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Alphas: Gods and Monsters

Jason: “Have you ever looked at somebody who’s supposed to love you and you know that they don’t even like you?”

What would it be like to be shunned by everyone because of something you couldn’t control? How tempted would you be if you could make people “like” you? This week’s episode was a twist on the classic “loser becomes popular” story. It was heartbreaking to watch Jason finally realize that what he was creating with his power was not true friendship or love. Because he was a basically decent young man, he couldn’t continue to exploit Lisa and in the end, even gave up his new “friends”. What teen doesn’t want to be popular? The whole idea was an interesting comment on the operation of popularity in high schools. Popularity there is often as hollow as it was for Jason. The decent teens who can think for themselves often have to fight the cult mentality that is popularity.

This Week’s Superpowers

Jason can use his control of infrasound to connect people in a neural network and then control them. The synchronized hair flipping was truly creepy. And it seems that there is no limit to his ability to connect people except that he had to touch each person. He could link very large groups of people and then have them do his will. Stanton was clearly developing, as Rosen said, a weapon of mass murder. This also spoke to the unfortunate side effect of being linked to Jason: blood clots in the brain. The Alphas are getting scarier every week. The second superpower was the ability to mimic people’s voices. It was very cool that Rachel could tell the difference between Dr. Rosen and the mimic.

Our Alpha Team

Kat continues to be a lot of fun. She is trying to find her place in the team and goes about it in quite a charming way (probationary agent?). I particularly like the way she and Gary interact. I hope they integrate her more fully into the team. Kat was covering for Bill who seems to be truly hooked on the fight club. I wonder how this is affecting his home life? I’m also worried about Gary. Is he going to believe Stanton? How far off the rails is he going to go? It was also nice to see Nina and Rachel connecting again, although I think they are moving a bit quickly on the forgiving Nina piece. Perhaps, everyone understands how difficult and tempting it can be to have superpowers.

Dr. Rosen was central in this episode and his conflict with Stanton Parrish will be central to the rest of the season. He is a very smart man, but I think he is beginning to understand just how smart Stanton Parrish is. Stanton out-played him. Not as much as Stanton appeared to hope, but Rosen was outwitted at almost every turn. Rosen now has the advantage of knowing what is in Stanton's head, but I imagine Stanton is aware of this. Rosen also knows that Dani is the traitor. The next episode should be really interesting.

The Anti-Alphas

I’m not wavering anymore, Stanton Parrish is evil. He will lie, cheat, threaten and kill to get what he wants. This became very clear to me at two points in this episode. When he talked to Gary he twisted the truth in a very nasty way. Someone as smart as Stanton knew that people would die in all the events he mentioned, but he wanted to sow seeds of doubt. He just doesn’t care who dies. When he escaped he could have knocked the guards out and/or wounded them, but he killed them without even thinking about it. He’s a zealot, he has an agenda and he will wipe out anyone who gets in his way. It appears that two hundred years can make you very lonely and very cynical. Rosen is always at least two steps behind him, and now Stanton has met and assessed Rosen’s team. It was an interesting twist that he used the threat of hurting Dani to get Rosen’s co-operation when he is actually working with her. The reality may be that he is actually willing to hurt Dani to get what he wants.

Bits and Pieces

Poor Senator Burton now has a scrambled brain. It looks like messing with people’s minds has consequences.

I enjoyed the shout out to Star Trek by Hicks, but it was even better that Rosen had no idea what he was talking about.

What was up with the reflection in Rachel’s eye? Stanton mentioned that he would never create something that he couldn’t control. When Rachel was exposed to the optic stimulator was a failsafe implanted just as it was with Jason?

They seem to be putting an awesome Hicks action scene in each episode. Please keep it up.

Quotes

Rosen: “Desperate times, necessary measures.” Stay true to yourself, Lee, and drop this approach.

Bill: “I just tweaked it in ballet class last night, that’s all.”

Hicks: “Hey anyone else a little freaked out by this?”

Kat: “My first field assignment is to go wait by the minivan. Really?”
Gary: “Recognize. It’s supposed to be safer but I get arrested all the time.”

Kat: “What’s up, Stan?”

Stanton: “That wasn’t the lesson. The lesson is: follow orders.”

Nina: “If you’re not sleeping with him and he’s still buying you hundred dollar scotch, he’s a keeper.”

Rosen: “We’re only beginning to understand who each of us is.”

2 comments:

  1. Although it didn't show it, I wonder if Parrish got a look at Rosen's mind?

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nina: “If you’re not sleeping with him and he’s still buying you hundred dollar scotch, he’s a keeper.”

    I'm not saying that Nina is a gold digger, but it saddens and frightens me that society has these values. So spending a lot of money means real love? Or that a man who spends a lot on you is worth keeping? That's nasty.

    Gary has been angrier and angrier since Anna died. I think we're about to see him say "screw it" and take control in an almost apocalyptic kind of way. That'll be awesome.

    ReplyDelete

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