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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.
The credits are just about long enough for everything to come back on, by which time Rachel directs Bill and Cameron to the back room, where there's only one heartbeat, not moving. They go in guns drawn, only to find a seemingly harmless and oblivious dark-haired young woman in a cardigan and a rocking chair. I don't think she's much of a threat, dudes. But then I've been wrong before.
The sun's up when we come back, and Rosen's in the room with the woman while Gary and Nina watch Rosen snap his fingers in her face, which is more or less all it takes for him to diagnose her as a low-functioning autistic. Not that diagnosing television characters on both scripted and reality television with various spectrum-related issues isn't a time-honored tradition, especially among viewers. According to the paperwork she's Anna, the homeowner, and thus ideal for Red Flag to move in on without her complaining. Yeah, that makes perfect sense. I'm sure Anna's all alone there all the time except during home invasions. Bill's as happy as he ever gets after finding a box full of plans that the Red Flag guys left behind. Rachel has found singe marks on the floor and ceiling where Kosar did his thing, and dismisses the tablet Rosen found as "encrypted, "which seems more like a Gary thing. As for the suspects themselves, it looks like they just jumped out a window in the dark. Bill and Cameron both think they're being blamed for this, and they're taking it about as well as you'd expect from those two. And Nina's even less happy when Rosen leaves her at the house in charge of Gary and Anna, so Gary can stick around scanning for signals from Red Flag. Inside the house, Gary looks too distracted by watching Anna actively and noisily touch everything she can reach to be much use to anyone. At least in his usual capacity as an EM scanner. If he wants to be Liam Neeson in Nell, though, he's off to a great start.
Back at Alpha HQ, they're looking at some of the evidence from the house. They're playing a Red Flag propaganda video narrated by a robotic voice, all about how awesome and how much better Alphas are than ordinary humans, with their narrow definitions of what is and isn't "abnormal." Cameron protests Rosen's shutting it off because he's the only one who hasn't seen it (and besides, he probably would like to hear more about how awesome he is), but gets overruled. Bill has found among the Red Flag stuff some plans for remote detonators and some information about an oil company called Northwell Petroleum. Looks like they're onto Red Flag's plan, sorta.
At the house, Nina blows off a curious cop while Gary tries to follow Anna's movements and seemingly random voice sounds. There seems to be a pattern, as she keeps going from the louvered closet door to a massager and brush on the dresser and back again. And when Gary turns on his phone, apparently that's the filter he needs to interpret what Anna's trying to tell him: "I can help you find them," she seems to be saying. Sounds like an offer Gary can't refuse.
It's night again, because I'm starting to see that Alphas occurs on an earth that not only has mutant superheroes but also rotates a lot faster than ours. Rosen's back at the house, and Gary explains that Anna's using her own language that only she can understand -- and Red Flag used her to encode their transmissions. Gary further informs Rosen that Anna understands every language, which Rosen tries out by busting out a little Swahili. Gary uses his EM powers to translate Anna's response to Rosen, "It's nice to meet you too." That's because she hasn't known him long.
Out in the kitchen, Rosen marvels to Nina about what this means: "She's a virtual Rosetta Stone." Everyone thought she was severely autistic, maybe even mentally disabled, but she just has a form of apraxia, an inability to speak. "No one noticed that she is an Alpha." Because that's a made-up thing, duh. Nina points out that Gary did...and so did Red Flag. Rosen's planning to use her to decrypt that computer tablet to help them find Kosar, but his triumphant mood is shattered when he gets a call from Gary's mom about the lateness of the hour. As you may recall, Gary's superpowers do not include staying up past 9:30.
When Rosen drops him off, he announces to his mom that since he missed his bedtime, he plans to stay up all night. After he goes in, his mom starts to rip into Rosen, who interrupts, "He met a girl." He pretty much glosses over what she's like, which seems to calm Gary's mom down a bit, if not actively cheer her up. Kind of a craven way for Rosen to get himself out of trouble, but at least he looks guilty after saying goodnight.
morning, Gary sets the Red Flag tablet computer down in front of Anna. She gets right to work with her hairbrush and other non-verbal linguistic tools, which apparently the computer is configured to use as input. Gary digs this, especially when the computer starts translating everything Anna's doing to text and an electronic voice: "Now we can really talk, one friend to another." Anna's a little forward, isn't she? She's interested in Gary's ability to read EM waves. Nina hollers in at them to get back to work. Which they do, starting with the message Gary tracked to the house. Too bad Nina wasn't on that Star Trek: The Generation episode where Geordi spent a whole crisis flirting with a holographic simulation. Not that Gary and Anna are like that at all.
