This week’s happy/creepy music is courtesy of Ren Stewart (@RenStewart) Here is a version by Karen Carpenter ‘Close to You’.
Ectogenesis – noun, Biology. Development outside the body, as of an embryo in an artificial environment.
The immortaletus growing outside Sarah’s body certainly fits the definition. We also have the mycotics living outside the Abbey. The survivors of the “thinning” are likewise living outside of Michael’s control, and they are trying to find a direction. There is a lot of ectogenesis happening on Helix!
The tree – we see it on the pendant, in the Abbey, and now we have the bleeding tree. I believe that trees, or THE tree will continue to be important to the story.
Who else was thrilled to see Doreen (Catherine Lemieux) re-appear? She died way too early in season one. I know I wasn’t alone in my disappointment when she died. So many beloved characters from season one keep showing up as ghosts, it is very entertaining. Who else would we like to see from season one? Is there anyone who we really don’t want to see?
Alan is really struggling to find his role on the island, with Ilaria, and with Sarah, Kyle and Peter. Every time he is asleep or unconscious, Doreen helps him understand what is happening to him with her intelligence and wit. It was hilarious when she told him his beard made him look like one of the Village People. Alan is out in the woods with Kyle and the Coast Guard searching for the mycotics and their mysterious cure. The woods are very dangerous and full of pitfalls and potential attacks at every turn. After Kyle disappears, the search in the woods has added urgency. Alan steps on a trap and is hit on the head with a log. Hello Doreen, thanks for coming back! It’s nice of you to drop by again! She helps Alan understand Kyle and his own need to find him.
Kyle finds the dead rabbit hanging from a tree, Alan theorizes that it’s some sort of a trail marker. Kyle, in his Texas drawl says “I think it’s crazies out here saying ‘go back where you came from’”. He always has some funny sayings that define him clearly as a Texan and I look forward to them each episode. At this point there is a sound in the distance that everyone runs towards. Kyle stays behind looking at the dead rabbit. Suddenly Soren is there. Kyle is concerned about his well-being and is about to check on him when sweet Soren looks at him sadly and apologizes.
While he looks at Soren, Kyle is grabbed and dragged away. Kyle finds himself tied up in the shack that the mycotics are living in. They are really crazy, creepy and definitely dangerous. They want to eat his eyes and there are eyeless dead bodies hanging all over. It’s so disturbing. As usual Helix has left us feeling creeped out. Soren wants to help him but is too afraid; he doesn’t want them to eat his other eye, poor kid. He has a jar with some thick red fluid in it from the “bleeding tree”, this is what is keeping them alive. Kyle decides to pit the mycotics against each other. I think this is a clever scheme. He succeeds, and they run off fighting with each other. He rips his ties off, grabs a jar of honey and the jar from the “bleeding tree” and runs like hell, with the lovely Karen Carpenter singing ‘Close to You’ in the background. It’s hard to believe this strong guy would trip while running, but he does, and of course the crazies catch up to him. Since they won’t eat one of their own (“the meat is bad”), he desperately gulps down the tainted honey. What?! NO!!
Who’s the “crazy” now?! They won’t eat him, but still want to kill him. They are shot, just in the nick of time by our trusty Coast Guard friends. We last see him telling Alan that they have approximately 48 hours to find that tree!
Meanwhile, Anne, Amy, Peter and Sarah are busy in the Abbey scheming against each other trying to take control.
Amy, of course is the master of these nefarious plans. I spend each episode admiring her ingenuity before I remember how much I hate her! She won’t let Anne speak with the survivors and convinces them that Anne and the CDC people are all bad and dangerous. Her main goal is to become immortal. She has threatened to remove Sarah’s baby from the jar if she doesn’t help her accomplish her goal.
Sarah is so determined to save her baby that she’ll even allow Amy to stick a needle into her spine (risking paralysis) to remove spinal fluid. That was really hard to watch. Amy, in her diabolical way, doesn’t trust Sarah to put the fluid into her without poisoning her. This appears to be a valid concern since we saw Sarah in the botany lab wearing a big breathing mask grinding up some sort of a seed. Ever faithful, Landry volunteers to go first, he wants to be immortal with Amy. There is no chance that anything will go smoothly for him, nothing does on Helix. We are not allowed to relax and are kept in a perpetual state of suspense. He immediately begins having convulsions which quickly become out of control. Amy runs out saying that Sarah will never see her baby and locks Sarah in with Landry. I wanted to yell at Sarah, “you can throw something through the glass door!” Of course, she doesn’t.
Meanwhile, Anne vows that she will not go down without a fight. She is finally growing a backbone. While she and Peter are talking on the roof, his secret phone gives a signal. He has hundreds of missed messages. It turns out he has been communicating with Sergio! At the same time, Julia and Sergio are landing on the island. They come to the Abbey, knock on the gate and are let in by Anne and Peter. They learn that Michael has gone missing and try to find out if Anne can tell them about the infertility treatment. There is very little time given to them, leaving me frustrated and wanting more.
Things on Helix seem to move further and further apart and become more and more complicated and convoluted during each season until it all comes together dramatically at the end. This was episode 9 of 13. I think we can expect the next couple of episodes to upset and confuse us a lot more before the drama comes together.
Find out more about the show here on the Syfy/Helix website
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