Because of Amelia, Helena went to the church and Sarah to the state; because of Amelia, Rachel went to the corporation. All three were assimilated not into families like Alison or Cosima but into groups, into systems, and the relationship between individual and system is one that Orphan Black loves to explore. Because of this choice, OB is mobilizing Sarah, Helena, and Rachel into the three most important clone pillars this season, as the mystery unravels. They are thematically representative, narratively connected, and poised for conflict. More so than the others, they act not only of their individual will but also as a result of their contextual upbringing.
Ooh, this is interesting. I’d been pondering something like this for a while, though with a somewhat different conclusion, because it certainly does seem noteworthy that all the clones are somehow aligned or associated with whole systems.
Rachel is Business, agreed (I had a ’$’ for her in my notes), Helena goes to Religion, Beth is Law, Cosima is Science (and that was interesting to me too, that it wasn’t Sarah who was Helena’s…opposite?), and Alison is Family (as in, suburban nuclear family, soccer mom and all). Sarah is the true wildcard, given to the State but almost immediately falling through the cracks (perhaps in a deliberate display of the State’s frailty) and lived outside of any actual system. And she’s the only one now who’s been able to navigate the situation they’re in and whose influence has helped to even somewhat keep the others afloat.
Had she not appeared that night in front of Beth, Alison and Cosima would never have found out about Donnie and Delphine, or in fact survived long enough to, with Helena probably getting