Day 235
Wait… what? That was a bit of a jump!
Alan has a silver eyed bloke tied to a chair and is
beating him with a pipe to find “her” (I’m guessing Julia) – apparently he’s
had chance to contact the authorities but no-one believes him because a) Ilaria
is that powerful and b) his story is “immortals are creating a plague of
zombies” which lacks creditability, somewhat
Having had our little time machine moment, I assume to
try and keep things compelling since the show has been renewed for a second
season, it’s back to the normal time line:
Day 13
Cut to the present where the ominous but rather
disappointing Scythe (seriously,
Alan smacked him and that was it, he was captured. This is Ilaria’s most lethal
assassin? A manchild with mummy issues? Not impressed) has been captured
and Julia wants to know where her mother is; she hits him and Alan objects
Is this supposed to be a “look how much Alan changes!”
moment? Because it doesn’t work – he’s a control freak and a bully, this is
established – I see it more as him inserting his own control. Or maybe because
it’s Julia missing the finger and the relative rather than him missing someone
he cares about.
She goes to Hiroshi who is grieving hard for Miksa. She
comforts him and Hiroshi admits he would have chosen Julia because flesh and
blood > adoption (a message that I’m starting to see a little too often) –
and he didn’t tell Julia that her mother was alive because Ilaria would just
have used the knowledge against her in the same way Hiroshi was forced to
create Narvik. The same reason he never told her about being her father. His
motivation at last!
More questioning of Scythe and this time Alan stops Peter
going all intensive-interrogation on him. Scythe has all the power, isn’t
impressed by their threats or deals and tells them to check out some news he
downloaded before he got to the base: There’s been a viral outbreak in Puerto
Rico. Hundreds infected – one of the symptoms is black blood. It looks like
Narvik is out. Alan assumes Sergio got it off the base
Out on the ice, Anana and Toluk look for Sergio who left after Toluk did the “I’m guarding my sister” thing. Toluk is sure that special forces Sergio will be fine. Anana thinks Brazilian Sergio is hardly experienced in arctic conditions.
And Segrio, far from delivering evil viruses, collapses
on the ice where he’s tramping around on foot. Which isn’t a good idea. Toluk
and Anana, in between some nice little cultural references, seem to accept how
hopeless it is to find one man on the ice. But Sergio isn’t dead – he wakes up
inside and being smacked by Blake (Scythe minion #2) who apparently has history
with Sergio and wants some backup with the Scythe a prisoner. She shows off the
cure and virus that she has and suggests that Sycthe wanted to be captured.
At the base, the gang gathers and checks the footage and
conclude it’s Narvik A – the strand without the Goo-Zombies. Which means they
can cure it and contain it so long as they get the cure back. Hiroshi, Julia
and Alan attack the secure room with guns (while Peter guards Spencer) but
Sergio has already knocked Blake unconscious when they arrive. Sergio is there
for one reason – he wants the list of the Inuit children that Hiroshi stole for
Ilaria. Alan keeps assuming Sergio is Ilaria despite the obvious, right up
until Sergio shoots Blake (you mean I learned her name instead of just calling
her “Minion #2” and she just dies? Waste of brain cells!)
After an obligatory round of Alan telling Hiroshi how evil he is, Hiroshi recites the list to Sergio because he’s remembered every child because he fells terribad and sad about it (we’re doing the redemption-by-means-of-guilt route which is kind of self-serving but not worth a whole lot). Having finished the list, Sergio leaves – giving them the virus and the cure which Hiroshi gives to Alan.
Sarah’s down in the bunker with the survivors and
supposedly the only thing keeping everyone calm despite not looking well –
apparently. It’s a convoluted and extremely dubious excuse for a friendly
doctor to randomly give her a blood test – because they really have time to
worry about that while fighting evil corporations and genocide plagues.
Peter’s babysitting Scythe who plays mind games with the
very very very very easily baited Peter about how he’s always second to his
brother. Really, this level of taunting makes Peter put a knife to Scythe’s
throat? Someone’s awfully touchy. But then he cuts Scyther’s bonds – he complains
about what Ilaria put him through but he’s working for them. He hands Scythe
the trigger
to the explosives that didn’t work, we learn that it was Peter who smuggled
the virus off base – and Scythe knocks him out so it looks like he escaped,
rather than released.
Julia frees her mother and he’s very confused – seeming
to think her daughter is still a little girl. But once off the drugs she was
on, she realises who Julia is. They have a reunion and her mother, Jane,
regrets not leaving Hiroshi and his ambitions sooner. She meets Alan and is
reunited with an unaging Hiroshi.
Reunion cut short by an alarm (has anyone else noticed
this trope? Emotional scenes that the writers don’t know how to end get
interrupted by random action. I could use that at family gatherings AWKWARD
CONVERSATION ALARM! Sorry, Uncle, I’d totally talk to you but I have zombies to
kill). It’s Toluk and Anana (joined by Sergio). After Toluk snarls at Hiroshi,
Anana tells them why they’re there – they’ve brought enough snow mobiles to
help evacuate the base. Then they have to tell her about Miksa.
