HELIX (2015) – S02E03: ‘Scion’ Review
Talk about weird and uncomfortable opening scenes; Episode 3 of Season 2 of ‘Helix’ begins on an awkwardly inappropriate scene as one of the girls of the compound, physically congratulates Landry for abandoning the young boy in the woods last episode. This is the same girl, Amy, who aggressively came onto Matt Long’s Kyle. This episode, entitled ‘Scion’ gives many answers, as well as reintroduces us to a favorite character from last season.
Amy played by Allison Louder seems to have her own agenda, rebelling from the elder woman of the cult, Ann, and their leader Michael. She plans with Landry to dispose of the CDC team by using a plant to brainwash the kids of the compound into rock beating the shit outta Kyle. In an astounding twist from Season 1 that saw initial cast members drop off like flies, Kyle survives. It’s not something I expected at all given the similar patterns that Season 2 is following from Season 1. The kids remember nothing and the CDC team is now aware of someone trying to get rid of them.
The cool aspect of this subplot is that Amy’s rebellion and Michael’s behavior with Ann suggests a sort of hierarchy at play at the compound. Michael is obviously the leader, but Ann seems to be under his power, as he subtly threatens her as a show of his power. There’s a history of these characters that, while brief is wholly interesting. The wall of only women’s pictures in Michael’s office also seems to be a tell tale sign of something. The lore of this compound and these characters will definitely be a lot more interesting than last Season’s Arctic Biosystems.
After realizing that they left samples from the boat victims back in the shack in the woods, Peter and Sarah head back out, only to be ambushed by a diseased person similar to the one who took the boy last episode. After a confrontation with Michael regarding it, they find out that apparently people can leave the cult if they want and when they do so, they end up being diseased? It doesn’t explain much other than the fact that the how’s and wheres of the diseases origins is now in complete question, as infected people seem to exist in and outside of the compound. Obviously this complicated things as there is no containment for this thing and everyone’s scratching their heads.
Alan conducts his own investigation, breaking into a warehouse storing the jars of goo, the same ones being fed to someone in Episode 1, only to be knocked out cold by Peter of all people. Why or how Peter got into the warehouse is a compete mystery! Could Peter be on the Island for ulterior motives as well? This is where things are getting interesting, as we are slowly starting to veer away from the formula established in the previous season.
In the meantime, 30 years into the future, Julia travels to the spot on the map of the island, where she meets a familiar face, her father. The most awesome character of Season 1, Hataki played by Hiroyuki Sanada returns as a hermit of a man with only the visions of his wife and adopted son to keep him company. The twisted and basically psychotic Hataki embraces Julia but interrogates her to find out that she still works for Ilaria. Hataki straps her down and is all happy-happy joy-joy to see her, promising to reunite her with her family, which happens to be the embalmed dead bodies of her mother and the beheaded body of Hataki’s son, sitting around the dinner table like a family.
It’s so great to see Hataki back and probably even better seeing him be completely fucked up and psychotic as hell! I love that he’s become a deranged hermit talking to dead family with twisted seriel killer logic, as he feed mangled heart shaped pancakes to a restraint Julia. But once my elation subsided, I was confused by why Alan would leave a map behind with Hataki’s position marked for Julia to follow in the first place? Unless Hataki has something to do with the secrets of the Island, which means we could easily see Hataki in the past as well, with Alan sometime during this Season.
‘Scion’ provides some answers but more questions as the show continues to be a frustratingly innovative piece of storytelling. Julia’s purpose seems to be the most vague this season and not much is happening with her character so far. I have major reservations about pretty boy Kyle, given how he perked up at the mention of Alan’s name at one point. Peter is also now under scrutiny as his motivations remain unclear.
0 Comments