Orphan Black: Echoes Season 1 Episode 1 Review: Pilot

Almost 7 years after the Orphan Black series finale, the Clone Club has a new installment to watch. Orphan Black: Echoes is a sequel series that takes place in 2052 and similarly explores the ethics of the scientific manipulation of human existence.

Krysten Ritter takes center stage on Orphan Black: Echoes Season 1 Episode 1, “Pilot,” as Lucy, a woman who has no memory of her past life. She has a good reason: she is a 4D printed copy from a high-tech scan of a real person.

The pilot leans heavily on action and tension to get you invested in Orphan Black: Echoes, starting with Lucy waking up with no idea who she is. She escapes a mysterious hangar bathed in blue and pink light like it’s a scene straight out of Blade Runner.

The sharp turn the pilot takes from her discovering what she is to a two-year time jump is jarring. Lucy, as she calls herself, still doesn’t know who she is but seems to be living a somewhat normal life.

She has a job, an apartment, and a sort-of boyfriend (Avan Jogia’s ex-Army guy Jack). The show requires you to hang on through this dull section while providing a peppering of clues (Lucy’s flashbacks of holding a bloody knife, her asking a doctor if it’s possible she could have had a child).

Unlike the original, which offered a supporting cast of charismatic side characters, this premiere lacks any fun or joie de vivre, focusing mainly on the dramatic sci-fi aspect. The scene between Lucy and Jack’s daughter Charlie launching rockets should be sweet, but we don’t know them enough to care.

This clunky stretch rests entirely on Ritter’s intensity (finely honed during her time on Jessica Jones) and the mystery around her character before things heat up again. After an accident, her hospital stay alerts the people Lucy has been hiding from to her location.

Much like the original series, we don’t initially know much about who is after Lucy or why, but the pieces fall into place for viewers a bit faster than they do for Lucy. We learn about the Additive Foundation, which is known for 4D printing replica organs to save lives and conveniently employs the same scientist Lucy met after waking up with no memory.

As soon as the foundation’s infomercial says it’s “a global health organization rooted in social justice,” you can smell something rotten. You can’t 4D print a sequel, but Orphan Black: Echoes is closely following the original’s blueprint with this Dyad Institute 2.0. 

Meanwhile, Lucy’s attempt to find her captors after one comes for her at her home and threatens Jack and Charlie goes south quickly. The little information she has leads her to kidnap a teen girl Jules (Amanda Fix) who seems awfully familiar (cough, cough, clone) and may be the key to unlocking the mystery.

If you’re reading this review to figure out whether Tatiana Maslany, to whom the original show owes much of its success, shows up, the answer is not quite. You get glimpses of her in photos of her characters Cosima and Sarah on the desk of the scientist (Keeley Hawes) who is searching for Lucy.

That’s because she is none other than an adult Kira Manning, daughter of Sarah and niece of the miscellaneous sestras. The pilot waits until the end for this reveal, but it’s a surefire way to get fans who may be on the fence about continuing the series to tune in to the next episode.

The temptation of learning more about what happened to her and her family between the series finale and present day is strong. A call to Aunt Cosima strongly suggests we may get those answers we’re looking for. 

Orphan Black: Echoes doesn’t capture the magic of the original from the jump but it offers a solid enough new mystery in the Orphan Black universe to keep you watching.

Miscellaneous Thoughts:

• Julien Baker singing the theme song is a flex.
• Am I supposed to believe cell phones haven’t advanced at all in 30 years?
• The fact the show is set in Boston is an interesting choice if you’ve listened to the canon audiobook Orphan Black: The Next Chapter which heavily features Kira.
• Jack was in the military. Paul was in the military. Am I saying you copied the original by having a love interest from the military?
• Ritter’s attempts at speaking Spanish are so clunky that I am hoping we don’t get any clones with accents this season.
• Kira survived so much to have a lonely, disappointing life? I hate that!

What did you think of this episode of Orphan Black: Echoes? Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Orphan Black: Echoes airs Sundays at 10/9c on AMC and BBC America.

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