Photo Credit: SyFy
One of the definitions of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results. With some of the actions by one of the characters in last night’s episode, we are left wondering if this character is starting to fit this definition.
I had always felt that one of the strengths of Alphas last season was its character development. And, with its getting a new Executive Producer and showrunner this season, I was becoming increasingly worried that the character development and interactions were going to be replaced with more action and faster-paced storylines which seem to be the pattern for so many TV shows today. Fortunately, this episode proved me wrong. The one character whose back story was not explored much last season was Nina’s (Laura Mennell), and in this episode for the first time, we get a glimpse into the troubled past that was only hinted at in season 1.
At the end of the last episode, Nina all but tells Dr. Rosen (David Strathairn) that she is done with the team, and he needs to let her go. After a string of bank robberies that has Nina’s name written all over them, Dr. Rosen seems more determined than ever to find Nina and help her before the government does and lock her away like they had wanted to years ago before Dr. Rosen intervened. The team does finally find Nina, and all of the signs indicate that Nina is attempting to relive her teenage years, first by hooking up with her childhood boyfriend, Tommy. After pushing Rachel (Azita Ghanizada) into the well-publicized “girl on girl action” kiss and pushing Cameron (Warren Christie) into believing Rachel is actually Nina, Nina once again alienates two of the few people who she could truly call her friends.
The scenes that come next are quite significant, and I thought the writers did a superb job in their execution. In a series of flashbacks, we see Nina as a child when she discovers the true power of her ability and how she uses that power on the people closest to her, including her father. Nina’s father wants to leave the family, and with Nina unable to bear the thought of that, she pushes him to stay, even if that means his being unhappy. We also see Nina meeting Tommy for the first time, and from everything we see, Tommy truly likes Nina at the beginning. Tommy just sees a cute girl that he enjoys being around, and if Nina had just been an ordinary girl with no extraordinary powers, we wonder if their relationship would have worked out. Instead, Nina’s father ends up killing himself because of the “prison” Nina had created for him by refusing to let him leave. And, Tommy becomes so alarmed by Nina and how she freely uses her ability without a second thought, that he orders her to stay away from him.
In the end, this gifted girl who appears to have the world at her fingertips is left with nothing and is forced to push Tommy just to get him to spend any time with her at all. At the end of her ropes, Nina contemplates suicide and almost succeeds if it weren’t for Cameron intervening at the last moment. With Stanton Parish (John Pyper-Ferguson) virtually absent from this episode up to this point, I was fully expecting he might swoop in at this low point in Nina’s life and “recruit” her to the dark side. We aren’t quite sure what is Parish’s game yet, nor how gets other Alphas to join his cause, but with Danielle Rosen (Kathleen Munroe) in his corner, we wonder if he targets Alphas who are vulnerable. With what we see in last night’s episode, this doesn’t happen, but I still wouldn’t rule this out unless Nina makes some real strides in improving and getting her life together.
This was a fabulous episode, well written and well executed, and the only part that I had a complaint about is that they still haven’t completely reintegrated Gary (Ryan Cartwright) yet. Ever since his stint at Binghampton in the premiere episode, his character has been somewhat sidelined, which is quite disappointing since he is such an important component of the team and of the show. However, we did still get some hilarious Gary quotes including the “I’m going to have to remove my towel, and then, you’ll see my fruit” which made me laugh so hard I thought I was going to cry. Gary, we so miss you, and we look forward to your getting more air time very soon!
Alphas airs on Monday nights at 10 pm EST on SyFy.
