The Queer Relationship on Orphan Black: Echoes is Revealed to Be the Backbone of the Whole Show
They met at school just like Auntie Cosima and Auntie Delphine did. :wipes proud tear:
This week’s episode of Orphan Black: Echoes took a break from the timeline and did a big gay flashback episode that was so beautiful and tragic it’s being compared to the classic Black Mirror episode San Junipero as far as sapphic sadness goes. It showed us a little of what Kira was like in her 20s and how she ended up with her ex-grad school professor. We see Kira and Eleanor dating, falling in love, marrying, having a child, and eventually we see how Kira lost Eleanor and why she decided to go against everything she learned being entangled in an illegal cloning experiment once before and make a copy of her wife. It’s here we learn that a flirty little line they had throughout their relationship was a call and response that went, “Do I know you?” “I thought you might.” Which brings an extra knife-twist to the sadness in Adult Kira’s eyes when she answered accordingly when Lucy unwittingly asked her that question in the pilot.
Trans actor August Winter plays the younger version of Kira we meet in this episode, and they give off more of a gender non-conforming vibe than Adult Kira does and I kind of wish they had stuck with that. I understand that they probably didn’t partially so that in the pilot we would recognize Dr. Manning as the little girl we once knew – they practically have the same haircut – but I like that we get to see Kira in school, still a little quiet and shy, but also very smart with a charming smile. And hey, maybe it was just a gay haircut phase. I had an undercut for a while, it happens.
The episode gives a lot of backstory and makes the ethically questionable choices Kira has made more understandable, and definitely seems to be better as far as motives go compared to the scientists we met in the original Orphan Black. And it was also nice to see Krysten Ritter get to flex some of her Maslany abilities and play a second character with the same face in the same show. And in fact, Ritter has said this was one of her favorite episodes to film, and that August winter was “so wonderful.” She said, “We had such a great connection and so much fun together on set. They were really wonderful to work with as well.”
It was also just nice to have an entire episode centered around a queer romance, and that queer romance being revealed to be the backbone to the entire show. We are the future!! And I can’t wait to see what the future of this show has in store.
(Friendly reminder to our Australian friends that only episodes 1-5 have dropped in the US, even though you got the entire season months ago. No spoilers in the comments, please!)
More Gay Reverberating News (Get It…Because Echoes…)
+ Tubi dropped an 18 second teaser for the upcoming special Wynonna Earp: Vengeance and Waverly is sporting Dom Provost-Chalkley’s buzz cut!
+ Drag queens face off against zombies in upcoming film Queens of the Dead, which will involve Katy O’Brian, Margaret Cho, Brigette Lundy-Paine, and more
+ The House of the Dragon kiss between Rhaenyra (Emma D’Arcy) and Mysaria (Sonoya Mizuno) wasn’t originally in the script
+ Speaking of the non-binary actor, D’Arcy also recently discussed roles that helped them figure out their own identity
+ Britney Spears had a “girl crush” on a dancer which we all know is just comphet for crush crush
+ Here are 144 queer athletes at the Olympics that we know about so far
+ Chef Kristen Kish will celebrate her Emmy nomination with a tattoo whether she wins or not
+ Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner are a basketball power couple on the cover of Slam magazine
+ Netflix drops another Arcane teaser as we inch closer to the release of the second and final season
+ JoJo Siwa is still talking about her very specific plans for having three kids at once and naming them Freddy, Eddy, and Teddy – she even has a timeline now and I just sort of wish she was straight so I could stop learning things about her
+ And finally, have a list of queer beach reads for your summer plans
This was my favourite episode of the show. It’s soo gay (and sweet and heart breaking).
I do enjoy a good, sad gay flashback.
The casting (or the general direction?) of younger Kira was really weird, they made 0 effort to maintain any continuity between kid Kira of orphan black and older Kira, this Kira was essentially a different character – not just dress style wise – but completely different accent, different way of talking, mannerisms, etc.
Orphan Black has always been so, so good at maintaining continuity for characters that so it was a surprise to see them drop the ball like that.
HELLO EVERYONE
Whenever I hear something new about Jojo Siwa I’m trying to figure out what’s going on with her. She seems very immature, a little out of touch with reality, and quite entitled – which I suppose makes sense considering her upbringing. I don’t want to be out here criticising a 21 year old, I’m just always baffled by the stuff she says.
Can we please stop making fun of JoJo Siwa? She’s barely an adult trying to find herself. It’s tired and borderline mean at this point.
Sounds like a really interesting series, I’ve not started it yet!
Sidenote: Is August trans? I can only find them referenced as being non-binary.
Some non-binary people are also trans – the intro to this interview with them called them a trans actor, which is why I did! https://www.autostraddle.com/august-winter-interview/