Alphas: "When Push Comes to Shove" Review

Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...

No, the fact that Nina and Rachel had a go-for-broke make out session in this episode isn't the reason the score's higher, although it certainly didn't hurt matters. "When Push Comes to Shove" took a break from the Stanton Parish storyline and had Dr. Rosen and his team focus solely on helping one of their own: Nina. And it did a great job of illustrating one of the most interesting aspects of this series - the fact that each member of the team is broken in their own way. Some more than others. And with Nina, the greater the power, the stronger the spiral.

Nina, who was the one member of the team whose powers didn't quite fully mesh with the case-of-the-week mission format, has always been the most dangerous of Rosen's crew. Her mind-control abilities might not be suited for battle, but this episode showed us just how dangerous they are and exactly why, as Rosen states, the government fears her. Plus, the fact that she was growing more powerful gave the whole story a whole "Dark Phoenix" twinge. By the end of the episode, it looked like she was even pushing her own mind in order to continue along her self-destructive path.

The flashbacks featuring Nina and Tommy growing up in the Bronx were sublimely tragic and did a lot to color in Nina's character, which didn't really exist in Season 1. In fact, last year, the way the writers mostly made her relevant was by putting her in a relationship with Cameron. There were a couple of cool little tricks along the way here too, with Rosen discovering that he had been Nina-pushed and didn't know it, and the reveal that Nina had pushed Tommy, who had wound up rejecting her back when they were still kids. Those elements, the team's basic helplessness when it comes to Nina and Yes' "I've Seen All good People" at the end all made for a mighty strong episode.

Yes, the team can pretty much be dismantled by Nina if she puts her mind to it. Which made Rosen all the more important in this episode. Because the way to take down Nina isn't with tactics or force, it's with reasoning. And Nina will only stop when she determines that it's time to stop. For a little while, at the rate Nina was going, I wondered if this episode was going to be it for her character. And that Kat might take her place on the team. In fact, at the end when it looked like Cameron's hand might slip off the cable hook, I thought Nina might push him and have him let her fall. To save him.

Rachel and John's relationship business got solved too, with John revealing that he's a recovering burn victim who's also not too crazy about all the touching. He wasn't much match for Cameron in the "guns drawn" department, but since this mission was off-the-books, we can let it slide. So far this season, the character work has been much stronger than the actual case work. Which is good. Especially for an episode like this that involves an in-house case.

Now get out of here before I take off my towel and show you my fruit.

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

Source : ign[dot]com