Alphas 2.13 "Gods Eye" REVIEW

TV REVIEW The only living boy in New York

Why you can trust GamesRadar+ Our experts review games, movies and tech over countless hours, so you can choose the best for you. Find out more about our reviews policy.

Alphas 2.13 “God’s Eye” TV REVIEW

Episode 2.13
Writer: Bruce Miller
Director: Matthew Hastings

THE ONE WHERE The clock counts down to Stanton Parish’s deadly plan as an injured Rosen attempts to track him.

VERDICT Well that was… interesting. Mildly diverting, anyway. As finales go, the conclusion of Alphas ’ second season very much continued in the vein of the preceding dozen episodes – good in places, and not without with the occasional flash of brilliance, but overall strangely flat.

A lot of it seemed to be to do with Rosen wandering around the place talking to himself, hallucinating and generally acting like the person you’d least like to sit next to on the bus. Now, I’m all for realistic reactions to gunshot wounds, but this was a bit too far. Doctor Rosen being coached round New York by his dead daughter lacked urgency, and just didn’t sit right. Of course, Rosen was partially healed by a handy medical Alpha nearby, but his brave attempts to track down Parish still felt weirdly off kilter.

Impressively, Alphas managed to make Parish’s plan to destroy humanity seem more than a little underwhelming. Surely the government would throw all the resources in the world at a problem as huge as this? But no, instead it’s down to Rosen’s team, aided and abetted by Skylar.

On the horrifically boring romance front, John’s declaration of love for Rachel once again made me wonder why either of them is in the show, such is their all-encompassing tedium. Predictably, Nina kissed Hicks, because it would be a waste of chiselled and primped star-flesh to allow either of them to simply stay chaste for a bit while we all concentrate on saving the world.

Bill and Kat are turning into quite the double act, even going so far as to pull off a decent approximation of Wolverine and Colossus’ Fastball Special. I remain massively confused as to the state of Kat’s memory, which surely should have wiped clean by now. Everyone keeps mentioning it, but it defiantly doesn’t happen. Very strange.

Following in the footsteps of season one, Alphas ’ second season kept the best stuff for the very end. Wonderfully soundtracked by Simon And Garfunkel (making me pine for the brilliant sounds of the pilot – oh, what might have been), Parish’s plan went into action, dropping everyone in Grand Central Station except Gary.

It’s been a maddeningly inconsistent season, but one that did just about enough to make me want more, to see if Alphas can blossom into the show it keeps threatening to be. More Gary, more coherent plotting and more Simon And Garfunkel should do it.

BEST LINE
Gary: “I know, I’m amazing.”

Rob Power

Alphas season two has finished airing in the UK on 5*

• Read our other Alphas season two reviews