SyFy's Helix Season 2 (1 Viewer)

Season two appears to be a 180 degree turn from the nearly monochromatic color palette of the first season, with a lush, Wicker Man-esque palette of greens and yellows and browns. Likewise the show is trading its remote arctic base setting for a remote tropical island setting.

After a pretty epic time jump from Day 13 to Day 235 in the first season finale, and an apparent abandonment of the CDC outbreak investigation hook in favor of a deeper exploration of the Ilaria conspiracy, I was a little disappointed to see what appeared at first glance to be a reset back to the easily marketable initial premise.

However Syfy's official synopsis for the second season premiere hints at an intriguing structural development:

So it sounds like:
Either way, I guess I'm hooked for another run.

I enjoyed thiis and I'm looking forward to the new season.

I'll try S2.

this is still only going to cover a 14 day period, right??, all in for season 2

A bit of a frustrating season premiere.


I was a little disappointed that they reset the counter to Day 1 for the season premiere. I was hoping that they would keep the same count going from Season 1, so we'd have a better idea of exactly how much time has passed between seasons.


The methodology behind who gets credited as series regulars and who gets credited as guest stars continues to make no sense to me. Mark Ghanimé continues to be credited as a series regular, even though he didn't appear in the episode doesn't seem likely to in the near future. Matt Long is credited as a series regular right out of the gate, despite his Texas stereotype CDC doc appearing to be a strictly supporting character. Meanwhile, Jordan Hayes and Neil Napier were basically the stars of the episode and they continue to be credited as guest stars. Now, given that the immortals don't appear to be immune to whatever the virus is that seems to have originated on the island, it's possible that Hayes is credited as guest star because she's going to be killed off sooner rather than later. But it still seems bizarre to me that the show never has more than four series regulars.


I like that the look and feel of the episode is a complete 180 from the first season, even as the show replicates the scenario of a CDC team trapped in a remote locale that they don't trust or understand. I like that they're using Julia's immortality to play with time in ways that non-science fiction shows couldn't get away with. It's a delicate balancing act, since they don't want to reveal anything that will box them in for future seasons. Already, we know that Julia is going to survive any present day scenarios, since she's going to be alive in thirty years for whatever happens then.


I like Steven Weber's character as the leader of the cult. He's just as close-lipped and mysterious as Hatake was, but he presents in a completely different way. Weber layers his performance with a certain irony, as if he's admitting to the CDC team that he doesn't believe all of this nonsense that he's at the head of, either.


I just hope it doesn't take half the season to start getting into the root of what's going on.

My big problem with the first episode is that it felt like way too much of a reboot to the first season's premise, which I didn't really enjoy as much as time went on. I'd have preferred if they just continued from where the last season left off instead of having the season be about some new supervirus.

Interesting start to the season. The fake-out was interesting when they came to the building and I thought they were going to rescue Julia but she was 30 years in the future. I had not read anything about the season, so that was a surprise.


We see the gravestone of Alan Farragut, but no dates, so we don't know whether he dies this season. We get a glimpse of him at the end of the episode and unfortunately, a lot more in "this season on Helix", which spoils some questions.


There seemed to be a lot of Lost references, which I did not mind.

I really liked the kind of surprising baby reveal. Man, what a kick in the ass, I had NEVER thought of that as a possibility at the end of season 1, but it adds a creepy, interesting twist to this.


The vibe of this season is very different, but I think were heading toward some sort of reveal that there is a sort of schism amongst the immortal.. I'm betting this Michael guy is one of them who decided to accelerate the evolution process, something they have eluded to in exchanges with Farragut.

one way to handle the pregnancy issue, the jumping between the two time frames makes this a little different, the tie to what happened at artic biosystems as the "Vector" cause I don't know yet what to call the infected was charging at Peter and him having flashbacks and froze on site, had me wondering how much of that situation he has any memories of.


Steven Weber is effectively creepy channeling a latter day David Koresh, but I think there is a lot more going on, is this a different side of the immortal group, or a group that has been trying to fight against them for generations. I have a feeling that this will be sort of a frustrating year, and this will end up being better in a marathon viewing, sort of like last year.

mattCR said:

I really liked the kind of surprising baby reveal. Man, what a kick in the ass, I had NEVER thought of that as a possibility at the end of season 1, but it adds a creepy, interesting twist to this.

