Helix Episode 2.06 M. Domestica

Jules and Alan are getting it on as a Dr. Pozniak makes a presentation to the Ilaria board about the silver lining of the disaster at Arctic Biosystems: Narvik-C. Amid blip flashbacks to bloody vectors from last season, Pozniak talks about not letting "humanity" go "off-course," and Jules moans, "Alan" -- only she's not actually in bed with Alan. She's astride Balleseros. Un! Comfortable! Balleseros is willing to persevere through the awkwardness, but gets a text telling him the board meeting got rescheduled ... to an hour ago.

Cut to an exasperated Jules rushing into the boardroom and passive-aggressing about the scheduling mix-up. Pozniak gives Jules a sorry-not-sorry look before continuing that, between climate change, overpopulation, and the Kardashians, it's no longer practical to let humans and nature take their respective courses. It's time to cut down the population with Narvik-C, using the antidote Jules developed "on any mortals deemed essential." Well, that's big of him.

Jules protests that she was assured they'd look at "non-lethal alternatives," but Pozniak's not trying to hear her accusations of genocide: she's barely lived a single lifetime, while he and the others have been hounded and tortured throughout millennia. The board passes Pozniak's Narvik-C initiative with only Jules dissenting.

As we pan over Agnes's picture on The Wall O' Dead Matriarchs, Michael tearfully lies to Anne that Agnes collapsed. Anne "comforts" him by reminding him, "You prevail. That is how we prevail." Even Michael has to look a little weirded out by how focused Anne is on his awesomeness versus her mother having just croaked. He's soon convinced, though, and tells her she's always been his favorite of all his daughters. Gross (if you've done the math, you know by now that Agnes was Anne's mother and Michael's daughter. That makes Michael Ann's grandfather).

Sarah hauls herself out of her infirmary bed to find Alan cuffed and complaining that Kyle's an Ilaria mole. Kyle doesn't exactly deny it. Sarah brats that Kyle doesn't have the know-how to get them out of "this," whatever that means, and she doesn't trust him -- and where's Peter, anyway? Alan looks guilty, then tries to blame Peter going AWOL on Kyle somehow. Kyle tells them both to shut it: he has intel about the honey. But it's Alan who has to point out that the telltale pollen is from "the common apple" (and we're not scientists, but that isn't really a thing) and since he caught it and Kyle didn't, maybe Kyle should unlock him so he can help with the sample collection. Kyle's like, nice try. Sarah could unlock Alan using a paper clip, probably, but doesn't.

Amy doesn't buy the stroke story about Agnes for one second. She tells Anne Agnes was on her way to confront Michael about Sarah's silver eyes. Anne looks ill, but maintains Agnes's death is a coincidence. Amy's had it and balks at "doing her duty" on her 20th birthday. What is this "duty," you ask? We don't get the specifics, but as we suspected, Michael is father and lover to these women. Ew. Amy thinks Anne should be ashamed of the incestuous genetic experimentation she's not just victim to but conspiring on; Anne isn't, and crazy-eyeses that Amy "will bear Michael a daughter." Ew squared.

Michael visits the oubliette and demands to see Peter's "real" eyes. Peter responds to Michael's "Did Ilaria send you?" with a hilariously unconvincing "What's 'Ilaria'?" Michael isn't buying and dumps a crate of hungry rats into Peter's cell as motivation for him to come clean.

Amy cries to Landry that "the planting ritual" is barbaric. "He's my father!" (yep, Michael has sex with all his daughters. Gross). She plants a seed (as it were) in Landry's head about assassinating Michael with poisoned honey -- or at least threatening his power by making the epidemic worse.

As Michael delivers a eulogy for Agnes, Landry coats bowls of berries with poisoned honey. They're passed around as a sort of communion, and as the Killigan's Islanders all eat, Landry nods significantly at Amy.

Kyle's doing testing in the orchard when he hears a kerfuffle. He comes upon a panic in the courtyard: abbeyites attacking each other, covered in rashes, et cetera. When Anne rushes up, he orders her to quarantine the sick by whatever means necessary, and for once she listens.

Jules briefs Balleseros: Operation Narvik-C-mageddon is a go, though there's a week of prep required before the board can "pull the trigger." Jules plans to blow the whistle to the CDC, though Balleseros isn't convinced they can do much good, and he's concerned that "guilt by association" will get him killed along with Jules. Jules whips out a case containing the only extant dose of the cure and tells him to keep it safe.

