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Characters / Alphas

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    The Team 

The team as a whole

Dr. Lee Rosen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Rosen_4129.jpg

Played by: David Strathairn

A neurologist and psychologist who specialises in the study of "alphas". He leads the DOD-sponsored team of Alphas, but is slowly becoming disillusioned as the team's mandate shifts from finding and helping Alphas in trouble to fighting dangerous Alphas and locking them up. He started investigating the Alpha phenomenon after discovering that his daughter was one.

  • Ambiguously Jewish: Lee Rosen. He has a common Ashkenazi last name and has fairly Jewish looks.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: He's calm, diplomatic and level-headed, probably one of the nicest guys in the show. But push him hard enough (or threaten his daughter) and he'll destroy everything you love and shatter your mind in a million pieces with ruthless skill. Parrish learned this the hard way.
    • Similarly, don't taunt him over the fact that Dani was The Mole, and was killed by Parrish. Just ask Scipio.
    • Beware the Quiet Ones: He almost never raised his tone across the entire series, but let it be known that Rosen's affable talks can sound just as threatening as a wrathful scream if he wants to.
  • The Chessmaster: While clearly not to Parrish's level, he's been doing an effort to catch up with him in this regard. His little gambit with Hicks near the end of season two shows how dangerous he can be.
  • Cool Old Guy
  • Cosmic Plaything: Every effort he makes to improve human-Alpha relations somehow manages to backfire horribly and make the situation worse than it was before.
  • Determinator: Nothing will stop this man's quest to take down Red Flag.
  • For Science!: Occasionally displays this viewpoint. For example, when wishing to determine whether Nina would be able to recover a repressed memory, he describes Kat as "the perfect test subject." However, he never goes so far as to ignore a person's free will or humanity.
  • Good Is Not Soft: In "If Memory Serves".
    Rosen: Yes, Senator. You are right. My team is dangerous ... and so am I.
    Rosen: (to Cameron about Stanton Parrish) He's not a sociopath. He cares quite deeply about [Mitchell] and he cares quite deeply about Dani. And this humanity of his makes him vulnerable. That's his weakness ... and we are going to use it against him.
  • Guile Hero: Comes with the territory.
  • The Heart: Without him, the team can barely function. When absent for eight months between seasons, Nina has reverted to pushing everyone on a whim, Hicks can't hit the broad side of a barn, Gary gets sent to Building 7 when his new NSA co-workers refuse to accommodate him (resulting in a freak-out that injures two of them), and Rachel won't even leave her room because she can't control her senses. The only one who isn't overtly suffering is Bill, and that's because he's busy trying (and slowly but surely failing) to fill the void left by Rosen. When Rosen comes back, he pretty quickly gets everyone back to relative normalcy.
  • Heroic BSoD: When he wields a gun for the first time to kill an Alpha, his reaction is a textbook example of this He also almost breaks down when he discovers his daughter is a Mole for Parish.
    • And again when Danielle meets her painful end.
  • He Who Fights Monsters: Rosen seems to be showing shades of this in the later episodes in his desire to stop Parrish.
    • Ultimately subverted in the second season finale.
  • I See Dead People: After he gets shot in "Need to Know", he spends the entirety of the season 2 finale seeing Dani, hearing her talking him down and willing him to continue his pursuit of Stanton Parrish.
  • Killed Off for Real: Er...maybe. This is the logical assumption given that he was in range of Parish's device when it went off in the season 2 finale, but it hasn't been confirmed yet.
  • My Greatest Failure: Feels this way about Marcus.
    • His estrangement from his daughter, Dani. Even more so after their reconciliation is cut tragically short.
  • Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: It probably wasn't his plan to amplify the psychotic Scipio's powers and burn down an entire forest, secret Alpha commune included.
  • Papa Wolf: Often comes across as very protective of Nina, Rachel and Gary, as well as his daughter Dani.
    • Illustrated when Hicks mentions he's dating his daughter. Rosen says he is cool with it, as long as he doesn't break her heart, in which case Rosen will fire Hicks. Both nervously laugh it up a bit, but Rosen's inability to keep a smile demonstrates that he is serious about the threat.
    • Stanton Parrish had a plan to recruit Rosen. He may have even succeeded. But he made the mistake of threatening Rosen's daughter, which results in Parrish getting tossed in a cell when he thought Rosen would keep his word and let him leave.
    • Parrish killing Dani made him a bit...unhinged, to the point where had no problem using an innocent Alpha as bait in his quest for revenge, something that directly contradicts his previous characterization.
  • Parental Substitute: To Nina.
  • Reluctant Warrior: He treats violence as a last resort but will not let this stop him from saving lives.
  • Revenge Before Reason: In Series 2, after Stanton Parrish lets Dani die after she's no longer useful to him.
    Hicks: You know that if Clay catches Parrish, he'll put him in prison? He doesn't deserve to go to prison!
    Rosen: *Tranquil Fury* No. No, he doesn't. I'm going to need your help.
  • Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Rosen goes on one after Dani's death, and he brings Cam along for the ride.
  • Science Hero: Rosen is consistently seen using medication and drugs to counteract or enhance various Alpha abilities. Even Cornell Scipio visibly cringed when he saw Rosen with a syringe during "Need to Know."
  • Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Generally averted, but he gets one in "When Push Comes To Shove":
    Rosen: "Your neurons must myelinate at an astounding rate."
    Kat: *Confused look*
    Rosen: "Sorry, it's commonly called muscle memory."
  • Shadow Archetype: To Stanton Parrish, who is also a leader of a group of Alphas seeking to change the world. The key difference is that Rosen doesn't want bloodshed on his hands and still believes there can be peace.
  • The Shrink: Of the third variety.
  • Silver Fox
  • Stepford Smiler: Puts up a happy façade very often to hide how he feels.
  • Team Dad
  • The Team Normal: Though he makes it clear that he does not consider himself to be apart from them because of it.
  • Torture Technician: Rosen can be a utter master of psychological (no surprise, since he's a shrink) and physical torture, if pushed hard enough.
  • The Unfettered: In his quest for vengeance on Parrish after Dani's death
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: Has his moments of this.
  • Wide-Eyed Idealist: He honestly believes Alphas and regular humans can learn to co-exist peacefully.