At the office, Bill has an inbox full of translated e-mails from Gary, starting with something about the US DOT and a string of digits. I'd mock the idea that anything to do with the Department of Transportation could be scary, but I live in Minneapolis and it's August 1. Meanwhile, Rachel is explaining to Rosen that the singed carpet fibers indicate an Alpha with an ability to emit highly powerful and focused discharges of static electricity. Thanks, Rachel, now you can go home for the rest of the episode. Bill walks up with that DOT number, which happens to correspond to a Northwell Petroleum truck currently on the road. Cameron figures Kosar's plan is to blow up that truck. "No, 'cause we're gonna stop him," Bill says. Good luck with that.
At a service station, Kosar encounters the fuel truck driver in question in the bathroom and zaps the lights. He comes out moments later in the dude's uniform, joining his partner in the cab of the fuel truck. The vehicle's electronics are all down thanks to Kosar's little trick, which gives Kosar time to stress at his big doofy partner about the explosives being in place and being careful with the big, clunky digital detonator currently reading 59-something. After a minute everything comes back on, so they're able to drive off, giving us a nice, clear look at the bomb strapped to the back of the truck's undercarriage. That should definitely discourage tailgaters, if nothing else.
Cameron and Bill are in an FBI-mobile with Agent Sullivan. The driver is able to come around and cut the truck off, herding it off on a side road where another government vehicle can cut it off. Everyone gets out, guns leveled, but the uniformed driver guy who gets out of the cab is not Kosar. Awkward. Bill looks at the empty gauge on the tank and the number on the side (the same one Gary sent him), which then cuts to the truck driven by Kosar onto the New Jersey Turnpike. With a totally different number on the side. It's almost as though someone made a mistake!
After they return to HQ, Sullivan guesses that maybe Kosar gave up on his plan. Rosen insists that Kosar doesn't do that, because if he did the episode would be over. Rosen decides he needs Gary back at the office.
At the house, Anna and Gary are still chatting about their respective situations and how much control they have over their respective lives before Gary pulls up something with a date of May 2011, but it's showing as 1011. Gary asks her to count to 10 because he needs to check on something, but she comes over all reticent and embarrassed. Nina tells Gary that Rosen's calling them back to the office, but Gary flatly refuses. In fact, he mounts a full-on rebellion, even accusing Nina of Pushing him, which she isn't, and which doesn't work on him anyway. Nina has even less to do than Rachel does this week. All she can do is go back to the office without him. Like she's the one Rosen needs.
At HQ, Cameron offers Rosen a little unsolicited advice about not making it personal, because it leads to making mistakes. Rosen is a lot less receptive than usual, even when Cameron advises him to let Kosar be the one to make the mistakes. I think Kosar's a little behind on that score.
At the house, Anna congratulates Gary on standing up for himself. He responds by calling her on lying, saying that the DOT number she gave him was wrong, and that she did it on purpose. She says she had to, and Gary thinks he gets it: "You work for Red Flag," he accuses. Anna quickly corrects him, through her made-up language and the computer that translates it: "They work for me." Wow, boss level in only four episodes?
At HQ, Bill stops in the middle of outlining a theory to point out to Cameron that Rachel's going to smell his hands on her cup that he's drinking out of for some reason. Seriously, Cameron, get your own cup. One that doesn't say "RACHEL" on it, maybe. Bill gets back to explaining how the truck they stopped was empty, which Red Flag would have had no interest in. Bill now decides he wants to see a list of every truck out there with fuel in them.
Anna's now actively trying to recruit Gary into Red Flag, playing on their friendship, but he's insisting on getting the real number from her so no one gets hurt. Anna's ready to give it to him, but first she tells him about a drug designed to prevent birth defects -- including, apparently, Alpha abilities. Anna leaves it up to him: "All you have to do is say nothing." Meanwhile, Kosar and his partner drive their hijacked truck toward the Holland Tunnel, which, as a camera zoom tells us, leads straight into Manhattan. In case you forgot.
Gary is framing his choice as how he never made his own friends until now. He has a question for Anna: is she really his friend or just pretending? When she says yes, he says that's good. "I did something sneaky, and I don't think you're gonna like it." Well, what are friends for?
