‘Orphan Black’ Clone Club: Star Kristian Bruun ranks the clones (Episode 204: 'Governed as It Were by Chance')

SPOILER ALERT: This post contains spoilers for the most recent episode of "Orphan Black."

We’re only four episodes into the second season of “Orphan Black,” but things are getting very intense. Sarah’s back on the offensive, finding out more about Rachel’s past (and almost getting her ear cut off in the process), Alison’s stuck in rehab, and Helena is back to her butt-kicking ways. But which clone came out on top this week?

As always, our resident “Orphan Black” monitor Kristian Bruun (Donnie) is here to monitor the clones’ performances and recap their adventures.

YAHOO CANADA: Holy heck, this episode was intense.
KRISTIAN BRUUN: It’s pretty crazy! Yeah. Totally. I don’t even know what to say.

YC: When it comes to the clones, I don’t think we need to say that Jennifer Fitzsimmons is still last and will probably remain last, since she’s still dead.
KB: She’s dead. She’s done.

YC: Aside from her, who was the worst clone of the week, in your opinion?

KB: Rachel. She got duped by Sarah stealing Daniel’s phone. Rachel’s on a flight somewhere, completely unaware of what’s going on. We find out stuff about Rachel – we find out who her parents are and all this stuff. When she gets home from her flight, she’s going to have a bit of a shock. Her apartment is pretty messed up, and there’s a dead body in there.

YC: Well, Daniel shouldn’t have tried to fight Helena.
KB: She’ll win every time. Daniel dies twice in this episode! Yikes. He had a bad day.

YC: It’s surprising to see those childhood videos of Rachel, and she had such a happy, loving childhood.
KB: That threw me for a loop. I don’t know what’s going on there. But she’s got all these tapes of her childhood and she keeps them in a drawer in her bedroom. She just sits in bed and watches these old videotapes of herself as a child. That’s weird.

YC: Is that unusual? That’s pretty much how I spend every evening.
KB: It’s always nice to unwind with some old videos of yourself. Who hasn’t done that? But things have definitely soured for Rachel since her childhood. Maybe she misses them because they’re dead and they were those scientists that were killed in that newspaper clipping we saw.

YC: We found out a lot more about Rachel but it just raises even more questions.
KB: Exactly. Obviously they raised Rachel until they were killed, so she obviously still has at least hazy memories of them. I guess she keeps these videos to remind herself of them. Maybe that’s why she’s such a cold, calculating person, because of what happened to her parents. But I do put Rachel at the bottom, I would say. Daniel’s dead, and he’s been living with her and he’s her monitor. And he’d been doing everything for her, but obviously was playing her because he called Dr. Leekie – he didn’t call Rachel when everything was going downhill.

YC: Rachel’s not as in charge as we thought.
KB: Yeah, so I’m going to put her at the bottom, and the other clones are figuring out stuff she didn’t think they’d know about. The other clones have the upper hand.

YC: Which clone takes fourth place this week?

KB: Alison. She no longer has her freedom – she’s living under other people’s rules in rehab. The funniest thing is: the first day we filmed in rehab was the day that Rob Ford admitted to smoking crack, back in November. That was the first day of us filming in rehab, which was coincidental. And then the week that this rehab episode airs is the week that Rob Ford actually goes to rehab! The timing on this is insane.

YC: He probably planned it that way.
KB: I think so. I think he’s a huge “Orphan Black” fan.

YC: But good for Donnie, showing some backbone this week.
KB: Yeah! He’s contacted his lawyer and he’s doing what’s right for the kids. Say what you will about Donnie being lame and a monitor and all that, but his family obviously matters to him and his wife is obviously has some serious drug and alcohol issues. So Alison’s in rehab and if she leaves before she’s better, Donnie is threatening divorce.