Nina Theroux

Played by: Laura Mennell

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Nina_9899.jpg

A young woman who used her Alpha ability — "pushing" people into doing what she wants — for petty personal gain, until her activities brought her to Rosen's attention. She's been on the team for longer than anyone else, and serves as Rosen's second. Has oodles of UST with Hicks.

  • The Atoner: She thought she accidentally killed her boyfriend with her ability. Also, she accidentally drove her father to suicide during her childhood since she commanded him to never leave, which left him unable to leave their house.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: With Cameron, as of season two.
  • Black Bra and Panties: She's revealed to be wearing them after undressing to have sex with Cameron.
  • Charm Person
  • Compelling Voice
  • Dark and Troubled Past: She tried to save her parents' failing marriage by pushing her father to stay. She pushed him so often that he could barely think for himself, and he eventually committed suicide.
  • Driven to Suicide: Got saved by Hicks just in time.
  • Heroine With An F In Good
  • Morality Chain: Dr. Rosen is definitely one for her.
    • She goes off the rails and back to her old habits, when he is institutionalized between Series 1 and 2.
    • Curiously, she tries to be this for Rosen a few times as well (mostly on his He Who Fights Monsters routine).
  • Morality Pet: As much as she would deny it, she has a soft spot for Gary.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: When she realizes that she pushed her childhood boyfriend into leaving his family behind and being with her. She thought she had a genuine relationship with him and was apparently unaware that she was controlling him the whole time.
  • Number Two
  • Psychic Static: Her ability functions as this for Hicks in "The Devil Will Drag You Under", preventing Parrish's telepath from discovering that he's undercover.
  • Team Mom
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: Season 2 but she got better in later episodes.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: She causes Hicks to shoot John and makes Rachel kiss her, but once her true backstory is laid bare, it's hard not to feel for her and understand why she is the way she is.

Bill Harken

Played by: Malik Yoba

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Bill_2231.jpg

A happily married FBI agent with Super-Strength. Bill was suspended from the Bureau after getting angry with a colleague and accidentally shoving him through a solid wall; he only planned on staying with Rosen's team until his suspension was over. He's since decided to stay on the team, even though the Bureau offered to reinstate him.

