Episode Title: 'Original Sin'
Story by: Zak Penn & Michael Karnow
Teleplay by: Ira Steven Behr & Robert Hewitt Wolfe & Zak Penn & Michael Karnow
Director: Nick Copus
Story:
Nina (Laura Mennell), Rachel (Azita Ghanizada) and Hicks (Warren Christie) track Red Flag assassin, Issac Hale with Rosen (David Strathairn) calling the shots. Isaac spots a junkie couple on the street and kills the man. Rosen catches up to the pair and recognizes the girl as his daughter, Danielle. Nina tries to "push" her but she escapes, using her own Alpha power.
At Alpha HQ, Bill (Malik Yoba) posits that the meaning of "Stanton Parrish" might be found in the team's own files. Rosen tracks his daughter, Danielle down at a fleabag hotel, asking her to come with him but she refuses. However, Isaac arrives on the scene and attempts to kill the two but Hicks takes him down with a bullet.
Rosen treats Danielle in his office and questions her about Isaac. Sullivan (Valerie Cruz) takes Rosen aside and tells him that Red Flag is on the move. Meanwhile, Gary (Ryan Cartwright) gives Bill the file on Stanton Parrish, a scientist involved with MK-Ultra and an Alpha. Danielle shows Rosen what Red Flag was after: a fake ruby necklace.
Gary meets with Anna to learn more about Stanton Parrish and she tells him he's dangerous. Gary was under the impression that Parrish is dead but Anna leads him to believe he's still alive. She then has him escorted out by her guard.
Gary and Bill learn that Stanton Parrish is an Alpha who doesn't age. They bring their info to Rosen, as well as the Red Flag manifesto Parrish wrote. Nina then explains that the necklace contains a jump drive with coordinates and an invitation to a meeting with Red Flag, encoded by Anna. Rosen apologizes to Danielle for using her ability as a child to save his marriage to her mother.
At the meeting location, Stanton Parrish is nowhere to be found but Rachel overhears the Red Flag members inside the compound discussing plans to go public about Alphas. Rosen suggests to Sullivan that his team might be playing into Parrish's plan to rid Red Flag of its defectors. Sullivan insists on sending her team in to gas the compound. Inside, Bill and Hicks come to blows with a highly skilled female combatant while Rosen searches for Gary, who has run in after Anna. After a member of Sullivan's team goes down, she authorizes those inside to open fire. Gary finds Anna but she's been killed in the crossfire.
Back at Alpha HQ, the team questions their ability to continue. Sullivan takes Rosen aside to tell him that despite the bloodshed, the raid was a success and asks for his input at a close-door meeting in DC.
Back at home, Rosen asks Danielle to use her ability on him, so that he can feel what it's like to be her. Later, Stanton Parrish arrives at Rosen's home, while he's taking a swim. He tells Rosen that war is inevitable and invites Rosen to join him.
In DC, Rosen addresses the government's insistence on keeping Alphas a secret and the inhumane conditions at Binghamton, all while broadcasting to the public, via hidden camera in his microphone. Parrish comments that "things just got complicated" as Danielle reminds him that she knew this would happen, as the transmission is cut off.
Breakdown:
"Alphas" made a bold move in the right direction with its first season finale. The writers could have dragged out the "freak of the week" format for at least another season, while continuing to tease us about the nefarious Red Flag and their band of Alpha baddies. But instead, "Alphas" leveled the playing field with Rosen's revelation to the public which makes the question of the hour an easy one to answer: Do I want to watch a second season of "Alphas"? Absolutely.
However, it also begs another query: with this new storytelling space opened up, will "Alphas" set a course that sticks to its own interior logic or fall victim to the kind of superhero voodoo that cursed "Heroes"?
I have faith in Zak Penn and Syfy, for that matter, in knowing what viewers want and what makes a good genre program. While the first half of "Alphas" maiden voyage felt formulaic at times, it was worth the slow buildup to get to the kind of game changing finale the show just delivered. Throwing in some slick action sequences and giving us a bit more of Doc Rosen's backstory was an added bonus.
It's also promising to see the Alpha team finally gel in a way that makes the crew enjoyable to watch. Gary and Bill have become the mismatched dynamic duo that I love and Nina and Hicks' romance has been dialed down to a tolerable level. I'm still looking for something to latch onto with Rachel, however, who we've haven't learned much about since her family stopped pestering her to find a husband.
But those are just minor complaints, really. After the first few episodes, I assessed "Alphas" as a genre show that's average at best, playing it safe with all the meaty mythology stuff it could be offering up. With this excellent season finale, "Alphas" like its wondrously gifted band of heroes, has evolved into a show with the potential to exercise some storytelling superpowers, of its own.
Crave Online Rating: 9 out 10.
