Helix Episodes 1-2 Recaps: The Viruses Are Coming, Run For Your Lives! (Series Premiere)

"Helix" airs on the Sy Fy channel on Fridays at 10 ET. It is currently opposite "Dracula" on NBC (but I think there are only two more episodes left of that). An interesting feature of the show is that each episode covers one day in their universe. There are 13 episodes total so the entire first season takes place in a little over two weeks.

Episode 1: Pilot
The story's premise is that the CDC receives a distress call from a lab called Arctic Biosystems (big pharma) in the Arctic. A team lead by Dr Alan Farragut is sent to investigate the outbreak of a possible retrovirus. One of the infected people is Alan's brother Peter. Other members of the CDC team include: Dr Julia Walker (who apparently was married to Alan but he caught her in bed with Peter), Dr Sarah Jordan,and Dr Doreen Boyle. The military is represented by Major Sergio Balleseros.

There are some 100 people total at the research center (most are scientists from a number of different countries). The director of the lab is Dr Hiroshi Hatake. We cant tell if he's a good guy or a bad guy. Daniel Aerov is Hatake's head of security. He met Hatake at an orphanage. Was he really adopted by him?.

At the beginning of episode 1, several people have been killed. Peter is infected and near death. The dead's blood turns black and their bodies decompose at a rapid rate. The team determines that the virus is not airborne (but still don't know how it is transmitted).

Dr Doreen Boyle asks if the lab uses monkeys for experimentation. She is told no but later finds monkey cages in a restricted area. A monkey attacks her but Balleseros kills it. Boyle appears to have not been bitten.

Later Balleseros is doing something suspicious. He's putting a satellite dish out in the snow. Then he finds out what happened to the monkeys. There are hundreds of them frozen in an upright position in the snow. And it appears that Balleseros is in cohoots with Hatake. Subtract one from the good guy column and add one to the bad guy column.

Episode 2: Vector

Once of the best parts of shows like this is that the characters are trapped together and have no change of escape. In this case it's because they're in the Arctic and the nearest base is some 100 miles away.

Peter is busy trying to infect other people by hacking up some black mucus into their mouths. The difference between him and the others that died in that Hatake gave him something from a bottle after he was infected (I'm guessing that wasn't water).

They spend a good part of the episode trying to round up escaped infectees including Peter. It's hard to do when they have superhuman powers and can scurry through air vents (a la "Aliens").And did I mention they have anger control issues? Yes, I know-- like who doesn't? That part reminds me of "28 Days Later".

One of the scientists tries to escape on a snowmobile in order to alert the media about what's going on. Camp Eisenhower is 200 miles away. The major takes him out with his knife.

We thought Hatake was a bad guy. Now we know ifor sure because he takes out his color contacted lenses and has freaky glowing eyes. Is he an alien or what? And why does he have photos of Julie in his photo album?

Speaking of Julie, she is in the shower (hasnt any one told her to NEVER take a shower in a horror movie?) and here comes Peter. He locks lips with her (and not in a good way). Is she infected now too?

PS I cant wait till Jeri Ryan arrives.

Best quote of the show: "This is going to be the most facked up family reunion ever"- Dr Boyle (referring to the Alan, Peter and Julia). Haaaa, a "Battleship Galactica" reference. That's great.

Grade: 4 Monsters (out of 5). I'm a real sucker for the "everyone trapped together in an isolated place with a big bad threat genre", so I'm really enjoying the show. I will definitely watch it again. Just a word of advice though, if you hear "Do You Know The Way To San Jose" you should run and/or hide immediately.