Allison wakes up before her husband and checks the memory
card on the hidden camera to see what happened during the night. There’s a
moment in the early hours of the morning when he gets up and looks at her then
leaves – but then the card is full.
Actually starting the day he’s a lot less patient than usual and snaps at Allison over various things that haven’t been done around the house. She asks him where he was in the night but he snaps at her about how busy they are and how much they have to get done right now. He leaves to do some shopping still snarking at her – and she hits him with a golf club.
Ok then. That was rather disproportionate.
Sarah is having an easier time talking to Paul because
he’s not unconscious from a severe head injury. He’s very quick to point out
her own lies and conning him – about having sex with him without being who she
said she was which means both quickly put aside some of the moral outrage. They
– whoever they are – have leverage over him and he knows very little about the
whys of what he’s been made to do. Sarah doesn’t trust him – and does a runner
out of the bedroom window. Hey at least he’s conscious
Sarah calls Cosima about Paul and she says from a
scientific point of view that it makes sense that the monitors know so little
so they can’t skew the results. She’s also concerned about Delphine being
friendly since it may be her own monitor. Hmmm… maybe but Cosima was the one
who made friendly overtures to Delphine… Sarah advises her to keep away which
irritates Cosima since she is being treated as the “science monkey” and Sarah
isn’t following her own advice. Cosima goes on to talk to Delphine, saying she’s
bored, and gets an invitation to a “Neolution” lecture from her
Allison, with her concussed husband, then decides to interrupt to call in Sarah to help with her whole assault and battery thing. Getting rid of the kids she then drops her husband down the stairs. Oops. On a far creepier note, Paul has a bug in Beth/Sarah’s car and is tracking her. And then he starts grinding pills up into one of the booze bottles.
Allison’s husband, Donnie, wakes up tied to a chair. Hey Allison
gets stuff done. When he dodges her questions she starts playing with scissors
in a very disturbing fashion. Then she uses a glue gun (even she’s shocked by
that but doesn’t back down) to ask many questions while Donnie denies all. Which
is when Sarah arrives and has a total “what have you done!” moment. Which gets
worse when it turns out there’s a pot luck to be hosted at Allison’s house.
Oops, pesky social commitments.
This leaves Allison to go play hostess with the moistest while
Sarah pretends to be Allison to question Donnie (quid pro quo!). Time for
Allison to call on Felix to come play bar tender – dropping his afternoon with
an apparent client, since he was in bed with a man who paid him.
Time for Sarah to put on her Allison accent and start the
interview while Allison bumbles about upstairs and her friends think she’s
drunk. Donnie confesses to getting up in the middle of the night to watch
cricket and thinks Allison is out of her damned mind and needs to know
everything about his life. He tells her to get her “PMS shit together” and
Sarah/Allison temper snaps and she tells Donnie that his wife is the rock of
this family and how dare he speak to Allison that way. Nice, not good for
undercover but still great.
Paul, meanwhile, meets with the sinister Olivier and
tells him that “Beth” is taking pills, quitting her job and in her “dark place”
again. Olivier doesn’t mind and won’t blame Paul – so long as Paul doesn’t
interfere, any result is evidence; this seems to also include Beth being driven
to suicide. Which has ominous undertones when we consider the bottle Paul
spiked.
Cosima goes to the lecture with Delphine and it seems
that Dr. Leekie’s Neolution involves cybernetic enhancement of flawed human
bodies. Choosing evolution as a human right. After the lecture, Cosima asks
Delphine about the possible eugenic interpretation of his Neolution before
Delphine, in major fangirl mode, pulls her to meet him. Delphine fangirls, Cosima
pulls out her cynicism. And when
everyone’s looking the other way steals 2 bottles of booze much to Delphine’s
horrified delight. And in the aftermath we have a possible flirty moment – or just
Delphine kissing Cosima’s cheek because she’s French
And to Vic – breaking into Felix’s home to check his lap
top which has directions to Allison’s. Where Felix arrives dressed in his
impression of “suburban” to try and patch the party together because Allison
has well and truly lost it and is out of her brain. He rescues Allison from
various questions and Chad, one of the guests, hails the novelty of a gay
bartender. Sarah tries to comfort Allison as they come to the conclusion that
Donnie probably isn’t her monitor (especially since they’ve known each other
since highschool) and Allison passes out from the booze.
Things get more complicated because both Vic and Paul
head to Allison’s house. Sarah goes upstairs to talk to Vic and Paul sneaks in
the back to find Allison passed out and Donnie tied up. In the room with tied
up Donnie Paul uses the lap top and Allison’s hidden spying device to watch
Sarah and Vic talk. He goes upstairs to pose as Sarah’s employer in the scam to
drive Vic off – until Vic draws a gun. And then Aynesley, Allison’s very good
friend, joins the conversation just to add a bit more complication, Vic and Paul
leave so Sarah, as Allison, can listen to Aynesley pour out her heart about her
arsehole husband, Chad. After back and forth, Aynesley comments on “Allison’s”
changed shirt and how strange she’s acting – and how she intends to
investigate.
In the garage, Vic is quickly and painfully beaten down
and disarmed by Paul. Paul has questions for Vic, lots of questions about
Sarah. He also has a nail gun. Which is when Sarah comes in and Paul threatens
Vic to try and make her co-operate. When Sarah has to wrangle one of Allison’s
children, Paul nails Vic’s good hand to a chair. Ok, I think we can conclude
Paul is officially a villain.
Speaking of suspected villains – Aynesley goes snooping in
the shut off downstairs and finds Allison passed out. She helps her to her bed.
With the nailed hand and beat up face, Sarah kicks Vic
out and tells him not to return. Take the hint, man. And then Aynesley pops up
AGAIN, in the garage this time, bemused to find Sarah/Allison awake and not in
bed. Paul reaches for the gun and Sarah steps in, grabbing his hand and
pretending they’re having an affair. Aynesley finally backs off.
Hectic party is over and Allison goes to bed with her
freed husband Donnie who is Not Happy, what with the being tied up, beaten with
a golf club and torture thing. She describes it as a break down and tries to
talk about it – but after Sarah chewed him out, Donnie admits fault; she is the
rock of this family. And in his special box wasn’t just porn but letters with woman
he once had an affair with in the past who later developed lupus and he never
heard from her, he kept the letters because he has no idea what happened to her
and wanted to keep some reminder of her. He apologises and cries, breaking down
in Allison’s arms.
Paul and Sarah arrive at Beth’s flat, and he grabs the poisoned booze. She tells them they’re clones and that they’ve counted 9 so far. He puts the poison booze back and picks up another. She tells him that’s what he’s for – monitoring a clone.
And we close seeing Delphine meeting Dr. Leekie in a
hotel room, apparently in a sexual relationship
I am both disturbed and impressed by how good Allison is
at keeping someone prisoner – she doesn’t just gag she blindfolds and ear muffs
them!
Felix is a prostitute now? And even that takes second
place to running to Sarah’s aid? Someone check the bingo card, I think Felix
may have missed a stereotype (next week he’ll be cutting hair while ice skating
and we can cry bingo). It’s not like they were desperately in need of a bar
tender there or there was any real emergency to get him involved in.
I wonder why they’re going with Cosima and Delphine – the
treatment of Felix makes me worry. But I do like Cosima and want to see more of
that line beyond science monkey
I have to say I was sure Donnie was a minder. But the
dodging and weaving to try and keep their normal lives, especially Allison’s,
the very epitome of normal, together is a story in and of itself.
