This week, we learn more about the dark side of Dr. Rosen’s operations, and how those Alphas he finds who are determined to use their abilities for ill purposes are shipped off to a facility called Binghamton. When an Alpha named Marcus Ayers uses his abilities to break out of Binghamton, a chapter of Rosen’s life when he first began his operation slowly comes to light. Marcus was one of Rosen’s first Alphas – a man with the ability to see cause and effect and influence it. He can do things like toss a coin and start a chain of events that leads to a car crash. It’s not a terribly original concept, but it is well-executed.
As Marcus begins to enact his own elaborate plan for revenge, Rosen must deal with his own insecurities. He sees Marcus as his own personal failure. The rest of the team begin to grow nervous when they begin to see just how tenuous their position within the team truly is. Hicks is particularly unnerved when he starts seeing similarities between Marcus and himself.
As was alluded to in the pilot episode, there is a more sinister purpose at work in the group that runs Rosen’s team, and we see just how much Rosen has been feigning ignorance about it so that he can continue his work, which he still considers to be for the greater good. In the end, Rosen is forced to take a hard look at what he is doing and the damage he is causing.
This is a solid second episode that develops the greater story by giving us a few new elements to ponder while keeping the larger mystery pretty well veiled. The cast may not be the strongest ensemble I’ve ever seen on television, but they are watchable. This is still only the second episode, and the potential for something very good is there. We shall see what the coming weeks hold.
