[Warning: The below contains MAJOR spoilers for Orphan Black: Echoes Season 1 Episode 6 “Unless You Trusted Someone.”]
Kira’s (Keeley Hawes) love story becomes even more intricate in the most recent episode of Orphan Black: Echoes.
Following the loss of her wife, Eleanor (Krysten Ritter, then Rya Kihlstedt) to Alzheimer’s, Kira printed out a new version, Lucy (Ritter), younger and without memories of their shared life. Lucy managed to escape. Then, a month later, Kira printed out another Eleanor (Kihlstedt), from a more recent scan but two years before developing Alzheimer’s. Now, the current Eleanor is at home, unaware that she is a printed version. Kira is deceiving her, and Eleanor is oblivious to the situation.
During an uncomfortable dinner with their son Lucas (Jaeden Noel) and his girlfriend, it is revealed that Eleanor has been having an affair—it’s just physical, she claims. Kira accepts it and wants Eleanor to be happy. However, this indicates that something is amiss, and Kira continues to keep silent. Eleanor senses that things are not right between them and observes that Kira looks at her as if she expects her to leave. What has changed? Kira has.
Eleanor is completely clueless, Kihlstedt tells TV Insider. “We deliberated with Anna [Fishko, creator] and among ourselves quite a bit because, to me, the situation felt deeply complex when broken down. There are complications and the history of marriage, of long-term relationships, of dealing with someone for so long, when does a union become stale? How do you combat that and rebuild from it?”
In a way, it’s a “fresh marriage” for Kira and Eleanor, Kihlstedt elaborates. “This is a new individual where—you are unsure of how much history is ingrained in your being. How aware are you of it? How are you moving forward? I don’t believe the newly printed Eleanor had any inkling of the situation. She lacks the history, the knowledge, and suddenly, there’s a new marriage or relationship that is constructed on a falsehood.”
Additionally, Eleanor must adapt to this new relationship without realizing the truth, as she is unaware that Kira is reacting to her as a different iteration of herself, correct? “Precisely,” Kihlstedt concurs. “And then all the faults begin to surface. Generally speaking, the inception of a relationship or marriage is the foundation on which it develops, right? If a relationship or marriage commences with deceit, that deceit will taint everything that follows, and I believe this is the case here.”
Orphan Black: Echoes, Sundays, 10/9c, AMC
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