Orphan Black: Echoes Season 1 Episode 2 Review: Jules

After kidnapping a teenager, things aren’t looking great for Lucy on Orphan Black: Echoes Season 1 Episode 2, “Jules.” She’s leaving Sarah Manning territory and veering into Helena’s antics.

The suspense of Jules’ kidnapping creates a mixed impression of Lucy. On one hand, she’s right that Jules is another clone and being watched, on the other hand, she ties her up and holds her at gunpoint.

The violence and terror of trying to solve a conspiracy does traditionally lead to some dark storytelling, but for a character we just met it doesn’t endear her much to the audience. You want to feel sympathy for her because of her past traumas, but here she is traumatizing someone else.

I’m not even going to address the fact that her sober living buddy Craig is mostly fine aiding and abetting her! Does anyone on this show have boundaries?

Orphan Black: Echoes is banking on you caring enough about learning why she was printed (cloned), but it’s putting the cart before the horse. The introduction of James Hiroyuki Liao as billionaire benefactor Paul Darros adds some dimension to the mystery at least but is not the missing piece the show needs at this juncture.

Audiences want to invest in characters, not just the mystery surrounding them. Someone thought Lucy having a boyfriend and kid she loved is enough to make her relatable, but unfortunately Jack and Charlie come off as window dressing.

Jules fairs slightly better as her home troubles and age make her a more sympathetic figure. Instead of skipping over her struggles, as it did with Lucy’s addiction problems, we witness firsthand the troubles she has fitting in with her adopted family.

Jules and Lucy aren’t the only ones lacking identity, and the arrival of Kira’s Uncle Felix (Jordan Gavaris) in Boston highlights that.

Relying on an appearance from the original cast on the second episode doesn’t really give the show any time to breathe or find its footing. Yes, technically Kira is from Orphan Black, but we knew her as a child, so in many ways she is a “new” character.

Felix, on the other hand, brings in a set of expectations of what he adds to the story. He’s meant to be the comedic relief and tries, but it feels forced (even if I did appreciate the “Neolution without tails” joke at the nightclub).

Of course, his dynamic with his niece who has a grown child of her own (how old is Felix supposed to be now? 70?) is going to be different than the one he had with his sister. He still calls her monkey, like when she was a child.

I want to know more about Kira, as a scientist, a mother, and just a human being in general. Keeley Hawes isn’t given enough to work with to make the character feel like someone you can connect with.

Her agonizing over the experiment she’s doing isn’t enough to tell me who Kira is.

You have one big mystery and three connected characters, but no spark so far on the show. The experiment of Orphan Black: Echoes needs to figure out the right balance of character development and plot to get the desired result.

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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