#ob speculation

[asexualtuckerfoley]

Not sure why, but I really want Sarah to out the clones to the world. Like maybe PT has them with their backs to the wall and Sarah needs a way to make herself and her siblings untouchable, so she goes to the press. She tells them her name, that she's a clone, and gives them a list of names of other clones.

[gendertraitorleda]

who wants to speculate about spoiler-y sceenshots from later in season s5 that i got bc this shit is crazy 

[asexualtuckerfoley]

It just occurred to me: I don’t want PT Westmoreland to be killed. He doesn’t deserve it. I want the bastard to die of his age and illness.

[pushingcorpseflowers]

me: [sleeps well knowing that Mika is probably monitoring all communications and information going into and leaving the island and she's probably sourcing out some sort of rescue like the isolated little hero she is.]

[mveloc]

spec talk - helena

season 4 is almost here! naturally, my mind has been buzzing with spec and i felt like i’d share some of it here with you guys since i love spec talk. feel free to chime in with your own theories/opinions :)

so, the topic of this conversation?

helena.

to be honest, i really don’t see them going through with the pregnancy storyline. that seems far too easy and it doesn’t really work narratively. for starters, the timeline of the show is a mess and even with the two month time jump that’s been confirmed at the beginning of season 4, it would still mean that helena is quite early on in her pregnancy (maybe three or four months, couldn’t really be more than that). unless they skip ahead several more months by the end of the season, helena will not be having her baby in season 4 and i really don’t think they’ll jump that far ahead and skip over all of the immediate chaos of sarah’s war against neolution just so we can see helena deliver her baby, which would mean we’d be stuck with a pregnant helena for the entire season. sure, watching helena become domesticated and struggle with her pregnancy would be pretty funny and produce many “awwwww” worthy moments, but that’ll get old really fast, not to mention that we already have alison for comedic relief so turning helena into a comedic, fluffy character would just be redundant. there’s just too much going on in this show and it’s far too fast paced for them to waste time just showing us helena simply being pregnant without really advancing the main plot. (although they did waste time with alison’s storyline and shaysima last season, so maybe i’m giving them too much credit...)

so, what do i think will happen?

i think helena will lose the baby.

yes, this would be heartbreaking and i know i said before that i didn’t want to see helena suffer anymore since she tends to get shit on far more than any of her sestras, but i don’t see any other choice that would really work well with the narrative. if helena loses her baby, it might force her down a dark path yet again, although this time, she has people who care about her to try to bring her back from the edge. let’s say she loses her baby because of external forces (maybe neolution has something to do with it in some way?) — that would bring her back into the fold, force her back into the meatiest part of the plot with a vengeance. maybe we’d see the crazed assassin from season one again? i think that would be interesting. as much as i love helena, her character has yet to truly redeem herself and face her “sins,” so to speak. i feel like helena gets infantilized a lot by the fandom and even by the writers at times. why? well, doing so has its comedic effect and allows us to sympathize with her character, but it’s also pretty problematic in that it erases her sense of agency in all of this. helena is not a child. she may be stunted in many ways, but she is a grown woman and on top of that, she’s incredibly dangerous, unpredictable, and a murderer. i feel like we’re constantly forced to forget this since her acts of violence are often juxtaposed with childish dialogue or situations, but i feel like it’s something pretty important that we need to acknowledge.

it always sort of bothered me how her murdering so many of the other clones hasn’t been addressed. it’s as if she saved sarah from daniel in season two and suddenly, everything was forgiven and she was immediately accepted into clone club. i know that she was essentially brainwashed to kill the clones and that sarah, cosima and alison understand this and forgive her for it, but does that really excuse her actions? absolutely not. hell, she even called rudy out on his shit in the season 3 finale right before he died, when he told her his childhood sob story to try to garner sympathy. he said “we’re just like you, helena.” and what did she say to him? “no. you are a rapist.” she’s able to make the distinction— she’s aware that the horrible circumstances of one’s life do not excuse one’s monstrous behaviour, that even though rudy and the castor clones had horrible and messed up childhoods, it doesn’t excuse what they’ve done. and she distinguishes herself from him. she tells him that he’s wrong, that she’s not like him at all. i felt like this was a pretty insightful moment and it would be a shame if it were to be discarded and forgotten over the course of the hiatus. 

we haven’t seen helena really show any sort of regret or remorse, or even really acknowledge that she’s murdered real people and not “abominations,” as she initially believed. there’s no doubt that she sees the other clones as real people now, as family, so why haven’t we seen her cope with the knowledge that she ruthlessly murdered her own family? if helena really believed what she said to rudy, if she’s really different from him, then she has to face what she’s done and atone, right? she can’t hide behind the excuse of “i was brainwashed by a cult and so i never had a choice in the matter, it’s not my fault at all and i’m not responsible for my actions.” that would make her no different from rudy (who was incapable of accepting responsibility for his actions) and she was very certain in the knowledge that they’re nothing alike. if she’s really different from him, then she has to accept responsibility and begin to make amends. 

