When we last left the team, Dr. Rosen had broadcast a message that went public about the existence of Alphas as the team looked on, and his daughter and Stanton Parish watched from his home. Clearly, an admission like this has got to have some pretty serious repercussions. This season opens with team split apart with Dr. Rosen in a mental institution, Gary imprisoned in Binghamton, Rachel trapped in her room overwhelmed with stimuli, Nina back to using her powers to manipulate and Cameron and Bill still working together to trap Alphas who break the law.
Cameron’s abilities seems to be miss firing and Bill seems to be having heart issues. Cameron makes a point that Bill is looking pasty even for him. Umm yeah, not necessary. Cameron has been spending his time in a chat room talking to people who claim to be Alphas, but Bill is not impressed. Clay assigned Gary to NSA and the team has not heard anything from him in two weeks.
When Cameron and Bill deliver an Alpha to building seven in Binghamton, they discover that Gary has been imprisoned with a lot of other Alphas. He has had a chip implanted into the back of his brain to make him docile. Bill feels that this is humane because these people have a history of criminal activity until he sees and violence, until he sees Gary whereas; Cameron finds it anything but and compares it to the treatment of rabid dogs.
They look back at NSA tapes and discover that when touched on the shoulder by an agent, Gary reacted violently. Cameron reminds Clay that this is exactly what they warned him about when he chose to send Gary to the NSA. The fact that Gary is autistic means he doesn’t like to be touched and he has special needs which must be taken into consideration to have a relationship with him. I think that this scene is really important, because it speaks of the low tolerance TAB people have with the disabled. Even when they know accommodations are needed, they don’t necessarily comply. Clay claims that he told them but because Gary sent two agents to the hospital, he ended up in Binghamton.
At the hospital, Daniel goes to visit Dr. Rosen who is overwhelmed with the strong drugs they have forced him to take. Again, I think this is important because though drugs have an important place in mental health treatment, there are many incidents of over medication and this scene makes the point that even when drugs are needed to deal with a mental health issues, they are not free of side effects and consequences. Daniel is worried that her father will be permanently trapped there, but Rosen is firm in the belief that he will be released eventually because they are going to need him.
At Binghamton when they try to put a chip in Meg, she shorts out the system, which brings all of the Alphas offline. Bill is on the floor with Gary and immediately tosses him over his shoulder in a fireman carry, as the prisoners try to escape captivity. When Gary struggles away, Bill is punched in the chest by a prisoner who tells him, “I remember you, you have have a weak heart and I can stop you.” Bill and Gary are both imprisoned in a cell together. Bill tells Gary that he cannot amp up and is in clear pain.
On the floor Asher brings in the warden when Clay refuses to negotiate. An Alpha named Kimmy, talks the warden into putting a gun to his head and pulling the trigger. Luckily for the warden, the gun isn’t loaded but they promise that the next time it will be. Scipio demands to see Dr. Rosen and so Clay goes to see him at the institution. Rosen talks Rachel out of her room and finds Nina using her powers to force a man to kiss her. I’d like to know when Nina got so insecure? This is not the confidant woman that we met in the first season.
