#evolutionarydevelopment

Delphine is absolutely willing to be unscrupulous.

Giving Leekie the blood sample at first surprised me because it seems in direct violation of Cosima’s wishes—and at one point I was willing to believe that this was part of some SEKRIT MASTER PLAN between Delphine and Cosima, but that would be kind of too subtle at this point—but it makes perfect sense on a number of levels. First, the gesture serves as a sign of her commitment/investment to Leekie and Dyad: Here is information on Cosima, as you always wanted me to gather, didn’t I dig goddamn deep, goddamn quickly? Two, it comes accompanied with the message that Cosima is showing signs of illness. (This was a surprise reveal to me, in that I thought the “reveal” of this information would come between Cosima and Sarah and co., but that doesn’t seem to have happened there yet, at least not explicitly. There’s a lot of dropping of information to show that information was shared, like Cosima name-dropping Daniel Rosen—CYLON—to show that they all have discussed his role and who he is. Very interesting that Cosima doesn’t seemed to have clued Sarah in yet.)

But, three, Delphine needs Dyad to be aware of Cosima’s circumstances in order to take full advantage of Dyad focusing their resources not only on the disease but on Cosima specifically afflicted with the disease and whether or not Cosima presents a unique case as opposed to “the other two.” I.e. maybe one solution may not be a universal solution, so get on that shit!

But—eeeeeeeeeeeeeee—Delphine’s steeliness!!! I can’t get over it because it makes me so happy. Even with Sarah. Delphine’s not necessarily afraid of Sarah when she confronts her as not being Cosima—she’s sort of angry like, “WHUT YOU DOING IMITATING COSIMA, DON’T BE STARTING SHIT AS COSIMA, WHERE COSIMA, THIS MEANS COSIMA ISN’T COMING, DAFUQ YOU DOING MESSING THINGS UP, I GOTTA CONVINCE COSIMA TO JOIN DYAD, ARGH, wait, whut, kidnapping, what? More shadiness out of Dyad? Rachel? Only know of her, but somehow I know that huge shady deals are going on behind the scenes,* let me tell you since you’ve threatened to involve Cosima, why are people always threatening Cosima and her safety and wellbeing, why do I always have to cover her ass, merde, the things I do for love.”

*I actually laughed out loud and was like: Why would Delphine know this?????

It’s so interesting because it suggests that 1x09 Delphine breaking down and trying so hard to convince Cosima—emotionally, desperately, graspingly—that she, Delphine, is on Cosima’s side is not the baseline state of Delphine’s personality, but rather an exception to how she usually approaches life, stressful situations, anxiety-inducing unwanted surprises. That Delphine in 1x09 had been caught off guard and fallen apart for a moment. That that heightened emotional response is not the rule of Delphine’s behavior and personality, that once she’s got cards in her hands and a grasp on the situation, she’s cool, collected, controlled. It’s interesting because, since so much gets colored with retrospect, it’s like S1 Delphine always had her weight on her heels, leaning back, forced to react, but, beginning with the woman who emerges in 1x10, now the tables have turned and she’s turned proactive and assertive—she tells Cosima that they have leverage, but Delphine herself is leveraging both sides well and calmly and it’s sort of glorious.

(I think I should address, too, that when asked where Cosima is, Delphine gives Leekie a physical location. Cosima is in town. Considering your offer. As if Leekie hadn’t told her Cosima’s location in the first place? SO HOW DID YOU FIND HER, DELPHIIIIIINE? Or were you actually just going to Not-Toronto because that’s actually where you work out of originally and were assigned and it’s just super convenient that EVERYONE was in Not-Toronto? GUYS, I’M ALSO SUPER CONCERNED ABOUT COSIMA’S APARTMENT AND ALL HER PLANTS, LIKE IS SHE GOING TO GO BACK TO PROPERLY PACK UP HER STUFF OR WHAT?)

In light of this emerging personality, the “I’m invested” line has such beautiful ambiguity because it’s so open. It can mean anything and everything: Delphine is invested in Cosima, she’s invested in the science, she’s invested in the project, she’s invested in a cure. She is an immunologist so the question still remains as to what exactly propelled her into being recruited(?) into the clone project.

I have so many thoughts i can’t even get my head around them. LIKE SCOTT! That Cosima is going to continue to involve him in this—without any real regard that if she gets caught, she could be putting him in danger? Like Cosima is forming her own on-the-side TEAM SCIENCE and that’s sort of amazing, too. Here I thought all the science shenanigans would be contained at Dyad, but NO, COSIMA WANTS TO ACTUALLY CONDUCT HER OWN RESEARCH ON THE SIDE, HOW IS THIS EVEN GOING TO WORK OUT? I don’t know. But I feel kind of bad for Scott being dragged along without being told much. :(