is what they were fighting for all this time, and it was important to me to see them beginning to make steps toward living normal lives. I also thought that it felt real and true that Sarah was struggling; that all her problems weren't resolved by the violent expedient of smashing P.T. Westmorland's head in. I could have done without Donnie's underwear, but I guess we had to expect it. I loved seeing Delphine and Cosima happy and easy together, and also doing meaningful work together curing all the Ledas (of course I wanted more of them, but that was always going to be the case). I was never wildly invested in Helena's pregnancy, so that as the big climax of the series fell a bit short for me, but it was nice to see her contentedly settling into motherhood while remaining her quirky self. I thought Rachel's resolution was perfect. And I really liked the last scene, ambiguous but optimistic, of Sarah and family making S's house their own with the new colorful artwork, and setting out for something as banal but beautiful as a family day at the beach.

I'm going to miss this show.

ForumFanatic

What's with writers hinting at spinoffs about poorly written lesbian couples? Stop being pander bears.

Emily/Alison to Cosima/Delphine.

So far the only team to get writing after-credits stuff about that right is Korra. With the Turf Wars comic.

I would be down for Orphan Black: The Movie though. As long as it is a Helena-related adventure.