Alphas season 2 episode 8 review: Falling

This review contains spoilers.

2.8 Falling

In general I go along with Alphas’ somewhat unscientific approach to the powers we see because it’s often entertaining, but the entire pitch of this story throws basic physics entirely out of the window from the outset.

We see a YouTube video of some kids taking a drug called ‘jump’ and then throwing themselves from high buildings, yet remaining unharmed. Frankly, if the Alphas team investigated every video like this from that source they never find Stanton Parish in the next thousand years, but I rolled with that one.

We’re later told that the drug gives the taker a ‘Kevlar’ like protection, which makes no sense whatsoever. It’s like the writer assumed that when you jump off a high building it’s the surface damage that does for you, and not the 300Gs sudden stop where all of your internal organs are destroyed.

This lack of basic understanding in the universe could have ruined Falling, but actually the Kat subplot around her infiltrating the supplier of Jump was actually a rather small slice of this televisual pie.

The episode was mostly about relationships, and various characters who are having difficulty with those close to them. This included Rosen and his duplicitous daughter, Cameron and his son, and finally Rachel and the Farsi-speaking John Bennett. Of these, I find the latter painful to watch, and if it carries on I’ll start viewing the show ten minutes later than normal so I can use the PVR to skip those parts. If they were real people I’d tell John not to walk away, but run. The quicker Rachel realises that the real problem here isn’t her parents but her, the faster she and John can have their fling and then realise they have no chemistry and go their separate ways. It’s all incredibly childish, and I wish they’d find something better to do with the characters.

The section with Cameron trying to work out if his son is an Alpha was also retrieved from the sticky barrel of sentimentality by the acting of Gage Munroe who plays Tyler Hicks and who is actually rather convincing. Warren Christie (Cameron) needs to take some cues from him, because out of the two of them, he was the one not serving big slices of ham this week.

But the star attraction here, and why I watch the show, was David Strathairn offering the turmoil of a man who realises his daughter is working against him and everyone around him. He’s great, not least because he’s allowed to react to events rather than it all washing over him like foam suds. Him coming to terms with his daughter’s actions and their implications is rather elegantly played out, even if they take his angst slightly over the top at the end and it all became a bit too hysterical.

Cameron’s reaction after Danni is arrested seemed entirely out of character, though having seen the trailer for The Devil Will Drag You Under, I can understand why they felt it necessary to have him attack Rosen.

Overall, this wasn’t the best Alphas episode this season, but it kept the larger plot arc moving along while giving Kat some much needed screen time. Perhaps normally I’d have been more critical, but having just sat through Revolution for the second time, I appreciate what it is that Alphas does right that much more.

Read Billy’s review of last week’s episode, Gods And Monsters, here.

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