Instinct (Orphan Black)

The plot follows Sarah Manning (played by Tatiana Maslany) as she continues to impersonate Beth Childs, a woman who looks identical to Sarah, in order to take Beth's money after seeing her commit suicide. In the episode, Sarah deals with the aftermath of the death of another identical woman, Katja Obinger, and begins to discover more lookalikes. Maslany plays each of the identical women; "Instinct" marked the first episode in which more than one of Maslany's characters was present in a single shot, which necessitated specific planning and technology to film and edit these scenes. The episode received positive reviews from critics, who praised the episode's plot development and Maslany's performance.

Plot

After Katja is shot, Sarah flees in Beth's car and receives a call from a woman on Beth's phone. The woman, after hearing that Katja is dead, instructs Sarah to dispose of the body and retrieve Katja's briefcase. While burying Katja's body, Sarah finds a hotel key in her pocket and keeps it. She visits her foster brother Felix's apartment and discovers that the $75,000 she stole from Beth's bank account has been taken by Beth's detective partner Art. When she returns to Beth's apartment she is surprised to find Beth's boyfriend, Paul, who seems confused by Sarah's demeanour but does not realise that she is not Beth. The next day, Sarah prepares to meet Art, and lies that the $75,000 belongs to Paul, but Art says he will return the money only after the hearing Beth must attend about a suspicious shooting in which she was involved.

Sarah disguises herself as Katja and gains entrance to her hotel room in order to find Katja's briefcase. The room has been ransacked by the time she arrives but a hotel employee gives her the briefcase, which had been left with security. Inside the briefcase Sarah finds medical images, vials of blood, and evidence of more lookalikes, including a woman named Alison Hendrix, whose address is written on a note. Believing Alison to be the woman on the phone, Sarah drives to her address and follows her van to a soccer field, where she discovers that Alison is another of her lookalikes. Alison confronts Sarah, assuming that she is Beth, and refuses to believe Sarah when she explains that Beth killed herself, telling her to leave and wait for another call.

At the police station, pretending to be Beth, Sarah manipulates the resident psychiatrist into approving her return to duty, but Art refuses to give Sarah the money until she is fully reinstated. She receives a call from Alison, who tells her to bring the briefcase to her house that night. When Sarah and Felix arrive at Alison's house, Alison threatens them with a gun before relenting and introducing Sarah to another lookalike named Cosima.

Production

"Instinct" was filmed in a block with the series' first episode, "Natural Selection", under the direction of Orphan Black co-creator John Fawcett.^[1] It was filmed in Canada, although it is never made clear where in North America the show takes place. The episode refers to the fictional suburb of Bailey Downs, where Alison is said to live, which is a homage to the setting of the 2000 Canadian horror film Ginger Snaps, which was directed by Fawcett.^[2] One of the filming locations used for the episode was the office used by the show's writers, which served as Beth's psychiatrist's office.^[2]

The episode featured one of the first scenes in which Maslany plays multiple characters interacting in the same shot. To construct the scene in which Sarah and Alison meet in the soccer field shed, Maslany and her