ORPHAN BLACK
TV’s twisty clone saga reaches its climax in season five.
The most socially relevant science fiction drama on television is finally coming to an end. After years of conspiracies and clones — most of whom have been played by virtuoso actress Tatiana Maslany — Orphan Black is entering its fifth and final year. And as its creators explain, the “seestras” are in for the fight of their lives.
“In this final season obviously we spend a lot of time peeling back the onion and revealing various layers, of our bad guys and who’s at the top,” executive producer John Fawcett tells Red Alert. “Basically the final season is very
Red Alert. “Basically the final season is very focused on the patriarchy of Neolution and exposing the truth. For Sarah and her sisters it really is war, and it has very high stakes. That’s the shape of the season, really — getting to the heart of the conspiracy and trying to bring it all down from the inside.”
Again standing in Sarah’s way is her corrupt sister Rachel, who – when we last saw her in the previous season– was about to meet the founder of the Neolution movement.
“Rachel’s journey,” explains Fawcett (in the midst of mixing the seventh of the season’s ten episodes in his editing suite), “has always been a journey of power and aggression. Where we leave her at the end of season four is basically on the threshold of meeting PT Westmoreland, who is this mysterious person who seems to be at the heart of the mystery and essentially left on the Neolution island.
“At the end of season four we showed Cosima essentially wandering into a strange village-like camp and being reunited with Delphine. We pick up kind of directly after that in season five and start to delve into the deeper mystery of the island and PT Westmoreland.”
While fans have delighted in watching Maslany portray new clones as the show has progressed, Fawcett tells us this season’s focus will be on versions we’ve already met.
“One of the things that was important for us in season five is that we’ve come all this way with these characters that we have grown to love, and Graeme [Manson] and I thought it was really important in our final season to dig deeper into those characters, just shed some light on and add complexity to the characters that we already know and love. And to have some fun with that. Depending on which of the Leda girls you love, there’s an episode in season
five that is very focused on that character.”
“The way that we framed this season,” adds Manson, “is we really wanted the audience to look at the characters this year as we’re asking the questions, ‘Who were they when we first met them and how far have they come?’ and, ‘What does victory and freedom look like to each character?’ As a way to highlight the differences in these girls again, as well as a way to look at their complete journey as a whole, as a family. This chosen family.”
As per usual with Orphan Black, cuttingedge science informs part of this year’s story.
“We’re interested in a different branch or a topical aspect of science each year,” adds Manson. “We try and find what is a scientific thing to hang our hat on that year, and this year we chose prolongevity; which we felt was again relevant, again rearing its head with the Peter Thiels of the world.”
While the science might change, Fawcett tells us the show will conclude in a manner similar to what they originally envisioned at the beginning of the show.
“We always kind of planned Orphan Black as one big long sort of epic saga that would have a strong beginning, middle and end. Along the way there were certainly some side angles that we’ve had to take and some reinvention of the
We want to dig deeper and add complexity to the characters you know and love
material. But it was always to kind of arrive at the end chapter. That’s what season five is. We’re very fortunate to have been able to have five seasons and to have an ending we’ve been planning for a long time.
“In some respects it’s been easier to create this final season, and in a lot of ways it’s been incredibly difficult. There’s a lot of expectation, the bar is quite high, and we want to finish in as exciting and dramatic a way as possible.”
With the end finally in sight, the creators tell us they’re now pursuing an Orphan Black movie to continue the story. “We’ve always talked about wanting to make a two-hour movie following the series,” says Fawcett. “That’s sort of pie-in-the-sky at the moment, but there is certainly a plan in the pipeline.”
“I think we all just want a little bit of a breather before we get back into it!” laughs Manson in response.
Orphan Black returns to BBC America in the US on 10 June, and will air on Netflix in the UK.