I burst out with "OMG I love you, Alison," like three or four times during the episode. That scene with Ramon in the parking lot! And wow, it's not enough that she's a freakishly talented actress, Tatiana Maslany can actually sing!

Also, I'm totally confused about timeline. Did Helena's shooting and Kira's abduction all happen on the same night? It's been so long since I watched S1, I can't remember.

I think yes? I haven't rewatched, but I think so. I have forgotten so much.

That scene with Ramon in the parking lot!

Right? So perfect.

See also Delphine realizing that that was Sarah, not Cosima.

Of course Alison has an adorable clean-shaved drug dealer who can get her unlicensed firearms. I mean, of course she does.

(Real History Of Science Fiction, OTOH...well that was just embarrassing. Sorry channel, you know I try to love everything you do, but, well.)

I left that running while I did other things mostly not in the room, and catching a minute or two here and there while it played was pretty enjoyable.

HELENA HELENA HELENA like I loved her character arc in season one and kind of thought it ended well but fuck it I'm so glad she's not dead. I got super excited when I heard her musical theme and was hoping it meant what I thought I meant AND IT DID.

Alison is still the best. The Ramon scene was wonderful. "How's your mother?"

I'm excited for poor Art to be let into Clone Club!

Fucking Prolethians.

I'm really sad about Diner Guy, he made quite an impression in his short time with us.

I KNOW. Fucking Not!Paul Dano.

From the AV Club recap:

Sarah Manning’s ultimately special because she dares go off-script. If she runs into trouble, she’ll chug a bottle of hand soap to buy some time. If she runs up against a wall, she’ll grab a fire extinguisher and bash her way the hell right out. In an instant of inspired thinking, Sarah constantly rejects what should be desperate, cornered moments with her sheer determination to survive.

YES! As soon as she was trapped in that bathroom, I thought of the hand soap and I wanted her to try something ridiculous that no other character in fiction would and she did. I love her.

She then sees the gun in Sarah’s hand with something approaching pity, and says, “You’re not going to shoot me, Sarah.” In that moment, she proves that she doesn’t know everything—or at the very least, she doesn’t know Sarah like we do. Bang. Rachel panics at the fired shot not only because it’s an inch from her pristine head, but because she didn’t anticipate it like she’s anticipated everything else. Rachel can’t pin Sarah Manning down, because Sarah Manning goes off-script.

And that's what's so great about this show and Sarah: it's unpredictable in ways that make sense, because they break from standard television tropes and let their characters act and react realistically.

And then, of course, there’s Tatiana Maslany. After months of telling people how good she is, I watched this premiere and realized that she’s easily ten times better.

For goddamn serious, I still can't get over it. She's unreal.

Also can I just say it's pretty hilarious that they could keep the Helena twist a secret easily because it's not like there would be casting spoilers.

OH MY GOD IT'S A REAL MUSICAL.

FAWCETT: No, that’s an existing musical and what’s interesting, too, is that in the episode, that is the cast of Blood Ties. Other than Sarah Stubbs and obviously Tatiana, that is the cast of Blood Ties – the pianist in the show and the blonde girl on stage, those are the creators of the musical, and the two men in the cast are from the show. So we were basically working with their cast and the musical’s creators. Isn’t that cool? And they helped choreograph all the dance moves and stuff like that. So we just worked with them and said, “Hey, let’s stage this.” And I hung out while she choreographed, and that’s how we created the musical numbers.

I spent a half an hour last night trying to figure out what that damned musical was!!

I left that running while I did other things mostly not in the room, and catching a minute or two here and there while it played was pretty enjoyable.

Yeah, that sounds like a better way to watch for sure. Trying to follow the logic of why one clip was put next to another made my head hurt. Something something humanity cyborgs something something.

Rachel's "no one touches me" - brrrr. She's so interesting. And Leaky obviously can't control her, so she's probably got more in common with Sarah than she wants to believe.