Warning: General spoilers ahead

I screened the season 2 premiere of Helix several weeks ago, and I couldn’t be more thrilled that the episode will finally be airing in just two days. And, why? Because that means in just 1 week I will finally be able to see episode 2. I am so excited for the new season of this show, and while I was happy to be able to screen the premiere, it was equally as tough to have to wait for the next installment.

As we should recall, season 1 ended with the mother of all cliffhangers. Arctic Biosystems is left burning to the ground, but the only people we know for sure survived the blast are Alan Farragut (Billy Campbell),  Julia Walker (Kyra Zagorsky), Peter Farragut (Neil Napier)  and that dreadful Scythe. The finale left us with Alan and Peter on a mission to find Julia, with the final scene being that big OMG moment where we see Dr. Walker walking into the board room of Ilaria Corporation.

So, what’s next and where does the season 2 premiere leave us? I don’t want to give too much away, of course, but I can tell you that not too many questions will be answered, at least not in this first episode of season 2. For me, this is a good thing because what fun are premieres that answer every question left open in the finale? Not much is spoken of that final showdown at Arctic Biosystems, and instead, the focus is on a new outbreak that is traced back to an island St. Jermaine not too far off the coast of Seattle, WA. Peter Farragut and Dr. Jordan (Jordan Hayes)  lead a team to investigate, but is it the Narvik virus or a totally new strain that they’ve never seen before? No make matters worse, the island appears to be occupied by a cult led by the very charismatic, but suspicious, Brother Michael (Steven Weber) , and if other series involving religious cults are any indication, the odds are not in favor of our team of doctors from the CDC. Trust me when I say the events in this premiere are very unexpected, raised even more questions (if that were even possible!), and made me even more excited for what is to come in season 2.

I was fortunate enough to participate in a press conference call with Executive Producer and Showrunner, Steven Maeda, and series star, Neil Napier, earlier this week to get all the deets on this freaky new island and virus, what we can expect to see from Peter after having survived Narvik, and any other hints of what’s to come in season 2.

As I think I’ve mentioned before, Peter Farragut is my favorite character on the show, but I wasn’t exactly thrilled with the revelation at the end of the last season that he was working with Ilaria and the Scythe. Peter had always seemed like a good person with a good heart, and so, why would he do something like that? Does this mean that he’s a bad guy underneath it all?

NEIL NAPIER: “I would say conflicted guy, rather than good guy, or bad guy.  I always think of Peter as a guy who’s trying to do the best he can and live up to certain expectations he has for himself, based on his relationship with his family of origin, the relationship with his brother Alan that we see – we got to see a little bit of that in season one. And in season two, we’re going to explore more of the relationship between Peter and Alan. But, yes, I think we’re going to get a lot of that from season two.”

STEVEN MAEDA:  “Peter is going through some very interesting places this year.”

NEIL NAPIER: “Oh yes. Very interesting places.”

TV GEEK TALK: “So is he going to have more of, I guess, more prominent role now? He had a big role in season one, but he was kind of hidden away as a Vector for most of the season. And now, he’s more upfront. Is that going to be something throughout the season? I know he was in the premiere.”

NEIL NAPIER: “Right, yes.  Well, as you said, Peter starts off you know on his feet (first off) which is a nice thing. But again, yes, he goes to some pretty interesting places, and we’re going to see quite a lot of Peter. And it’s really interesting. I think you guys are going to love the way this story unfolds for season two. So I don’t want to tell you too much because then it would be stealing from you.”

As I mentioned, Peter played this monster last season, and right out of the gate in the season 2 premiere, he’s back to business-as-usual and leading team to investigate this new outbreak. So, that makes you wonder how different the preparation is, since it’s almost like having 2 completely different roles. And, of course, it also raises the question of whether there will be any lingering effects of being a Vector.

NEIL NAPIER: “Yes, well season one and season two – I kind of went through pretty different preparation. Season one was a pretty serious application of my imagination because I have no kind of frame of reference what it is to be a Vector and to be sick with Narvik. So there was a lot of play in imagination in that. And what was important to me was to keep my thumb on the man underneath the monster if you will, to really make sure that Peter retained his humanity throughout what was going on.”

“And as we came out of the end of season one, we see that Peter’s cured. I don’t know how much residual effect from his ordeal in season one is carried through the season two – I mean, I know, but I’m not telling you.”

“But spiritually and emotionally, mentally, there’s a lot of baggage that carries over from season one into season two, and I used a lot in season two, the preparation looking back to the journey that Peter had been on up to this point and informs where we’re going. ”

STEVEN MAEDA: “And I don’t how many people know this, but this is the story I told a lot during season one. Initially the character of Peter was dead in the original pilot. He had succumb to the disease that became Narvik.  And then we made the decision before we casted Neil – oh no, let’s keep him around for a couple episodes then we’ll kill him. And so we casted Neil, and he did a wonderful job. And then we thought you know what, maybe there’s something – yes, we’ll keep him around for a couple more. And it wasn’t until we then did a flashback – or sorry, not flashback, hallucination sequence, where we had a scene Neil out of the makeup and we went oh, what have we here – and look at him now.”