  • Character Development: He respects Gary more and becomes more protective of him after their episode together. The two refer to each other as partners from then onwards.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Happily Married
  • Hour of Power: Can only have his power activated for 5 minutes.
  • Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Him and his wife.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Has martial arts training, which he does use in concert with his Super-Strength. As a result, he can keep up with Hicks in a down-and-out brawl well enough to win. In this case, notably, his Super-Speed didn't really come into play.
  • Made of Iron: He can stand still and take a beating from three armed men, one of whom is tasing him continuously, without moving. Partially explained by his ability to control his adrenaline rushes, as adrenaline is known to make it easier to ignore pain. The aches, pains, and injuries he must logically have collected don't seem to affect him later, either.
  • Number Two: In Season 2 he takes over this role while Nina is off the team and recovering; Rosen still goes to him to spearhead Black Ops type stuff, like the search to root out the mole.
  • Only Sane Employee: He's the only member of the team with a law enforcement background, which brings him into conflict with his less experienced partners and his idealistic boss.
  • Papa Wolf: Towards Kat when he learns about her memory loss. She calls him on it pretty quickly.
  • Pet the Dog: Though he was as ambivalent towards Gary as everyone else on the team, Bill always laughs at Gary's antics where others would fume in early episodes (quite possibly the result of the actor not being able to keep a straight face). This provides some early indications of his later friendship with Gary following "Bill and Gary's Excellent Adventure".
  • Scary Black Man
  • Superheroes Stay Single: Averted.
  • Super-Speed: This mostly takes a backseat to his strength, but the same adrenaline boost that makes him strong lets him run like a track star. Demonstrated when he tries to chase an Alpha with hyper-speed, but fails when he can't control his momentum and slams into a trash bin.
  • Super-Strength
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Has become this with Gary. Type 2.
  • The Worf Effect: Suffers from it against Kat in the Alpha Fight Club. She uses fighting moves she picked up with her super muscle memory and utterly kicks his ass, something several previous opponents failed to do. Even taking into account the fact that Bill was quite reluctant to fight her, we've seen the man stand up to beatings far in excess of what she doled out.
  • Would Hit a Girl: An absolutely epic takedown of Kimi Milard in "The Devil Will Drag You Under".
    • Not to mention Trisha in "Alphaville".

Rachel Pirzad

Played by: Azita Ghanizada

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Rachel_8106.jpg

A very introverted young woman with Super-Senses, who was a CIA linguist before joining Rosen's team. She's under constant pressure from overbearing parents that want her to settle down rather, and the downside of her ability — Sensory Overload — makes things difficult in social situations.

  • Arranged Marriage: Her parents tried several times before the beginning of the show. Currently averted; see below.
  • Blessed with Suck: She arguably has the worst drawback of the entire team; at least, the most debilitating. She can't help but focus excessively on whatever she's doing, which means she sees how horribly disgusting every surface is, smells everything at greater intensity, and can barely kiss a guy without her sense of touch going haywire.
    • Cursed with Awesome: When she gets her abilities dialed up by the power-amplifying photic stimulator, all those downsides are magnified even further... except she can suddenly get intimate without it overwhelming her. Not a bad exchange, all things considered.
  • Can't Have Sex, Ever: At least, until she can find a way to get past the sensory overload problem.
    • She eventually reveals that she has had sex before, but had to be drunk to the point of numbness to deal with it. She eventually manages to have sex with John. It's implied that this is because he's the first man she's met who she trusts enough to completely open herself up to the sensations of sex with, while knowing that it'll leave her utterly incapable of any kind of voluntary action.
  • Disability Superpower: Her Alpha ability invokes this: She turns one sense way up by shutting the others almost completely off.
  • The Empath: She can smell the chemical signatures of different emotions.
  • Heel–Face Door-Slam: Not done to her, but by her. When Nina tries to apologize to her, she doesn't want to hear it.
  • Living Lie Detector: By looking for cues such as perspiration, pupil dilation, and heart rate.
  • Parental Abandonment: Thanks to the Hate Plague guy, she yelled at her parents, who later kicked her out because of it.
    • Though the premiere of Series 2 shows that they took her back in, since she regressed after Dr Rosen was locked up.
  • Pet the Dog: In a similar situation to Bill, she has a tendency to always crack a smile at Gary's antics.
  • Power Incontinence: Though she can dial up her senses at will, they also kick in automatically whenever she focuses on something (like eating or making out with a guy).
  • Sensory Overload: Her sense of touch backfires spectacularly during intimate moments.
    • But also averted; she is able to shrug off the effects of a Sensory Overload device by dialing up her up her sense of taste, thus dampening the visual and auditory overload the device induces.
  • Super-Senses: She can turn up one sense at the cost of turning down all the others.

Gary Bell

Played by: Ryan Cartwright

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Gary_1971.jpg

A high functioning autistic man with the ability to see and interact with the electromagnetic spectrum. Gary still lives with his mother and is very dependent on the team's help, but over the course of the first season he becomes more and more self-sufficient. He develops an odd friendship with Anna, one of the leaders of Red Flag, which prompts him to start thinking of the relationship between Alphas and humans.