At HQ, Bill's on the phone yelling at Agent Sullivan about what to do about all the fuel-laden Northwell Petroleum trucks on the road when Rachel gets a text that makes her pretty upset, unless she's just pissed about not having anything to do but peer at carpet fibers and listen to heartbeats. Meanwhile, Rosen is chewing out Nina for not bringing Gary back. "I'm not his mom and I'm not his babysitter," Nina yells back, but this discussion will have to be tabled because Bill, Rachel, and Cameron head past them on their way to following the lead on Kosar Gary just sent them. As Rosen and Nina catch up in the parking lot, Bill brings the rest of them up to speed. As soon as Rosen realizes Gary's still with the leader of Red Flag, he sends Bill and Cameron on ahead while the rest of them rush to save Gary.
At the house, Anna's getting increasingly agitated while Gary assures her that Rosen will help her. She points out that Rosen isn't one of them. And it looks like she's got some sneaky moves of her own, apparently having called down a DOS attack that not only overloads the computer but Gary's transducer brain as well, sending him writhing to the floor, suffering the mental equivalent of a cascading pop-up virus.
The truck's not going into Manhattan, it turns out, but only to Montclair Pharmaceuticals, an isolated office-park campus out in the wild countryside of Trenton, New Jersey. As it pulls in, Bill and Cameron are catching up in an SUV being driven by a government agent. "They're coming," Kosar's partner says when his arm hairs stand up. Kosar floors it, smashing through the flimsy security gate while Bill and a government sedan follow. In the parking lot, Kosar jumps out of the truck, leaving his partner to detonate manually when it's close enough to the building. Cameron's trying to line up a sniper shot from the back of the moving government SUV, but when Kosar crouches down and sinks his hands into a deep puddle in the parking lot (even though it hasn't rained this whole episode), the electricity travels all the way to the SUV, sending it skidding out of control and screwing up Cameron's aim. Bill and the agents get out and pursue Kosar on foot, while Cameron holds onto his sniper rife so he can take aim at the partner -- through shifting crowds and a chain link fence and whatever else -- and shoot the detonator out of his hand before he can set it off. Good thing that detonator was such a big target. Seeing what happened, Kosar runs to retrieve the detonator, but since Bill just pushed a parked van at him, he's out of luck -- especially when the tires crush the device. Bill takes a few potshots at Kosar, then unwisely takes cover behind that van, which Kosar zaps, sending Bill sprawling like he just got tased. Cameron tries to line up a shot at Kosar, but before he can, Kosar dives under the truck where the bomb is, puts his electric hands on it, and detonates the entire load of fuel. Cue the giant fireball. So, kind of a fail for the Alphas today.
Rosen, Rachel, and Nina arrive at Anna's house and run inside, where they find Gary on the ground. He's okay except for a headache, and they get him up and out of there. Well, that could have been a lot more embarrassing.
They drop him off at his house after dark again, and Rosen says he knows Gary liked Anna, "But I'm your friend too." Gary shortly says that Rosen isn't "one of us, "which seems to take Rosen aback for a moment, but he quickly rallies, saying he doesn't make those distinctions. He insists Red Flag is a small group with extreme ideas, and Gary just tells Rosen to read the e-mail he sent him. Does Rosen usually not read Gary's e-mails?
In the house, Gary's back brushing his teeth and blowing his mom off some more, now saying he can take care of himself. Suddenly he gets a message on the spectrum in Anna's computer voice, saying, "I'm sorry, Gary. I hope you are still my friend." Gary's smile as he continues brushing seems to be his answer.
At HQ, Sullivan shows Rosen a new video from Black Flag, this one taking responsibility for the bombing in the name of "true neurodiversity." Of course the robotic voice has been analyzed as another one of Anna's. Rosen remembers Cameron warning him, and blames himself for underestimating Anna. He also seems to get what she was trying to do, blah blah blah Magneto-cakes. As for Red Flag, Rosen tells Sullivan that he and Wilson thought it was only a loose group of fifty to a hundred people. But then he shows Sullivan what Gary must have e-mailed him: an animation of the messages that flooded Gary's brain earlier, originating from a thickening constellation of red dots all over a map of the US. "This is more than a criminal enterprise," Rosen says. "This is a movement."
Whatever, this show's a movement. And not the kind he means.
M. Giant is a Minneapolis-based writer with a wife, a son, and a number of cats that seems to have settled at around two. Learn waaaay too much about him at Velcrometer, follow him on Twitter , or just e-mail him at m.giant[at]gmail.com.