In a hurry? Read the recaplet for a nutshell description! Finished? Click here to close.
Apparently the squinty killer Alpha from last week has been a busy beaver, and Red Flag leaders are dropping off the grid. Perhaps these two facts are connected? The team tracks Squinty to his target, who turns out to be none other than Dr. Rosen's own estranged, apparently strung-out daughter, Danielle. And she's an Alpha. Surprise.
Rosen's got his hands full now. On one front, Danielle is taking him on the Guilt Grand Tour of his failings as a father and a husband, while not being particularly forthcoming about the significance of the necklace she stole that Squinty was trying to recover before Cameron killed him. On the other hand, Agent Sullivan is haranguing Rosen to figure out what Red Flag's big plans are for seven the morning, so that's pretty time-sensitive. Fortunately, one problem solves the other, as Rachel figures out that the necklace carries an encoded message, inviting Red Flag's senior management to a big meeting at an abandoned brick factory.
But I should tell you who's calling the meeting. While the above is going on, Bill has a wild hair up his has about "Stanton Parish," that clue he was given two weeks ago. With Gary's help, he learns that Stanton Parish was a scientist whose pro-Alpha manifesto laid the foundation for Red Flag before his death 30 years ago. Only Parish isn't dead. In fact, he's been alive since the Civil War, without having aged a day. And Rosen figures that this Alpha-Alpha is the one who called the meeting.
So the morning, as the team and Agent Sullivan and a small army of tactical agents are about to move in on said meeting, Rosen realizes that Parish, who hasn't shown, is using them to get rid of certain members of Red Flag who want to go public, including Gary's friend Anna. He tries to stop it, but is as effective as always, which is to say not at all. The raid goes off, and it's a bloodbath, with Cameron facing off against a fellow hyperkinetic, Bill fighting a dude with waffle irons for hands, and Gary discovering Anna's shot-up corpse and freaking the hell out, nearly getting himself killed along with all the other Alphas who get massacred in there.
While Rosen and the team are feeling shitty about being used to wipe out thirty-odd Alphas, and Rosen's trying to patch things up with his daughter, he gets a private visit from none other than Stanton Parish himself, grateful for Rosen's help in keeping Alphas under wraps for the time being. Rosen declines Parish's invitation to join him in whatever Parish has planned . Instead, he's heading to Washington DC to testify before a closed-door committee. And he uses the opportunity to broadcast (with Gary's help) an announcement to the entire country that Alphas exist. So that's a bit of a curveball. Even Parish is surprised, even though he was warned something like this might happen by his own personal expert on Lee Rosen: Danielle. The government yanks Rosen off the air, but given that there's a second season planned for year, his radio silence probably won't last forever.
Want more? The full recap starts right below!Rachel's long-distance tracking Isaac Hale, that squinty-eyed killer Alpha from last week. Even on a busy street from blocks away, she can see that he's meeting up with a young woman who seems be using her fingertips as some kind of divining rod, leading Squinty purposefully through the crowds. Apparently the whole team with the exception of Gary (remotely guiding them from the office) and Bill (presumably dead from that heart attack that felled him at the end of the last episode) is out in the field, connected via walkie-talkies, and when Gary sends Dr. Rosen a real-time security-cam video feed of Squinty and Dowsy making their way through the neighborhood, Rosen makes the genius leap that she's an Alpha too. Well, he's the expert. Cameron, following Rachel with Nina, makes the even more impressive deduction that Dowsy's the tracker and Isaac's the killer. During this tense moment, Rachel exposits for no organic reason that Red Flag leaders have been disappearing all week, and Rosen responds that they need to keep eyes on Isaac but not engage. Which means there will shortly be some engaging.
