Orphan Black: Echoes Premiere Reveals SPOILER's Tie to the Original Series

An Orphan Black character returns — with a catch — on the new spinoff.

By Jenna Anderson

Orphan Black: Echoes made its series premiere on Sunday, ushering in a new chapter of the beloved sci-fi franchise. The series, which is set multiple decades in the future, has billed itself as relatively standalone from the original Orphan Black, outside of the occasional Easter egg or reference. The final moments of Echoes' series premiere added an interesting complication to that, revealing that one major character has a larger connection to the original series than we thought. Spoilers for the first episode of Orphan Black: Echoes, "Pilot", below! Only look if you want to know!

The majority of the episode centers around Lucy (Krysten Ritter), who discovers that she has been "printed" in a lab by an unnamed scientist (Keeley Hawes). Lucy, having no indication of why she was created, settles into civilian life for several years, only to be attached by mysterious agents seemingly tied to the printing program. The scientist, meanwhile, does not agree with the efforts being taken to track down Lucy, and worries that the situation is going to get worse. In the episode's final scene, we understand why, as she calls "Aunt Cosima" on the phone to vent about her problem. We then see a series of framed photos on the scientist's desk of characters from Orphan Black — particularly, the Manning family — confirming that she is none other than an adult Kira Manning.

Who Is Kira Manning?

Portrayed by Skyler Wexler on Orphan Black, Kira is the young daughter of Sarah Manning (Tatiana Maslany), whose journey of discovering that she is a clone of Project Leda fuels much of the series. Initially, Kira grows up under the care of Sarah's foster mom, Siobhan Sadler (Maria Doyle Kennedy), when Sarah is deemed unfit to raise her. Kira becomes aware of Sarah's new "sisters" across the show's first season, and is subsequently kidnapped by Dyad because of her own specialness as a daughter of a clone. She grows up over the course of the series, before being written out of the show in Season 4. In the audio sequel series Orphan Black: The Next Chapter, Kira is a young adult in college balancing Sarah's overprotectiveness with her own aspirations as a scientist.

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This brings us to the first episode of Echoes, which now confirms that Kira later became a distinguished scientist — and had some sort of role in the program that created Lucy. Given Kira's unique connection to the many trials and tribulations of the Leda clones, and the fact that Cosima (and possibly more) of the clones are still alive, it's safe to assume that this will create an interesting conflict going forward.

New episodes of Orphan Black: Echoes air Sundays at 10/9c on AMC, BBC America, and AMC+.

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