Cosima Niehaus

Cosima is a PhD student in evolutionary developmental biology, dreadlocked and grinning behind thick glasses, who discovers she is one of several genetically identical women being watched by shadowy forces. She throws herself into the mystery like a puzzle to be solved, curious and unafraid, even as the science she loves starts to look like the thing hunting her.

She's the show's brain and its warmth at once — the character who explains the genetics without ever feeling like a lecture, because Maslany plays her with such easy delight in ideas. Watching her build friendship and romance and hard science into the same scene, distinct from every other clone she plays, is the performance's quiet flex.