Delphine's return.

They probably caved.

But hey, if they want a toxic lesbian representative relationship, that's their business I guess.

I know people definitely think they caved. I have a feeling they'd admit to it, if that were the case. All I know for sure was that immediately after she got shot- they went back and forth between saying it had to be a tragic story to saying there was no body or she was "Orphan Black dead". They said many times that the story and EB's schedule would ultimately dictate her return- that it would only happen if it would advance and better the story. I'm guessing they do have a plan for her and I eagerly await it's reveal!

It is awfully hard to come up with a coherent answer to that question when Delphine has been gone all season, we don't know who shot her, we don't know who has her, we don't why she was shot or captured, and we don't know if she's become more good or more evil. You'd think if they were going to bring her back they'd have done it sooner, instead of having her gone for a whole season. Is she going to be gone for most of next season too? Has EB's calendar suddenly become more OB friendly?

They definitely planned to bring her back. One, this season was written before the whole 100 mess, and two, right after the season 3 finale the showrunners were saying she was dead, despite not showing her die. If she was really dead they would have shown it. Classic fake-out behavior. The actress had a lot of other projects and was unavailable until 409, but i'm guessing Delphine was in limbo till they knew if they could use her or not.

When lightning strikes the sea, why don't all the fish die?

I think the writers always had the intention to bring her back. They didn't cave imo, they were limited by Evelyne's work on other shows. They were practically waiting for her to get some free time to shoot, since they refused to give us a definite kill such as Paul's, and they refused to say that she is dead at the end of season 3. They always knew she is coming back, they just didn't know when.

I disagree with the LGBT community tho, there are many characters, straight or gay that are getting killed off, their opinion shouldn't influence any writer.

I was looking for a post like this. It does seem like every time a gay character gets killed on a show, there's a uproar. So the writers can be put in a Catch 22. If we have a gay character or characters on a show where ppl die, we can't kill them or else we will get major grief. For me I thought Delphine should have stayed dead. I just can't stand when shows kill characters and they don't stay dead. Loses its impact. Alias did the same damn thing 2 or 3 times. I liked those characters, but it was still cheap stunts. I am sure most ppl liked that Delphine is back. Count me as not one of them. I thought it was very powerful seeing her get gunned down.

Bringing back Delphine worked well for me.

It is true that there was huge fluke element to her surviving but that is acceptable to me plotwise. There were two competing factions. I imagine one was sent to kill her, one was sent to prevent her being killed, arrived late, but got lucky anyway.

The only thing that struck me as rewritten was that I assumed the killer was someone we would recognise. (I had guessed Scott or the rebound girl, more likely Scott when rebound girl did not reappear.). Hiding the identity and the cryptic statement implied the identity was important. In the end it was just an enforcer, hardly a reveal, nor gave any special meaning to Delphines cryptic statement as far as I can see.

The showrunner has already stated that the story lines were all written, with a beginning, a middle, and an end. This to me, means that of course it was planned for her return. Cosima and Delphine are a couple, one way or another, and a means to an end.