'Orphan Black' Clone Club: Kristian Bruun ranks the clones (episode 207, 'Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things')

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for episode 207 of “Orphan Black.” Stop reading NOW if you don’t want to know what happens.

Oh, Donnie. Donnie! Donnie. The world’s worst monitor had his big episode this week, as Donnie discovered that his wife is a clone and we discovered that he’s not evil, he’s just a dumb guy who thought he was helping out a sociology study. Oh, and did we mention the part where Donnie killed Dr. Leekie?! By accident?! Because he’s Donnie and he doesn’t realize that if you have a loaded gun in your hand, maybe keep your finger off the trigger. Oh, Donnie.

Sure, other stuff happened in this episode, but it was Donnie’s storyline that had this writer gasping and yelling “HOLY CRAP!” a little too loudly in her place of work. Even better, Kristian Bruun is back to talk about Donnie’s big moments. Sure, we’ll rank the clones just like we always do, but come on: Donnie’s pretty much the focus this week.

YAHOO CANADA: OH MY GOD.
KRISTIAN BRUUN: Do you know what it’s like sitting on this information for six months?! Do you know how long I’ve been waiting for this f—king episode to come out?

YC: I actually yelled out loud when I watched it.
KB: Yeah, that was pretty much my reaction when I read the script at, like, two in the morning.

YC: I always assumed Dr. Leekie would be taken out by a vengeful clone, but Donnie?! By accident?!
KB: I think it’s safe to say that the Hendrix household just got a whole lot more complicated.

YC: Hey, now they’re both murderers. They can bond over this.
KB: Hopefully! Hopefully.

YC: How did you react to this episode?
KB: Well I knew they really wanted to top the craft room of terror episode from season 1, and I was like, “Good luck with that!” And then the season was going by and I was like, “Oh, I guess they’re not going to use Donnie that much this year.” And then the script for episode 7 came out and before I read it, someone was like, “Oh, this is a good episode for you.” And I was like, “Really?” So I kept reading the script and I was like, “They revealed the clones to Donnie? That is massive. I’m in the clone club, finally!” And then I’m getting to the end and the car comes driving up to Leekie, and I’m like, “Oh, here comes Paul to shoot Leekie – wait, that’s me! What’s going on?! Well, OK, he’s not going to shoot him, he’s just – oh my god! Holy s---! Holy s---!” I was just jumping up and down on my bed at two in the morning, and then I couldn’t sleep all night. It was crazy. Reading that episode was insane.

YC: And it’s good to find out that Donnie’s not evil, he’s just as dumb as he’s always been.
KB: [Laughs] Thanks. He was in college! He was probably hungover when he was invited to join the “study.”

YC: But it was actually incredibly heartbreaking to see: you can see the anger and sadness that Donnie feels, because he really does love his family and thought he was doing this totally benign thing by reporting on Alison’s actions.
KB: Yeah, and getting some good money for the family on the side!

YC: And he’s loved Alison this whole time.
KB: His marriage was falling apart and he didn’t know why. His poor wife was becoming an addict and he was getting beat up by her and he had no idea why. Things just got complicated.

YC: And R.I.P. Dr. Leekie.

KB: That evil bastard.

YC: Even before Donnie shoots him, it’s surprising to see Leekie basically shoved out of Dyad so easily by Rachel. He seems so evil and Rachel got rid of him so easily. I thought he had more fight in him.
KB: His biggest mistake was underestimating Donnie.

YC: Clearly.
KB: Lesson learned: don’t call anybody a turnip, or they’ll suddenly shoot you in the head, “Pulp Fiction” style.

YC: So… I guess we’ll start ranking the clones even though I just want to talk about Donnie right now.
KB: Fine.

YC: Obviously, Helena is in last place because she wasn’t even around.

KB: Clearly. Nailed it. Sorry, Helena. She’s off at the ranch.

YC: When I realized Helena wasn’t around this episode, I thought, “Any episode without her is really going to struggle.”
KB: The whole family day storyline at rehab was great. It’s like the episode last seasons when everyone came to the suburbs – they’re all together, but nobody else can know.

YC: Good point! OK, fourth place.

KB: Penultimate loser this week is Cosima. Yes, she’s doing science but she now knows the truth behind the stem cell match, how they got it, how Delphine was tricking her, and she’s got to make that terrible phone call to Sarah, like, “We need Kira to save me – and to save all of us, really.” She’s in a terrible state. Poor Cosima. I just want her to get better.

YC: I want Cosima to do more this season. I feel like she’s really struggling.
KB: She’s definitely had a rough go of it recently, for sure.

YC: On any other show, someone’s secret would take half a season to come out, but on “Orphan Black,” any secret is found out the very next episode, if not sooner.
KB: It’s like a secret an episode. Poor Scott was talking to Delphine in the hallway and Delphine wasn’t doing a good job of keeping her voice low.

YC: Everyone needs to be a little bit better with where they hold their secret conversations. Maybe close the door, maybe don’t talk in the hallway…
KB: Don’t do it in the hall! These are old, brick walls that are very echo-y. There are no sound-dampening devices around. Come on.