  • Character Development: He respects Bill more (and actually defers to him on occasion), and treats him more like a friend, after "Bill And Gary's Excellent Adventure". Also, throughout the first season he's trying to learn to become more self-sufficient and independent, as well as trying to be able to learn and do more things he normally would not, such as lying.
    • In season 2, he takes it even further by moving out of his house and into the office. He's still surrounded by people, but is technically the only one who stays the night. Part of the reason he did this, though, was to stop worrying his mother because of his screaming every morning as his mechanism to cope with Anna's death. It counts as character development because he is thinking of his mother's well-being instead of his own.
  • Dating Catwoman: His friendship/budding relationship with Anna, a Red Flag leader. Until she died.
  • Disability Immunity: His autism makes him immune to numerous mind-based afflictions or abilities. Nina's Compelling Voice fails because his mind is too inflexible, a Living Lie Detector whose power works by reading micro-expressions is thrown off by Gary's constant fidgeting, an Alpha who uses infrasound to induce life-threatening hallucinations merely creates a helpful one for Gary, and Stanton Parrish's photic stimulator (which enhances Alpha abilities and induces seizures) has no apparent effect on him.
  • Dude, Where's My Respect?: After becoming an official government agent, he occasionally insists that people refer to him as "Agent Bell". As seen in the episode "Bill and Gary's Excellent Adventure", he's quite pleased when people refer to him as Agent Bell without him prompting them to.
  • Extreme Graphical Representation
  • Hates Being Touched: Like real life autistics, except with people who have earned his trust like Dr. Rosen, his mother and, eventually, the other members of his team. Also, Anna once they become friends. Anyone else will provoke a reaction ranging from annoyance to outright hysteria, depending on circumstances.
    • As of the season 2 premiere, where we learned he's been thrown in Binghamton and had a chip installed in him like all the other alphas there, he's regressed back to not letting anybody touch him.
  • Immune to Mind Control: Gary's autism makes him immune to mind control Alpha powers such as Nina's Compelling Voice. Something about his brain being too rigid.
  • Jerkass: By his own admission, he has a "bad attitude". Although he's getting better, he seems to have some entitlement issues distinct from his autism.
    • Though on the other hand, it's possible that with most high-functioning autistic individuals, he has resentment issues that people do treat him differently because of his autism, but on the other hand, he knows that in order to function properly, he need things to be done a certain way. It makes sense that he get annoyed by people who don't seem to grasp this and again, this is a rather normal response, given his high-functioning level of autism.
  • Lack of Empathy: Downplayed and justified - as with most people with autistic spectrum disorders, Gary tends to be oblivious to the feelings of others. It's not that he doesn't care, though, and he's working on it.
  • My Greatest Failure: Anna's death still weighs heavily on him in season 2.
  • No Sense of Personal Space: He likes to read other peoples' texts and listen to phone calls.
  • Papa Wolf: Demonstrates this towards a Baby Alpha left temporarily in his care during one episode. Turns out, it's because the baby's ability is to literally invoke this state in people.
  • Picky Eater: Being autistic, he's very picky and specific about what he eats and drinks. Some of it because it's part of his routine to eat/drink a specific thing at a specific time or a specific amount of what he wants to eat (like in episode 1, where in his first scene, he uses cups to measure exactly the amount of cereal and milk he'll have for breakfast) while other times it's just a very specific craving he may have at that moment (such as in episode 7, where he says he wants to drink something purple, so Bill goes into a nearby gas station and buys every single purple drink he can find so Gary can choose the one he wants).
  • Technopath: He can't really control technology, but can effortlessly read any signal coming from it.
  • Took a Level in Jerkass: He wasn't the nicest guy before, but after getting tossed in Binghamton he's not really trying anymore.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Type 2 with Bill.
  • Weaksauce Weakness: Can't detect Nokia traffic.
  • The World Is Just Awesome: After spending an extended amount of time in a dead zone, he learns to pick up on the electromagnetic signals generated by everything else. He learns to appreciate it pretty quickly.

Cameron Hicks

Played by: Warren Christie

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Hicks_8661.jpg

A former Marine Corps sniper and minor-league baseball player with hyperkinesis. Hicks first encountered the team when a Red Flag villain used him as the patsy in an assassination; after freeing him from the villain's Mind Control, Rosen recruited Hicks onto the team to keep him safe from the DOD. He has a young son that he rarely sees, and lots of UST with Nina.

Kat

Played by: Erin Way
https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/alphas_kat_hub_2179.jpg

A young Alpha that joins the team in season 2. She has Photographic Memory which allows her to remember and reproduce anything she sees, at the cost of only being able to retain her memories for a month or so.

