Alphas has three new episodes left this season, so I thought it’d be a good time to catch up. I completely expected to watch this live every week but then Teen Wolf jumped up and you know that became appointment TV for me. Then my trusty DVR cried uncle, taking two years of TV, including all the Alphas episodes so far, with it. Then the new DVR wouldn’t record Syfy at all, so Syfy’s helpful mini marathons were missed, too. I finally got it together to watch all of the episodes and with the conclusion of Teen Wolf, started watching Alphas in real-time.
All that’s my way of saying, I’m (finally!) caught up! So far, it’s been an equal mix of getting to know our cast and catching rogue Alphas. I’ll break it down by our regular characters:
Dr. Rosen: I like that Rosen doesn’t always have the answers but he does try to do right by his team, every time. In a recent episode, he had his hands on a tool that could track every Alpha but he smashed it to bits and instead helped a first-and second-generation mother/daughter Alpha pair flee to asylum. He finally had to put up or shut up last week about where he drew the line between being an agent and being a doctor when he killed an Alpha who was mind controlling and endangering people.
Rachel: We’ve seen Rachel stretch her legs a bit, moving out of her family’s house and in with Nina, going on her very first date, and asserting her ability with her father when she detected that he was ill. She’s still the most emotionally vulnerable of the group, but the team has become the family for her that she didn’t have at home.
Bill: Bill and his wife have come to the point in their marriage where having kids is on the table, and he was definitely in the against column until he met Skylar and her daughter and saw that an Alpha can pass on the good to their children. He also had the chance to restore his place in the FBI after he and Gary resolved a kidnapping and revealed an inside accomplice, but he chose to stay with Rosen’s team instead.
Nina: Nina has crossed paths with a cop she believed was hunting her for a push that led to an ex-boyfriend’s suicide, but it turns out he was interested in the ex’s activities and not hers. She’s been taken down a peg or two in her cavalier tendencies by being challenged by, and increasingly attracted, to Hicks.
Hicks: Hicks is still the least willing to fall immediately into line, but he’s found an ally in Nina as he struggles with harnessing his ability and handling his ex-wife’s plans to relocate with their son. He stepped in when he thought Nina was misusing her gift with the cop, and that sparked an attraction with her that led to half-clothed smoochies that were interrupted when a horrified Rachel came home. Last week’s episode found the duo in a mind-controlled affair when they were both pushed by another Alpha. Those storylines are always a bit icky to me because you’re somewhat crossing the line into sexual assault if both parties aren’t in their right mind. I’m OK with them getting together this early in the show if they both want it willingly.
Gary: Gary is growing up and rebelling a bit; he’s gotten more accustomed to being out in the world and his role on the case with Bill and an encounter with a similarly-gifted Alpha who turned out to be very powerful in Red Flag emboldened him to tell his mother what he’s really been doing. She tried to put him on lockdown but he ran away, showing her that he’s serious about staying with the team.
Elsewhere in the plotting, Agent Wilson (Callum Keith Rennie) was killed by an Alpha in the third episode (boo!) and the Alphas have put themselves squarely on the path with Red Flag (the anti-Alphas, if you will), so that conflict is looming. Behind the scenes, we’ve had the pleasure of three alumni from The 4400 (Mahershala Ali, Summer Glau, and Garrett Dillahunt) dropping by. Let’s get Jacqueline McKenzie, Billy Campbell, Patrick Flueger, and Joel Gretsch, too, please! Plus Valerie Cruz from The Dresden Files (and a handful of non-sci-fi shows) has been added as Rosen’s new liaison, Kathy Sullivan, who’s perhaps a scoche interested in non-governmental relations with the dear doctor. And, lastly, last week, the show was picked up for a second season (yay!).
I like the show, and I adore the cast, but Alphas isn’t appointment TV for me yet, I think because I’ve watched it so scattershot. Regardless, I’m happy for all involved that they’re getting to do another season. You can catch a couple of recent episodes on Syfy, Hulu, and SPACE (and if anyone knows WUW the lack of the full season being online, comment me). The first season starts it wrap up beginning tonight at 10 pm ET on Syfy and 10:05 pm ET on SPACE.
Photo Courtesy of Syfy