Contributor: John Keegan
Written by Eric Tuchman
Directed by J. Miller Tobin
After the past two episodes, with their soul-crushing final moments, it’s not surprising that the writers would need to take a step back, as the season arc pivots on this moment of transition between complication and resolution. Dani’s death proves to be a pivotal moment for many of the characters, as they deal with the reality of mortality in their own specific ways.
Given how the operation against Red Flag ended, and that the team channeled Cam’s very real anger over Rosen’s decision to use his daughter as a mole in Parish’s organization, it makes sense that the two of them would be at odds for much of the episode. And Rosen’s grief is only compounded by the knowledge that this has emboldened the government to exert more authority over his team. Regardless, it makes sense for Rosen and Cam to come together, in the end, to pledge vengeance against Parish.
This is quite interesting, because Rosen has always used his morality as a shield against accusations of pursuing personal interests. He was trying to save the world from evil Alphas by teaching other Alphas to harness their powers for the benefit of society. But can he claim that this is still his primary goal? And if he just wants revenge, is handing his team over to the government now an acceptable means to an end?
Meanwhile, if Rachel was commiserating over the notion of living life to the fullest before, she’s not now. Her first coupling with John starts off sexy, but quickly turns awkward. And this makes sense; Rachel may have more control over her abilities, but that doesn’t mean she’d know how to adjust them to new situations. Thankfully, the awkward was addressed, eclipsed by even more awkward, and then blown away in an afternoon of “practice”. I doubt many in the audience particularly minded!
The only thing that didn’t quite work for me was Gary’s adventures in babysitting. Putting Gary in charge of a baby for a single act might be funny. An entire episode is pushing it. The baby’s Alpha ability made it work within the plot, especially when the “parents” turned out to be something else entirely, but it was still a ploy to put Gary together with a baby. And with the baby now being with Bill and his wife, we don’t even have the upside of the baby getting out of the picture at the end.
That portion of the episode did expose the existence of this laboratory where the baby was apparently altered or grown, and there are other children that were in the lab as well. It stands to reason that this is part of Parish’s grander plan, since he wants to reduce the mundane population so the Alphas can thrive. What’s also indicated, however, is the possibility that the Alphas themselves are not a mutation or evolution, per se, but perhaps something created by mankind. It may be that this was already addressed in an earlier episode, and I just don’t recall. But with others with Alpha-esque abilities out there (such as on “Warehouse 13”), why not?
The transitional nature of the episode was always going to be a bit of a challenge, but I found that it was the Gary/baby plot thread that brought everything down a bit. That is admittedly a personal taste, as the writing itself wasn’t horrible given the intent, but it still affected my enjoyment of the episode.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Score: 7/10