Intelligence 1.6: Helix meets Rectify and Justified

Intelligence 1.6 zoomed into Helix territory last night, with a sharp story that had Gabriel, Riley, and Cyber Command on what looks like a bio-terror virus-gone-wild case, but turns out to be our own military up to no good on behalf of what one general sees as a greater good for our country.

But the best part of the plot is the puzzle of the set-up in which Patient Zero turns out to be someone we just saw getting the death sentence in Texas, so how can he be the vector of an epidemic which started after he was dead?   Turns out our military spirited him away after injecting him with something not immediately lethal, to use him as a guinea pig for development of a vaccine for a possible terrorist attack via horrendous virus.

Some nice resonance in this twist on capital punishment to Rectify and last season's The Killing, and the contribution to viral fiction - writ large not only in Helix but of course The Walking Dead and even in National Geographic's Zombie Earth specu-docu-drama, where, believe it or not, I had a brief walk-on appearance as an "expert" - was good, too.

And speaking of welcome interconnections, it was great to see Nick Searcy as the wrong-minded General Carter, whose plan for the vaccine goes awry when the condemned prisoner escapes from the military lab, and becomes Patient Zero as he mixes into the crowd.  It's been a good week for Searcy, who put in one of his best performances on Justify last week, as Chief Deputy U. S. Marshal Mullen makes like the inimitable Givens in a diner.  (I'm glad I finally got a chance to mention Justified and Rectify in the same post.)

Back to Intelligence, we also find out more about how Gabriel came to be embedded with his chip, including that two previous candidates died and another wound up paralyzed in the process.  He did it in the hope it would help him find Amelia, we learn again, but with her gone now, he admits to Riley that he thinks all the time about whether it was all worth it.

Intelligence is shaping up as one of the best new shows on television this season.

See also Intelligence Debuts ... Intelligence 1.2: Lightning Changes ...Intelligence 1.3: Edward Snowden and 24 ... Intelligence 1.4: Social Media Weaponry ... Intelligence 1.5: The Watch

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Like biological science fiction? Try The Silk Code