YC: But isn’t Donnie bluffing? He’s her monitor; he can’t actually leave Alison.
KB: He’s putting his family first, in my opinion. It might just be a threat to get Alison to sober up. He knows that she doesn’t want a divorce – nobody wants a divorce because they want to keep the family together. But he’s using that as a “don’t think of leaving here until you’re ready” kind of thing. I think that’s good. He’s doing his job as a husband and a father, and he knows that Alison is safe in the rehab clinic. It’s a good chance for Alison to get back to normal, which is all Donnie wants, I think. And Alison has to deal with people watching her go to the bathroom, so she doesn’t rank too highly this week.

YC: Third place?

KB: I’m going to give it to Cosima. She doesn’t do much this episode, but she does do research. She’s totally obsessed with Jennifer Fitzsimmons now; she’s just watching the videos of Jennifer’s decline over and over. Cosima’s not doing science. Now she’s starting to feel the emotional side and she could go down the wrong path if she’s not careful. She has to stay on science. She does pull out her knowledge of Greek mythology and doing all this research on the Duncans, but that’s all she does. Cosima’s not the worst, but not the best this week.

YC: And now for the No. 2 clone of the week?

KB: Second place would be Sarah. She gets out of that sticky situation with Cal’s help – good thin he has that off-the-grid camper and he can listen in on the cops. Cal is helping Sarah out a lot.

YC: Cal is a very resourceful guy.
KB: He is! He loves to live off the grid and that’s very helpful. But I still don’t know what his deal is. Cal’s totally heard of Dyad – as soon as Sarah mentions Dyad, he’s like, “Oh, damn.” He knows who they are. There’s something mysterious about him. But Sarah obviously trusts Cal enough to leave Kira with him, and she knows that he’s Kira’s father. Kira’s never had a father, so that’s nice. But, of course, Sarah runs off to sneak into Rachel’s apartment and ends up getting caught by Daniel.

YC: It was good to see Sarah go on the offensive this week, though, and have a plan, even if it didn’t turn out as well as she’d hoped.
KB: I think it was a smart plan on Sarah’s part because she thought Daniel was dead after the car accident. And she had no way of knowing that Daniel lives with Rachel. And we learn a whole bunch of stuff, but Sarah gets tied up and almost tortured – she nearly gets her ear cut off, “Reservoir Dogs”-style!

YC: That scene was so hard to watch.
KB: Oh, definitely – Tatiana was great in that scene. And Sarah’s going on the offensive, which is good, but she’s still relying too much on other people. Cal, specifically. But I like Sarah with a plan. I like seeing all the clones on the offensive. I hope we see more of that soon.

YC: But the undisputed winner of this week’s episode is obviously Helena.

KB: Oh god, yeah. She doesn’t make one misstep this whole episode! Of course Gracie, this little farm girl, isn’t going to be able to kill Helena. Helena is unstoppable – she was shot in the chest and survived! So Helena knocks out Gracie and stumbles into the weird science room and has flashbacks of the Proletheans probing her. I don’t know what’s going on with that – I think they took an egg from her?

YC: Are they making their own clones?
KB: I don’t know but you know it’s not good.

YC: And then Helena stumbles into the woods and gets all the way back to the city on her own!
KB: She stumbles past Art! He’s just taking pictures on the edge of the property and suddenly realizes she’s coming towards him – and Helena just kind of ignores him and keeps going. And then she shows up in Rachel’s apartment and takes down Daniel.

YC: And this season had been so nuts that I totally forgot that Sarah had no idea Helena was still alive.
KB: Last time Sarah saw Helena, she shot her in the chest – there was no reason for Sarah to think she was still alive. All of a sudden, Helena saves her and Sarah’s freaking out! I was just floored by that scene.

YC: Helena and Sarah coming face-to-face in the bathroom is one of the tensest scenes ever.

KB: What’s going to happen? What’s going to happen? And you rarely see Sarah flip out like that. It’s pretty awesome.

YC: And you completely forget that it’s just Tatiana Maslany playing all of these roles. When Helena hugs Sarah at the end, it seemed like just a normal shot, and you forget the special effects that have to go into that shot.
KB: It looks amazing! The visual effects are incredible. Tatiana is just so, so great.

“Orphan Black” airs Saturdays at 9 p.m. ET on Space.