  • Action Girl
  • A Million Is a Statistic: Pulls this in the series finale when Harkin reminds her that 8 million people are about to die at Stanton Parrish's hands and she's just walking out on the team.
    Kat: Yeah, and I don't know any of them. The only people I know are in that room, and they hung me out to dry.
  • Amnesiac Dissonance: Subverted; though her memory loss makes her fairly easy to manipulate, one such manipulator notes that she's always a Boy Scout-type with or without her memories.
  • Beware the Nice Ones: Despite what her Genki Girl status and general friendliness would suggest, she can kick some ass. Just ask Bill or Dylan.
  • Car Fu: She performs this with a Mack Truck
  • Cursed with Awesome: How she sees her power. She learns anything instantly, and the memory loss means no "rear-view mirror". Bill and Rosen try to convince her that some memories are worth holding onto.
    • She later withdraws this claim, telling Hicks that he's lucky to have his memories.
  • Genki Girl
  • Jumped at the Call: At the end of "Alpha Dogs", upon learning that Bill is a secret agent, she immediately asks Rosen to let her join the team.
    Kat: You want me on your team. I'm awesome!
  • Laser-Guided Amnesia: Her memory resets after a month or so. She can't remember her family, though she retains skills even after she's forgotten learning them in the first place.
  • Leeroy Jenkins: Downplayed, but still very much there.
  • No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Gives one to Dylan in "Falling" after finding out what a dirty manipulative asshole he is.
  • Photographic Memory: Or rather, Photographic Muscle Memory. She can do pretty much anything she's read or watched, but her long-term memory resets after about a month.
  • Pint-Sized Powerhouse: She's tiny, but her Alpha ability allows her to instantly learn Waif-Fu skills that let her utterly demolish Bill in a fight.
  • Sacrificed Basic Skill for Awesome Training: She's learned countless random skills, but basic swimming is not among them. Although being able to pick locks while underwater probably is, as Hicks finds out for himself.
  • The Smart Girl: Well, as smart as one can hope to be when one only has a month of long-term memory. She's able to figure out that the Alpha in "If Memory Serves" becomes too heavy to swim when he's healing simply by working out the meaning of the milk cartons he had in the farmhouse.

    Department of Defense 

Don Wilson

Played by: Callum Keith Rennie

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Wilson_2835.jpg

An FBI agent who liaises between the government and Rosen's team. Killed off in episode 3.

  • Actor Allusion: Callum Keith Rennie is cast as a character who was shockingly killed off early in the season, after coming off a high-profile regular role in a different show as a character known for his Resurrective Immortality.
  • Dead Star Walking
  • Jerkass: He is a disrespectful man who is prone to making threats or manipulating Rosen.
  • Mauve Shirt: He appears in two episodes that give him an established history with the team, a personality, and an important job, then he's killed by a Villain of the Week.
  • The Men in Black: He is a menacing and secretive man who wears a dark suit and runs a black ops unit of metahumans.
  • Noble Bigot with a Badge: He doesn't view Evos the same way as he does other people, but doesn't go out of his way to oppress them with his anuthority unless they're a danger to society.
  • Sacrificial Lamb

Nathan Clay

Played by: Mahershala Ali

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Clay_9810.jpg

The head of a DOD tactical-operations unit that deals with rogue Alphas and runs the Binghamton facility.

Kathy Sullivan

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Sullivan_2220.jpg
Played by: Valerie Cruz
A government agent and official liaison between Rosen's team and the DOD.

John Bennett

Played by: Steve Byers
The team's new lead tactical officer in season 2. Hits it off with Rachel, despite a rocky start.
  • Covered in Scars: His left side is pretty messed up, having been burned in a vehicle fire when he was deployed overseas.
  • Nice Guy: On a team of gifted superhumans with personality issues who are led by their shrink, his most immediately defining trait is how accepting and accommodating he is of them, especially considering how others from the Department of Defense tend to treat them.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Zig-Zagged. He is initially shown as being perfectly mentally healthy despite having fought in a War, but then he reveals the scarred left side of his body, and with it, mental scars regarding body image. However, outside of that issue, he is the most mentally balanced member of the team.
  • The Team Normal: The only non-Alpha aside from Rosen.

    Red Flag 

Anna Levy

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Anna_1711.jpg
Played by: Liane Balaban
A woman whose Alpha ability allows her to understand and communicate (but not speak) in any language. In the episode "Rosetta", the team initially find her in a Red Flag safehouse and believe her to be a captive of the group, who use her abilities to encrypt their communications. Turns out, she's one of the leaders of Red Flag. She and Gary become friends very quickly, and stay in contact even after the events of "Rosetta".
  • Affably Evil: At the more moderate end of Red Flag.
  • Dating Catwoman: Her and Gary's friendship has strong echoes of this.
  • Foil/ Evil Counterpart: For Gary.
  • Killed Off for Real: In the DOD raid during "Original Sin".
    • Not Quite Dead: A Freeze-Frame Bonus during a commercial shows graffiti that says "@Anna_Lives." This is a Twitter account seemingly owned by Anna, who responds to questions in-character. Turns out that it's just Gary, though, as a misguided way of honoring her memory.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Sort of. The hallucination of her convinces Gary to let Doctor Rosen wake up the comatose teen whose Alpha ability was allowing her to appear to Gary in the first place.
  • Informed Judaism: We only learn that she was Jewish at her headstone unveiling (think funeral, but a significant period after the actual death). Liane Balaban, who plays her, is half-Jewish herself. Her last name, Levy, is common among Jews too.