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I really liked that too. It also helps explain why Jeri Ryan's character was so possessive of her son last season, even by the standards of a parent. Once the immortal switch is flipped, you can't have children again.

Otherwise, I'm a little frustrated that this is starting out as a slow-burn again, like the first season did. I was hoping it would keep up the momentum of the final season one episodes like "Orphan Black" did.

Ok. One of the scariest damn moments I've seen in a show in years.. when the guys were breaking down the door to attack them, they go on the run - I thought the had got away, and then out of nowhere that growl and a tackle.. I jumped in my seat, it was a great suspense to payoff moment. Just whoa. We have setup a storyline, but I love this slow burn punctuated with action that catches you so off guard you aren't prepared for it.


The Children of the Damned moment was also.. wow.


Really liking this show this year.

The two beats that stood out to me were: 1) The Children of the Damned moment where the children beat the Texan CDC doc with rocks, set to the Brady Bunch's cheerful singing; and 2) The reveal that not only were our suspicions correct about Hatake hallucinating his housemates, but he'd preserved their bodies, including Daniel's with his head blown off at the neck.

Yeah, the moment at the end where you realize the hallucination.. that was a giant WTH moment. This show has really mixed in some pretty damn effective horror elements.

Held off in writing anything about this week’s ep till I had the chance to watch it a couple of times to pick up anything that I might have missed the first run thru.


So the cult of Brother Michael has its own secrets, even from its own members, to the point that Brother Michael might be out of the loop on what is really going on all without his knowledge, do I see plausible deniability, or is he really out of the loop.


Brady Bunch Happy Day music, that is what worked so well in last season, disarm with happy or sweet music while the most horrible things happen, like getting kids stoned on an old Aztec hallucinogenic, and they turn in Children of the Stone, just evil how that was played out, creepy as hell, …. More in the end result later


The time shift, with two differing story’s working towards each other is a nice change


Reason to watch Hatake is back, knew from the foggy camera work that his houseguest was either all in his mind, or a dream sequence. Loved the subtle way of playing him against Julia, right down to the coffee cup switch, hey she made her choice, got what she deserved.


Ok so now the problems I had with this ep…..

1. That Texas guy had the hell beat out of him with stones, repeatedly, I don’t know if its sloppy writing, or what, that kind of abuse would have left him so beat up, that he should not be up and around, especially that damn quick, something would have at least gotten a fracture. They were hitting everything including elbows and knees

1. Just before the season started, I marathoned the entire last season, granted that some kind of leeway needs be addressed in a series like this, the baby issue, I like the idea they came up with to cover their back story for that. So here is the problem, Jade was outside with Hatake, when she was killed, but a year or so later, Mrs. Bates would start to look a lot more like Mrs. Bates at the end of Psycho. And more importantly when in holy hell did he find the time between fighting the Scion and recovering 7of 9’s head, to torment him, along with blowing up Artic Biosystems, did he find the time to run into a burning building and recover the body of Daniel. Just saying, what should have been in that other chair should have looked more like a piece of charcoal.

We have no idea if that was daniel or just some random other person, or a twin eskimo person or whatever.. in fact, we have no certainty those two bodies are anything but two bodies.. which is what was pretty freaking creepy

I had given the thought that maybe it was Daniels twin, but it is also supposedly 30 years later, so those should look like beef jerky over bone

This has turned into an unbelievably creepy freaking hour of TV.

still haven watched this weeks ep yet, saw a great article the other day, trying to explain, how basically this show is like nothing else on TV, it gives questions, but fails to provide any answers, how many things from the first season were left unanswered. it just brings up more questions, building on a great mythology of it own, and almost always can be counted on for between 2-4 WTF moments per ep. The slow burn pace is not for every viewer, but I find same as last season I will do the weekly, the maybe see how it works in one sitting.

mattCR said:

This has turned into an unbelievably creepy freaking hour of TV.

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Yep !!, imagine if they were allowed to do extended ep like AHS, it could only get weirder


as is, that had to be one of the most WTF ep's of any TV series

I have been thinking a lot about the flash forward. What I'm realizing is that the future moments are the ones we are going to end with... and what does the past tell us about it? It appears as though this sickness is being spread by the honey stuff from the bees I think.. How is Ilaria involved in this, and when did it go wildly out of control? That's going to be interesting.. and is there a world left in the future?