Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...
"Alphaville" might have had its fair share of exciting moments (I'm looking directly at you "Cameron shoots that stealth Alpha right in his stupid toe shoe!"), but it didn't quite leave me feeling all-together satisfied. By the end, with regards to Stanton Parish's mysterious hospital tech, we only discovered what we already knew. That the light oscillations cause an amplification of Alpha abilities. And then Dr. Rosen inadvertently burned down a bunch of peaceful Alphas homes and we were done.
Still, it was great to see Summer Glau back on the show as Skylar Adams, the super-genius Forge-style mutant who knows her tech. This time around, Skylar's struggling as a mom to a hyper-active Alpha kid. And while that storyline might have fallen a bit flat - as well as Nina tagging along and doing nothing - the most interesting thing to come out of it was Parish's proposition to Skylar at the end. And seeing as how Skylar's doing everything in her life for Zoe right now, no matter how miserable it makes her, she might actually join up with Parish's camp.
I liked watching Dr. Rosen come face to face with a bunch of Alphas who weren't too crazy about him blabbing their secret out to the world - but all he got was scolded. Right before he made all their lives even worse. Claude, the bee-whisperer, could have been more (and had a better power), but instead he was just too much of a peace-loving nature-protector to do anything more than lecture Rosen. Which, I suppose, was a good thing for Rosen. But nothing ever came of their mini-confrontations, and in the end all Claude could do was say "Haven't you done enough?" as Rosen tried to help the residents of the tucked-away summer camp evacuate their land due to a Scipio-caused forest fire. And at no time (and perhaps this might even be one of the best things about Rosen) did Rosen ever retro-doubt his decision to go public. No, with him it's ever-forward, with hardly ever a chink in his ideological armor.
There were some fun character moments here, namely from Gary, who went from forest-hater to a guy who could spend his time "listening to the sun." Gary's at his best when he's semi-cranky, but at his worst when the stubbornness brought upon by his mental condition causes him to make dumb decisions that put him and team in danger. But, for the most part, Gary's venture into his first ever signal "dead zone" was a hoot. Rachel, who became an unwitting test subject for Parish's device, found herself overwhelmed when all of her senses went haywire. But in the end, it helped "cure" her of the over-reactions she was having when she was set on "normal." It felt like a teensy bit of a cheat, but I'll allow it. Season 2 seems to be about figuring out solutions to the character-specific hurdles from Season 1.
It's also fun to watch how certain Alphas can have the same, or similar, powers to others. The stealth Alpha reminded me a bit of Rebecca Mader's "Griffin" character in "Blind Spot." And Cameron found himself battling Trisha - a chick with crazy-ass agility like his own. As for the rest of the episode? Well, the inevitable reveal (to the team) that Dani is the mole could be good. But we've known her for such a short while, and we were just hit with the fact that she and Cameron were a couple. I just don't think it will wind up having the impact something like that should. I'm wondering if this all should have been kept a secret from us too, instead of playing out in a dramatically ironic fashion. Too late for that though. No sense in retrofitting.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!
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