Dr. Kerns

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Kerns_2443.jpg
Played by: Brent Spiner
An obstetrician and member of Red Flag. He's completely blind, but has a sonic-based Alpha ability that allows him to "see" using echolocation. He planned on giving deliberately-altered pre-natal vitamins to pregnant women in the hopes of creating more Alphas, but Rosen's team caught him first, and he was later killed by Griffin.

Danielle Rosen

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/DanielleRosen_8020.jpg
Played by: Kathleen Munroe
Dr. Rosen's estranged daughter, whose Alpha ability lets her force emotions onto other people. After stealing something from Red Flag, she meets Rosen again in the season 1 finale when he saves her from a Red Flag assassin. Secretly working for Stanton Parrish.
  • Abusive Parent: Danielle accuses Dr. Rosen of being this. When his marriage was in trouble he had Danielle use her power on her mother to calm her down. He continued doing this for years after he found out about his daughter's Alpha power and that using her power was causing serious damage to her. (To Rosen's credit, he admits she was right and apologizes.)
  • Conflicting Loyalty: Her different forms of love for her father and Hicks, versus her standing loyalty to Stanton Parish.
  • Despair Event Horizon: An incredibly heartbreaking one at the end of "Falling".
  • The Empath: Dani can manipulate the emotions of those around her through touch. As a straighter example, she can also detect (and reproduce) someone's exact emotional state in the same manner, a skill which she uses to help Hicks bond with his son after an argument (by showing them how the other feels).
  • Heel–Face Turn: A slow one, ending in Redemption Equals Death.
  • Killed Off for Real
  • The Mole
  • Power Perversion Potential: Uses it.
  • Redemption Equals Death
  • Series Continuity Error: In season one's "Original Sin" her middle name was Sophia, yet in season two's "Life After Death" it was Sarah.
  • So Proud of You: Said to her by Stanton Parish, moments before he detonates an electrical bomb which kills her.

