Full spoilers from the episode follows:
For a lot of people, SyFy’s new original thriller Helix, either snuck up on you, or completely flew past you without you even noticing it. Thankfully for me, it just snuck up on me. About a week before the pilot aired was when I actually started noticing trailers for the show. While the trailers didn’t blow me away, they were enough to pique my interest.
Helix is about a group of scientists from the Center for Disease Control who are tasked with investigating a possible outbreak at a research facility in the arctic. The main core of the team revolves around doctors Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell), Julia Walker (Kyra Zagorsky), Sarah Jordan (Jordan Hayes), Doreen Boyle (Catherine Lemieux) and the head of Arctic Biosystems, Dr. Hiroshi Hatake (Hiroyuki Sanada).
The pilot episode starts off with a chilling flashback introduction to the virus. You’re quickly introduced to Dr. Hatake and his right hand man Daniel Aerov (Meegwun Fairbrother) as they walk down a poorly-lit corridor while the PA system repeatedly states “CONTAMINATION”. An unknown person is seen stalking employees and seemingly killing them. As Hatake and Aerov enter an animal containment room, they survey a grisly scene of several dead employees and one who’s still alive but in a tremendous amount of pain. As the surprisingly upbeat “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” by Dionne Warwick plays in the background, Hatake leans down and offers the man some water. As he sprays the water in the mans mouth, something starts moving in his throat and lets out a low growl.
Aerov: What is that?
Hatake: Progress.
Another growl is quickly uttered as the screen cuts to black and transitions to the title credits. This compelling scene perfectly sets up for some of the more tense situations we’ll see later on in the episode.
Once the opening credits role, we’re introduced to most of the main cast, starting with Dr. Farragut at the C.D.C. headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia. Dr. Farragut is giving what appears to be an orientation speech to newcomers at the C.D.C., most of which forebodes to many of the events that will take place in the remainder of this episode, and goes on at length to elaborate on what the C.D.C. actually does.
“When a surgeon fumbles, a patient dies. When we drop the ball, thousands die.” – Dr. Farragut
As the meeting adjourns, a woman – who you eventually come to learn is Dr. Julian Walker (Farragut’s ex-wife) – whisks you away to a meeting with the rest of your team as well as Army Major Sergio Balleseros (Mark Ghanimé). Belleseroes tells you that the army intercepted a distress call that named a possible retroviral outbreak. Dr. Farragut, while initially resistant to going, learns that his brother Peter is the man who is infected.
Once at Arctic Biosystems, the group must learn what they’re up against. You’ll be given very little information about the base itself aside from capacity (roughly 150 people). You’ll see Peter, who’s in an obvious state of pain. As Dr. Walker goes to take samples of Peter, she notices that his blood is black. Quickly, Peter somehow manages to break through his restraints and attack both Dr. Farragut as well as Walker. As Peter’s sedated, the rest of the team goes off attempting to find the source of the outbreak.
Through the course of this, you’ll learn very little about what is going on at Arctic Biosystems, this time is mostly served in forcing some more of the casts backstory down your throat. Eventually, Peter will manage to escape his containment room and the team must work hard to find him and bring him back to isolation. This is the turning point in the episode in terms of excitement.
Dr. Farragut eventually finds a man in an air duct with his arm cut off (you’ll learn why later, though it’s rather obvious when you actually watch the episode) while Doreen and Balleseros discover one of the monkeys that Hatake claimed they didn’t have; it was horribly mutated and aggressive.
You’ll then see Major Balleseros rip open his coat and see that he smuggled in some kind of satellite device. As he walks outside the base to both send and receive some sort of information, he turns around to notice dozens of those mutated monkeys encased in snow outside. The tension builds. In typical thriller fashion, you’ll learn there’s some sort of conspiracy involving multiple parties in the group. I won’t spoil that, though.
In the pilots final minutes, “Do You Know the Way to San Jose” starts playing again as Peter uses the severed hand to access what appears to one of the staffs safe zones. A woman screams out and then the episode cuts to black and the credits role.
There’s no doubt that Helix’s pilot suffered from the same clutter of information the most shows pilots do, but while the clutter was certainly unnecessary at times, the pilot was definitely compelling. There’s a lot there to be excited about with SyFy’s new original show and hopefully the remainder of the season continues to build on that. The possibilities are endless.
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