The sans serif font of impending doom tells us it's Day 6. Night has fallen and Balleseros is still on the ice – but not for long, as we see his body being yanked away. Then we go to the day(?) – there's sunlight at any rate – and Alan monologues at Doreen's "grave" (i.e. her labeled plastic body bag) about how she was the wind beneath his wings and all that. While he does that, we get flashbacks to the night before, where someone who does not appear to be affiliated with the research institute is dragging Balleseros' body across the snow (and yet, leaving no bloody trail in their wake …).
In the time it took Alan to admit that maybe he took Doreen for granted, it is night again. Daniel looms over him and Alan basically puts together the events of the past five episodes, telling Daniel that he's sure Balleseros killed Doreen and "whatever Balleseros is up to, it has everything to do with this virus. If you want to pretend you don't know that, that's fine. But I want him found!" Alan flounces off, leaving Daniel to wonder, "Where did I leave that big hunk of rancid meat?"
That big hunk of meat has just come to in the snow – then been knocked out by someone wearing a classic wooden arctic mask. We quick-cut from that to Daniel and Alan coming in from the cold just in time to catch Sarah wheeling Dr. Van Eigem's body. Sarah tells the best kind of lie, i.e. one wrapped in enough small truths to seem entirely plausible, and spins a story about "finding" Dr. Van Eigem and ultimately treating her with a big syringe of morphine. Daniel gives Alan a Significant Look and says, "So much for not killing the infected, right, Doc?" Alan takes a moment to process the situation – best friend dead, brother in a coma, ex-wife infected, hottie protégé thrill-killing people with smack – and decides that his best course of action is to retrieve Julia from Level R. Daniel pulls his weapon and says, "No-one is going down to Level R. No-one in, no-one out. And that includes Dr. Walker." There's some more alpha-male posturing and finally, Alan huffs back to the lab and Daniel tells Sarah he'll hand Dr. Van Eigem's body. (I sincerely hope this means Van Eigem will be back as a zombie in an episode or two.)
I'm sure, down on Level R, Hatake appreciates that level of filial devotion. We'll find out as soon as we get through Julia's latest rounds of hallucination, which include chasing a dark-haired little girl through the endless corridors, then getting waylaid by her (seemingly healthy) ex-fling, Peter, who smilingly says he's here to "help" Julia navigate the wine-dark recesses of her mind. I have to say, the non-clammy, non-goo-spewing Peter is very charming and it's easy to see why Julia might prefer him.
Speaking of goo-spewing, that's what the little girl finally does when Julia catches up to her – and Julia wakes up on that note, looking much worse than she did in the prior episode. Not helping: Once she wakes up, she has nothing to do but listen to the vectors shrieking as they speed up and down the corridors.
After the credits, Alan has found Sarah and reiterates his desire to go get Julia, seeing as she "wrote the book on viral splicing and RNA binding proteins." Sarah's all, "You realize she could have turned into someone you might still have feelings for – I mean, she could be really sick," and Alan replies along the lines of, "I don't know if you have realized this, but we're really kind of screwed. I will take Julia spurting black goo everywhere if she can still wield a micropipettor between belches." Since Daniel controls the elevator and the stairways are sealed shut, Alan will improvise a way down. He also tosses Sarah a bottle of gabapentin for her "migraines." The late, unlamented Dr. Sulemani will not miss them.
Julia's feeling worse, and then she goes and makes the mistake of looking in the mirror. But then she rallies and goes to tend Hatake. His wound is healing remarkably fast. He shrugs, "Must have good genes," and then notices that Julia's falling apart. She rails at him for letting her ride along the Jaye train, and Hatake replies, "I am a doctor first, like you. My job is to save people … You were disoriented and speaking to Jaye seemed to be helping." Julia concedes that Hatake's on to something. Then she goes into a seizure.
