Helix, Season 1, Episode 4: Single Strand

Day 4

We see scenes of destruction, blood stains, ichor and damage including around the phone that Julia tried to use to contact Alan last week.

Julia is in a room full of the assumed infected and one of the scientists, Dmitri, talks about fighting because he assumes they’ve been left to die (yes, it’s another scientist who doesn’t understand the concept of quarantine). He wants to sabotage the air supply to the rest of the base – giving the rest of the base only 6 hours of breathable air.

Hey, I would like to interrupt this recap to mention that I Told You So when I said that putting goo zombies and shockingly unstable scientists prone to rioting at the drop of a hat on the same level as your life support is a bad idea.

When Julia protests to the whole “let’s kill ‘em all, that’ll show ‘em” tactic, she gets kicked out of the room. Outside she sees someone in an elaborate haz-mat suit who gestures to her – she follows them to a corner where they managed to disappear.

Upstairs, Alan and Hiroshi discuss their communications being blown up; well Alan getting all excitable and accusatory at Hiroshi while he is calm and collected and reasonably dealing with the situation as it is.

To Sarah who is taking pills in her bathroom and loses half of them down the sink – she seems nervy about her pill taking. She gets a visit from one of the scientists, Dr. Rae Van Eigan, she’s worried because she has a skin lesion that may be indicative of infection, despite testing negative on Sarah’s useless test (why doesn’t Sarah remember Julia testing negative?). Sarah uses the useless test again and reassures Rae that she’s absolutely fine. Rae isn’t convinced and begs not to be sent down to quarantine to die; Sarah protests it would never happen (Alan would never allow it – that sealed quarantine that he set up) but Rae believes Hiroshi would.

The longer they spend together, though, the more it becomes clear that Rae is infected. Sarah realises her test is ineffective but as she leaves to warn people Raw stops her and talks about Sarah’s tumor. She’s an oncologist and diagnosed her by the pills she’s taking - Sarah wants to keep it a secret; Rae suggests they share secrets/doctor patient privilege (except cancer isn’t contagious… nor does it turn you into a goo zombie)

Alan returns to Sergio and Doreen to complain about Hiroshi not supplying the quarantine wing that Alan set up – waiting instead for a “periodic supply drop” to communicate with the outside world. Lots of science follows about treatment and finding a source. Alan goes to his brother Peter and tries to talk Dr. Phillipe DuChamp into using SORDA, his magically cure all (that kills people) on Peter –sure it’s unethical to use untested, highly lethal remedies on people but since Peter is dying it’s better than the alternative. He gives Peter the cure then has a bedside pep talk/reminiscing (about their abusive childhood. I think they’ve mentioned this at least once per episode now).

Continuum, Season 2, Episode 11: Second Guess

In the future Kiera is having her CMR chip poked at and she asks what happens to their memories which are constantly recorded – she assumes they get erased every 36 hours. And the tech dodges the question. She presses and he lies – which her CMR tells her. He admits that he’s heard that nothing is erased, that the archive goes back years. Every waking moment Kiera has had the chip has been recorded. Kiera is horrified that her entire life is being recorded.

Kiera actually questioning! Will wonders never cease!

In the present at the police station there has been a major cyber attack attributed to Liber8; everyone password to their email accounts has been changed to Liber8. As to the fallout of that? One detective attacks another detective because he was having an affair with his wife. As Carlos says, hope everyone likes being in the glass house.

They consult with Dillon and he asks Betty to take advantage of the absent security to check the email accounts of anyone suspected of being close to Liber8 – both Betty and Carlos are very uncomfortable with that.

At Liber8 headquarters, Sonya isn’t happy – Lucas’s hack was supposed to get them private info not cause chaos. He claims it’s part of his plan, which doesn’t help because she wants to know when he was going to let her in on that plan. Lucas responds by acting more creepily and more cryptically. He leaves and goes to a van, opens it and talks to… Kagame! Who is also dead! Another Lucas hallucination? He tells Lucas to bring the city to its knees.

Talking to Alec, Kiera thinks it’s a great idea to hack Gardiner’s email while the attack is happening and see where he is. Alec passes on breaking into a CSIS agent’s email (this is the same Alec who was perfectly happy hacking into spy satellites and hacking to produce Kiera’s heavily redacted false credentials…). And phase 2 of Lucas’s plan hits – all the traffic lights are on green, causing a car accidents.

Back at the Police station the mayoral candidate Jim Martin (Carlos’s old friend, in Liber8’s pocket) is on the news promising miracles and Dillon gives a big speech about the city falling apart and how they should use the opportunity given to go after anyone who has considered a pro-liber8 or anti-police agenda. He’s doubling down on his police state. A series of police raids grand many people off the street at gun point. Police state is a go.

Dillon presses Betty about finding the hacker and they talk about her extreme discomfort with using illegal acts to pursue him and the drag net arrests – arresting people for looking at the wrong website or for writing an email that says Liber8 may have a point. Dillon completely dismisses her concerns.

As for the Jim Martin, Travis intercepts him to request that he arrange a meeting between him and Kiera over the disappearance of Garza. Otherwise he can kill Jim slowly and painfully. His choice.