Meanwhile, a ratty young woman in a hoodie and her seedy-looking boyfriend pass a pawn shop, where he tries to convince her to sell something for money. They're both looking rather strung out and in search of their fix. She refuses, and soon they encounter Isaac, who's making his Alpha-fist as he says they have something of his. Suddenly a dramatic wind kicks up, pulling petals off all the nearby flower vendor displays as though there's a Dementor in the house. The young couple runs for it, only to get cornered in a blind alley. Isaac asks them not to make him kill them, because it makes him tired and cranky. And think about how they'll feel. Rachel overhears this from however many blocks away, and leads Nina and Cameron in a sprint to catch up. By the time they get there, Isaac has already delivered the young man's Death Of A Thousand Veins. Cameron leaps off a van, knocking Isaac over before he can kill the girl, but too late to save her boyfriend. Rosen arrives along with the rest of the team and recognizes the girl: "Danielle?" he quavers through the chain link fence. She doesn't seem happy to see him at all, to the point where she makes a break for it, via some exit that didn't exist a moment ago. Rosen quickly tells Nina to Push the girl, but when she tries, Danielle grabs Nina's wrists and debilitates her with glowy pulses of light from her hands, then runs away. Rosen sends Cameron and Rachel to go after Isaac while he chases the girl. Still crouching over his sort-of girlfriend, Cameron asks Rosen what's so special about Danielle. Well, she broke Nina for one thing, but Rosen has another bit of news before he takes off in pursuit: "She's my daughter." Figures.
After the titles, Cameron and a recovered Nina are back on the hunt, as Nina says she knew Rosen had an estranged daughter, but not that she was an Alpha -- one who can apparently make people feel whatever she wants, the way she made Nina cry just by touching her. Rosen being an Alpha-daddy certainly does explain his fascination with and empathy for Alphas, so Nina probably could have figured it out if she'd ever thought about it for five minutes. Rachel meets up with them, having lost Isaac. They get Gary on the line, who's busy learning that Danielle ran away at age 17, and also working on tracking Isaac. The three Alphas in the field jump into the van to try to track Isaac's scent, Rachel asking Cameron to avoid the Thai place. Well, now I know where to go if I ever want to shake Rachel.
Bill, who is not dead after all, walks through the empty halls at HQ wondering what's going on and finding Gary alone, at Rosen's desk. He exposits about how his Alpha fight-or-flight reaction was normalized by his infarction, a word Gary enjoys very much. "I'm being immature," Gary explains unnecessarily. Bill wants in on the Red Flag case the team's working on, because he thinks he's got a lead. In Bill's mind, the Stanton Parish clue Griffin gave him two weeks ago, plus the attempt to erase the MK Ultra files last week, equals a possible clue on Rosen's "cloud drive," which he wants Gary to check. But Gary's already busy, and has found Danielle arriving at the Baltimore Hotel, which Gary describes over the phone to Rosen as a "no-star" hotel. "It has one review: 'Don't stay here.'" But then Danielle doesn't seem like the kind of girl who follows a lot of advice.
Rosen arrives at the fleabag joint, hollering his daughter's name in the hallways and banging on random doors, like he doesn't have anything better to do right now than get killed by annoyed crackheads. When she sticks her head out into the hall for no reason, he wants her to come with him, although he recoils when she gets close. He tries to talk her into letting him help her, because apparently using her ability always leaves her in pain, when suddenly Isaac shows up. Rosen drags Danielle through the hallways, ending up cornered again at a chained emergency exit door. I think this hotel just earned itself a second review. "Two for one," Isaac squints as he comes at them. But won't that make him extra tired and extra cranky?
Literally one commercial later, Isaac is still closing in. Apparently he doesn't even need to touch his victims any more -- both Rosens are turning gray and veiny as he says they could have just given back what he wants and nobody needed to be killed. Not even Rosen, who he literally just tried to kill a week ago and doesn't seem to recognize now? Suddenly an automatic handgun is thrust through the crack in the chained door from outside, and a bullet streaks past Danielle's face, through Rosen's jacket lapel, and straight into Isaac's heart. Thanks, Cameron. One of these days you'll have to show us if you can make a normal shot, though.
