'Helix' Recap: 'Ascendant'

All photos courtesy Syfy.

BY DAWN FEAKES

Sorry this is late everyone, apparently crushing exhaustion demands its tribute. Anyway, things went hella wrong last episode with Amy getting her silver eyes (but nothing else), Anne finding a new daddy figure in Peter (and we all know what that entails), and the rest of Team CDC being completely useless as usual. At least we've got Alan. Let's do this.

Peter looking through the gas victims and finishes the job by dismembering them and placing the pieces in barrels. I guess for fertilizer? It's shower time and you know who's really turned on by violence? Anne. You know who is supremely squicked out by this? Everyone else. After the sex come the plotting: first the island and then...the world.  Since the CDC *coughAlancough*  have discovered a cure for the mycosis, the only logical thing left to do is take the cure from them and eliminate them. Oh, and give you a new name....

Alan administers the cure to Kyle which is incredibly awkward as Kyle tried to kill him. We're cool but Kyle, you need to get the cure off the island. Okay, but he still needs to bring Alan in. A deal then: Alan will turn himself in when it's over but in the meantime, he needs to borrow Kyle's gun. Alan give some decent collateral in exchange though: the location of a safe deposit box with all of the proof. And break!

Mother is dead, Julia is spazzing and Sarah has more important things on her mind. Like how to save her baby. She develops a serum containing oxygen and nutrients that she injects but it will now have to be done every half an hour. Well that is certainly going to be problematic. Alan enters the lab and sees the baby in the jar and Sarah trying to figure out a way to save him. You just know that's not the weirdest thing he's seen today. At any rate, the root came from the Mother tree and since the piece of Mother they had died in the gas attack, they have to search for the tree. Anne, can we root through all of Michael's journals and notes for information? Sure,but you have to ask Eli, our new leader, for permission. Don't worry though, you've met him. Eli is Peter. New man, new name after all. Of course you may have access but in return he wants immunity for himself and his followers from Ilaria and 20% royalties on the mycosis cure. Nope, still Peter. Glad to know mass murder didn't change him or anything. Nanny Olivia bring in the royal infant in time to hear the plan to take care of the CDC. Considering it was the CDC who saved Soren, she might end up being a bit of a wildcard. Rookie mistake Peter Eli. Rookie mistake.

My sentiments exactly.

Soren had a seemingly unlimited capacity to forgive as he and Kyle walk along like nothing ever happened. He wants to fix people too but they're interrupted by Olivia who wants Kyle to leave the island as soon as possible as Eli will kill them all. Once he gets his hands on the cure, y'all are dead. Since you saved my son, I'm paying my debt. Take this Coast Guard radio and call for help. Crap, now we have to find everyone?

The baby is alive in the jar and Sarah will do anthying to give her baby a normal life but Alan can't and won't help due to his obsession with killing immortals. Why don't you start with me then? Sarah, bad question to ask an unstable man holding a gun.

Alan, just don't argue with her.

Julia studies the painting of the Mother tree for clues to as to its whereabouts when she gets a better idea: just take the painting. Olivia finds Soren and tells him to hide as she made a terrible mistake and needs to help Dr. Kyle. Personal growth generally means a short life span on this show. Alan sneaks up on Julia and offers to help and because Julia is incredibly naive she accepts it. Could it be just a painting? It could be but considering Michael was not only a botanist and geneticist but also an artist, an astronomer and a cartographer, it stands to reason that he wouldn't be prone to flights of fancy and the stars in the painting are the stars seen from the island. Well done Jules. Just...watch your back.

Kyle finds Sarah to get her out of there meets her jar-son. You, know, nothing really surprises him anymore. Peter's gone native and we've got to get out of here. Barricade the doors because here comes the army. They head up when Sarah discovers that the baby's case is leaking. No worries, just search the abbey for another one, the chewing gum will hold for at least that long.. You have 30 minutes. Go!

Peter/Eli cradles the baby when Anne come in and reports the CDC fled with the cure. Anne apoligzes but he's not Michael and won't take it out on her. Yay?  Clearly they were betrayed but by whom? Find Olivia and take care of it. Show no mercy but lots of tongue. While armageddon starts below, Alan and Julia engage in some star gazing on the roof trying to figure out where the Mother tree is. Ah ha! She had the perspective wrong; the triangulation point is backwards. That means that Mother is at the abbey! Okay, fine but still: where?

No time for revelations as the most sinister game of hide and seek is underway. In danger of being trapped, Kyle and Soren duck into a room when Eli meets Olivia right outside the door and accuses her of betraying them. She tries to flee but there is no escaping the Vector Eli and he snaps her neck right in front of her son. Oh my holy hell, this poor kid. Why would a doctor hurt people? I don't know Soren, I don't know. He's got no one left now but Kyle, Kyle will be his family. And yes, I did tear up. I don't want to talk about it.

Soren is gonna need all sorts of therapy.

Anne and Peter scour the lab before splitting up an circle the grounds. Just when I'm about to berate them for not actually looking, Anne peers under the couch and Sarah appears behind her. Point: Sarah. She wants the jars for her son and you will tell me seeing as I'm the one with the knife. Well said, Sarah. Julian and Alan search for the tree and come to the council hall. She may be a brilliant investigator but she's horrible at reading people. In Michael's speaking area of the council hall, she concludes that the tree is under the floor. Don't just stand there Alan, help her break up the floor. It's the least you could do before you kill her you know.

Sarah wants answers and Anne isn't playing ball. She taunts Sarah that she'll never help her son, that she's not really a parent, that it's not natural and why don't you put the knife away dear, we both know you won't use it. ORLY? Mama Bear Sarah responds by slicing her ankle. I'll ask again: where are the jars? Anne takes her to the birthing chambers where she finds the gestating women. Sarah is repulsed but not to be distracted from her mission. Oh, and free those women while you're there if you know what's good for you Anne.

Peter talks to the baby, ruminating that he always felt he wasn't in the right family. This baby is his son, his family and he will teach him what it is to be a man. Oh goody, another sniveling, selfish coward with an inferiority complex. Thanks Peter. Unconcerned that Peter has gone completely batsh*t crazy, Alan and Julia end up inside the root system of a tree after breaking through the floor. It's Mother. She's everywhere. Yes, yes I am. Oh, sorry. Right. Back on track. But they're not alone, A random female mycotic - maybe- appears behind them, shrieks, and disappears. Okay then.

Up on the rooftops Dr. Kyle calls...the Coast Guard for an evacuation while Anne limps back to Peter's office. Who did this to you? Sarah. You have to stop her and Kyle, they're trying to leave the island. Too bad Michael never saw he need for an escape plan. A secret boat would be really handy right about now. And how are the tattered remnants of Team CDC going to leave the island? By the most doomed mode of transportation ever: a helicopter.

Jules's test vials are broken but the fungus is in the ground so it might not matter that the tree is dead. Kyle starts getting Soren into the helicopter when Peter starts taking shots at it, chasing it off. The fungus is in the soil around the roots so Mother was just the repository for the fungus. With gene splicing and replication, they can manufacture large quantities of the sterilization agent, saving humanity but reducing the population in a non-lethal manner. Alan prefers Plan C or 'None of the above' and so draws down on Julia. Julia has a gun in her bag as well and pulls it on him. The lights go out...and someone fires. It was point blank range so no one escaped unharmed.

Season finale next week! Will we finally get back to seeing Future Julia? What is Landry up to? Who survived the fight for Mother? Will the chewing gum seal hold? Tune in to Syfy on April 10 at 10 ET for 'O Brave New World.'