This is the anguished question of Dr. Doreen Boyle, the quirky down-home veterinarian scientist in Syfy’s new show Helix. The cadaver table is immaculate, swabbed with formaldehyde to destroy any evidence of the pathogen that is spreading though out the polar research base run by Arctic Biosystems. The monkey’s remains might have provided the source of a vaccine for the stricken scientists—as of the second episode last night, about a third of the base is now infected. Who is behind this sabotage?
Last
week viewers learned that Arctic Biosystems is running a top secret,
unauthorized, unregulated genetics laboratory somewhere near the North
Pole. There are over 100 scientists
there—or were until last night—conducting
research with mutagenic agents, which increase the mutation rate in living
tissue. They have developed an
experimental virus called Narvik-B.
Peter, the brother of Alan who is leading the CDC investigatory team,
has been exposed to it, and has the most advanced case.
Exposure
to Narvik-B turns its victims’ blood into revolting black slime, gives them
superhuman strength, causes nasty ulcerations of the skin, changes the physical
structure of their eyes, and appears to lead to a kind of zombification,
judging by Dr. Sulemani’s condition before she was shot dead in last night’s
episode. Paranoia and inexplicable rage
seem to be early warning signs of infection, as does a queer tremor and
pulsation in the throat beneath the larynx.
Those who are infected are called ‘vectors’—in the same sense that a
mosquito is a vector for malaria. In
last week’s climactic shower scene with Peter and Julia, fans learned that
Narvik-B is transmitted orally, via a form of French kissing.
The show’s
writers excel at parceling out incomplete revelations and loose ends that leave
viewers with many intriguing questions.
Why does Sarah, the earnest intern from the CDC have a mysterious scar
running down the back of her spine? Who
is on the board of Arctic Biosystems, an international venture? What is the actual mission of the
facility? Why is there a nuclear reactor
in the basement? Why was the satellite uplink tower blown up just
before the suspicious Dr. Hatake was to confer with the board members? What is the “army engineer” Balleseros up to?
The
second episode was as impressive as the premiere on the 10th. A strength of the show is its set of complex
and unpredictable characters, whose often furtive activities generate ongoing
mystery and interest. It is clear from
the beginning that the ‘bad guys’ (Dr. Hatake and his henchman) may not be
thoroughly bad and the ‘good guys’ (Sarah and Belleseros) may not be entirely
good.
There
was powerful symmetry in two scenes involving Alan, the CDC team leader and the
hapless Dr. Sulemani. In the first, Alan
chastises the security chief for shooting at Sulemani as she approaches Dr.
Hatake—he has used deadly force against a patient! (Sulemani survives after the bullet is
removed from her.) Later on, Alan must
shoot at Sulemani himself to kill her before she can attack Julia.
There
were a couple of other strong and disturbing scenes:
a test for the virus allows the team to separate the healthy from the
infected staff, who are then relegated to Level R, the new basement quarantine—an
echo of our own sometimes inhumane segregation of the ill and disabled. Julia joins the afflicted downstairs,
removing her white coat as a symbol that she is now also one of the damned.
New
viewers of Helix may be overwhelmed
by the number of different characters in the show, as well as the numerous
subplots and meaningful, if incoherent clues scattered about in the subplots. For them, SyFy has created what amounts to an
online ‘study guide’, which is fun to explore in itself, (see Helix | Syfy).
Helix is on SyFy Friday nights
at 10:00.
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