Cut to Alan making thermite in a locker room and melting a hole through the floor. Once he and Sarah are on Level R, Alan sees the shiny chain and padlock fixing the doors shut and realizes this was not a quarantine so much as it was a "seal and forget." So Alan produces the hacksaw he happens to have and begins to work at the chain. Meanwhile, the flashlight Sarah was shining in the doors' windows has attracted the attention of several vectors, all of whom are now crowded at the glass and trying to get through to get to Sarah and Alan. One particularly persistent vector managed to get a hold on Sarah but honestly, that is the least of her problems right now. (See also: lethal tumor of unspecified location.)
Alan and Sarah make it up to the locker room and Alan checks Sarah over to make sure she didn't get any cuts or abrasions from the vectors. The two of them have a brief philosophical disagreement over the vectors – Sarah calls them "those monsters" and Alan calls them "those patients" – and he comes up with the harebrained scheme of treating the vectors first in order to get to Julia.
Hatake is using a penlight to check out Julia's eyes, so when she comes to, she's a tad panicky about a) losing consciousness and b) not being able to see for all the bright lights being waved in her peepers. Then Hatake compounds Julia's anxiety by injecting her with a murky red liquid he claims is a sedative. After that, both she and the penlight are o-u-t. Hatake whispers, "You are going to be okay," then indulges in some humming and hair stroking that is not at all creepy. Then he bars a door with a file cabinet and merrily skips out of Level R.
Balleseros comes to, short one shirt in what I can only presume is the SyFy's cynical attempt to drum up viewership among that viewership segment that likes arctic intrigue plus beefcake. Anyway, he's in what could charitably be called a fixer-upper arctic cottage, and he's shackled to the floor. We find out that the person who rescued Balleseros is named Anana, and she's the law in the part of the world – "only peace officer within 400 miles of Tonrar settlement." As the teakettle whistles and Anana goes to pull it, Balleseros notices a pair of scissors on the coffee table by him. But before he can pull them out and use them as weapons, Anana's on him. She lays it out: She saved him only because she's interested in what he knows about Arctic Biosystems. Balleseros tries to play dumb, mostly because that's worked so well for him so far. Anana's all, "Enjoy being my shirtless hostage. Alternately, I can drop you at Arctic Biosystems' front door. I'm sure someone there has unfinished business with you." Balleseros wisely decides to shut up.
Alan and Sarah are Sciencing away, noticing that the virus is the delivery mechanism for whatever is making the cells go bonkers, when Alan notices Hatake and Daniel watching him work, so he goes off to demand, "What's in the virus? What did you splice into the genetic code?" Hatake stonewalls him (surprise!) and Alan hotly inquires as to what kind of gene therapy Hatake is doing. The answer, according to Hatake, is that NARVIK is a delivery system for treating "all five classifications" of cancer. Cue Sarah going googly-eyed at this delivery mechanism for a cure – and start your betting pool as to how long before she injects herself with the virus as a way to quietly beat her tumor. It's going to go horribly wrong and our little Dr. Gizmo is going to go full-on gremlin, I can FEEL it. Ooooh, which episode will it be? I call episode nine.
Alan, however, is not really buying this because something in the gene therapy changed his non-cancer-riddled brother. Hatake resumes stonewalling Alan. "There is something inside this virus, and I will find it," vows Alan. Wait a few episodes and you'll get to test Dr. Gizmo, guy. #episode9
After the CDC storms out, Daniel's all, "So, Dad. Maybe come clean with me, as that will allow me to do a more effective job as head of this base?" Hatake is all, "Shut your mouth, adopted son." Also, there is the small matter of Balleseros finding Dr. Hvit's head. "I took care of him," Daniel says, and is somewhat surprised that ol' Dad is not thrilled about it. Hatake reaches up and slaps Daniel, shouting, "You fool! Don't you see? When he fails to check in, they will come." Daniel steams, because honestly, he's getting crap from everyone right now and nobody thinks to ever thank him for stabbing people with ice axes.
Speaking of Balleseros, he's a lousy patient and an even worse hostage. Anana rolls her eyes and takes his meal. I like this girl.