Eventually, Rosen has his daughter back at the office to check her over, although he's still afraid to touch her. Apparently she's been using an anticonvulsant medication, among other things, to manage the symptoms of her Alpha ability. Rosen just happens to have some of the stuff handy, and prepares a shot for her, which he gives without avoiding touching her any more. Then he gets to the point, which is his curiosity about why a Red Flag assassin was after her. Danielle isn't too forthcoming, although she does remark on the disapproving look he's directing her way. While he's still trying to make that look go away, Agent Sullivan comes in and pulls him out of the room. She alerts him that they know that whatever Red Flag's planning, it's going down tomorrow at 7:00 AM. So be sure and remind Rosen closer to the deadline then, lady. Yes, she knows Danielle is Rosen's daughter, but she expects Rosen to get to work, and even when he tells her that Danielle could be a lead, Sullivan snaps at him, "Compartmentalize." Okay, then. So Rosen will need to think of the Sullivan he works with as completely separate from this total asshole who comes in and yells at him all the time.
Bill's trying to get off the phone with his worried wife while gulping down pills when Gary shows up with a fat printout on Stanton Parish. Turns out it's a guy after all, wanted by Interpol, deceased 7/3/1974. He was one of the original MK Ultra scientists and he also wrote a pro-Alpha manifesto, being a proto-Alpha himself, back before they were even called Alphas. Bill asks for more data, like there isn't a ream of paper in his hand. "I don't think I like hard work," Gary mutters as he heads back to his office. Well, nobody does when it's pointless.
Rosen is back to interrogating his daughter, who apparently is pretty bitter about the way Rosen used to treat her like a lab rat when she was a kid. She guilts him about the completely different way her boyfriend used to treat her when she was upset, "But then he loved me." "Well, I love you too," Rosen snaps irritably. Convinced by that for some reason, Danielle hands over a pouch that turns out to contain a necklace she stole, studded with what looks like rubies but are just glass. Or something. Pretty, though. Maybe Red Flag's big plan is to change its name to Red Necklace? That may sound minor, but trust me, rebranding can be a huge pain in the ass.
Gary follows a bright data stream to a greenhouse somewhere, where a large goon frisks him before letting him through to see... Anna. Remember, the leader of Red Flag who Gary made friends with weeks ago, and with whom he's apparently been corresponding ever since? She's using a handheld device to speak to him, and they have a happy little reunion before she gets down to business. After taking his hand in a friendly way, even though most people aren't allowed to touch him at all, she wants to know where Gary found a quote he sent her about society's acceptance being a prison disguised as a palace. Sounds like part of a manifesto, and Gary confirms that it was Stanton Parish, who he assumes is Anna's favorite writer, given their similar styles. Anna warns Gary to stay away from Stanton Parish, and Gary doesn't fail to notice her use of the present tense. Looking sad, Anna says it's time for Gary to go, and the goon drags him away protesting.
At night, Rosen has Rachel busy examining the fake ruby necklace while he has another conversation with Danielle. He wants to move on from their troubled past, claiming he's changed, but she says he hasn't changed much in 15 years, other than having a whole team of people like her to "play with." Rosen's starting to get cranky, but she remembers how Rosen would send her to bring Mrs. Rosen a cup of tea and stroke her arm to make her feel better. "Empathic contagion, isn't that what you call it?" Rosen claims he didn't know about her ability at the time, but Danielle says it went on until she was 12, and Rosen figured it out when she was 9. I'm sure Agent Sullivan would appreciate this use of Rosen's time.
Bill catches up with a bummed-out Rosen in the hallway and says he and Gary are onto something. They sit him down and make him listen, unwillingly, as Gary tells the long story about Stanton Parish and Anna, as well as the new information that Stanton Parish worked on the Russian MK Ultra program as well. Gary even has a photo of him doing it. As well as a whole collection of photos of the same man with the same face, going all the way back to the Civil War. So Stanton Parish is Nicolas Cage? Gary adds that Parish seems to be the only person Anna is scared of, and he shows Rosen Stanton's manifesto, A Call for Change, the Red Flag playbook, pulled from the MK Ultra files the bad guys tried to erase last week. Rosen, suddenly convinced, tacks Parish's photo to the Red Flag org chart board above Anna and recites that quote from The Who that I'm always using for the titles of The Office weecaps: "Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss." It's a bit more literal this time.
