Rachel Gets A Surprise In 'Orphan Black's Finale

Turns out, Orphan Black still had one last surprise up its sleeve for this season. Rachel's adoptive mother, Susan Duncan, is not dead like we've been lead to believe this entire time. Something was always fishy about her, and the events surrounding her death (laboratory fire) and in Orphan Black's season finale, "History Yet To Be Written" she shows herself to Rachel. Where has she been this whole time, and why is she showing herself to her daughter know? Good questions. Even bigger questions: with Susan alive, what does this mean for the clones?

Here's a little back story on Susan, for those who can't remember all the tiny little plot points from Orphan Black episodes past (it's OK, it's a lot of stuff to remember all the time).

Susan, and her husband Duncan, were two of the original scientists on Project Leda, the people behind the female clones. They adopted a little clone Rachel, and raised her as their own, and Rachel knew she was a clone all along. Ethan always used to claim that Susan was a genius, even smarter than him, and had perfected something called the "protein spindle problem," which was very important in creating new clones.

In a very mysterious circumstance, Susan died in a lab fire and took the original clone female geno with it. Both were lost, and since then, it became near impossible to clone more females. Little Charlotte — remember here? We even saw her this episode — was the only successful female out of hundreds of attempts, but still she's got a "glitch" in her: her leg. Susan would have been able to create her without that "glitch" but Susan was long gone.

At least, until now.

Rachel's found herself in some weird bedroom-prison with a high-tech wheelchair and some strange, new robotic eye. Charlotte is there. Susan is there, too. Dr. Nealon tells Delphine that Rachel is with the Neolutionists, and since Rachel is with Susan, I guess through the transitive property this means Susan a Neolutionists.

This new information could go one of two ways. This is either going to be great for the clones, or this is the end of the clones. Where has Susan been this whole time? If she were really holed up with the Neolutionists, wouldn't she have stepped in to help with Charlotte's cloning, and is Charlotte better now? What are the secrets that Susan's got about the clones, and will she be the one to ultimately cure them, even without Cosima and her smarts, and without Kendall Malone?

This is a whole new wrench for our clones to deal with. Castor might have been destroyed once and for all yes, but the Neolutionists are probably way worse.

Image: Steve Wilkie/BBC America; orphanblack/tumblr