Stanton Parrish

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/StantonParrish_45.jpg
Played by: John Pyper-Ferguson
The immortal leader of Red Flag and one of the oldest-known Alphas, his existence wasn't discovered until the season 1 finale, "Original Sin". He's determined to wage war on humanity and to keep the existence of Alphas a secret from the general public.
  • Affably Evil: Impeccably polite (though certainly antagonistic) with Rosen.
    • Put on display again in the season two premiere when he makes a point to ask Danielle how Rosen is faring and expresses joy at his good fortune. He even hopes that Rosen will join him, though he's not so arrogant that he believes Rosen will just do it on a whim.
  • The Ageless: Been alive since the Civil War.
  • Arch-Enemy: To Rosen.
  • Anti-Villain
  • Badass in a Nice Suit: Often found in a stylish grey suit.
  • Badass Longcoat
  • Beard of Evil: A rockin' goatee.
  • Big Bad
  • The Chessmaster: Effortlessly turned every single main character into an unwitting pawn to further his goals.
    • Continues to embody this trope into season two.
  • Clock King: Demonstrates traits of this from time to time, in particular in the season two finale. He even uses a golden pocketwatch like the Trope Namer.
  • Cultured Badass
  • Dark Messiah: Not as blatant as most examples of this trope, but it is pretty clear he acts as a Messianic figure for Red Flag members.
  • Do Not Call Me "Paul": He prefers his current name over his birth name.
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones: He seems to have a genuine soft spot where Dani is concerned.
  • Evil Counterpart: Serves as one to Dr. Rosen. Both are highly intelligent, noble and cultured leaders of a group of Alphas, both can get into people's heads and only wish the best for the Alphas. (Though they have distinctly different ideas to what "the best" is.)
  • Evil Mentor: To Dani. In the second 2 finale he attempts to be this for Rosen, but it fails.
  • Expy: He's basically Magneto mixed with Vandal Savage.
  • Genius Bruiser: He's a very manipulative, cunning, extremely well-read soldier. Also manages to kill two SWAT soldiers in less than ten seconds while completely unarmed.
  • Good Thing You Can Heal: He can heal a shot to the head.
  • Healing Factor: He can completely recover from any wound, even when it has just killed him.
  • Heel Realization: He suffers a harsh realization that his methods are evil after he slays Dani. That culminates with him trying to leave the Alpha Utopia for Rosen.
  • He Knows Too Much/Killed to Uphold the Masquerade: The doctor who studied his immortality wanted to publish his findings, so Stanton killed him.
  • Immortality Immorality
  • Kill All Humans: Well, kill all non-Alpha humans.
  • MacGyvering: Makes a knife with a plastic cup of water.
  • Master of Your Domain: This is either the cause or a side-effect of his immortality.
  • Mercy Kill: Does this to one of his granddaughters, to spare her from suffering.
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Without the dramatics typically present for the trope, but he seems to feel quite a bit of guilt over killing Dani to further his cause, as shown in "If Memory Serves".
  • My Greatest Failure: He seems to genuinely regret not being able to find an alternative to his Kill All Humans plan:
    Rosen: She (Danielle) knew there was a better way.
    Parrish: (sadly) I couldn't find it.
  • My Skull Runneth Over: Implied in "If Memory Serves", with Hicks making a comparison to old-age dementia (as noted in the Real Life section on that page). Being over 200 years old, he keeps around an Alpha who can record memories, evidently as a sort of back-up drive.
  • Necessarily Evil: Holds no illusions that what he is doing is evil, but he thinks it needs to be done.
  • Noble Demon: He has a solid code of honor, even allowing Danielle and Hicks to stay together, despite being on opposite sides.
  • No Place for Me There: In the season 2 finale, he reveals to Rosen that he always intended Rosen to be the leader, not himself, because his plan would make him a mass murderer unfit for such leadership.
  • Not So Stoic: His cool-headed attitude visibly cracks when Dani says she will die for what she believes in, and ventures into a full-on Villainous Breakdown as his master plan comes to fruition while Rosen closes in.
  • Old Soldier: He fought in the US Civil War, the Spanish-American War and both World Wars.
  • Psychological Combat: This is practically his greatest weapon; case in point, he managed to lay havoc in Gary's mind with about two phrases.
  • Really 700 Years Old: At least as old as the Civil War.
  • Resurrective Immortality
  • Sharp-Dressed Man
  • The Sociopath: He is a subversion. Rosen was at first insistant that he was one, but after meeting Mitchell, who Parish was using as an emotional confidant, Rosen decides he misjudged Parish. His humanity is his weakness
  • Utopia Justifies the Means: Seeks to create an Alpha utopia.
  • Villainous Breakdown: Suffering from early signs: His calm, cool-headed ways are slowly slipping away, and he loses his patience more easily as Rosen starts to threaten his plans.
  • Warrior Poet: He is soldier who fought in four different wars (and is trying to trigger a fifth), but a philosopher, lover of the arts and political idealist.
  • Well-Intentioned Extremist: As he tells Dani, he believes that overpopulation will kill the planet in forty years, and is willing to commit mass murder to stop that.
  • Who Wants to Live Forever?/Living Forever Is Awesome: Zig-Zagged. Parish remarks that due to/because of his control over his mind and body he is far beyond human potential as well as functionally immortal. On the other hand, he and Danielle both later note that no parent should have to bury his own grandchild (Parish has had 31, all of which have died).

Cornell Scipio

Played By: Elias Toufexfis.
A man who escaped from Binghamton at the start of Season 2, now seems to work for Parish as one of his main lieutenants.
  • Beard of Evil: A very unsubtle goatee.
  • The Dragon: To Parish.
  • Deadpan Snarker
  • Even Evil Has Loved Ones
  • Expy: A Race Lift version of Tike Alicar/the Anarchist from X-Force/X-Statix.
  • Faux Affably Evil: Keeps talking to Rosen in friendly way, even when he's about to murder him.
  • Hannibal Lecture: Attempts one in Rosen when he's held captive. It backfires hard.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: Invoked by Rosen making Scipio burn himself to get some information.
  • Number Two: Although others, notably Dani, could be interpreted in this way, in season 2 he's usually Parish's squad leader for various missions.
  • Playing with Fire: His power is a lessened version of this, he can only cause severe burns to people he touches, not actually burn things. Of course, that changes when Rosen upgrades his Alpha ability to actual Playing with Fire.
  • Required Secondary Powers: As his fire-starting sweat is released through his palms, that area is necessarily fireproof to keep him from burning himself. Unfortunately, the rest of him isn't.
  • Self-Made Orphan: Apparently accidentally killed his parents 20 years ago with his ability
  • Then Let Me Be Evil: He asks if Rosen can fix him so he can be "human", when the answer is no, this is his reaction. It might have been just a part of the ruse, but the implication is still there.
  • Uncertain Doom: After "Need to Know", we aren't known of Scipio's fate. A downer example because there will be no season three. After the news of the cancellation, Elias Toufexis (Scipio's actor) tweeted that he was just going to pretend Scipio died in episode 13.
  • With Us or Against Us

Kimi Milard

Played By: Sarah Slywchuk.
Another member of Parish's ranks, alongside Scipio, one of the main lieutenants who escaped from Binghamton.