In comes Rachel, who has figured out the necklace. As the rest of the team joins the meeting, she shows them that the gemstones are lab-ground silicon, which can be used as a storage medium. There's also a metal charm that turns out to have a USB port inside it, and after rearranging the stones on their magnetic clasps, Rachel has turned the necklace into a fancy jump drive. Soon there's encoded data on the screen, which Gary recognizes as Anna's language. He's able to translate it into GPS coordinates for a place called Highland Mills, 60 miles away. So now, in addition to the who (Red Flag) and a when (7:00 AM tomorrow, remember), they now have a where, so all they need is a what, a how and a why to complete the whole set. There's yet another code on the screen, and Danielle wanders in while Gary's working on it to ask, "So, what'd I steal?" Gary decodes the phrase: "We are not the problem. We are the solution." More from Stanton Parish, and that's enough for Rosen to conclude that it's Parish himself who called the meeting. Even with limited commercial interruption, there's no time to explain everything.
Soon, Sullivan and some of her Feds are in the office, confirming the intel and talking about the plan. Gary's mainly worried about his friend Anna getting hurt in the imminent raid. Sullivan says plan A is to use non-lethal force, but vows, "these terrorists will be neutralized" before making a big deal out of taking a cell phone call from a senator. Well, lah-di-dah. That leaves the rest of the team to worry about Gary and Anna, as Cameron offers to work with tactical and try to protect her. Bill says he's going in with Cameron and Nina, and when Rosen voices his concerns, Bill insists, "This is endgame. I'm in." Plus, if they're really using tear gas like Sullivan said, nobody will ask him who infarcted.
During final preparations to head out, Danielle comes to Rosen and says that if it's Red Flag's fault her boyfriend's dead, "I hope you get all of them." Rosen says something rueful about a "rosy future" someone once said he envisioned, and admits that she was right about the tea, and that he tried to use her ability to "save a marriage that I'd already ruined... I just wanted you to hear it." Well, mission accomplished.
Gary is on the phone to his mom, saying he's not coming home tonight because his friends need him and asking her not to cry. She'd probably be crying harder if she could see him half in his bulletproof vest right now. Bill shows up to hurry him along, which reminds Gary to tell his mom about the time Bill pushed him over. "Which was better than taking a bullet. I said don't cry."
Early morning. There's an old brick factory out in the country, with a suspicious number of large vehicles parked outside, like it's a daytime rave for soccer moms. Rachel's hidden behind the tall grass on the hill overlooking the building, watching as Anna's bodyguard gets out of an arriving car and looks around before opening the door to reveal Anna inside. Rachel announces to the team (Alphas and SWAT guys alike) that counting Anna and her two goons, that makes about 30 Red Flaggers. As Anna is carried toward the building, because a person who understands every language in the world with the resources of a nationwide organization at her command can't swing a wheelchair, Gary offers to go down and get them all to surrender, using his standard tactic of wearing people down. But Rosen insists he has to do as he's told. And Gary doesn't even take any wearing down on that.
Cameron and Nina are making some serious pre-battle banter, which Nina cuts off before the juju can get any worse. Rachel reports that Parish hasn't shown up yet, and a dozen or so other Red Flag leaders are also no-shows. Sounds like a set-up to me. Rachel's eavesdropping from up here on the unhappy Red Flaggers inside, but they're not arguing about the poor turnout; they're talking about going public.
Sullivan is leading her team down the hill when Rosen runs up to tell her to hold off. "Put some socks on, Lee, your feet are getting cold," she snarks. Put some shorts on, Sullivan, you look like an asshole. Rosen says it's just a little too convenient how they were led to his daughter (and almost but not quite killed in the process), and allowed to decode a message that would lead them right here. So is he saying it's a trap? Yes, for the members of Red Flag inside the building, who Parish wants shut up -- and Rosen thinks he's using the Alphas and the strike team to do it. Sullivan, shocked at the idea that Red Flag might publicize the existence of Alphas (which I guess has been a big secret all along) is only too happy to do exactly what Parish wants, though, so it's yet another great ineffectual moment for Lee Rosen.
