Photo Credit: SyFy
Last week, we saw the reunion of Dr. Rosen (David Strathairn) and his team after the Alphas from the infamous “Building 17” of Binghampton escaped and the government realized they needed them. The episode ended with Stanton Parish (John Pyper-Ferguson) and his bad-ass team wrecking havoc by causing a train crash, and we know that we’re going to be hearing from these guys again very soon, and not in a good way.
They didn’t waste any time either, with our being introduced to baddy Eli (C. Thomas Howell) whose Alpha ability is to be able to move extremely fast. But, the price of this skill is quite steep, with the side affect being that he also ages very quickly. I thought that the way the writers introduce us to Eli was quite creative. We see Eli walking through the rain with the raindrops appearing to be moving in slow motion, as well as everything around Eli. Initially, we are led to believe that perhaps Eli has the ability to slow things down or perhaps to make time stand still. But, then, we realize that Eli isn’t influencing anything around him at all – everything just appears to be moving slowly simply because Eli is moving so fast.
We know that Eli was in Building 17, and so, we assume that he is extremely dangerous and start to expect the worse from him. This is reinforced after Eli kills a doctor that he had kidnapped, and then, turns around and kidnaps another doctor. However, after Eli later kidnaps Dr. Rosen, and Dr. Rosen stands face to face with this “monster”, we realize that maybe Eli isn’t the monster after all. He had been subject to a whole regimen of experiments by a team of doctors at a clinic that we find out is run by Stanton Parish, and after all of those experiments, that is when Eli’s life fell apart and he began aging so rapidly. All Eli wants is his old life back and for the fast-acting aging to stop. From what we can tell, Eli is actually a victim, and Stanton Parish and his questionable team of doctors could be the monsters here.
In the meantime, we see that while Dr. Rosen had been in the looney bin, Cameron (Warren Christie) had been busy wooing Dr. Rosen’s daughter, Dani (Kathleen Munroe). With how comfortable Cameron and Dani are with one another (and “comfortable” being an understatement here!) in the opening scenes of the episode, we see that their relationship had been going on for quite some time. I know I am going to be flamed by the Cameron and Nina (Laura Mennell) shippers here, but I have to say that I kind of like Cameron and Dani together. Initially, I was quite skeptical simply because of Dani’s ties with Stanton Parish and how dangerous he is. But, Dani’s feelings seem to be sincere, and she seems to genuinely care about Cameron. Besides that, Stanton Parish doesn’t seem to be using Dani’s relationship with Cameron to gain knowledge for Red Flag’s advantage, which indicates the man may actually have a heart and cares for Dani. This relationship is in sharp contrast to the one Cameron had with Nina last season, with the relationship being based upon manipulation and Nina trying to control Cameron with her ability. The only downside to the Cameron and Dani relationship comes at the very end of the episode with the little “omen” that Dr. Rosen leaves with us:
From this moment on, the people in this room is your only circle of trust – Dr. Rosen
When Dr. Rosen made this statement, the first thing I thought of was Cameron and how he cannot share any information with Dani. With his strong feelings for her, we know how difficult this is going to be, and so, we are left wondering not if he is going to share any critical information but when, and what tactical advantage this information will end up giving to Stanton Parish and Red Flag.
Another big plus of this episode is the return of the old Gary Bell (Ryan Cartwright) that we have all grown to love. Gary was a mess last week after having been institutionalized in Building 17 at Binghampton, but Gary is back and he’s letting everybody know about it. Some of the funniest moments of the entire episode are Gary trying to beat up the people he thinks stole his pudding, and then, let us not forget Gary revealing the private text messages Gary finds on Cameron’s phone from Dani. Welcome back, Gary – we have missed you!
After all of Gary’s light-heartedness, the episode ends on a very low note when we see Stanton Parish standing over the last of his 31 grandchildren’s body, after having killed her. We are led to believe that Parish killed her out of mercy, but did he? Is there something else going on? We know that Parish has the ability to not age, but is he getting that ability by perhaps pulling the life force out of other people? After that final scene, I’m beginning to wonder. And, then, let us not forget Eli’s allegations that he didn’t start to age so quickly until after he was at Stanton Parish’s clinic. Hmmmmm…
All I can say is while initially Parish didn’t seem like much of a threat when he was first introduced last season, something tells there is a lot more than meets the eye, which should make for a very interesting season.
Some memorable quotes:
