Alphas: "Life After Death" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

"Life After Death" was a quieter affair, much like "Falling," but with a whole lot more grieving and 100% less Kat. Where was she anyway? Anyhow, the episode might have spent a little too much time wallowing in the aftermath of "The Devil Will Drag You Down," showing us, once again, that Rosen blames himself for Dani's death, but the whole would up being way more effective than I thought it would be; ending with Rosen and Hicks mutually combining their rage to agree on killing Parish should they ever find him.

Not to take away from David Strathairn, because he's always great, but showing Rosen grieve so heavily while looking through Dani's old things is a little repetitive after "Falling," in which he did similar things after learning she was the mole. Yes, her death should weigh heavily on his soul but, in a sense, he's lost her twice now. It's also worth mentioning that Hicks asked Nina to push him in order to forget about Dani, which seems to be a TV theme this season; even looking back to Dani wanting to forget Rosen via a chip implant.

Strangely enough, one of the more interesting aspects of this episode to me was Rachel's story with John, which up until this point was merely cute. When she asked him to take her home, I expected that to be the end of their contribution to the episode; with the death of Dani expediting their relationship in a way that would have caused any old studio audience to go "Wooooooooooo!" But things got much deeper than that (heeyyooo!) and their first time at bat did not go well. Which was a nice twist considering that Rachel's issues seemed to have cleared up after her encounter with photic stimulator. But the two of them weren't ready for the type of intimacy they required and it took some sorting out. The sexy kind. I also like how they've made Rachel's dad into the cooler, more doting parent; even when it comes to Rachel having sex with a non-vetted white dude while he was supposed to be away. It's a sweet touch.

The baby storyline was fun, especially when it turned out that the "parents" were really Alphas sent to bring the baby back to some lab. There were some great and precious baby-related Gary moments in this one too, but in the end the lab was busted off screen and it never became clear who was behind it or whether or not the baby was in the lab because it was an Alpha or if it was an Alpha because of the lab. And as far as powers go, the "baby who inspires others protect it" is definitely on the weaker end of the spectrum. Still, there was some good action here and now Bill gets to take baby Ken (Kyle + Ben) home.

So while last week's blow out was the "dark before the dawn," this episode was the "calm before the storm." Hopefully, there'll be some follow up to the baby lab, seeing as how Parish was behind some Alphas experiments himself. And while they're at it, throw in some closure to the lab back in "Alpha Dogs" too. It would be nice if all of this was connected. One nice thing to come out of Hicks' tension with Rosen is that Hicks thinks that Rosen stepping down and letting Clay take over is wrong. Despite it being easy to blame Rosen for Dani's death, he still thinks Rosen is the best man to get the job done as far as Parish is concerned.

The most interesting question that Rosen had to answer in his post-incident interview with Clay was something along the line "what did your daughter see in Parish?" Rosen resorted to calling Parish a master manipulator who preys on the unsuspecting, but deep down I wonder how much he was admitting to himself that Parish simply gave Dani and nurturing environment that he couldn't. "Life After Death" was a fine, cathartic rest stop, but now it's time to head back out on the road.

Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!

Source : ign[dot]com