He heads back up to the observation point to rejoin his team, while the SWAT guys -- with Cameron and Nina among them -- move in. It's handy for them that the brick factory has multiple rooms, so they're able to do all their staging inside, while every member of Red Flag apparently hangs out in the very center of the building, not bothering to look out any windows. Maybe Parish is just killing off the Red Flaggers that are too stupid to live. Cameron worries about Nina's inability Push while she's wearing a gas mask like everyone else, but she blows him off. And Sullivan gives the order for her people inside to start firing off canisters.
The Red Flaggers inside react quickly to the gas being released and the amplified government voices echoing through the space demanding their surrender. They all scatter, with Anna's guard running with her in his arms. Seeing the gas from the hilltop, Gary abruptly decides to go down, forcing Rosen to go after him, leaving Rachel alone up there. Down in the factory, Anna's bodyguard has put her down, and is curb-stomping a path through the agents coming after him. Cameron is faced off against a female Alpha who's deflecting his tranq darts with knives, until he disarms her with one -- but only after emptying both his tranq guns. Looks like it's hyperkinetic vs. hyperkinetic. Bill tries to grab a downed Alpha, only to be grabbed by another one whose touch burns him. Cameron's Alpha opponent runs at him and flips over him, taking his gas mask off as she goes. Bill beats down the hot-handed Alpha. Gary's inside, looking for Anna. Cameron's in a fistfight with the other hyperkinetic, but he's able to crawl to a gun. Which he levels at her and then wastes time obviousing, "You're like me." "Better," she says, kicking him unconscious with a boot to the face. No argument there.
Now Rosen's inside and at the head of a squad, looking for Gary. But Anna's bodyguard finds him first, and picks him up by the throat, because he's taking his time now that he's come across a main cast member. Nina comes running to the rescue, doffing her gas mask and Pushing the bodyguard to sleep. Which he does, but Gary runs off in the other direction as soon as he's free. The gas is getting thicker, but so are the agents. Gary's in somehow in the center of a mass of them when a knife comes whickering out of the fog in slow motion, killing the agent right in front of him. Hearing that a man is down, Sullivan gives the order to return fire, and machine guns start going off. Red Flaggers are going down, Gary is screaming for Anna, Bill takes a bullet to his vest, and while he's picking it out, the Alpha he was fighting earlier gets his hot little hands on Bill's face. Bill's fight-or-flight kicks in, and he flings his attacker across the room. Now Gary's running through the factory alone, and at last he finds Anna. She's even more limp than usual, and Gary discovers a bullet wound in her forehead. An agent tries to pull him away, and Gary loses it and starts beating the guy with his own baton. Pretty well, too. More Alphas are being shot down like dogs, and the agent Gary's beating up gets bored and is just about to shoot him when Rosen rushes up and pushes the gun aside at the last moment, crying, "He's one of ours!" The last of the Red Flaggers are shot down, and Gary crouches on the floor in Rosen's arms, screaming Anna's name. Well, that went well. Brunch, anyone?
Nothing left for it now but group therapy. Back at HQ, Gary is talking about the people who died, including Anna, who he thinks he could have saved if he'd had a gas mask. Nina says Gary doesn't know that, and Gary says nobody knows anything, including Rosen. "He pretends to know everything, but he doesn't." Rosen gets up and goes to the window, as Nina says she's not sure she can keep doing this. Rachel agrees, and Cameron points out, "We don't know what we're doing. I'm not sure if we ever did. Right now there is no 'this.'" Rosen insists that "this is a team," and they've done what they did for the right reasons. Bill starts to say something, only to be interrupted by Agent Sullivan, who wants to borrow Rosen for a moment. Again.
In the hallway, Sullivan insists that it's still a win, although he's not sure if it's a win for them or Stanton Parish. She offers him whatever he wants to go after Parish, up to and including more Alphas, counting his daughter if he wants. Rosen bristles at that, and Sullivan repeats that it was a success, because they crippled Red Flag and kept Alphas a secret. Assuming nobody ever gets curious about a government massacre in upstate New York, that is. "And that is a huge victory for you and your team," she insists. Rosen shortly thanks her, and Sullivan adds that the big bosses in DC are asking for his input on the move. Cool, so Rosen can look forward to being ignored by much more powerful people!