That evacuation becomes all the more important when they
find an injured Peter and that Scythe has “escaped”. Hiroshi and Alan discuss Scythe’s – Spencer’s
– weakness in front of Peter. Also there’s an evacuation moment where Julia
kisses Alan goodbye because she has awful taste in men. Peter looks on, all
angsty. Also time for Sarah’s Contrived Blood Test results - she’s pregnant!
Sarah, Julia, Peter, Alan. Nooooooo, please don’t CW this
show, Syfy! We don’t need romance drama, we have goo zombies.
And Spencer blows the bombs – lots of destruction, fire and death (without securing the virus and the cure? Isn’t that… silly?)
Alan’s unhurt (alas) but Spencer has Julia at knife point. Or Scythe-point. Jane, injured, crawls out to beg Spencer to let her daughter go, that he’s been lied to by his mother (he believes in witch hunts – apparently against the Silver Eyed since calling actual human witch hunts lies would be a ridiculous unless Jane has been on REALLY GOOD drugs) and Spencer stabs her so Hiroshi and Julia can angst a little more (don’t tell me there was any other point to this character than to be Fridged).
Spencer grabs Julia and drags her to a conveniently
arriving helicopter. Alan follows – distracting Spencer by throwing his dead
mother’s head at him. Nice. This gives Alan chance to grab the virus and cure –
but not Julia who is chained to the floor.
Day 235
Is in a city, presumably somewhere Francophone, reading a
French newspaper whose front page story is the Narvik virus, spread by black
goo that turns people into predators. Narivk B is out. He gets an Ilaria card
with his café bill – and he chalks a symbol on the wall behind him. He tells
Peter he’s found Julia and they talk about meeting at a checkpoint
He’s at the foot of a large building with “Ilaria” written across the top. Inside, in a board meeting, a whole room of silent, waiting, silver eyed people look up when someone enters – Julia, complete with prosthetic finger and apparently in charge.
Well, Helix surprised be. Despite the “BECAUSE SCIENCE!”
moments, and my initial caution, this show really found itself around episode 6
and took off. It wasn’t perfect, but it went from being a tiresome chore to
something pretty intriguing – with a nicely paced mystery with ACTUAL ANSWERS,
some really compelling side characters and some really nice atmosphere. It
rescued itself.
I still think it has a problem that Alan and Sarah are
two main characters and I really don’t care if a goo-zombie gnaws on their
faces or not.
Helix actually really improved its initial racial
diversity disaster. Miksa grew some independence from Hiroshi and explored a
complicated relationship with him – albeit one that ended tragically. But his
story and Sergio’s explored child kidnapping – especially how minority groups
are especially vulnerable. The addition of Anana and Toluk also upped the inclusion
of Inuit characters and without stereotypes. Sergio gained far more motivation
and complexity than merely being the bad guy. Hiroshi began as a truly
horrendous Inscrutable and Cunning Asian stereotype but really grew; remaining
competent but also gaining some powerful emotional connections and elements.
Ultimately, he’s a man who did everything – no matter how ill advised or evil –
out of love for his family.
On women, we’re a little shakier. I’m clinging to Anana
who knows what she wants, is focused, determined, resolute and capable, both
emotional but not ruled by them. She, I like. I liked Doreen and Constance –
both of which are dead. As are Spencer’s 2 minions and Julia’s fridged mother.
Which kind of leaves us with Julia and Sarah. Sarah doesn’t seem to have any
point to the show – she had a random cancer story that was handwaved before
being an unnecessary 4th in the already unnecessary CW-ish
Alan/Peter/Julia/Sarah romance plot. Julia is apparently super special – but
that’s what she is. You could replace Julia with a super-precious diamond or
even the Narvik cure and, except for relationship angst (Alan or Hiroshi),
there would be no difference to the plot. Her specialness relates only to how
she is coveted.
Unfortunately, despite an array of 9 to 11 main
characters and several others who’ve appeared in several episodes, there were
no LGBT characters in the whole season. Goo-zombies ate the LGBT people first
again.
I am really looking forward to season 2. I said in the
beginning of this season that the show would get very old if all the action
remained confined to the Arctic lab… they drew it out but we have done what I
predicted - and hoped
Do we have all the answers from season 1? No – but I think we have enough. A lot of mystery programmes make the mistake of dragging out the mystery for far too long (it was Cult’s downfall) without any answers. I think Helix has struck a really excellent balance between answering questions (Sergio, Hiroshi, the Silver eyes) while leaving several questions to come (what does Ilaria want? How?) and raising some new ones (Julia in charge? Is Alan in a resistance movement?) and even leaving a real question about who lived or died in the explosion.
But things this show needs to get right in season 2: Less
SCIENCE! as an explanation – make things make sense. That also means less
convenient items like sonic canons or freeze-gas sprayers or CONSTANCE’S
FREAKING HEAD that was supposed to be in storage suddenly being available. And
TRY to make Alan more compelling and less like a dull alpha male stereotype.
