Last year, Syfy's Helix premiered and changed our perception about viruses, showing us the dark side of science and immortality. Now, the series is going into its second season, with an all-new virus and a complete change of scenery.
But how does that work into the horror that the first season began building? We recently spoke to series showrunner Steven Maeda and star Neil Napier to discuss the changes in season two as well as how they play into the show's creepy factor.
In last season's Helix, we learn that a virus causes a mutation in certain individuals, rendering them immortal, including the CDC's Dr. Julia Walker (Kyra Zagorsky). We also saw the destruction of season one's entire Arctic-based set, so where do things go from there?
"We're jumping ahead in time again to this very remote area in the Pacific Ocean," says Maeda. "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."
The first episode of season two also doesn't pick up where season one's last episode left off, but Maeda stated that was always the plan: "We're probably about a year and a half ahead of the destruction of Arctic BioSystems from last season," he said. "And as a result, what it does for us is really nice: 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."
This season also brings a new virus, although details are still sketchy as to what it looks like (except that it's probably going to involve a lot of gross yellow goo). However, that doesn't detract from last season's revelation about the immortals.
"One of the things that we wanted to do is go to a different place and location and to let the show have a different look to it and be dealing primarily with a new pathogen, but at the same time bring along our characters and bring along the vast story from season one," says Maeda. "So it's not a complete reinvention."
Helix immediately earned its place as a horror series last season thanks to a virus that turned people into monsters that spat up a lot of black goo. One of those monsters was Peter, portrayed by Napier. However, last season saw Peter cured, but Napier insists that doesn't change the fact that Peter still isn't necessarily the good 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 get to see a little bit in season one," says Napier. "And in season two, we're going to explore more of the relationship between Peter and Alan. And we'll see why Peter is conflicted and seems to be playing for a couple of sides at once."
But just because Peter no longer looks like a monster doesn't mean that he isn't one. "This year, I think what is a monster is left a little more to the interpretation of the audience," says Napier. "I think there's a little more grey zone in that realm of what constitutes a monster."
Fortunately, though, that doesn't mean that we won't have a lot of gross-out moments in season two. "We spent a copious amount of time trying to come up with what are the most horrible things that we can actually show on television," says Maeda. "But we also want to make them interesting. We want them to feel organic to the story. It's definitely a horror show, and it's very dark."
Napier added, "My wrapped present in the writer's room was therapy."
Maeda also mentioned that the show isn't just dark, but "darkly funny." A lot of that comes from the choice of music playing during scenes featuring things oozing and crawling out of nooks and crannies and chasing down the series' protagonists. For example, last season saw the upbeat "Do You Know The Way to San Jose?" played during a scene of men wading through a room of people contaminated with the virus, black goo and all.
"We are absolutely planning on bringing along the musical styling of the first season into the second season," says Maeda.
The second season of Helix returns to Syfy this Friday, January 16.
