Helix "Vade in Pace" Review: Here's to the New Breed

Helix S02E08: "Vade in Pace"

Listen while you read! Click play to hear "Plow Under" by The Almanac Singers, which played at the beginning of the episode.

I think of Helix as a show that's constantly sliding around on banana peels, and every once in a while it slips so hard that it does a complete backflip and lands firmly on its feet before letting out a triumphant, "Ta-da!" And it always acts as if it meant to do that, when in reality, the series tries so many things that it's bound to hit on something that works every now and then, with frequent stumbles in between.

The population-control revelations of the recent "M. Domestica" were a great example of Helix pulling off a story that I never imagined it could handle, giving me hope that the series is actually a lot smarter than I give it credit for and that there's a master plan behind its endearing madness. The gist was as follows: Ilaria was a group of immortals who were looking for ways to trim the overall population because the planet was overcrowded and resources were in shorter supply. I can totally get down with that! It successfully tied Ilaria's idea to reduce the population to Michael's smaller-scale scheme to do something similar on the island. And it cleared up a lot of what happened in Helix's first season, as if the writers forgot to include a few important details back then and are finally getting around to it.

Unfortunately, the two hours that followed "M. Domestica" once again left me twiddling my thumbs and scratching my head. The grandness of Ilaria's plan was shelved in favor of concentrating on the Abbey, narrowing Helix's scope. The Abbey stuff isn't terrible—and let's be honest, the sister wives and Jonestown feel of the place are pretty rad—but dang it! I'm dying to learn more about what's going on with Ilaria and their nefarious strategy to limit the mortal population. That's some sinister shit, and the different ways in which individual Ilaria board members want to achieve the group's goals—some of them favor a more humane approach involving infertility, while others want to unleash a plague—added some much-needed depth to the organization instead of broadly labeling them all as silver-eyed assholes.

But rather than follow up on the Ilaria stuff, this week's "Vade in Pace" saw Michael thinning his "family" by poisoning their apple juice or whatever. Meanwhile, Amy maneuvered her way to the top through a devious combination of sexual temptation and lies, and she ended up burying the immortal Michael in a hollowed-out tomb (which she wryly referred to as a "monument"). That allowed for a bridge between the two timelines that have dominated Season 2: Julia released Michael in the future, believing he could help her solve the plague that's killing off "immortals" (that's in quotes because we know they can die in the future), in what was probably the best part of "Vade in Pace." Julia has been isolated on her own metaphorical island for a while, and now we have a bit more intel on why she's there and how she'll be incorporated into the rest of the story.

Back at the Abbey, Helix showed some restraint with when to bring in a highly militarized group of super soldiers (who dropped by in Episode 6 of Season 1, as I recall), this time employing a group of Coast Guard badasses (though members other Armed Forces may disagree) to help evacuate the island and cause more arguments about who should go and who should stay. Those left behind included Sarah, who discovered that her immortal fetus hadn't been aborted while she was under... it was removed! And it's sitting in a jar in Amy's office! And Julia wants it in the future because she wants its immortal stem cells to help formulate a cure for the plague! Helix, you brilliant twisted bastard. I still don't really understand what's happening, but anytime this show delivers even the faintest amount of clarity, it feels like a huge victory.

Just when I think Helix is freestyling an entire season as it goes along, little details begin to fall into place and validate certain aspects of the story. I'm not saying everything fits together perfectly, but the series has always solved puzzles by jamming pieces together like a frustrated 6-year-old instead starting with the edges and filling in the center to match the picture on the cover on the box. That's why Helix will never be a great show, but also why it's so incredibly unique and such a pleasure to watch.

Of course, the big question now is, "Where does Helix go from here?" Michael has been removed from the equation after being buried by Amy and then decapitated by Caleb when he was freed in the future. Will Michael's absence make the Abbey story that much less compelling? What is Amy in control of now? And will Julia find her immortal fetus so she can suck out its stem cells and cure her disease? As usual, there are endless questions and only a handful of answers, but if you're like me, you're just here to enjoy the wacky ride.

What did you think of "Vade in Pace," and what do you think of Season 2 so far?