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Variations Under Domestication is the sixth episode of the first season of Orphan Black.

Summary[]

Sarah's hunt for answers is interrupted by a trip to the suburbs and Alison's paranoia has boiled over, putting all the orphans at risk. But when Sarah, Alison and Beth's worlds dangerously collide, Sarah must decide who to trust with her secret.

Plot[]

Waking up next to her husband the day after she placed a hidden camera in their room, Alison immediately watches the footage and sees that Donnie left in the middle of the night and did not come back until hours later, even after the memory card of the camera has ran out. Paranoid, Alison immediately confronts her husband about it. Donnie dismisses her accusations as he frantically prepares their house for the monthly potluck to be held in their home. In the heat of the moment, Alison hits Donnie with his golf club, knocking him unconscious.

At Paul's apartment, Paul and Sarah are discussing his position as Beth's monitor. Sarah leads Paul to believe that she is the twin sister of Beth, Paul tells her a bit about his past, particularly his military past. He then tells her that during his stint as a private contractor, he did something that an organization discovered and used as leverage against him. They blackmailed him into monitoring Beth, and he has been doing so for at least two years, no questions asked. He does tell her that her medical results go to Olivier, and that he was serious about running away to Rio with her. Both are still distrustful of each other. Pretending to shower, Sarah slips away.

Sarah promptly calls Cosima, who then tells her that she may have her own monitor dilemma, referring to her new acquaintance, Delphine. Sarah tells Cosima to stay away from suspicious strangers.

Just then, Alison calls Sarah for help. She sends her children off to Aynsley's and pushes Donnie down into her crafts room in the basement, where she ties him up to continue questioning him. Alison begins torturing him with her glue gun and asks him direct questions about being her monitor and his secret box of files on her.

Cosima, still irritated after her phone conversation with Sarah, goes against her advice and approaches Delphine, who then invites her to attend Dr. Leekie's lecture on "Neolution". Elsewhere, Paul tracks Sarah. He calls her as he prepares for their talk by drugging a bottle of scotch at their place.

Alison's interrogation is cut short when Sarah arrives. She shows Sarah what she has done to Donnie, and Sarah is stunned at the level of Alison's paranoia. Suddenly, Alison's guests for their monthly potluck begin to arrive, further complicating the situation. Alison tries to have the potluck venue changed, but Aynsley insists that she will just help her with the party instead. Frantic, Alison begins drinking as she hosts the party while Sarah dresses up as her to continue grilling Donnie.

OrphanBlack1x05SarahPlaysAlison

Sarah pretends to be Alison.

Sarah then calls Felix and asks him to bartend for Alison's potluck in Donnie's place.

Paul meets with Olivier to tell him that "Beth" has been acting strange, and that she seems to be back in her dark place. Olivier merely tells him not to interfere as it is a crisis that he simply needs to support her in. When Paul asks for security in case anything happens to their subject, Olivier says that as long as Beth makes her own choices, "there are no wrong decisions."

During Sarah's interrogation of Donnie, while she realizes that Donnie may in fact not be Alison's monitor, she also learns how bad Donnie treats her by the tone he uses on her. She calls him out and tells him to begin respecting Alison.

At Dr. Leekie's lecture, Cosima remains skeptical regarding Leekie's fringe and radical ideas. After the lecture, while the pair debate the concept of Neolution, Delphine sees Leekie and approaches him. During the conversation, Leekie is made aware of Cosima's skepticism, being a Darwinist herself. Leekie, optimistic that Cosima would change her mind about Neolution, takes his leave. Cosima and Delphine then leave, taking two bottles of wine with them.

Felix finally arrives at Alison's home in Scarborough. Unbeknownst to him, Vic (with a heavily bandaged hand) has broken into Felix's apartment and, through the map program Felix left on his laptop, followed him, thinking he and Sarah were pulling a bigger con. Meanwhile, Alison has gotten drunk, and her gossipy neighbors are beginning to wonder where Donnie is. Aynsley suspects that she and Donnie are going through some problems again, much like her and her husband Chad. Felix then pulls Alison away, while Aynsley watches on in suspicion, snapping at her husband in the process.

In the basement, Sarah tries to console a drunk Alison as she tells him that Donnie is not her monitor; Donnie, who she has known since high school, who apparently couldn't possibly be her monitor. Drunk beyond decency, Alison drowses off, leaving Sarah to ponder and try to fix the situation. Outside, Paul is waiting in his car, watching Alison's house from afar.

Joining Felix upstairs, Felix tells Sarah that he thinks Alison's nosy neighbor Aynsley is Alison's real monitor. In an effort to distract her, the foster siblings tell her that Felix is Alison's acting coach.

