The Collapse of Nature
1st episode of the 4th season of Orphan Black / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
"The Collapse of Nature" is the fourth season premiere of the Canadian science fiction television series Orphan Black. It first aired in Canada on Space and the United States on BBC America on 14 April 2016. The episode was written by Graeme Manson and directed by John Fawcett.
"The Collapse of Nature" | |||
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Orphan Black episode | |||
Episode no. | Season 4 Episode 1 | ||
Directed by | John Fawcett | ||
Written by | Graeme Manson | ||
Original air date | 14 April 2016 (2016-04-14) | ||
Running time | 44 minutes | ||
Guest appearances | |||
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Episode chronology | |||
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List of episodes |
The series focuses on a number of identical human clones, all of whom are played by Tatiana Maslany: Sarah Manning, Beth Childs, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Rachel Duncan, Helena, MK and Krystal Goderitch. The format of the episode differs from all previous episodes, being a flashback episode taking place before the pilot episode. It follows Beth Childs (played by Tatiana Maslany) weeks before her suicide, as she investigates the operations of Neolution. Several guest actors returned in flashback scenes as characters who had died or been written off. Inga Cadranel, whose character Detective Angela "Angie" DeAngelis was written out after the second season, returned, as did Dylan Bruce as Paul Dierden after his character's death in the previous season.
The episode received positive reviews from critics, who praised the episode's plot development, a return to the basics of the first season in storytelling, as several critics pointed out the convoluted conspiracy plot of subsequent seasons, and Maslany's performance. It was watched by 229,000 American viewers.[1]
As with all episodes this season, the episode title, "The Collapse of Nature," comes from Professor Donna Haraway's 1991 book Simians, Cyborgs, and Women: The Reinvention of Nature, being a specific excerpt from the essay entitled "The Biological Enterprise: Sex, Mind and Profit from Human Engineering to Sociobiology."[2]