Kyle dashes back to the lab for supplies. He insists he can handle the outbreak on his own -- Sarah might pop her stitches, and Alan is Alan -- but sees reason at last. Cut to the quarantine area, where Anne refuses to consent to Alan's use of Western sedatives until Michael overrules her. He greets "Jerome," and Alan snarks that his foot will be "finding a path" to Michael's behind when this is over. Michael ignores this in favor of recommending an herb tea to augment the meager supplies of diazepam.

Amy comes to visit Olivia, who's locked up in a storeroom after stabbing Sarah. Olivia regrets nothing and accuses the CDC of causing the outbreak and killing Soren. Amy responds pointedly that she wishes someone would make the CDCers go away, then leaves, not locking the door behind her. Olivia bolts.

Anne, Kyle, and Alan figure out the berries caused the outbreak while Peter scrabbles up the side of the oubliette to try to get out. He's dangling from the grille when an infected abbeyite looms up over him to drop unhelpful koans like "the things they want gone go in the hole." She pries his fingers off the grate, he hits the ground, and the king of the rats emerges from a nook in the wall.

The CDCers run tests, while Olivia gathers abbeyites and weapons in order to kill them. Sarah spots a fungus in some of the samples. Alan somehow deduces that the spiking of the berries wasn't an accident. But who's responsible?The poisoner is in attendance as Michael tells Peter -- who's apparently killed all the rats in the cell -- about the outbreak. He'll let Peter out to help, if Peter tells him how Sarah got to be like Michael. Peter was a vector at the time and doesn't know the particulars, but when Michael's like, see you next year then, Peter babbles that he can get the info, and tells Michael about Sarah's immortal fetus. Michael orders Landry to bring Sarah to his office, "and the restraints" (ew cubed), but doesn't release Peter. Peter yells a lot.

Landry in turn briefs Amy, noting that maybe the fetus can make all of them immortal too. Amy wants Sarah brought to her instead, despairing of the cross-breeding scheme that requires Michael to mate with his own daughters to make his Immortal gene dominant...or something. Landry's concerned about getting caught, Anne's asking questions, et cetera, but Amy implies that there is "an us" for him to look forward to if his loyalty is to her and not Michael. Landry's dead either way, is our guess; might as well get some nookie out of the deal.

Jules gets home to find the lady chairman of the board in her apartment. Lady Chairman (okay, her name is Claire Wallenberg, but we prefer calling her Lady Chairman) hands her a glass of wine and metaphorizes about straining the impurities from coq au vin before saying Jules's plan to inform the CDC won't work. Jules assumes Balleseros ratted on her, but Lady Chairman figured it out herself. She gives Jules a card with "Mlle Durant" written on it; she's on Jules's side as far as saving humanity from extinction, and Durant will be, too.

Michael and Landry stroll up to Anne and Amy in a changeroom. Does Amy have anything to tell Michael? On Michael's orders, Landry searches a nearby locker and finds Anne's jacket ... with the rest of the poisoned honey in it. Landry starts to take Anne away as Amy tries to convince Michael there's no way Anne's responsible without incriminating herself in the bargain ... but based on the smirk on Amy's face as Anne is led away, this was her and Landry's end game all along. Well played, amoral weirdos!

After a comical misunderstanding with an older lady, Jules is approached by silver-eyed tween Mlle. Durant and her Jack Russell terrier. Durant tells Jules she can't hope to change the system from inside, but another renegade Immortal is working on "something very promising" that could save humanity. "There is much for you to learn," Durant says, handing her a pendant with a tree on it, "and it begins here."

Cut to the same symbol on the wall of the abbey as Olivia and the other malcontents march into the quarantine area to "free" the sick. Alan and Kyle argue, but eventually Alan decides he'd rather not get in the way of an angry mob and sends Kyle to the lab to protect Sarah as Olivia herds everyone out. Alan's contemplating the empty makeshift infirmary when Landry jumps him from behind with a knockout rag.

Kyle expositions that Alan should have gotten back by now. Sarah is snotty about Kyle's allegiances some more, then makes a puzzling discovery: the mycotoxin is in the honey, but not the apples themselves. Just then, Alan appears and drones that Kyle's help is needed with a room-to-room search for the mycotic patients. He leaves, and Alan walks up to Sarah and begins strangling her expressionlessly. Whoa!