Alphas Wants Us All To Drink The Kool-Aid

One of the problems Heroes had when it was airing was how it approached its villains. They all seemed to be cut from the same cloth:  power hungry mad men. Whether it was Sylar, Adam, or Samuel, it all came down to raising themselves above regular folk. Don’t worry; this is still a review of the new Alphas episode, just bear with me. Around Heroes’ final season, I was beginning to wish the series had played around with a different kind of bad guy, and one idea I had was similar to the Freak of the Week in Alphas’ “A Short Time in Paradise.”

My idea was to have someone discover they have an ability, but misjudge it as a gift from God. They would use their ability to attract followers, and soon you’d have a dangerous cult on your hands. The whole idea revolved around this man or woman not understanding what they were doing was a genetic mutation and not a miracle, thus making them not truly evil. Alphas had Jonas (Garret Dillahunt) in a very similar role. My version was more designed as a season-long nemesis, while Jonas was dealt with during one episode.

The storyline was nearly solid throughout. The effects were a little cheesy (especially during the Camerson/Nina love scene. Yikes), but what can you do? These abilities can be tough to visualize for an audience, so it’s something I’m willing to forgive. Jonas was an extremely dangerous foe, not just because his ability (placing people in an artificial sense of well being) proved to be deadly, but because he refused to believe he had anything to do with it and was willing to burn his congregation to prove his faith. A man on a mission from God can be the most harmful of all things. Rosen (who earlier in the show made a note that he’d never fired a gun out of conscious choice) recognized that Jonas was a danger to all those under his spell and made the tough (but correct) decision to end his life before he could hurt anyone else. And best of all, Rosen is shaken by his actions. It’s not something that comes easily to him, nor will it ever. He values human life, and it devastates him to have to kill someone, no matter how necessary it was.

Rachel’s family life became the show’s B plot, and she continues to grow as a character. Out of all the characters on the show, I never would have expected Gary to be the best person to give advice to Rachel, but that scene between them was cute and well done. It served as a push to get Rachel to be more assertive around her father and a way to humanize Gary a bit. It’s good to know that he views his harsh telling-it-like-it-is approach to people as simply being honest.

This and last week’s episodes were a strong indication that Alphas is willing to try many different approaches to people with abilities. They don’t all have to be power hungry mad men. There are many more motivations out there for this series to explore. As long as they keep things grounded the way they have, and don’t cross into the Heroes-style melodrama realm, things will be smooth sailing for the show.