Julia is hallucinating/dreaming … anyway, the point is that she's romping through her subconscious with vision guide Peter (who helpfully tells her, "Nothing is ever forgotten – not if you don't want it to be"), and she gradually realizes that she and the child from her earlier dream are in the living room of her childhood Montana home. The child is also named Julia (hint number eleventy-whatever that Julia's subconscious is trying to tell her something).
And now, in the first bit of levity this show has ever demonstrated, we see Sarah and Alan Sciencing away as the Nutcracker's "Dance of the Tea" plays in the background. The music is both incongruous –but not in the self-consciously ironic way the elevator-music credits are – and apt for the syncopated titrating and petri dish prepping the two CDC doctors are doing.
As the music swells, the virus/cell culture does the same going-nuts thing it did for Balleseros and Doreen, and Alan quickly freezes it as the music ends. Thus ends my favorite sequence in this series so far. And it works out well for the fictional characters too, as they realize that extreme low temperatures affect the viral effects. This could be a treatment for Peter, Sarah realizes.
As Sarah and Alan attempt to lower Peter's temperature – and therefore slow the virus – she has a low-key freakout over the crystalline structure that grew in the lab. "I've never seen anything like that," she says, to which Alan replies, "Sarah, no one has seen anything like that." Except Doreen and Balleseros, and neither one of them is talking, for obvious reasons.
So the chill thing is working, but Alan wants to get Peter even colder. Sarah recalls seeing a cryo lab on level G, run by a Dr. Victor Adrian – a name that is more than a little evocative of Victor Frankenstein, if you ask me – and Alan heads off to see if the good Dr. Adrian can be negotiated with.
Balleseros appears to still be asleep, so Anana goes to cover him with a blanket – which is when he grabs her by the throat with his free hand. That lasts about 30 seconds until she punches him in the stomach wound and he folds like a Gap t-shirt display. I like this lady.
scene: Anana's marched Balleseros to a mudroom plastered with photos of children: There have been 31 children taken from her settlement in the last 20 years, all within a moderate radius of Arctic Biosystems. It's evident Anana believes Hatake is taking the children for experiments. It's equally evident Balleseros thinks she's bonkers.
Cut to Dr. Adrian drinking a lot of vodka and watching the Three Stooges. I like him already, but then he tells Alan to piss off, and that's even more endearing. It's not until Alan bows to the notion of quid pro quo and promises to call off the security guards and vault Adrian to the front of any evacuation line that Adrian coos, "How may I be of assistance?" And then he shows Alan his cryo-therapy tanks, one of which is filled with little bald rats doing their best Esther Williams routines under three feet of water.
Back at Anana's, Balleseros has been left alone and the coffee table is, once again, cluttered. So either Anana's a slow learner or someone on the writing staff was all, "Screw continuity, we need to contrive a way to get this cat out of shackles." The upshot is, Balleseros is up and dressed in no time, and right as he heads through the mudroom, he sees Anana leap up to hug someone who just came in on snowmobile. The person she's hugging looks a lot like Daniel, only he's nearly unrecognizable, because he's actually smiling. What mystery is this?
Balleseros decides to get the drop on Daniel by running out of the trailer with a knife in hand. However, he has forgotten that a) he is injured, b) Daniel is the size of a caribou, and c) Anana REALLY likes holding a gun to the base of his skull. She's had a lot of cause to practice recently. Balleseros shouts, "You both work for Hatake? Is that it? [This guy who I can't kill] tried to kill me back at the base … You want information about Hatake? This guy is your man." Anana says, "Are you out of your mind? He's my brother!" Balleseros asks, "Daniel's your brother?" and that is when we find out that no, THIS giant is not named Daniel. This one is called Tulok.
Cut to Balleseros lying to Anana about why he attacked Tulok. She pulls out a photo of herself as a little girl with two adorable boys, and explains that she has two younger brothers – identical twins, Tulok and Miksa. Miksa's been missing since he was four. Balleseros isn't exactly saying, "I know where your brother is," but he has discovered that now he'd like to go back to the base. Anana's all, "That would be ‘WE' need to go back to the base, you unpleasant toad."
