Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Robert Hewitt Wolfe
Directed by Matt Hastings
Picking up where the previous episode left off, this installment is a dark, intense hour that rarely loosens its grip. There’s a real sense of high stakes throughout the story, and there’s little doubt that someone is going to end up victimized before all is said and done. Even the occasional quip from Gary is barely enough to defuse the tension.
Rosen’s solution to the problem of Dani’s involvement with Red Flag is straightforward: a plea contingent on going undercover within Red Flag. Of course, while Rosen is happy with the idea, since it means Dani won’t end up chipped at Binghamton, Cameron is rather angry at the idea that Rosen would place his daughter in that kind of danger. Or so it seems: it’s really just a fairly transparent gambit to use Nina’s abilities to warp Cameron into being the perfect recruit for Red Flag.
Parish’s version of rookie hazing is particularly harsh. His little interrogator, Agnes, has an affliction similar to Rogue of the “X-Men”. Skin contact means ripping through the thoughts and memories of the other person, and she has no control over it. While her ability is never explained (and some fans may be annoyed that the series is straying from the initial premise of basing Alphas in “science”), it does highlight the difference between Rosen and Parish. Rosen at least tries to help his team manage the downside to their abilities. Parish just uses them as he sees fit to achieve his endgame.
If nothing else, we now have a better sense of Parish’s motivations, even if they are a bit standard for the genre. Parish sees the Alphas as the natural state of human evolution, and by “culling the herd”, he believes he can jumpstart the process. If this sounds a bit like Magneto’s plan in the first “X-Men” film, that’s because it essentially is. Not that there’s anything wrong with that, but it does mean that Parish pretty much loses any claim to a viable alternative philosophy.
There was little doubt that Team Rosen would prevent the terrorist attack on New York. Not only does the show not have the budget to pull off that kind of event, but this is all taking place in a shared universe (with “Eureka” and “Warehouse 13”), and it’s hard to imagine that the destruction of New York would go unnoticed. As it stands, the war between Team Rosen and Team Parish is a relatively silent one. They (and the government) are aware of the severity of the threat, and the public knows about the existence of Alphas, but there’s no indication that the true scope of the threat is understood by the masses.
It all culminates in a moment that is telegraphed in the most heart-wrenching manner possible. Dani, of course, ends up becoming a martyr in the war against Parish. That Rosen’s journey of redemption in his relationship with Dani comes to such a tragic end is a punch to the gut, and the long scene with the entire team trying to beg Dani to stay alive is pitch perfect. It’s a moment that is entirely earned, and it takes an episode that might have been an exercise in predictable storytelling, and gives it nothing less than a tone of inevitability.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Score: 8/10