Alphas Review: "Cause & Effect"

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Alphas was all about Rosen this week.

It was a smart decision, considering the weak pilot. The doctor is easily the deepest and strongest character of the bunch. Watching his “origin story” with a previous Alpha gave us a good opportunity to solidify what his role is for the team and just how far he’ll go to protect everyone.

Alphas in Action

Markus,meanwhile, made a wonderful villain. His power to see how the entire world interacts, and then his ability to change the equation slightly to manipulate an outcome, was really cool. Especially during his escape from the ambulance.

As a side note, SyFy must be paying a decent amount of money for every episode. The special effects and stunts here were top notch, particularly for a cable show where budgets tend to be limited.

The struggle power struggle Markus thinks he has with Rosen really upped the stakes on "Cause & Effect," helping to tie everything together with the mythology being built. He believes Rosen is the one true unknown in this power struggle. And he’s right. Rosen is the only one who can truly help the Alphas on their way to acceptance - or he can send them to the institution.

I’m getting the feeling this institution is being set up as the main adversary for our team of Alphas.

The rest of the Alphas didn’t play a big role this week. Cameron tried to come to grips with where he fits in and with the fact that he is similar to Markus. But not so similar that he might end up like him. It should make for a great internal power struggle: finding a sense of where you belong.

It’s something I think Nina is trying to help him work through. She knows how close an Alpha can get to heading towards the other side of the fence. How close the Alphas can get to hurting people instead of helping them. How close they can get from getting accepted to getting hunted down and taken care of.

Thankfully, the second time around, Alphas showed definite improvement. The mythology is starting to weave itself into the case of the week in a much more organic way. A very fun and dangerous villain has (potentially) entered the fray. And the characters are being served in a much deeper manner. Here’s hoping next week continues the upward trend.

Cause & Effect Review

Editor Rating: 4.0 / 5.0
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User Rating:

Rating: 4.4 / 5.0 (21 Votes)
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Alphas Season 1 Episode 2 Quotes

Cameron: Nice car.
Nina: I borrowed it.

We're not in market research. Cover story.

Gary