‘Orphan Black: Echoes’ Recap – ‘Pilot’

Written by John Edward Betancourt

Krysten Ritter as Lucy in Episode 101 of ‘Orphan Black: Echoes’ – ‘Pilot’. (Photo Courtesy of Sophie Giraud/AMC.)

Caution: This article contains spoilers for the Series Premiere of ‘Orphan Black: Echoes’.
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One particular aspect of our minds that we deeply cherish, is our memories. Because while the world can rob us of joy and money and other emotions and material possessions, it can never take away our memories. Those precious moments where joy still resides and where lessons were learned. The kind that makes us strong and helps us to grow, and so… we forever cherish them, and we forever are grateful for the fact we can make more and share in them with others. But despite the safety we feel regarding our memories, that doesn’t stop the recesses of our mind, to express a real worry about such matters. Specifically, what and who would we become if somehow, some way… our memories were ripped from our mind?

Would we still be the person we are proud of when we look in the mirror? Or would we transform before our eyes and struggle to find agency and direction? Well, those are questions we hope to never answer, but that doesn’t stop us from pondering upon it via our imagination, or the imagination of others. For stories can always explore such matters in a fascinating manner and it just so happens that a brand-new series on AMC will indeed ponder deeply upon those questions. For Orphan Black: Echoes wastes little time in its ‘Pilot’ episode in introducing us to a woman named Lucy. Who awakens with a start on the couch of a doctor’s office. Wherein, she has no memory of who she is or of the face present in a photograph near her. She is just awake and confused and scared, and her situation only grows worse.

For eventually she comes to discover, that this office is a façade and that it is tied to a lab where… others that look exactly like her are being grown and printed by a mysterious doctor named Kira, for reasons that are not made clear nor are discovered by Lucy. For she chooses to escape from the facility quickly and works to forge her own life and that is where the episode and the series begins its exploration regarding who we are without memory. Wherein we come to learn that we might turn out just fine. For sentience and emotions and some base understandings of right and wrong… can allow for a person to just and live fine. Since Lucy is able to rent some property from a former Army medic and just live and create and share in memories of her own choosing.

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Amanda Fix and Krysten Ritter as Jules and Lucy in Episode 101 of ‘Orphan Black: Echoes’ – ‘Pilot’. (Photo Courtesy of Sophie Giraud/AMC.)

But of course, it doesn’t take long for that peace to be interrupted by the company that Kira works for. Since they see Lucy as a threat and a mistake to be erased. Which puts her in immediate danger in this tale and prompts a desire… to strike back. For that moral core tells her this is wrong and that she deserves better than being recalled akin to a product, and that prompts Lucy to head into the city and learn all she can about the people who created her and why, and why she has no memories. Only for her to discover, that there are more Lucys in the world, and the one she just met is named Jules and in order to understand how so many copies of her own face exist, she will need Jules to come with her whether she likes it or not.
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Which is a wonderful way to set the stage for a grand exploration regarding the importance of memory and so much more, of course. Since it puts together an intimate plot revolving around a worry/fear we share in. Especially when one considers how memories do indeed determine the person we become. But what is equally as amazing about this plot and its deep questions about memory, and who we become without them, is the connective tissue present here regarding the old show. Since it is indeed set decades after the original Orphan Black and showcases a future that feels like the natural progression of what came before, and it also harbors that amazing twist at the end that leaves us curious as to what lies ahead regarding that reveal. 

Not to mention… this is just an engaging story through and through. Because it presents us with some dynamic characters that we immediately take to. For we feel for Lucy through and through, and understand, through Krysten Ritter’s stunning performance, how horrifying it would be to have our memories torn asunder from our mind and how hard it would be to understand what makes us feel a certain way without those reference points. All of which makes for a brilliant series premiere. One that really does immerse us in this incredible new time period in this franchise and leaves us eager for more. To learn more about the power of memory, about whether it truly controls everything that defines us… and what Lucy will discover as she searches for an elusive and dangerous truth about her past. Until next time.

To learn more about the construction of this series, check out our interview with the show’s Creator & Showrunner, Anna Fishko.

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