Helix S1E5 - "The White Room" Recap

Balleseros pours gasoline over the frozen monkeys and sets them aflame. He uses his communication device to inform his superiors that he has completed him mission and they tell him to find a Dr. Hvit. He then hears what sounds like screaming monkeys. Were they alive that whole time?

Alan manipulates Duchamp's cure to try to make it work. He's able to add some elements that make it take longer to degrade. Duchamp is excited about the progress and wants to help by running tests on rats. Alan wants to bring Doreen in and while looking for her, Daniel pesters him about cheking in more often.

The sick woman in Sarah's room is doing worse. Sarah promises to go get more morphine and helps her find a coping mechanism. The woman says the worst part is the waiting and Sarah tells her that everyone is waiting to die but some, including herself, simply have less time. Balleseros searches the database for Dr. Hvit but is unable to find someone with that name. Daniel comes in and is angry about Balleseros sitting in Hatake's chair in his office. Balleseros tries to make Daniel question his own loyalty to Hatake, making it seem that Hatake is just using him and would kill him if he tried to defy him. He orders Balleseros out.

Hatake deliberately injured himself - no doubt it's all part of some secret plan. Julia begins coughing and her health seems to be deteriorating. She bangs on the doors, trying to get the quarantined staff to let her and Jaye back in. Julia has yet to figure out why her initials were on the wall and Jaye tries to calm her down and calls her Jules. Julia is surprised since only a few people call her that but Jaye plays it off. It's then that Hatake shows up, asking for help with his injury.

Alan finds Doreen's body and it's quite a gruesome sight. Daniel speculates that perhaps she had a heart attack, accidentally stumbled with the shelves and then the rats went to work. Alan insists that she was in good health and that if she had a heart condition, she would not have come on the mission. Alan insists that there's no way it was an accident and the virus is no longer their biggest problem. Daniel promises to review the surveillance footage and Alan insists on being present.

Hatake reacts oddly when Julia introduces Jaye and he asks for help.

Daniel and Alan go through the surveillance footage and find that the time they need to look at has been corrupted, as has the back-up. Daniel says that only he and Hatake could have accessed this file. Alan leaves to perform an autopsy on Doreen and Daniel then sees Balleseros currently heading into Duchamp's lab. Balleseros asks Duchamp about Dr. Hvit and is told that Hvit is in the "white room" because of an immune deficiency. He asks where the white room is and is told that "we're all in the white room." When Balleseros leaves the lab, Daniel confronts him about Doreen's death and tells him he had better hope he covered his tracks, since an autopsy is being performed.

Sarah returns to her room and her patient is gone. She goes out into the hall and finds the woman dancing for Tony (her ex-boyfriend who she is hallucinating). Sarah tries to help the woman but she then goes a bit vector and tries to kiss her with the goop of death. The woman snaps out of it and become emotional, not remembering exactly what had happened but knowing it can't be good.

Julia, Hatake, and Jaye walk in a tunnel and they find that they are walking on broken glass. They realise that someone deliberately busted up the lights. Balleseros comes in while Alan is performing the autopsy and Alan discovers the puncture wound behind her ear. The sick woman begs Sarah to perform an assisted suicide. First, Sarah gives herself a small injection to ease her tremors. Alan knocks on her door and Sarah comes out. Alan tells her about Doreen's murder and informs her that the autopsy reveals that the person knew what they were doing in trying to make it look like an embolism. Sarah's not doing too well and Alan hugs her, reassuring her that he won't let anything happen to her. Sarah begins kissing him but he stops it. He then asks if she's high after noticing her pupils, and she says she took something because of migraines. He is furious and tells her to sleep it off.

Hatake tells Julia he needs a moment to rest because of his injury. Julia checks his wound and spots some scars all over his back. Some rats come running past them and then a vector shows up. They run and Jaye gets grabbed in the chaos. Julia and Hatake get into a room and lock the door.

Alan and Balleseros examine Doreen's lab and Balleseros mentions the monkeys. Alan doesn't understand where she would've gotten the sample from and Balleseros says it was from a Dr. Hvit. Alan says that he will find this Dr. Hvit to shed some light on the situation. He heads to Daniel and asks about Dr. Hvit and Daniel is exasperated upon learning of Balleseros' involvement. He points out that he doesn't know Balleseros and he is trusting him even though he has no reason to trust him more than any of the other people on the base.

Julia asks Hatake about his scars and he says that he tried to save his daughter back in Kyoto during a house fire. They talk about his daughter briefly and when they notice that the noise has quieted, they exit the room and carry on their journey. Sarah changes her mind and carries out the assisted suicide, crying upon its completion.

Daniel and Alan search Balleseros' room and find proof that he exploded the dish and has been able to communicate without it. They also find Doreen's research on his communication device and the last transimission reads, "found Hvit in white room, evac 1500." Alan looks up and finds Daniel has run off. Daniel heads outside and in the snow and Balleseros follows after him.

Alan visits Duchamp in his lab and asks about the white room. Duchamp reveals that it's a joke - the arctic is the white room. Alan realises that the men are outside. Daniel presses a button and heads in glass containers rise from the ground, including Dr. Hvit's. Balleseros then sneaks up, knocks Daniel in the head, and takes Hvit's head. Hatake and Julia encounter a Vector and it chases after them. They run into a room and Jaye, who is apparently still alive, smashes the Vector's head with a fire extinguisher. Alan heads outside after Daniel and Balleseros.

Julia stitches up Hatake's wound while he is passed out. Jaye is not angry that they left her and she says she managed to get away just fine. She says that Hatake will now tell more lies about his daughter and Julia questions how she could have known that when she wasn't there to hear the story. This is when she realises that Jaye is merely a hallucination.

Alan gets outside and follows the guide line that Daniel and Balleseros used. He encounters Balleseros and and confronts him about Doreen and the communication device. Balleseros doesn't deny it and easily knocks Alan down. He unhooks him from the guideline and kicks him out into the snow. The storm settles down and Alan is able to find the line and get back inside, where he tells Duchamp what happened.

Still outside, Daniel sneaks up on Balleseros and stabs him with a pick axe. He removes Balleseros' jacket and gloves and takes the head back, leaving Balleseros to freeze or bleed to death. Admittedly, it seems silly to remove the clothes only to leave them a few feet from his body - even if he is badly injured.

Sarah patches Alan up and they make up after their spat. She sticks to the story about the migraines and says that when they happen, she can't think, work, or do anything. She says that she took some morphine from the drug stock room, thinking that a small dose would help her get back to work. She says she had never done anything like that and he says it's okay, saying they've all lost themselves a little bit there.

Alan visits vegetable-Peter and speaks to him about their relationship, their childhood, what's happening at the base... it's a touching scene, but then Peter begins to show brain activity. That can't be good...

Helix airs on Fridays on Syfy at 10PM.