The stars of “Echoes” talk about their love story in retrospect and understand why Kira made an expression

(Warning: The following contains HUGE spoilers for Orphan Black: Echoes Season 1, Episode 5 (Do I Know You?)

Orphan Black: Echoes goes back 30 years to explain why Kira (Keeley Hawes), who now calls herself Lucy (Krysten Ritter), made the expression, and it’s a love story.

In the flashbacks, Ritter plays Eleanor, a professor who catches Kira’s eye (August Winter in the flashbacks). There’s clearly a spark between them, but the romance doesn’t really begin until after Kira moves on to another professor, and we get to see everything from the beginnings, to moving in together, to their marriage, to the struggles of having a child before they have Lucas, to Eleanor’s (then Rya Kihlstedt) learning she has Alzheimer’s and eventually dying. But Kira couldn’t quite let go of her wife, hence Lucy’s expression.

This episode comes midway through the season, and for creator, showrunner, writer and executive producer Anna Fishko, it was “really nice” to have “that kernel of truth” at this point, “because underneath all the fun and big, complicated plotting is this very simple story about love and loss and two women who built a life together and then it slips away.” She calls it “a little bit of a breather from the freight train of the rest of the season, both before and after. And I think it helps to move the story forward knowing that this is the reason Kira did what she did and that Lucy was that way for her at a certain point in her life. I think that information becomes really important to drive the story forward.”

This love story answers the question that has been prevalent since it was announced that Hawes plays the adult version of Kira, who a lot because her mother is a clone in the original Orphan Black. The loss of Eleanor and her grief “brings her to a point where she loses the distinction between right and wrong to some extent and is really in a moral gray area,” Fishko tells TV Insider. “I thought it would be really interesting for the audience to take this beloved character to a point where she’s not necessarily making the decision that everyone expects her to make. And some people might feel one way and some people might feel another way.”

She continues, “I wanted the audience to ask themselves that question. If I had that tool, if I could snap my fingers and bring back someone I loved very much and lost, maybe I would. Other people might think very differently about it, and especially given the past that she’s lived through, I thought it was interesting that someone who has seen science go wrong knows in the back of her mind, albeit subconsciously, that it’s possible to do things in a slightly shady way.”

Ritter says this episode is one of her favorites and she enjoyed stepping into the shoes of a different character at this point in the season. It was about “figuring out how she would be a little different, how she would move. She’s a professor. She’s in love with Kira. It was an opportunity to just play with a whole new set of colors and it was fun. It was almost like making a little movie in the middle of making ‘The 4000.'” Orphan Black.”

Ritter praises Kihlstedt and Hawes and the “wonderful work” they both did on this moving story, and she enjoyed working with Winter. “August was so wonderful, we had such a great connection and so much fun together on set,” she says. “It was really wonderful working with them too, and it was a completely new experience.”

Sophie Giraud / AMC

For Kihlstedt, coming on as Eleanor (“the original character,” she says) five episodes into the series was about figuring out “how much” of a common thread there would be, especially since we now know that Ritter and Amanda Fix (Jules) are playing younger versions (expressions) of the character. Since Ritter plays the younger Eleanor in these flashbacks, “I thought the best thing I could do was show up and see how open and available she was, watch her and see what she was doing on set, and use that as a common thread,” Kihlstedt says.

Now the audience knows why Kira did what she did, and so does Lucy, to whom the scientist told her story. But that doesn’t necessarily mean Lucy’s view of Kira has changed – after all, this is her life now. “Figuring all of that out is challenging for Lucy because she doesn’t feel like that person. She’s doing her own thing. She has her own life,” Ritter says. “She doesn’t have the same thoughts and feelings that you’d expect her to. And I think that’s challenging, but I think it’s all filtering through and starting to make sense, and I think that’s why Lucy chooses this life and ultimately these women.”

But the mystery of where Jules came from is still unsolved because Kira didn’t print her out. “Kira obviously assumed that Lucy was the only print out because she had made a deal that the printer would be destroyed, and Lucy had just assumed that Kira was responsible for the whole thing,” Fishko points out. “So that commonality is why the two of them come together in the second half of the season to rally around Jules and have this common goal.”

What do you think of Kira and Eleanor’s love story? Did Kira printing Lucy change your mind? Let us know in the comments section below.

Orphan Black: EchoesSundays, 10/9c, AMC