We Will Come Again – As the finale of Orphan Black: Echoes begins, Kira Manning (Keeley Hawes) goes into the lab with Eleanor Miller (Rya Kihlstedt). Kira loads the resin cartridge. They find 12 anonymous scans and suspect Paul Darros (James Hiroyuki Liao) didn’t choose them at random. They begin printing. After the intro, Jack (Avan Jogia), Lucy (Krysten Ritter), and Tina (Eva Everett Irving) talk about Craig. Lucy says he’ll be fine before asking if Tom said anything else. Tom said he was looking for Lucy because he needed to prove himself to his boss. Jack is worried about Charlie since she is alone with a violent man she can’t communicate with. Lucy offers to give herself up if that’s what they want. He calls using Charlie’s watch and tells Lucy he wants to meet her tomorrow alone.

Jules (Amanda Fix) asks Xander (Vinson Train) if he is finally sober. She tells him what it was like to have a family. Jules admits Lucy and Eleanor are the first things to feel like family to her. Xander reveals he saw himself die from the drug last night. He thought he was just a copy of Paul Darros when he was younger. Jules believes Xander was trapped in Darros’ demented dollhouse. She wants to make sure Craig is okay. After Xander apologizes for what happened, Jules says randomly shooting someone isn’t cool. She asks him to remain there while she goes out. Lucy meets Tom (Reed Diamond). As Lucy demands to be taken to Charlie, Tom says that’s the deranged printout he has been looking for. Tom would love to just shoot her, but that isn’t what his boss wants. Instead, he wants Jules.

If she wants to see Charlie again, she will have to bring him Jules. Kira and Eleanor come up with 11 faces from 12 scans. Eleanor hasn’t had any luck with the last one because the file is still unreadable. Kira thinks they could identify them if they had access to a public database. Eleanor believes Langley can help them with that since she has access to the US Census tracking data. Rhona (Alice Hamid) comes in because she needs to speak to Kira. Rhona found a scan from her dad in his 20s and she wants Kira to print him. Kira tells her she disabled the printer so it doesn’t exist anymore. She insists the best thing they can do is just let go. Rhonda lets her listen to a recording of Lucas talking about printing people. She tries to use it to blackmail Kira into printing her father.

Jules complains when Lucy shows up. She tells her that she went to Settlement because she wouldn’t respond to her text messages. Jack wants to know what Tom said. In private, Lucy tells Jack that Darros wants to trade Charlie for Jules. Jack suggests he is going to take a gun. Jules is gone so she must’ve heard their conversation. Kira and Eleanor discuss their options. If it comes out, Kira admits she’ll have to accept the consequences. She wants to ask Jules if she recognizes any of the faces. Meanwhile, Jules finds Tom who is with Charlie (Zariella Langford). Lucy and Jack arrive just before the exchange. Charlie runs to them while Tom keeps Jules. Kira and Eleanor are unable to get in touch with Jules and Lucy. Xander joins them and they watch a video of Paul talking about unveiling new initiatives during an upcoming summit.

Jack tells Lucy that a friend from Buffalo can get them across the border tonight. Lucy asks if she’ll ever see him again. Jack says he has to keep her safe. He asks why she called herself Lucy. She explains it was an old kid’s book titled Lenny and Lucy at Settlement house. Then, Lucy tells Charlie that she isn’t coming because the most important thing is that she’s safe. Charlie makes her promise that she’ll help Jules. Lucy goes to Kira to tell her that Jules gave herself up. Xander interrupts to say he can get Lucy into the compound. They’ll have a better chance while Paul is away. Kira will go to the summit and keep him there to give them time. Eleanor and Kira tell Lucy they believe Paul printed 12 people. They’re all teenagers. In the morning, Kira wakes Xander to tell him it is time and to give him one of Lucas’s coats.

She asks him to disable the printer to ensure this happens to no one again. Xander says there is something she can ask Paul about to stall him. Lucas (Jaeden Noel) tells Eleanor that he just broke up with Rhona because of what she asked Kira. He admits he misses the person who has been in his life for the past two years. Eleanor says the same. She asks him what she should do now. He talks about Quakerism and the meaningful things being in other people. Tom speaks to Paul after returning Jules. When Xander arrives at the gate, Paul says they should see what he has to say for himself. At home, Eleanor looks through her photo album. Xander tells Paul he didn’t know what it was like out there. He didn’t appreciate everything Paul had given him.

