Tatiana described their relationship as Sarah using sex to survive, so I hope this is a matter of the text being slightly more self-aware than usual and not a matter of an actress having a more realistic grasp than writers. (Which is, sadly, not uncommon in my experience.)
They did seem to totally skip over Delphine's culpability in that scenario, and I kind of side-eyed it, but as long as they deal with that, explicitly or implicitly in character dynamics....
I think Delphine (and Cosima, in her own way) are fascinating and in some respects rather ugly characters. Delphine clearly dehumanized Cosima, and I'm not entirely convinced that she's totally shaken that viewpoint of Cosima as a clone before person, i.e. an object of scientific fascination. (That it is acceptable to manipulate, deceive and use to achieve your ends, before personal acquaintance and an unexpected element of intimacy and response forcibly humanize Cosima.) To the extent that Delphine has shaken it, she seems perched on the slippery slope of 'i feel bad about this one I am now emotionally invested in' rather than an actual in-depth and conscious reevaluation of her own viewpoint. Which is fascinating! But I hope the show doesn't try to play it straight fluffy, because...nope. (And then there's culturally-appropriating Cosima, who - while Allison and Beth are in the very middle of the visceral peril and terror - has a level of abstraction and distance that fits perfectly into her clear presentation of confident class privilege. And, as you said, her hubris - not to mention her casualty with the gravity of Sarah/Allison's warnings and situation - is rather jarred by the end, and I really want to see how that ends up playing out through her interactions with Sarah and Felix and Allison. I feel like the writers have a very clear, complex picture of Cosima as a 3D human being, flaws and all, and I do love that.)
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branchandroot
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Date: 2013-09-16 10:17 pm (UTC)They did seem to totally skip over Delphine's culpability in that scenario, and I kind of side-eyed it, but as long as they deal with that, explicitly or implicitly in character dynamics....
I think Delphine (and Cosima, in her own way) are fascinating and in some respects rather ugly characters. Delphine clearly dehumanized Cosima, and I'm not entirely convinced that she's totally shaken that viewpoint of Cosima as a clone before person, i.e. an object of scientific fascination. (That it is acceptable to manipulate, deceive and use to achieve your ends, before personal acquaintance and an unexpected element of intimacy and response forcibly humanize Cosima.) To the extent that Delphine has shaken it, she seems perched on the slippery slope of 'i feel bad about this one I am now emotionally invested in' rather than an actual in-depth and conscious reevaluation of her own viewpoint. Which is fascinating! But I hope the show doesn't try to play it straight fluffy, because...nope. (And then there's culturally-appropriating Cosima, who - while Allison and Beth are in the very middle of the visceral peril and terror - has a level of abstraction and distance that fits perfectly into her clear presentation of confident class privilege. And, as you said, her hubris - not to mention her casualty with the gravity of Sarah/Allison's warnings and situation - is rather jarred by the end, and I really want to see how that ends up playing out through her interactions with Sarah and Felix and Allison. I feel like the writers have a very clear, complex picture of Cosima as a 3D human being, flaws and all, and I do love that.)