Rosen's having Danielle over for dinner in his back yard, and she too is realizing that he doesn't know everything after all. Rosen's a little stung, but she says she likes him better this way. He makes a big wordy apology about how he never bothered to understand what it must be like to be her... but now he wants her to show him, using her ability. She tries to decline, but eventually takes his hand, and after what's clearly an intense emotional experience for him, he says he doesn't know what to say. "Then it worked," she says. Give the man a cup of chamomile.
Later at night, Rosen's doing laps in his pool when he suddenly looks up and sees a man in a three-piece suit standing over him. "Dr. Rosen? I'm Stanton Parish," says Stanton Parish.
Rosen climbs out of the pool as Parish assures him that Danielle's fine and he came alone. He asks Rosen what it's like to be living his dream. What, meeting an all-powerful archenemy while wearing a Speedo? Parish is unrepentant about his decision to purge Red Flag, saying that secrecy is best for both of them. Rosen isn't surprised to see that Parish's lack of empathy is his Alpha downside. "What else? You don't age, you probably don't get sick, I doubt you even sleep." Parish says he's beyond Alpha, in total control of his mind and body. "At the cost of your humanity," Rosen points out. Parish says he is the future of humanity. Rosen isn't buying what Parish is selling, which is, pretty much war between Alphas and humans. Parish insists that it's coming in the two or three years, no matter what either of them does to prevent it. "You'll forgive me if I try," Rosen snaps, starting to walk away. Parish says Rosen is so close to understanding what he's been trying to figure out about Alphas ever since his daughter was a child. "I can get you there." And all he wants in return is Rosen's help with his plans. "I've helped you enough," Rosen says. Parish turns out to have another Alpha ability: knowing when his welcome is worn out.
We see Rosen and his team in the office at night, helping him get ready for his trip to DC and wishing him luck. Gary gives him a fancy pen. Nina even gives him a hug. While this goes on, we hear him VOing about how he started as a doctor, "treating a group of remarkable patients," and how that led him to Red Flag. He's been talking to a Senate subcommittee about how things led to the Highland Mills raid, and how Stanton Parish is still at large. One of the senators offers Rosen as may tactical teams as he wants, and turns to Sullivan to confirm that there's plenty of room left in Binghamton. Clicking that pen in his hand, Rosen warms to the subject of Binghamton: "A clandestine prison hospital, where Alphas are confined and subjected to experiments without any respect paid to their civil rights or their humanity. Binghamton is not the answer. Binghamton is part of the problem." The pen in his hand is transmitting his voice and image to Gary's Skylarphone, and Gary in turn is using it to forward the signal to... somewhere, as Rosen compares Red Flag to the government, saying they both rely on violence and secrecy. Well, that's not going to make him many friends in this room. He says that will only lead to war, so he's calling for an end to that, and full public disclosure. And he's not just calling for it, he's doing it -- because thanks to Gary's Skylarphone, he's appearing live on just about every video monitor in the country, including the Times Square Jumbotron. "Alphas exist," he days directly to the pen. "They are among us. They are our friends and our spouses. They are our sons and daughters." Sullivan, who's also seeing this live on her smartphone, goes and whispers to one of the Senators, who tries to shut it down. Parish, watching at home, smiles to himself, "This just got complicated." He looks pretty impressed. Sitting in front of him, a squeaky-clean and judicially-sober Danielle Rosen says, "I warned you." Rosen keeps going on until he's pulled away, replaced by the words "Signal lost."
So that's it, and presumably it will be a new world when we rejoin the Alphas year, when they'll be forced to deal with the whole world knowing that their boss and psychiatrist is a total crank.
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.
What are people saying about your favorite shows and stars right now? Find out with Talk Without Pity, the social media site for real TV fans. See Tweets and Facebook comments in real time and add your own -- all without leaving TWoP. Join the conversation now!