Helix Episode 2.09 Ectogenesis

In the woods, a Cockney husband-and-wife pair of mycotics snipe at each other about the wife's crappy stew and the husband's shiftlessness. The argument turns into fisticuffs. From a puddle of overturned stew, a disembodied eyeball watches ...

Cross-fade to Alan's anxious eyes. He's dreaming himself in a bedroll in the woods, next to a campfire the late Dr. Doreen from Season One is tending. She mocks his beard and asks what he's really doing out there. Trying to stop Ilaria, he says, but Dream Doreen thinks he's "in search of a mission," and he needs to wake up. He does, thanks to Kyle jiggling him with his foot; the two of them fit in a little sniping of their own before Winger says one of her guys is MIA.

Meanwhile, Anne lamely tries to convince the surviving Killigan's Islanders that "we will prevail" but they're not having it, though Anne cites Peter's assurances that the remaining food and water is safe. She doesn't do a great job with the question of why Michael murdered everyone else, either, and before long, Amy shows up to undermine her mother with a grand speech about leaving the old ways behind. Peter pulls an "um, okay then" face. Then Amy accuses Anne of "laying with" an outsider, specifically Peter, which Anne hotly denies; Peter, for some reason, settles for glaring at Amy. "Come. Join me!" Amy says, and everyone brings it in for a culty hug as Anne and Peter peace out.

Peter finds Anne standing at the edge of the abbey roof. They kvetch about Amy inheriting Michael's cruelty and his "gift for empty speech," and Anne has a pity party about how Amy's messed-up behavior is all her fault. Then she admits she feels safe with Peter; he listens to her. It seems like they might make out, but he only asks what her plan is. Anne's saying that she's not going down without a fight when Peter's Ilaria phone bleeps. He's missed like a hundred messages saying that "the answer to [their] problem" has already arrived on Killigan's Island.

Said answer: Balleseros and Jules, conferring cliffside about extracting Michael without using force. Balleseros isn't optimistic -- he hasn't heard from Peter in days; who knows what they're walking into -- and shows Jules a loaded pistol.

Sarah tries to break into the cabinet holding the Immortaletus jar. Naturally, Amy and Landry walk in, and Sarah calls Amy a crazy bitch and starts to rush her, but: Landry. Amy reminds her of the trade she offered Sarah -- the Immortaletus in exchange for immortality for herself -- but Sarah can't; she's never done the procedure. Amy tips the jar while wondering how long the Immortaletus could live "outside." Instead of calling Amy's bluff, Sarah agrees.

Winger's man is found, hanging upside down from a tree with his eyes gouged out. Sarah's probably longing for the same fate, as Amy's pontificating again, this time about the synthetic womb Michael developed to get around "troublesome emotional attachments" between mothers and unborn children. She turns her Manson lamps on Sarah and demands to know how Sarah became an Immortal. Once she's told, there's even more blather about her daddy issues, and Sarah agrees to the deal -- but Amy's set on having the procedure that day, despite not knowing how to do a spinal tap.

Sarah pulls a spiny pod from Michael's Case O' Danger, titrates a mixture and fills a syringe while, at the front gate, Jules and Balleseros knock. Peter and Anne let them in, and Balleseros isn't happy to hear Michael's missing. And over in the woods, Kyle sees a bunny with its eyes gone and notes he's seen that before, when they first landed. He's snarking on Alan for suggesting maybe it's a trail marker of some kind when distant screeching distracts the others. Kyle sees Soren a short distance away with a homemade eye-patch. Soren says he's sorry. "For what?" Kyle asks, just before a mycotic jumps him and drags him off.

In the orchard, Jules briefs Anne and Peter on Ilaria's Narvikocide plan and says she wants Michael's "infertility biotech." Anne dismisses the deaths of five billion people as an "outside-world problem," but Jules insists the abbey isn't safe from Narvik either. Anne notes that Jules isn't "asking," so much -- Balleseros will shoot her if she refuses -- and walks off. Jules knows Peter doesn't have the biotech himself or he'd "already be taking bids," but he can get Jules what she wants. "For a price," Jules eye-rolls, but agrees he'll have immunity from Ilaria once "this is all over." Oh, and a hundred million dollars, NBD. Jules calls him a pig for charging to prevent billions of deaths. "And pigs get fed," he grunts. Jules glares as he walks away; we're thinking it's not Anne who's going to get shot.

