'Orphan Black': Tatiana Maslany breaks down the latest episode

Orphan Black Season 2 Exclusive 01
Photo: Steve Wilkie/BBC America

[SPOILER ALERT: Read on only if you have already watched Saturday’s episode of Orphan Black.]

Sarah Manning was finally reunited with both her daughter Kira and her foster mother Mrs. S tonight on Orphan Black, but they did not have much time to celebrate as Siobhan’s former friends turned on them for cold, hard cash. But they were left cold, hard, and dead after S got through with them. Elsewhere, Cosima met Rachel for the first time, and Alison made the painful discovery that husband Donnie was her monitor — as opposed to best friend Aynsley, whom she let die. (Whoops!) We spoke with star Tatiana Maslany to get her take on Orphan Black’s second episode of season 2.

ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY: So we’re really seeing this world expand outside the city limits now and I know that’s why you started production earlier so you all could do this stuff. And we see you getting out in the world as you look for Kira and come across Mrs. S. Is this a nice change of scenery for you?

TATIANA MASLANY: Yeah, it was really nice. It’s so fun to take them out of their comfort zone, all the clones, and all the characters, really, and get to know Mrs. S a little more or just basically have more questions about her. But it was really nice to pull Sarah out of the city because I don’t think she’s comfortable out of the city. I think it just opens up the characters and they’re just changed by the new environment and new journey and the universe is expanding this season for all of them.

EW: Your scenes with Maria Doyle Kennedy, who plays Mrs. S, are always so freakin’ tense. Are those hard to play?

MASLANY: No, there’s something almost easier about that. Because there’s a deep amount of trust between the two of us, and respect, and we realize that Sarah and Mrs. S. are two sides of the same coin, because they love each other so much, and because they hate each other so much. And they’re very much the same person. For Maria and me, it’s not that it’s easy for us to go to that place, but I think it’s easier because we enjoy playing so much with each other and I know if I throw something at her she’ll grab it and throw it right back at me. There’s a real sense of partnership in that. I think the camaraderie we have off screen allows us to rip each other’s throats out on screen.

EW: We have this scene where Alison is at Aynsley’s funeral and sees Donnie’s texts and starts to realize he is her monitor and she sat by and watched the wrong person die. That’s a terrible realization, but Alison is much more fun that way when things go wrong, isn’t she?

MASLANY: Totally. We want to see her as tense as possible, we want to see her swallowing down as many different fears and anxieties as possible so that she’s kind of vibrating with that always. It’s fun to see her repress the worst thing that could possibly happen in her life and try to smile above it. That’s the fun of Alison for sure.

EW: My favorite line of the episode was in Cosima’s new lab in the Dyad Institute and Rachel comes in and says “So, you’re gay?” and then Cosima responds, “My sexuality is not the most interesting thing about me.”

MASLANY: That was awesome. I was just, like, I love Graeme and Karen so much for the way they write, it’s just so beautiful. And it was just the perfect way to say it, you know? And also the bravery of them to write this judgment from Rachel and whatever that was and to have Cosima just stand in her own skin so confidently. I love that line too.

EW: It was great, because obviously it is one element of that character but it’s not her defining element by any means.

MASLANY: That’s what I love about the show. It doesn’t hang like a hat or a red flag or a sign or whatever on Cosima’s sexuality. It’s just part of her.

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