Xander saw what happened to the first version of him so he knows why Paul had to let him go. He doesn’t think he should have to carry the burden on his own. Before Paul leaves on the plane, he tells Xander that he can stay on the groundskeeper team for a trial period. Kira makes it to The Darros Foundation Summit. Xander sneaks Lucy into the compound. They cut the door open to free Jules who learns Charlie is someplace safe. Eleanor finds out that the face belongs to Peter Mayfield. Paul takes the stage during the summit. He talks about young kids with high IQs living in the foster care system. The foundation has placed these kids with adoptive families. Eleanor finds another identity, Ailee Hopkins. Lucy and Jules see Paul talking on television. Eleanor calls Kira to say the people are an astrophysicist, a mathematician, a supreme court judge, and a Nobel Prize winner in economics.

They’re the most talented minds of the last generation. Paul introduces the kids of the Genius Project. Xander tells Jules he’ll catch up with them because he has to disable the printer. Kira approaches Paul to say she needs to talk to him alone. He tells her he is trying to make the world a better place. Paul talks about the amazing machine Lucy has in her mind. Kira couldn’t see the potential of her work. Since he did, he decided to print Jules. Xander disables the printer. Paul says she was the inspiration for this whole project. He found the greatest minds of the last 50 years and brought them home back to them. Kira asks if he brainwashed them too. Paul says they’re safe and in loving homes all over the country. Lucy and Jules find the sleeping chambers.

Kira says it is unethical. Paul suggests she didn’t feel that way when it came to her wife. He argues that one of these kids could cure cancer and save millions of lives. Before he can leave, Kira asks if it is about a million or just one. She knows that his sister died young, but Paul insists Zora has nothing to do with this. Kira believes he is trying to find a cure to fix her. Paul argues that she can’t let go of the past while he only thinks about the future. He doesn’t want to keep the helicopter waiting because it is bad for the ozone layer. Jules see a picture of the guy they said was her grandpa. She thinks they brainwashed these kids just like they did her. Lucy gets word that Paul is on his way. Jules grabs the pictures because she wants to find the kids.

Lucy eventually agrees. Kira reads a note from Eleanor. She joins her outside and learns that Eleanor is starting something new. Eleanor admits it is there with her. She sent the last scan to a friend who can clean it up. Eleanor says she got an ID before revealing it is Kira. Lucy and Jules find another printout. Before they can help it, Paul approaches them. Lucy tells him he is printing people and playing with their lives like they’re dolls. Paul says things would’ve worked out if she hadn’t filled Jules’s head with all these ideas. He accused her of corrupting Jules. However, there is a creative solution to every problem. Paul shoots her in the head. He has a theory that people are only at their best when everything around them is at their worst. He tells Lucy he wants her to meet someone.

Paul takes her into the pod where he introduces her to a blonde Jules.

 

Orphan Black: Echoes Review

Orphan Black: Echoes ended on a whimper when it needed to end with fireworks. Instead, this feels like another ending that is nothing more than a desperate attempt to secure a second season. The series had all the potential in the world with a decent cast and the hype remaining from the original Orphan Black. Unfortunately, it never managed to capture the magic of the original show and instead felt like a watered-down version in every way possible.

The performances are not spectacular. Even normally good actors and actresses just seem odd and out of place here. Keeley Hawes is one of my favorites, but she has been in a rut recently and Orphan Black: Echoes isn’t a good role for her. There was no need to force her to use an American accent when she would’ve performed more believably with her conventional British accent.

That obviously wouldn’t have impacted the already shallow story. Even then, Hawes is leagues above some of the others. In terms of the story, the puzzle pieces never clicked into place so there was a lack of genuine care for any of the characters. It is questionable whether anyone will give one iota of crap about Jules when she is shot in the head. The series just had to end up with a few cliffhangers that the writers hoped would leave viewers begging for a second installment. Unfortunately, neither of those cliffhangers were jaw-dropping or strong enough for this to warrant another season.

If this had been the episode before the finale, it might’ve been better. However, Orphan Black: Echoes delivered two weak episodes right in a roll to finish off an equally lackluster season. The finale scores a 4.5 out of 10. Recaps of Orphan Black: Echoes are available on Reel Mockery here. Find out how to support our independent site at this link. Learn more about advertising on Reel Mockery here. Discuss this show and others at the Reel Mockery Forum.