On tonight’s Alphas [Syfy, 10/9C], Summer Glau guest-stars as the tinker to end all tinkers – and Dr. Rosen and his team must make some profound choices!
From its opening teaser, Catch and Release,’ this week’s episode of alphas is an action-packed chase movie centered around a young woman named Skyler [Glau] whose alpha gift is the ability to create unique inventions out of whatever is at hand.
She is being chased by what appears to be a mercenary assault team and escapes through use of her inventions – though she gives her pursuers a chance to avoid being blown up by them – and is saved from further pursuit by Dr. Rosen [David Strathairn] and his team and whisked away to their offices.
The remaining members of the assault team, and a team from Department of Defense, arrive not much later – and we learn the assault team is actually NSA. No matter which of them gets skylark, it’s bad news for Skylar.
In some of the character arcs, Rosen and Agent Sullivan [Valerie Cruz] have Chinese food as they get to know each other a bit better; Gary’s [Ryan Cartwright] mother [Jane Moffat] tells Rosen he’s sick while trying to get him to work for his cousin Alan, where it’s safer; and the Harkins talk about having a baby.
In a nifty bit of backstory that plays to the existence of Rosen’s team of Alphas prior to the series premiere, Skyler is an alpha who was found to be no threat to the world at large and left in the real world. Now, she’s been communicating with an unknown party through an encrypted link that is far beyond any government agency’s ability to decrypt as English is to an ant.
Worried that she’s giving state secrets to enemies [she’s done some serious work for the government], the NSA wants to catch her and put her away. Once the D.O.D. learns of the NSA’s suspicions, they fall into line with that objective.
Catch and Release is about choices: Skylar’s choice to go off the grid and become undetectable by any government agency [and the extremely surprising reason for that decision]; Agent Sullivan’s choice to go with the government agency flow without questioning it; Nina’s [Laura Mennell] choice to help Skylar [and the unexpected reason for that]; Gary’s decision to set out on his own to help Rosen and his team; the Harkins’ choice about whether to have a baby and, ultimately, Rosen’s decision to handle the case the way he does. Each choice is, for the party or parties involved, profound.
For an episode that is about fifty percent chasing, there’s a lot of great character development and intriguing backstory. The rough cut made available for review had no writing or directing credits – and there were some places where effects had yet to be slotted in – but Catch and Release continues the show’s more or less continuous growth in quality. At this rate, Alphas will be Syfy’s best series by the end of its first season.
Final Grade: A-
Photo by Ken Woroner/courtesy Syfy
Alphas is getting better with every episode.
I loved the balance between the chase and the character development; at least 4 alphas
from the team (Bill, Gary, Nina/Cameron) and also Dr Rosen have seen
improvement of their characters on a personal or professional level.
Summer Glau played her character just right. She was perfectly cast for the role.
The way they ended it leads me to think she could return for another episode sometime in the future.
Screencaps of episode
Woww nice he was perfectly cast for the role.