Take Three: Alphas

Alphas: Season 1, Episode 3 “Anger Management” (B+)

This show is really excelling at realizing and visualizing its guest characters’ selected superpowers. In this case, it has less to do with the person and more to do with his abilities. That opening scene on the subway was very well done, and it didn’t stop there. It’s fascinating to see what happens when one Alpha affects another with his or her powers, and that’s entirely true here. Dr. Rosen, always the astute observer, yells out to warn Don not to touch him, but of course he does and the pheromones get released dramatically in the air as everyone starts to get violent. It was an excellently-executed scene with great music, and hot-tempered Don was the casualty, killed in the midst of the riot. I found it extraordinarily interesting that Bill, the one who was most susceptible to influence in the pilot, was the only one not affected by the pheromones. Nina realizing what it’s like to be forced to do something against her will was an intriguing meditation, and I’m still most impressed by the visualization of Hicks’ abilities, stopping someone by stepping on his shoelace or using people’s shoulders to help scale the wall, rescue the girl, and do his best imitation of parkour. What proved most moving for me was the final conversation among the team members about Don and death, followed by Gary’s complaint that no one helped to solve his problem. It’s nice that the most certifiable outside in the group, Hicks, was the one to step in and help Gary get rid of the humming.