| Katja Obinger | |
 | |
|---|---|
| Biographical information | |
| Birthplace: | Würzburg, Germany |
| Birthdate: | 12 March 1984[1] 24 March 1984[2][3] |
| Status: | Deceased |
| Manner of Death: | Assassinated by Helena |
| Died: | 25 November 2012[3] |
| Age: | 28 |
| Other information | |
| Also known as: | The German, Jane Doe |
| Gender: | Female |
| Hair color: | Red (dyed) |
| Eye color: | Brown |
| Relationships | |
| Family: | Inga Obinger (adoptive mother) Erwin Obinger (adoptive father) Leda clones (sisters/genetic identicals) |
| Series information | |
| Portrayed by: | Tatiana Maslany |
| Season/s: | 1 |
| Mentioned in: | The Collapse of Nature |
| First appearance: | "Natural Selection" |
| Latest appearance: | "Instinct" |
Katja Obinger was a clone of German origin on Orphan Black. She came to Beth for help for reasons unknown but was assassinated shortly upon her discovery that the "Beth" she had contacted was a fraud.
Biography
Early life
Not much is known about Katja except for the fact that she was born in Würzburg, Germany on March 24th, 1984 to Inga Obinger (née Löw) and Erwin Obinger.
In conditions still unknown, Katja fell ill. She may have met the three other clones in Europe and was, at one point, able to track down Beth Childs in Canada and told her that their "genetic identicals" in Europe were being hunted, proposing the theory that that someone is killing them off. Alarmed, Beth manages to find other clones in North America: Alison Hendrix and Cosima Niehaus. While Katja has Alison's information, Beth held off on introducing her to Cosima, asking her for data and samples first of herself and the three other clones in Europe.
Season 1
Katja's most recent text messages to Beth
Katja had been texting Beth on her pink clone phone several times about their planned meeting, but Beth had already committed suicide by then. Beth's phone was now in the possession of Sarah, who had been ignoring all of the calls and messages to Beth's phones. Katja waited for Beth outside her apartment and, upon seeing Sarah looking exactly like Beth, she tried to call her to her car, but since Sarah had no idea about her arrangements with Katja, Sarah ignored her and was soon picked up by Beth's partner, Art, forcing Katja to abort the mission and drive away.
Katja again followed "Beth", probably from her apartment, and even saw Art following her. She eventually confronted her, much to the distress of a previously distraught and now a thoroughly shaken Sarah. She questioned "Beth" several times as to why she never responded to her texts and why the meeting never took place. She claimed that she had brought the briefcase with the proof she had asked for and was careful, just as Beth asked her to be.
Katja also appeared to have suffered from some internal hemorrhaging as she was seen coughing up blood into a tissue and needed to see the scientist friend of Beth. Sarah, still unaware of what was going on, continued to push her away, but a persistent Katja would not be swayed. Katja could not understand her clone's erratic behavior and soon became suspicious of the woman in front of her. Realization dawned on the German and so she uttered the cryptic riddle that served as a code between the clones, and when Sarah failed to respond, Katja asserted her belief.
Immediately upon discovering the fraudulence, she was assassinated in the car by Helena with a bullet through her forehead, possibly traumatizing Sarah even further. She was hastily buried by Sarah at a deserted place, later revealed to be an active quarry, and her body was later discovered by the local authorities. It appeared to be in a severely destroyed state as the face was deemed unrecognizable, possibly due to a gravel crusher at the site, but the forensics team were able to retrieve fingerprints which, according to Cosima, would be close enough to match theirs, and would thus result in a match of an existing criminal record—Sarah's.
As of "Variation Under Nature", Janis Beckwith was able to get solid fragments of her body, and saw that she had dyed, bright, red hair, and noticed entry and exit wounds while trying to reconstruct her skull. Beckwith's team was finally able to figure out her cause of death by "Effects of External Conditions".
Trivia
- Katja was the second clone of project Leda that has died on screen, after Beth and before Mika.
- Katja was the one to discover clones, finding Janika, Danielle, and Aryanna as well as presumably Helena and possibly the polish clone before contacting Beth who found Alison, Cosima, and Sarah, making her the first unaware clone to discover project Leda.