TORONTO -- There are a few things "Orphan Black" fans can expect when the clone saga returns Thursday -- imminent peril for its street-smart heroine Sarah Manning, an increased sense of paranoia for her band of identical "sestras," and even more clones.
Online teasers have already introduced spoiler-hungry fans to a brand-new clone character who goes by the name of M.K., as well as the return (via flashback) of demised cop Beth Childs.
The show's co-creators, Graeme Manson and John Fawcett, say the fourth season takes a few steps backward in order to move ahead -- all the way back to that moment on the train platform when Sarah saw her doppelganger Beth leap to her death in the first season.
In alluding only indirectly to M.K., the spoiler-averse duo also admit they couldn't help but add to star Tatiana Maslany's ever-growing character list.
"Every year we sort of get together with Tat at the beginning and rub our hands together a little bit and go, 'What do we need? What are we looking for, who do you got?' And we start thinking of new clones," Manson says during an interview on set.
"We're a clone show -- we love our clones."
"And," Fawcett interjects, "expanding the mythology of the show and deepening the characters that we already have and bringing new elements of the mystery in.
"And often that is about discovering new clones -- whether naive or self-aware."
So far, none of it has fazed the chameleon-like Maslany, whose ever-growing list of "Orphan Black" roles includes tightly wound soccer mom Alison, former assassin Helena, terminally ill science geek Cosima, and the villainous Rachel.
She says Manson and Fawcett have been generous in letting her help determine character traits of new look-alikes, noting her fan-favourite blond alter-ego Krystal started with an impromptu on-set impression.
"They're pretty great about pitching some sort of core of the character and then are really open to my suggestions or my kind of collaborative input," says Maslany, also careful not to spill the beans on new episodes.
"But I love being surprised by what they bring to me because it's never what I expect and it's never what I would have wanted for myself. It's casting me in a part that I never would have gotten to play otherwise."
When last we saw Sarah, she was hiding out in Iceland with her daughter Kira and foster mom Mrs. S, who was newly revealed to be the daughter of the original clone, Kendall Malone.
But familial bliss does not last long -- Maslany notes they will soon be on the run again as dark forces gather.
All the clones, in fact, have big challenges ahead.
"They're all on a big shifting stage -- Alison is juggling everything under the sun and now has a pregnant Helena staying with her," Maslany says, rattling off a roll call of her various cloned characters.
"Helena's pregnant and so her world is shifting in a very different way for her. Cosima has lost (girlfriend) Delphine and so we get to see her going through that and sort of throwing herself head first into her work and the mystery of where Delphine is. And Rachel is in a place of extreme vulnerability, not being in on what's happening around her, which is very counter to how she was raised -- always in the know, always the one with the information. And Sarah is back in familiar places with new questions."
Jordan Gavaris, who plays younger foster brother Felix, assures that it's all geared towards getting closer to who the sisters are and why they exist.
"We're back on the A train heading toward the end of the tunnel," he says.
There will be big ramifications for his character, too, he adds. Sent reeling by news that Sarah and Mrs. S are blood-related, Felix goes on the hunt for tidbits about his own roots.
"I can't say what those things are, (but) I can say that it's a major character point for him this year, that investigation. And I don't think audiences will be disappointed. I know I wasn't," teases Gavaris.
As for the show's star, Manson and Fawcett freely admit they have no qualms about loading Maslany with an ever-increasing acting workload.
"The great thing about Tatiana is that she loves a challenge and she is always up to try new things. And so whenever we can give her really twisted complex acting challenges it inevitably pays off in spades," says Fawcett.
"The more we can give her, honestly, the better our show is."
"Orphan Black" returns Thursday to Space.