i feel like just making helena pregnant and allowing her to have her baby and live a silly, domestic life after everything she’s done and everything she’s been through would be a total cop out, not to mention completely unrealistic considering the tone of the show. we’ve seen helena face down enemy after enemy, from tomas to johanssen to cody and castor. but helena’s greatest enemy has always been herself and we’ve yet to see her really face herself, to have a moment or true introspection. maybe it’s wishful thinking, but i’m hoping we’ll see some of that this season. and since helena’s eggs seem to be imperishable (contrary to what modern science would suggest), maybe even if she loses her current child, she’ll get the chance to have another baby someday— on her own terms. maybe she’ll get to use her eggs and have a baby with someone who actually cares for her, who doesn’t see her as some sort of scientific wonder or whatever. to me, that would be far more rewarding than watching her birth some “science baby” as she’s dubbed it-- a child she was forcibly impregnated with. it would be the ultimate assertion of her agency and i think a more complete arc to her character if she was to have a child by choice after having grown a little more.

another theory i had was that maybe helena does give birth to her child, or rather twins. however, she ends up losing them anyway because she’s forced to give them up and hide them away to protect them. i mean, it would be ironic (and a little cruel) if the twins ended up being separated for their own safety and it would allow her to reflect on amelia’s decision to give up her and sarah. perhaps it would give her a little bit of peace with her own upbringing.

i guess i just want to see helena find real peace, since this whole pregnancy storyline seems like a false peace. sort of like covering a bullet hole with a bandaid, you know? having a baby isn’t going to solve all of her problems and suddenly make her world a shiny, happy place. if that’s how this plays out, if motherhood is the thing that redeems helena, i’m gonna be pretty pissed off. 

[thewildertype]

More about the fucking worm

Okay First of all why're you doing this, OB? Can't we leave the worm as something dumb you tried this one time like the tail? 😳😳😳😳😱😰😷 ANYWAY. It's clear that the fucking worm got put in back in season 1 when they thought Sarah was Beth. It's the same general area the EEG came from and it's confirmed from season 2 that Nealon, aka: Mr. Worm himself knew pretty quickly that Sarah wasn't Beth during the visit. So of fucking course they'd put it in her to track her. Which sort of retcons the worm itself because it was going to kill Delphine. Or maybe the worm was always a tracker and they'd use that to hunt her down and end her. IDK. The better question is why only wait until now. If it's a worm-y GPS tracker they had plenty of time to do it before. So why now?

[pushingcorpseflowers]

All of her training, all of her drills, all of her shooting at targets and paper silhouettes of human heads had technically prepared her for this moment. Beth knew how to hold a gun, how to aim, how to shoot. But no one had prepared her for how it felt to aim a gun at a living person and just know that she was about to take a life. As she looked Maggie Chen in the eyes she fought hard to tear herself free of these feelings and—

I.

Beth hadn’t been sure it was Maggie Chen until she’d seen the recognition in her face. There. This was the real deal and not some notes and a photograph in a file stashed in Beth’s desk. This was nearly a year of research. Of digging in deep and coming up with lungs filled with dirt. Of signs and symbols and verses. Of paper trails and bullet holes. Of blood spatter and versions of Beth—a list of Beths crossed out. Beth had crossed each name out herself one by one. Sometimes she added a name and crossed it out before the ink could dry. Names smudged on her hands.

Beth wasn’t sure what she’d planned to do if she ever did find Maggie Chen. And she still wasn’t sure. Except after a half-skipped heartbeat Maggie Chen turned and ran and Beth knew that if she let her leave she might never get another chance.

And now there were alone in an alleyway. The sounds of the street they’d left had faded to almost nothing. Beth wasn’t surprised when she realized that she’d drawn her gun while in pursuit. She imagined herself a solid wall blocking them into the alleyway. She levelled her gun to Maggie Chen’s chest. She was going to get answers.

“Why are you hunting us?”

Maggie Chen was cowering.

“Please—” she shuddered and gasped. Her hands were flung up in front of her face. Her hands looked soft. “I don’t know what you’re talking about. I don’t know you.”

One year ago, Beth would have felt sympathy for this woman. One year ago, she would have believed that this stranger was, in fact, a stranger who had no bearing on her life. But the year had taught her to suspect and to doubt everyone and everything around her.

“You know me!” Beth’s voice climbed, “I know what you’ve done.”

“Please,” she said again. Her eyes flicked upward. Beth looked up. She saw a maze of wet brick and fire escapes.

Maggie Chen lunged at her and—

II.

“It’s you. It’s been you this whole time, hasn’t it?” Beth had suspected for a long time. Really, she’d suspected Maggie from the moment she’d contacted her. But Beth needed information. The others relied on her for it. Beth knew that if she was smart about it, she could maybe learn enough to protect them.

