By M. Giant
In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.The team's attempt to nab a high-up member of the rogue Alpha organization Red Flag comes up empty, except for a computer and a severely autistic woman the bad guys left behind in the house. Gary is the first to realize that her seemingly random movements and noises comprise her own personal language, which seemingly only she (and Gary, with his transducer powers and an iPhone) can understand. Figuring that Red Flag must have been using her to encode their messages, they put her right to work going through that computer, with Gary as her liaison and new best friend. This project soon leads the team to realize that Red Flag plans to hijack and blow up a fuel truck. They follow the clues to stop it and... get the wrong vehicle. Which makes sense, once Gary figures out that his new friend Anna has been feeding him wrong information. That's when we find out that Anna's actually the leader of Red Flag ZOMG! Gary manages to decode and transmit the correct data to the team, allowing Bill and Cameron to catch up to the bombers so they can have a nice, close view when the bad guys sacrifice themselves blowing up the fuel truck anyway. The target: a pharmaceutical company working on a drug to prevent birth defects -- including, possibly, Alphas. Gary, luckily, has survived the DOS attack that Anna called down on him in order to cover her escape. However, that same attack lets Rosen know that Red Flag isn't the tiny little cell he and the late Don Wilson thought it was, but a full-blown cartel. Oops.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Gary's home brushing his teeth before bed and blowing off his mom when a certain transmission through the electronic aether that he's constantly attuned to suddenly demands his attention. "Gotcha," he says.
Later, in a suburban house somewhere, a couple of guys are listening to the Doors' "When You're Strange" while futzing around with a tablet computer that needs recharging and eggs that got a little overcooked. Obviously, these Alphas have the uncanny ability to make on-the-nose musical selections. The camera zooms out through a gap in the curtains to a black-clad man pointing a parabolic microphone at the house, plus lots of SWAT guys creeping around in the bushes, and then into the back of a surveillance van, where most of the Alphas (and Dr. Rosen, and the returning Agent Sullivan) are all rocking bulletproof vests and looking at a video dossier of the guy unhappily eating his unsatisfactory eggs, a poor man's Donnie Wahlberg named Milos Kosar. Apparently he's been running Red Flag operations for years, although his Alpha abilities are shown as "unknown." Great research, guys. Rosen exposits that Kosar's the guy who sent The Ghost after them in the pilot, and Gary reminds everyone that he was the one who found Kosar by tracking his cell phone. Everyone else in the truck was just as aware of that as we were, thanks. Rachel has just finished listening to the heartbeats in the house to determine that there are three souls inside, and relays that news to Bill (out on the perimeter with Team One) via walkie-talkie. Cameron's also in position with Team Two. Sullivan recommends moving in, but leaves it up to Rosen, since they're his people and it's not like they're actual SWAT guys. Cameron's clearly planning some kind of hyperkinetic Alpha move to get his team in the door, and it obviously involves the twin automatics in his hands. Rosen gives the green light, in typically un-macho fashion, and the teams start moving in, Bill activating his adrenalin-powered super-strength as he approaches. But it looks like the guys inside also have powers of their own, as the galoot at the stove sees his arm hairs stand up and realizes they have visitors. Kosar jumps up from the table, sweeping his food aside as he goes. Outside, Cameron fires his guns past the SWAT guys, plugging the door's hinges in just the right spot to drop the pins out of them. The food's just now hitting the floor as Bill bashes his way through the other door with his bare hands. Milos goes for the tablet still charging on the kitchen counter, but his partner pulls him away to make good their escape. Milos makes a fist, which goes all wavy, and the whole block goes black, including the team's comm systems. So he's a human EMP? Sounds handy. If you'll forgive the pun, and I wouldn't blame you if you didn't.