The Male Clones On 'Orphan Black' Are Sick, Too

As if I though Orphan Black couldn't get any more insane and twisted, it went ahead and added male clones for Season 3. Their existence was introduced at the end of Season 2, and our minds collectively exploded. Now with Season 3 underway, it's time to figure out what's going on with Project Castor, including the fact that there's something wrong with the male clones. They're "glitching." When this happens, it's not a pretty sight. That's also not the only thing that happens to the male clones in Orphan Black's episode, "Transitory Sacrifices of Crisis."

Now three of the male clones are identifiable: we've got Rudy who has a scar, Seth who has a mustache, and Mark who's the Prolethean clone we met last season. There's a fourth clone on the secret Project Castor base, but he doesn't have a name yet, so let's just call him Solider Clone (The BBC Press site only lists him as "Miller" which is oddly close to the last name of the actor playing him, Ari Millen. May or may not actually be his character name).

And remember Paul, Beth Child's monitor who then gets involved with Sarah who it turns out runs some part of Project Castor? Yeah, he's like the male clones monitor out in the field, and he's got some high tech sci-fi stuff with him to run tests on Rudy and Seth. Unlike how Sarah, Allison and Cosima were completely unaware of the tests being run on them, it appears as if the male clones have been self aware all along.

Paul asks Rudy and Seth strange contraposition questions, like "Some bags are pockets, no pocket is a pouch. Conclusion, all bags are not pouches. False." Paul's monitoring their pupils while asking these questions. Rudy can answer all of them easily; Seth cannot. Rudy knows something is up with Seth. Too bad he doesn't share what's going on with his brother clone with us. Seth's "glitches" take over his body, and he twitches, has strange image flashes, and begins ramble while he's talking. It's been happening for a week or so, and Seth's visibly shaken by it. From the way these two brothers talk, they've been tasked to discover the original clone genome, which they think Sarah/Cosima has in their possession. Supposedly unlocking that will stop Seth's glitches. Just like there's something wrong with the female clones, the males are falling prey to something in their DNA, too.

Unfortunately, the genome isn't found. Seth has a really bad glitch, and to stop the pain, Rudy shoots him dead. Now I guess it's up to Rudy to get the geno to stop that same fate from happening to his other brothers. Mind you, Cal watches the whole clone murder-thing, but that's still not even the most important/insane thing in the episode.

Let's talk about Mark, the clone from Season 2 who ended up getting married to Gracie in the finale. Mark knows he's a clone. I didn't know that he knew he was a clone! Or maybe I did and so many other things have happened since then, I completely forgot!

All the male Castor clones (at least the ones we've met) have a tattoo of a two-headed horse [Aside: Cosima explains this two headed horse refers to Castor from Roman mythology. Castor had a twin brother, Pollux, and their mother was — wait for it — Leda]. In the final seconds of episode 2, we see that Mark is trying to burn off his tattoo without his new wife knowing. So many questions. No answers for any of them.

Mark's now trying to distance himself from Castor, by physically burning off his tattoo (with a blowtorch, no less). This is clearly to hide the fact that he's a clone, and maybe life a peaceful life with Gracie, right? Well, he can hope that happens, and I hope that happens for him, but if we know anything about these clones, its that they tend to stick together and always find their way back to one another. It won't be long before Mark and his brothers are reunited, you can count on that.

Image: Steve Wilkie/BBC America