But time had run out for Beth to be smart about Maggie Chen. People were dying and Beth knew that Maggie was connected to the deaths. And she was sure that it was only a matter of time before Beth was the next death on the list. In fact, she was pretty goddamned sure she was the next death on the list.

“It’s over, Maggie.”

“You need to understand that this is so much bigger than me,” Maggie said. She took a step forward and Beth half expected her to reach for the gun. But she didn’t. She had taken a step forward and then stopped to watch Beth closely.

“Killing me won’t end anything. You’re already in too deep, Beth. You must know that you’re not getting out of this.”

Beth understood this to be true. The weight of all of the lives lived by others with her face had been pressing at her from all sides for months. And all of their deaths. They weighed on her shoulders. They formed hairline fractures in her bones. Beth also understood that this weight shouldn’t kill her today.

At least that’s what she hoped (a mostly sisyphean sort of hope).

“But killing me will end something, won’t it?” Beth said.

“You’re something that never should have existed,” Maggie said. “You’re an abomination. You must be cleansed.”

Beth braced for the shot that should have been the punctuation to Maggie’s words, but none came. Maggie was tense.

Beth didn’t know whether or not she was an abomination. She didn’t know whether she deserved to exist. But she did know that she did not want to die and—

III.

“Where is she?” Beth shouted. Her voice bounced off the brick. She hadn’t expected that much anger to come through. Beth watched Maggie Chen’s face, but even held at gunpoint it didn’t betray anything. Beth refused to look away to search for herself. It was too risky.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Maggie said. She didn’t appear to be armed. Beth wasn’t surprised; she’d realized too late that Maggie never did her own dirty work.

“She’s like me, isn’t she?” Beth bit down on the question and crushed it with her molars. Otherwise her voice might betray just how horrified she was, how horrified she had been when she’d understood.

Maggie’s expression hardened.

“She is nothing like you.”

“Because you brainwashed her, didn’t you?” Beth spat, “What did you do to her—what did you make her believe to have her kill these people who are just like her?”

Maggie said nothing.

“Can she hear us right now?”

Beth knew that she was there, somewhere, listening. The moment she’d stepped into the alleyway she’d known that she was somebody’s target. She could feel the sight trained on her skull.  

Maggie nodded. A tiny nod, barely a tilt of her head, but it was enough.

“Then call her off.”

A beat stretched thin between them. If Maggie could have found it within her to laugh she would have. But she didn’t. Her patience with this exchange was fraying fast. This exchange should have already ended with Beth bleeding out at Maggie’s feet.

“You have her trained like a dog, don’t you?” Beth said, “You can call her off.”

“I showed her compassion,” Maggie said simply.

“You’re a monster,” Beth replied and—

IV.     This was where they met. Sometimes. Sometimes they met in a different alleyway, in a different neighbourhood. Maggie was nervous, so they never met in the public eye, never in a park, never at a street corner, never in a diner where Beth could tear napkins into shreds and twists as Maggie gave her answers. And Maggie gave her answers. And Beth gave her answers. Sometimes they found the seams where what Maggie knew met with what Beth knew and they saw exactly how they fit together. Sometimes every edge seemed ragged and wrong. Every time they both left agreeing that they needed more.

Beth usually looked forward to these meetings, in the way that a person might look forward to a diagnosis. It might not be information that she wanted to hear, but she needed to hear it to move forward. To make choices.

“Hey. I’m on the clock right now. You said you found something?”

Maggie was quiet and Beth felt a twinge in her chest. Something wasn’t right. She took in a slow breath and just as slowly released it.

“What is it?” she tried again, “What did you find?”

Maggie shook her head. Maggie, who once brought coffee to one of their meetings, who once reminded her to button up her coat against the wind. Maggie, who made Beth feel like she mattered somehow. Maggie, who understood that Beth deserved answers. Maggie, who understood just how much Beth knew.

Oh no.

“Why?” Beth felt her mouth form the question as her mind buzzed. Why was she in an alley with only one exit? Why had she trusted so easily? Why had this person told her so much only to lead her to this moment?

She couldn’t get a read on Maggie’s expression.

“You always asked why. You never stopped to ask who.” Maggie spoke slowly. Maggie, who’d told Beth that she’d had a part in bringing her into the world, who’d told Beth that she’d left the project for moral reasons, who’d told Beth that she was ashamed to have played God.

Beth didn’t understand how she’d let this happen to her. How she’d let this happen to the others. But she could stop it. She reached for her gun and—

just like that. Just a single finger squeezing against metal: a life, emptying out breath and blood to the alleyway. Beth expected to feel something free itself in her chest. Instead she felt panic. 

[lifeorbeth]

is Cal going to be back on season 4?

I have no idea, honestly. I’m not the person to ask. I mean, Michiel Huisman has an exclusive contract with Game of Thrones, which proved to be a bit of a problem last season as well. He might make an appearance, but I highly doubt he’ll be a season regular. Which is quite a shame because I rather like Cal's character.