Sarah (bitchily -- not that we blame her, but maybe not the best strategy) walks Amy through the spinal tap, sans anesthesia. Landry looks on, worried, as Amy biffs the first try and Sarah screeches at her to take the needle out.

Kyle comes to in the Mycotic Bickersons' shack, tied to a table. Mrs. MB babbles about soap and tries to feed him eyeball stew; when he gags, she's offended, and she's about to gouge his eyes out when the mister comes home and wrangles her away. He's "nowhere near ready," the husband says -- i.e., too skinny to eat -- as he downs the eyeball. Blech. Kyle looks up to see Leila, sans eyes or limbs, hanging from the top of the shack.

Winger's set to give up looking for Kyle: "He's probably dead already." Alan argues that Strung-Up Guy and the Kyle-napping mean they're "getting closer" to a lead. He finds one of Kyle's gum wrappers … and steps in a trap and gets knocked out by a counterweight. Dream Doreen returns to ask him why he's got a wild hair about Kyle (and to imply Kyle is Alan's son), and then Winger brings him around. The booby-trap convinces her Alan's right; they're getting close.

Amy gets the tap right, but when it's her turn, she gets all distrustful. Sarah's like, I want my kid back, and I held up my end, sooo … Amy suggests a test first, maybe on an animal. It doesn't work like that, Sarah sighs, so Landry volunteers to go first. Neither woman is keen, but Landry convinces Amy, so Amy orders Sarah to Immortalize Landry.

Kyle struggles to get out of his restraints, then asks whoever's lurking outside the shack for a drink of water. It's Soren, who apologizes for tricking him into getting Kyle-napped, and talks about the sap from "the Bleeding Tree": "We need it so we don't get more sick." Kyle asks if Soren knows how the Bickersons get their food, and wants to stay off the menu; Soren wants to help, but if the Bickersons find out, they'll "eat the rest" of him (they've already eaten his eye; thus the eye-patch). Kyle promises to protect him; Soren finally assents, but Mr. Bickerson comes back before Soren can untie Kyle.

Landry expositions that they'll have to wait 3-4 days for Sarah's spinal fluid to regenerate before Immortalizing Amy. Amy snaps at Sarah to hurry up. When she's done, Landry claims he doesn't feel any different -- and promptly has a seizure. Sarah explains that some patients reject spinal transfusions; Amy snarls back that some doctors poison their patients, too, and "You just said goodbye to your baby!" She slams out and locks Sarah in with Landry as Landry's seizure intensifies.

In other crazy-eyes news, Anne is explaining an apple without seeds by telling the story of "Mother," the island's origin tree from which all others are grafted. Mother's fruit sterilizes mortal men, apparently. Jules asks to see "her."

Mrs. Bickerson rambles on about fear tenderizing a chased rabbit or whatever, then reveals she eats honey, but Kyle shouldn't tell Mr. B. Kyle thinks for a sec, then lies that Mr. B said the same thing, trying to turn the Bickersons against each other. Before Mrs. B stomps out, she says they don't eat their own, because the disease makes them taste bad, or something.

As Anne is discovering to her horror that someone's taken "Mother" out of the wall safe, Kyle is continuing his disinformation campaign on Mr. Bickerson. Mr. B heads off to chastise the wife and Kyle wriggles out of his restraints. The Carpenters croon "Close To You" as Kyle packs up some jars of honey and bolts. Soon enough, he trips in the dark and falls; most of his cargo breaks, with the Bickersons are closing in.

A desperate Kyle opens a honey jar and drinks it so that, when he's recaptured, he's diseased and they won't take his eyes. Sure enough, the Bickersons grab him moments later, and Kyle's like, you can't eat me now, neener neener. They're fixing to kill him anyway but Winger's team shoots Mr. B in the head just in time. Kyle tells Alan and the others there are no other mycotics out there, "just Soren" -- but if they don't find that Bleeding Tree, he's dead.