YC: And in third place?

KB: The top 3 was very tough to rank, but in the third spot I have Rachel. She does throw her weight around and she does prove herself to be much more resourceful than Leekie gives her credit for. Marion Bowles is on her side, which is good.

YC: And Michelle Forbes as Marion – that makes me really happy.
KB: I was so thrilled when she was on set. I went to the makeup trailer one day and she was in there and I was like, “Oh my God, oh my God…” She’s so nice – just super, super nice, and what a stunner she is. Just a very cool lady. Just the fact that this show has her and Maria Doyle Kennedy on at the same time, it’s just insane. Two amazing actresses and it’s so cool.

YC: And we don’t know much about Marion but she’s on Rachel’s side.
KB: And Rachel finds out about Leekie killing her mom, and she just goes to work. She obviously has a lot of complex emotions going on behind those cold, cold eyes of hers – what’s she going to do with it? And the first step is to get rid of Leekie. She doesn’t kill him, though. She shows just a little bit of clemency and lets him live. She’s like, “If you don’t go home and don’t go to your car, you might survive.” And she wasn’t even factoring in assassin Donnie!

YC: We see the tears in her eyes when she sees her father, but when she confronts Leekie about killing her mother, she is completely composed, which is even more unsettling that if she screamed at him.
KB: It’s so awesome and scary because she just sits there and she has all the power. Rachel pulled the world out from under him.

YC: Who did you put in second place?

KB: I have Alison in second place. She’s still in rehab, and she fell for Vic’s lies, however briefly – it was still enough time to tell him she was responsible for Ainsley’s death. But she quickly gets savvy. Alison’s very good at getting savvy very quickly, so she gets points for that. She calls in Felix to help, and with the help of Fe and then the help of Sarah, they get the better of Vic. I think Fe gets a lot of points this episode, too, for drugging Vic. Oh, man, Vic’s face-plant into the table was amazing.

YC: Is it true that the stuntman broke his nose doing that fall?
KB: He definitely busted up his face doing it. But it was just brilliant. What a landing. And oh, Vic. He just can’t not get messed up and injured. I love it.

YC: This episode had another one of those great special effects scenes that is so good you don’t even notice it: when Alison grabs the headband off of Sarah’s head – not only do you see that, but you also see it in the mirror behind them, but the camera isn’t visible in the mirror.
KB: It’s incredible. Geoff Scott and his team, right there. They just kick ass. When I first watched that scene I kept laughing because seeing Tatiana tell herself to “piss off” was so funny. That scene was so much fun to shoot. Ken Girotti was the director of this episode and he was so much fun to work with. This is one of my favourite episodes of the seasons just because it was so fun for me.

YC: The scene between Alison and Donnie, where he explains that he thought he was taking part in a benign study, so she realizes that he didn’t mean any harm but she’s still so angry.
KB: She’s even more angry at him because of that! She just lays into him. Tatiana was incredible in that scene. On her coverage, she nailed it, as she always does. But when they turned the camera around to film me, she just laid into me. To find a lead actor who knows exactly what you need to do well in a scene, that is so rare in this business and that’s what makes Tat the most incredible actor in the world right now, in my opinion. She is a ball of energy and she is incredible. What I loved about this episode is that it had Sarah and Alison mixing it up again, with clones playing other clones, which is always a hoot and amazing to watch. I love watching Tatiana play a British person who is playing a Canadian.

YC: She’s even gone deeper than that – she played Helena pretending to Sarah pretending to be Beth back in the first season.
KB: May I point out that for the first time, we have a non-clone playing a clone? When Donnie is pretending to be Alison during the mirroring demonstration on family day? Making “Orphan Black” history.

YC: But in first place this week, Sarah came out on top.

KB: She gets back with Kira. She gets answers from Duncan. She has this shaky truce with Mrs. S right now – I still don’t trust Mrs. S at all. She’s now doing dealings with Leekie, although she had a point about keeping the lines of communication open so they’d know where the Dyad people are as well. But Sarah’s got difficult decisions to make as well – what to do with Kira, if they should use her to help with the research, whether Kira should go to Dyad to help Cosima. Sarah could go to Iceland with Cal, but she’s on the offensive. She goes to help Alison when she needs help, and she covers for Alison during family day. Sarah does a lot during the episode and it’s nice to see.

YC: How sweet was Kira, pulling out her own tooth without hesitating?
KB: “It was already loose!”

YC: I’m glad they put that line in there, so we didn’t think Kira just ripped a tooth out of her face.
KB: Totally. It’s probably very tempting for Sarah to take her family and run off to Iceland and run away and be off the grid. I love Iceland, it’s one of my favourite places in the world, but the food is s--- so that would be the wrong decision.

YC: You’re going to alienate all your Icelandic fans.
KB: Listen, they know how much I love their country. I’m going back soon. They are the first ones to admit their food is terrible! Please, Iceland, don’t attack me. I love you guys.

“Orphan Black” airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET on Space.