Warning: Full spoilers for the episode follow...
"Alpha Dogs" was a bit of a mixed bag. On the one hand, we got to see Bill team up with new (and wee) series regular Kat (Erin Way) and learn how to ramp up his ability while keeping his heart calm. But on the other hand we were given a shaky mission with little-to-no resolution or payoff. Underground Super Fights have become a bit of a TV staple over the past few years. Hell, I just watched a Grimm episode featuring illegal monster brawls last week. But in "Alpha Dogs," the team (which doesn't even include Nina now) was after one specific venom spitting guy who killed another Alpha. So their goal was never even to stop the fighting ring but to just use the situation to find a fighter - who turned up dead in the end anyway!
And who was behind the lab running the random Alpha experiments? And how did it tie in with the fighting ring? Dr. Rosen and the gang didn't double back and arrest the people who ran the fights. The whole thing just seemed to get shrugged off and we never really even found out the direct circumstances behind the venom dude killing the electro dude. So, once again, we got a mission that felt slighter than the actual overall character development. Which is good thing if you're looking for a show with great scenes that help give its players extra depth and dimension. But a bad thing if you're looking for a show that gives you both that and solid intrigue.
And as much as I liked the fact that Bill, essentially, stayed in the game and kept fighting at the end, it was strange that no one objected to the fights or made any attempt to bust them up. I guess, overall, the brawls were deemed to be mostly harmless since the rules didn't involve "to the death" and in the end they were primarily there to introduce us to Kat and to rescue Bill from the corner he'd been written into.
Of course, one week after I noticed the absence of Bill's wife, Jeannie, and Gary's mom, Sandra, they both popped back in to lend a hand in two separate stories about moving forward. Bill learned to alleviate his stress and Gary became "independent Gary." Well, as independent as someone can be by simply moving into their office. I would have liked to see a bit more training involved with Bill and Kat other than, you know, that one time she said a few wise words to him and caused him to black out and destroy an entire room, but for now I'm grateful that the show took away Bill's pills while making him stronger and more capable in the process. And Gary's stuff, with the screaming, was fantastic as always. Especially when it was revealed that he was still mourning Anna and blaming the government for her death ("I scream so we don't have to discuss it").
The stuff with Rachel and the dopey new guy, John, was okay, but then I found myself getting unexpectedly sad when he rejected her in the end. I mean, he was so clearly doe-eyed around her that it just seemed like a dick move. Especially since will probably make Rachel doubt her instincts about guys when, in fact, anyone would have thought he was into her.
Kat, and her Taskmaster-type ability, will make an interesting addition to the team although I'm not quite sure how they'll deal with her memory issues. She's plucky, but not overly annoying, which is good. Also, it'll be cool to have someone else in the action field besides Bill and Cameron. Oh, and after Cameron shot and hit another bullet in mid-flight...I don't want to have to deal with him choking or messing up ever again. Because that's about as precise as someone can get with that ability.
The other half of this episode, which was certainly enlightening, involved Rosen learning about Stanton Parish's past as Major Jacob Dunham. No, there wasn't any new information about Parish's immediate plans for a civil war in modern times, but it was cool to step back and look the lengths Parish went through to keep his ability a secret; something he still wants. Which is a strange trait for the Magneto-character of the series. And so now it seems as though Parish has (since I'm doing X-Men comparisons now) Wolverine-like healing abilities; even fighting in several wars, generations apart, like Logan. I like Parish's chats with Rosen, but they still feel a bit toothless. Hopefully they'll grow a little more antagonistic as Parish's plan gets revealed.
Matt Fowler is a writer for IGN. Follow him on Twitter at @TheMattFowler and IGN. WARNING: No Nudity!
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