Contributor: J.M.
The first standalone episode of the season for “Alphas” was a hit and miss affair. While the opening twenty minutes of “Never Let Me Go” were quite excellent, the execution of the mystery and the attempt to tie it into Rachel’s character development fell a little flat. This was a classic example of an episode that is less than the sum of its parts that just for whatever reason didn’t pull itself together as well as it should have.
Rachel has been one of the characters to receive a greater amount of attention over the introductory course of the season, and in my opinion it simply hasn’t worked as well as it should have. It’s not that her character hasn’t been written poorly, that simply isn’t the case; rather it’s just that her character isn’t that interesting. Part of it is that her passive nature makes it difficult to write some compelling drama. Her place on the team isn’t in a leadership role, and so her passivity doesn’t really create any tension within the team, and her family drama happens enough off-screen that it’s been hard for me to connect to her character, especially since it has come at the expense of some more interesting characters in my opinion.
Another issue is that her ability doesn’t appear to have any significant tie to her personality or some downside like the other characters do. Which is why the opening scene really intrigued me with the possibility that her power prevented her from some normal human physical interaction; it opened up some interesting possibilities for consequences of the overuse of her power. The fact that this wasn’t addressed at all disappointed me, which pretty much summed up my feeling of the episode.
The opening elements of the procedural were rather well done. The initial mystery was compelling, especially since there wasn’t any particularly obvious candidate for the Alpha. That inability of the team to figure out exactly what was going on was refreshing. Too often procedurals telegraph their intentions and within five minutes of the episode you can guess with near absolute certainty who committed the crime. Another thing that the writers did was a clever bit of misdirection by heavily implying that the victims died because of an Alpha who could create fear in their victims. But this was a nice touch because it was a misinterpretation of the evidence rather than outright lying or hiding key elements from the audience.
But the execution was just lacking. By the time they revealed the Alpha, I looked at the clock and realized that there was still twenty minutes left, and was trying to figure out what trick the writers had up their sleeves, only to realize that there wasn’t one. The conclusion was simply drawn out too long and there just wasn’t enough to hold my interest. The rest of the crew took a bit of a back seat, though Gary continued to be hilarious throughout thanks to the newly credentialed badges.
One other element was the ‘crossover’ with the world of “Warehouse 13″. To be honest, on my first viewing I didn’t even notice, which was a good thing. But it really made me uneasy reading about it afterwards because of the tonal difference between the two shows. “Warehouse 13″ (and indirectly “Eureka”, which is also linked to this universe) is lighthearted shows focused on the comedic aspects of the genre. “Alphas” on the other hand is a much more serious take, focused on high stakes and a grand conflict which is largely absent from those two shows. To be quite frank, I hope that this is the extent of the crossover, as I just can’t see a world where these three shows coexist in the same universe.
Ultimately, the execution of the procedural and character elements of this episode just fell a bit short of the high standards established by the first four episodes. Even as a transitional episode, “Never Let Me Go” just doesn’t work as not enough pieces are moved around the board and the only changes really happen to Rachel, who simply isn’t interesting enough to carry an episode on her own. But the writing was still sharp, and there is no reason to think that “Alphas” will continue its fascinating run.
Writing: 2/2
Production: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 0/4
Rating: 6/10
