Alison must secure a store front in order to take her and Donnie’s business to the “next level”. But things don’t go according to plan when her mother, Connie, proves to be a major hindrance. Cosima is facing familiar health issues and calls upon beleaguered Alison for a favor. But with Alison working to save an imperiled Donnie from the merciless hands of a drug lord, it’s Cosima who ends up doing a favor. An unassuming Scott gets closer to the greatest discovery of all, when he sits down with beleaguered clone Rachel.
This episode contains examples of:
- A Day in the Limelight: The episode has Alison and Cosima front and center.
- Auto Erotica: Shay playfully rolls a toy car over Cosima's naked body.
- Blind Without 'Em: Cosima's difficulty seeing without her glasses adds an extra layer of difficulty in her impersonating Alison. She can't even read Alison's prepared speech, which forces her to improvise.
- Blood Is Squicker in Water: The episode ends with Cosima bleeding heavily in her bathtub.
- Breather Episode: This episode takes a step back from the main arc, with Castor being completely absent, and mainly focuses on Allison's Lighter and Softer (by the show's standards anyway) storyline. Given how dark the general tone of the show is, and especially what happened in the last episode, this is a good example of why it's not necessarily a bad thing.
- Bring My Brown Pants: Donnie asking the drug dealers if they have a bathroom after nearly losing his nose.
- Call-Back: Pouchy, Vic's supplier who cut off his finger with a paper cutter, returns as Alison and Donnie's supplier. When he has trouble getting money from them, he threatens to cut off Donnie's nose.
- Cooldown Hug: Mrs. S. gives one to Helena.
- Entertainingly Wrong: Connie about what really happened at the IVF clinic. Even though she herself notes that it's odd the donor she chose was blond (Connie is also blond, and two blonds can't have a brunet child).
- Family of Choice: What Alison's speech at the election rally, drawing on her experiences with Clone Club, is all about. She promises to be a mother hen to everyone in Bailey Downs.
- Genre Savvy: The Mexican bartender. She brings over Sarah's and Helena's food order - then grabs Helena's knife and fork back before the Angry Angel can use them as weapons.
- Gosh Dang It to Heck!: Alison saying "Holy freaking Christmas cake!" when seeing Cosima have to take her place at the election rally.
- Hidden Depths: Pouchy and his gang are Portuguese. By a funny coincidence, Donnie speaks and understands conversational Portuguese.
- Internal Reveal: Cosima tells Shay about her illness.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: Connie, Alison's mother, is very dismissive of Donnie, only calls him by his birth last name, and expects Alison to eventually leave him.
- Odd Couple/Odd Friendship: Rachel and Scott hang out together to try to decode Ethan Duncan's copy of The Island of Doctor Moreau, under the pretext of Scott teaching Rachel the rules of playing a board game about medieval farming.
- Oh, Crap!: Mrs. S. refuses to fight a pregnant Helena, despite the latter slugging her several times. Finally, S's reflexes get the better of her and she staggers Helena with a single jab - then freaks out, grabs and hugs Helena, and begs her forgiveness for selling her out to Project Castor.
- Racist Grandma: Connie refuses to believe that Cosima is Alison's clone, going so far as to call her "mulatto" (i.e. mixed-race) because of her dreads.
- Secret-Keeper: Subverted. Connie told the doctors at the IV clinic to use a donor rather than her husband's sperm without his knowledge. When Alison introduces her to Cosima, Connie thinks she's Alison's half-sister rather than her clone.
- Twin Switch: While this is not unusual for this show, this is the first time Sarah isn't involved in a cloneswap in any way.
- Unfortunate Item Swap: Donnie takes the signatures Alison needs to get on the school trustee ballot to Pouchy rather than the money.
- Verbal Backspace: Cosima, giving a speech as Alison, has trouble staying in character and brings up the fact that she's a lesbian. She modifies that to a lesbian supporter.
