Helix [S2] Ep. 11: "Plan B" Review

In one of the most all around satisfying episodes of the series, episode 11 offered up possibly the greatest ending so far. In one climatic and quite intense scene, we finally see what I would describe as one of the ticking bombs set a few episode back finally going off. In this episode we also see the continuos rise of a new villain (another ticking bomb set earlier in the show). With so many things to talk about, let's start from the beginning.

A very brutal foreshadowing

With another great intro to add to the books, we get a scene that not only fed strongly on my love for animals, but basically sets up for our epic episode finale. An unknown scientist shows off a chemical weapon to a group of military officials that instantly irradiates a caged monkey. With one of the officials  accepting the chemical compound as being useful, we get a glimpse of an entire room filled with barrels of the stuff. Another amazing job with the visual FX for the series as the quickly decomposing monkey looked incredible (depressing to watch, but incredible). Continuing on to the island, we see Peter holding onto the same baby that he basically help murder a tortured woman for in a strangely comforting children's bedroom setting. I say "strangely" as nowhere on this island has ever looked remotely settling, but I guess the children got the better end of the stick in their community. As Sister Anne walks in speaking to Peter

Helix [S2] Ep.10: "Mother" Review

Definitely one of the more tougher episodes that I've reviewed in quite some time. There are so many major things to get through, so as usual, I'll tackle the individual areas of interest. However, I won't be going in a scene by scene chronological order as some stories can easily be wrapped up in one section. In this episode, we seem to have two main character arcs happening with some other very significant character moments sprinkled in. What I loved about this episode so much is how every character had their own respected spotlight even if they didn't necessarily do much this time around. Ensemble shows are understandably the most difficult to tackle from a writing point of view as certain characters can easily end up being overshadowed. When a series or film does it right however, it becomes one of the best entertainment experiences ever (The first Avengers film or The Walking Dead for example). Helix is fortunately another great example of this practice as characters are given their fair share of development as well as significance to the story.

The badass heroine meets the power hungry fiend

The intros for Helix episodes can usually go in any direction from guano crap crazy, brilliant, epic, exciting, or down right uncomfortable. In this case, we're given something a little more badass as we see Julia and Amy watching over a large fire smothering over the pile of dead bodies. These ash turning bodies of course belongs to the loving and strange community we've grown to distrust throughout the season. Amy tells Julia (adding onto her feeling of leadership) that she should've came to her instead of Sister Anne. Amy offers a deal to trade "Mother" for immortality knowing that Julia is also an immortal next to Sarah (someone's getting quite impatient when it comes to living forever). The badass aspect comes when Julia threatens to basically kill Amy if she didn't hold her end of the bargain. Julia has slowly, but

Helix [S2] Ep. 9: "Ectogenisis" Review

Soren's eye?

Throughout the season so far, I was wondering how far they would've went with the infected as individual characters themselves. We've only seen them pop up here and there as savage animalistic forces with one stand out moment with Sarah protecting the kids from their infected father. That was the only time that the infected actually had some individualism to their character until now. Episode 9 starts off actually introducing an infected couple living in the woods showing even more of the humanity side of them. At first I wasn't entirely sure if I was onboard with the whole idea of the two being a nagging couple (a savage infected nagging couple by the way) until I realized how much it adds to the mystery of the pathogen. With Season 1, we saw the "vectors" acting like monstrosities right out of a "28 Days Later" sequel, but as the season continued, we also saw a high level of intelligence and communication. I feel as though Helix as

Helix [S2] Ep. 8: "Vade in Pace" Review

Leading off an epic and grand scaled finale in last week's episode, we see the end result of Michael's "thinning" plan. Emphasizing on the mass amount of death and tragedy on the island, we get these great shots of the infected people outside laying dead on the ground reminding that even with Michael's genocidal plans, there is still the dangerous pathogen going around. We see the shock of the CDC team and especially Ann as men, women and children lay lifeless in front of them. The best part of the opening is arguably with Michael's narration of the situation leading to him telling his men to kill off everyone else that's alive. The way that the scene transitions to Kyle crying over the young girl that we saw in the last episode as well as Anne breaking down in tears during the