And now, Dr. Adrian acts like a mad scientist as he essentially returns Peter to the womb, assuming that Peter was gestated in amniotic fluid that came straight from an arctic glacier.
We now return to Julia's fever dream in progress. She's moved from her childhood den to the dining room, where she's about to have a classic turkey dinner with a regular collection of Algonquin wits: Peter, Alan, Hatake, Balleseros, child Julia and Sarah. A nice touch: we hear another Nutcracker piece scoring this scene. This time, it's the dance of the Sugarplum Fairy.
Alan starts by sniping at Peter – "This is all your fault. You're the one who made her sick!" and Peter replies, "Don't blame me. We're all trapped here because of [Julia]." Julia protests that it's not fair, and Balleseros chimes in, "Who said anything about fair? This is all in your head. Why are [Sarah and I] even here?" Julia doesn't know. Hatake calmly asks for the cranberry sauce. Peter says encouragingly, "It's all about you, Julia. It's always been about you." Alan – who behaves like a scold through this entire scene, which reveals volumes about how Julia really sees him – concurs. Julia stammers that she just wants answers, and at the opposite end of the table, a glammed-out Sarah sniffs dismissively, "You don't even know the right questions to ask. Why you, Julia? Why this virus? Why now?" Balleseros says lightly, "I'm starved. Can we do this while we eat?" and Hatake nods. (I find it notable that Julia's subconscious has twigged to the two of them having a completely different take than everyone else.) Sarah sniffs that Julia already has the answers, and scoffs, "Just figure it out already." "Figure it out so we can eat," Balleseros adds. "Would anybody like sweet potatoes?" Hatake asks. Peter says thoughtfully, "Maybe the question isn't so much why we're here but why we're HERE – this place, the cabin where you grew up." Alan testily says, "Maybe this would all be easier if we all ate something." Cut to Sarah smoldering at him. (Jules' subconscious misses nothing.) Alan asks Julia to carve, but when she makes the first cut in the turkey, it oozes black. As Julia shrieks in horror, "This isn't supposed to be happening, this is not happening!" everyone else is wearing an expression of joyful anticipation. The whole tableaux is like Normal Rockwell crossed with Lassa fever.
Back in the base, Hatake is spying in Alan and Dr. Adrian. He turns to Daniel and says sourly, "The CDC seems to have had a breakthrough." Daniel, meanwhile, just wants Adoptive Father's love and apologizes for disappointing Hatake. Hatake twists the knife a little with "It's my fault. I didn't prepare you well enough." Then he is all, "Let's see how we can salvage this shitshow. Show me Balleseros's body and we'll start from there."
Bad news, Daniel! You're about to disappoint your dad again.
Alan is in his quarters, reeling from the experience of submerging his brother in a slushy for the sake of science, when Sarah comes in to gush over how, for once, rampantly unregulated human experimentation is working in their favor. Alan reels a little, and Sarah seizes the moment to seize the Alan. He hugs her and within seconds, things have gotten amorous. Either pheromones miraculously offset the hand tremors or else ace CDC investigator Alan doesn't notice his inamorata's shaky hands and massive scar down her spine.
And now, Hatake and Daniel are discovering that Balleseros's body was taken. Before Daniel can deal with this, a helicopter descends. "They are here," Hatake says.
Inside, the post-coital Alan and Sarah hear the helicopters. Sarah's all, "At last! The cavalry have arrived!" but Alan points out that he never sent the call out to the CDC … so the helicopters belong to another, unknown entity.
Meanwhile, down on Level R, Julia … seems miraculously cured of Narvik B. All her veins have receded, she's no longer clammy. And then she sits up with a bolt and begins screaming. As Julia clutches her head and wails in apparent pain, her dark eyes turn the same silver color that we know Hatake's to be. The mystery deepens! Do we care?
Lisa Schmeiser is an Oakland-adjacent reporter, editor and blogger. She regularly tweets here, blathers about comics here, and posts the oddball personal piece of writing here.