NEIL NAPIER: “I’m not dead yet.”

STEVEN MAEDA: “Not yet.”

Now, I’m more than a little nervous with that last comment. Could that be a true omen, or is he just yanking our chains? Hmmm… All I have to say, Steven, is if you kill Peter after all he had to go through last season, I will come after you!

Anyways, back to the premiere, as we know from the previews, everything has shifted to a new virus on this remote island.  But, what about everything that went down at the end of last season? Are we going to get more information of what exactly happened?

STEVEN MAEDA: “Well what we want to do with the show is really do a little bit of reinvention with it every season. And so that was always our plan from the get go. And so we did a little jump ahead in the end of last season going from the destruction of Arctic BioSystems to Paris. And so we’re jumping ahead in time again to this very remote area in the Pacific Ocean.  And it felt to us like a very different place to have the show, but also a place where we could still play trapped, play claustrophobic.”

“And so we’re jumping ahead – we’re probably about a year and a half ahead of the destruction of Arctic BioSystems from last season. And as a result, what it does for us, which is really nice, is it allows us to start the characters in some very different places than where we left off, even jumping ahead a little bit at the end of last season. And then we get to kind of backfill and tell you the story of how they got there.”

QUESTION: “How does that change of scenery affect the tone and mood of the show?”

STEVEN MAEDA: “In a huge way, I think. I mean, just being able to go outside and shoot trees is a nice thing.  I’m sure Neil would agree with this because he was the one who’s having to do it every day. But yes, we’re going to maintain the horror elements. We’re going to keep the things that made Helix Helix from last year. But definitely, the show will have a different look to it.”

Also, as you may have gathered from my brief teaser of the premiere, with the exception of Peter and Sarah, everyone else seems to be separated from the group. However, don’t despair, because Steven assures us that everyone (well, everyone who survived the blast in the season finale!) will be reunited before the season’s end.

STEVEN MAEDA: “It is probably safe to say that everybody will be meeting up at some point.  It will definitely happen before the end of the season, and the challenge for us was trying to keep the storyline both moving ahead in a way that was hopefully satisfying and is kind of an interesting thing to watch even though we’re watching both storylines from the same episodes going kind of in different directions.”

“But yes, we are definitely planning on bringing everything all together – I think that the reunions be they happy or sad, are going to be very rewarding when they finally start happening.”

Of course, an interview about Helix wouldn’t be complete without a question about the music, because it appears that the “interesting” music selections are continuing into season 2.

TV GEEK TALK: “This question is related to the music, and actually to the song, ‘Do You Know the Way to San Jose?’ And I know that in season one, the music from that song was inserted throughout the season, but we actually have the song in the premiere, and actually the title of the episode is ‘San Jose.’ Can you just talk a little bit, is there a real significance behind that song?  I’ve looked up what that song is about.  It was before my time, but I looked it up and it’s actually got some dark stuff in the song. It’s about failure and going back to your hometown.  Is anything related to the premiere as far as that song is concerned?”

STEVEN MAEDA: “There is absolutely, and certainly thematically. I think it plays some interesting questions about going home again and about success in the perils of. But yes, the song is not just randomly chosen. I mean, we definitely wanted to reprise it, but at the same time, we wanted this to pay off in a story way, and it will pay off by the end of the season, I promise.”

TV GEEK TALK: “And then just a final fun question – whatever happened to the White Room and will we be seeing something like the Green Room in the island in season two?”

NEIL NAPIER: “I love that idea, the Green Room.”

STEVEN MAEDA: “Fantastic.  The White Room is great. I love the White Room as a kind of little clue and a misstep. And yes, we are going to be going all over the island. That’s one of those nice things being able to actually shoot a location, not have to manufacture the Arctic every episode.   We’re actually going to be out there at this location for most of the 13 episodes. So we’re really looking forward to showing all the different parts of that location.”

NEIL NAPIER: “There are awful lot of rooms.”

Yep, and there is a pretty God-awful, freaky room in the final scene of the premiere. You can trust me on that one, and it will totally creep you out!

So, everyone excited yet? Really, the premiere is fantastic, and fortunately, only 2 more days to go. In the meantime, check out the below previews and sneak peeks. Pay particular attention to the first video, especially the last few seconds. It looks like a certain character is no longer MIA!

And, be sure to check back at the site after the East-coast airing on Friday for a full review and recap.

The season 2 premiere of Helix  is titled “San Jose” and airs Friday at 10/9c on Syfy.

VIDEO

Harvest — Preview:

Extended Sneak Peek:

Extended Trailer:

New Season, New Virus (and a very, very disgusting virus mind you!):

Cast Recaps Character Arcs:

PHOTOS

 

 

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