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Natural Selection (Orphan Black)

Reception

"Natural Selection" premiered in the United States on March 30, 2013, and drew 684,000 live viewers. Including viewers who watched playbacks of the episode on the same night, it had a total viewership of 1,026,000. In Canada, the episode was watched by 404,000 viewers on Space, which made it the most-watched premiere of an original series on the channel.

Todd VanDerWerff of The A.V. Club gave "Natural Selection" an A– grade and particularly enjoyed the episode's unexpected plot developments and the writers' continually placing Sarah in "seemingly inescapable corner[s]". He described Maslany's performance as "absolutely fantastic" and commended the "labyrinthine plotting and endless forward momentum" of the storyline. The Huffington Post's Chris Jancelewicz gave the episode an extremely positive review, giving particular praise to the episode's originality, its pace, its characters, and that "the innumerable layers of each character and their relationships with one another are dealt with perfectly." He commended the performances from Maslany and Gavaris, and noted that the two actors "play off of each other in the best possible way". Alan Sepinwall of HitFix, described Maslany's acting as "terrific", "versatile" and "charismatic in the way any single-lead show needs". He admired the way the plot developed with "very little of it feeling contrived", as well as the balance between a dark and light tone.

Roth Cornet, who reviewed the episode for IGN, praised Maslany's performance as Sarah but found the plot and supporting characters to be underdeveloped and sometimes implausible. Her conclusion was that "Ultimately, the pilot does a fair job of setting up a very basic premise and teasing an intriguing mystery." A more critical review came from New York's Matt Zoller Seitz, who found the episode "amusing but not riveting" with a "loose and ragged" plot. He conceded that Maslany's performance was "undeniably impressive" but found her playing multiple roles gimmicky and detracting from the larger story: "the main selling point, Maslany's virtuosity, takes me out of the same drama in which I'm supposed to be immersed."

Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things

Reception

"Knowledge of Causes, and Secret Motion of Things" was first aired in the United States on BBC America on June 3, 2014. It was watched by 497,000 viewers and attained a Nielsen rating of 0.2 in the demographic of adults aged 18–49.

Paste magazine's Mark Rozeman rated the episode 9/10, commending the script's balance between "its conspiracy thriller aspirations and its tendency towards broad comedy". He found the episode more similar in tone to the show's first season as described the final scene as "fantastically morbid". Reviewing the episode for The A.V. Club, Kayla Kumari Upadhyaya gave it a "B+" rating and wrote that it contained "the most comedy we've seen all season". She gave particular praise to the Maslany's portrayal of Alison and to the "shocking" final scene wherein Donnie kills Leekie. Rob Hunter of Film School Rejects was pleased with the "fantastically exhilarating" pace of the episode and its "spectacular balance between the dramatic and the comedic". He highlighted the technical achievement of showing two clones in front of a mirror, writing, "Sure it's showy, but it's fantastically so." TV.com's Kaitlin Thomas also enjoyed the episode's combination of comedy and drama, describing Orphan Black as "one of the best shows on TV in terms of striking a balance between the two". Danielle Henderson of New York awarded the episode 4 out of 5 stars. IGN's Eric Goldman gave the episode a mixed review, finding the final act of the episode "sloppy". He wrote that Leekie's sudden disappearance "felt a bit cheap" and found Donnie's backstory implausible, but enjoyed the comedic elements of the episode and the development of Rachel and Mrs. S.'s characters.