Jeff Kowalka

Played by: Jameson Kraemer.
Another member of Scipio's team, first faced the team on a failed robbery. His powers are exactly like Bill's.

Agnes Walker

Played by: Kandyse McClure
A psychic who serves as the living lie-detector for Parish, to test new recruit's alliances, can scan other people's minds with touch.

Mitchell Morgan

Played by: Sean Astin.
An Alpha with the skill to store and reproduce anyone's memories, though this overrides his own sense of identity. Has a close relationship with Parish.

    Other 

Dr. Vanessa Calder

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Calder_5696.jpg
Played by: Lindsay Wagner
A medical doctor working for the CDC, who meets Rosen and the team while investigating a possible disease outbreak in "Never Let Me Go".
  • Crossover: Calder is a recurring character on Warehouse 13, another Syfy show, which means that Alphas and Warehouse 13 (and, by extension, Eureka) exist in the same universe.

Skylar Adams

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Skyler_5106.jpg
Played by: Summer Glau
A Gadgeteer Genius, and one of the first Alphas that Rosen's team ever helped (well before the start of the series). She goes on the run in "Catch and Release" from her NSA handlers, after reneging on a deal to create advanced technology for the government. At the end of the episode, Rosen helps her disappear.
  • Crazy-Prepared: She is never far from emergency inventing material and wears contacts to avoid being hypnotized by Nina.
  • Gadgeteer Genius: Her ability actually manifests as a holographic representation of the device in question that she can assemble and disassemble with her mind. She can create a vast array of devices (one of the first we see is a device that used only 10 minutes a night will make the user feel like they got a full 8 hour sleep), and earns a living by rather covertly selling these out to people.
  • Mama Bear: She's not the best mother, but she deeply cares for Zoe.
  • More than Mind Control: How Parrish gets her to work for him
  • Parents as People: She's having a hard time adjusting to being a full-time parent after years of hiding her daughter, and she resents having to sacrifice her lifestyle to give her daughter a happy childhood, but she'd do anything for Zoe.
  • Pet the Dog: The Department of Defense let her live a normal life for many years after her Alpha ability was discovered, whereas they tried to kill or lock up every other Alpha the team had encountered during the series.
  • Properly Paranoid
  • Reed Richards Is Useless: Inverted. her abilities are extremely useful, to the point that she's able to invent technology that is beyond anyone else. The NSA makes good use of it until she goes off on her own. She actually plays a very significant role in thwarting Stanton Parrish's plans in the season 2 finale.

Griffin

https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Alphas_-_Griffin_9718.jpg
Played by: Rebecca Mader
A bounty hunter whose Alpha ability allows her to move through people's "blind spot" and remain almost undetectable. She's hired by Red Flag in episode 9 to retrieve Dr. Kerns.

Marcus Ayers

Played by: Will McCormack
An Alpha and former patient of Dr. Rosen, with ablities similar to Hicks. Suffers from severe paranoia and aphophenia due the precognitive nature of his powers. Went around attacking the doctors who worked with him when he realised they were going to attempt to remove his Alpha ability through surgery. Is shot by Clay and falls into a river below.
  • Awesomeness by Analysis/Hyper-Awareness: Marcus's main ability. He notices everything to the point that he can accurately predict the future. Further more he can influence the future and manipulate his environment to get any desired result.
  • Batman Gambit: Was proven right in assuming that Clay would shoot him for kidnapping Rosen, and uses it justify his Us vs. Them mentality
  • Chess Motifs: Played chess with Rosen in the past, and part of his world view is that every single thing a person does is like a chess move on their part to accomplish a goal.
  • Evil Counterpart: To Hicks.
  • I Thought Every One Could Do That: This is the basis for his paranoia - he can't comprehend that ordinary people are unable to do what he does, so he assumes that everything anyone does must be a calculated move, including those things that resulted in his institutionalization.
  • Lack of Empathy: His powers give him a good idea of how just about everything around him will play out to the most minute detail, and he's unable to empathize with people who can't see the world as he does.
  • Never Found the Body: He is shot and falls into a river, but his body is missing, and Rosen learns he may have had something prepared to block the bullet with.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Somehow got one of his victims (who was on ground level) impaled on a spike about two stories high on a building in a matter of seconds with a cart and some wire.
  • Rube Goldberg Hates Your Guts: The most violent application of his powers.
  • Super-Reflexes: Being able to notice more things than most people also lets him physically respond faster.
  • There Are No Coincidences: To him, everything that any person does is deliberate, and usually as an attack against himself.
    • In a conversation with Rosen, he recalls how a wild party that his roomates threw in college is what indirectly got him institutionalized, and he views it as a deliberate slight against him by his roomates.

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