Meanwhile, back in Minnesota, it seems that Delphine and Cosima were briefly pursued for stealing the wine from the event. Cosima suggests continuing their crime spree by stealing bikes, but Delphine instead offers her a cigarette, which Cosima refuses because she only smokes pot. Delphine then bids her farewell, kissing Cosima on the cheeks, and the latter looks on wistfully.

Back in Alison's basement, Sarah finds Alison still sleeping, and goes and talks to Donnie. She encourages him to think about their relationship and how they can keep what they've got. She leaves him still bound, gagged, and blindfolded. She gets a phone call from Felix, upstairs: Vic is here, he needs to talk. She says for Vic to meet her in the upstairs bedroom.

Paul puts on his gloves and goes in the basement door, and finds sleeping Alison. He's shocked to see her, addresses her as "Beth", and examines her: he notices she's missing the scar on the neck that Beth has. He addresses her as "Sarah" and tries to wake her, and she (drunkenly) replies "Alison". He hears noises from the other room, and finds Donnie there, still tied to the chair. He also finds a laptop, showing the feed from the spy camera in the bedroom. He watches Vic there, joined by Sarah.

Vic says that he and Sarah have unfinished business, Sarah has faked her death to move on to a new scam, and Vic wants in, the money she gave him doesn't balance with his losing his finger. Paul walks in on them, and asks Vic what she's done this time. Vic pulls out a gun, and frisks Paul (who is clearly amused by Vic's amateurish gunplay). Paul reads the situation and improvises: they are in the middle of the deal, they should talk in the garage.

As they leave the bedroom, outside is Aynsley. Vic and Paul go down to the garage, while Sarah deals with Aynsley. Aynsley is suspicious about the men, but she's really there to complain more about Chad, she's worried that he's having another affair. Sarah tries to comfort her, saying every marriage has secrets. They go back to the party, but Aynsley notices that Sarah has on a different shirt than Alison had earlier.

Paul and Vic enter the garage, and Paul easily punches Vic out, takes the gun, and sets out to question Vic, using a nailgun to encourage him. Vic reveals "Beth" is really Sarah Manning, but Vic knows of no twin sister, nor does he recognize the names Beth or Alison. Paul is upset at Vic's lack of answers, when Sarah comes in. Paul addresses her as "Sarah Manning".

Aynsley goes down to the basement, and is looking suspicious. She finds Alison sleeping (and wearing a purple sweater, instead of the white shirt Sarah has on). Alison wakes up and says she's not feeling good, and Aynsley helps her up to bed.

Sarah has convinced Paul that Vic knows nothing, and she'll talk once Vic is gone. They get Vic out, and Aynsley walks in. She is surprised, she just put Alison to bed a few minutes ago. Sarah dodges an answer. Aynsley recovers her composure, and introduces herself to Paul, who says he's just visiting. Paul reaches for his gun, but Sarah stops him and holds on to his hand, which Aynsley can see. Sarah says every marriage has its secrets, and Paul is hers. Aynsley goes along with that, it isn't her business.

After the party is over, and the house is empty, Alison and Donnie are in bed together, although he is still upset. She starts to apologize for her "breakdown" earlier, but he apologizes himself, he says this has all been his fault. He confesses that the locked box he had contained letters between him and a friend from college, they had had an affair years ago, when he and Alison were broken up, but that's over. Donnie cries, and Alison comforts him.

Paul and Sarah are back at their condo, and he gets out the bottle that he doctored earlier, and sets out two glasses. Sarah explains that she is a clone, identical copies, and that there are nine of them so far. She says she knew what he did for Beth, he was observing her, he's involved in monitoring human clones. He puts back the bottle (he hasn't poured anything) and gets a different one, and they each drink from it.

In Minneapolis, Delphine enters her hotel room, and Dr. Leekie is already there, which does not surprise her. They speak in French, but we can tell they are obvious intimates.

Credits[]

Starring[]

Guest Starring[]

Cast[]

  • Millie Davis as Gemma
  • Drew Davis as Oscar
  • Kristi Angus as Charity Simms
  • Priya Rao as Meera Kumar
  • Earl Bubba McLean Jr. as Teddy
  • John Nelles as Dialogue Coach

Music[]

All songs for the episodes have been verified by TuneFind(A reliable source)[1]

  • "Wannabe" by Spice Girls
  • "Lovefool" by The Cardigans
  • "This Is How We Do It" by Montell Jordan
  • "Previously On" by Trevor Yuile

Screencaps[]

Navigation[]

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Episodes

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