There are over six billion people on planet Earth.
Ordinary folks like you and me.
But if you look around carefully,
you might find that some of these ordinary folks
have extraordinary abilities.
I call them “Alphas. "
Some Alphas, like the ones I work with,
can do things that would amaze you.
Others, the angry, the lost, the afraid,
have abilities that, frankly, can be terrifying.
Ah!
Hello.
I'd like to report an accident.
Don't take no for an answer
There's no telling where we've been
Because people don't understand, understand, understand
People don't understand
People like me
I can't believe you already have your office done.
You know, it's easy to get people to do things for me.
Yeah, it is.
Hey, do you think I could take this office?
We could be neighbors. Sure.
Oh, you don't want to be neighbors.
Oh, I can find another office. No, it's fine.
It's okay. It's fine, it's just...
I mean Queens. Seriously?
There's, like, a million vacant offices in lower Manhattan.
I could walk to work.
Oh, man, I need to clean.
Watch your back, ladies.
You okay?
Gary, how's this?
No, there's a hum. It's still humming.
Gary, how can there be a hum?
I haven't even plugged the damn thing in yet.
I hear fluorescent light bulbs,
Bill's stomach digesting his breakfast,
but no hum, Gary. Okay, there you go.
No. Yes, there's a hum in my head.
I don't know where it's coming from.
But Queens? Uh, hello, people.
Someone tried to kill Dr. Rosen in the old office.
You were trying to kill Dr. Rosen, Bill.
Yeah, that was you.
I was mind controlled. Okay?
Gary, this is where I put it.
This is where it stays. Okay, drink up.
We wouldn't even be here if it wasn't for you.
You can't leave that right there. Oh!
Your parents? Yeah.
I thought you weren't gonna take any calls at the office.
I know. I'm not. Be strong, Rachel.
Yeah, I already told you. Sunday night is fine.
Yeah. Sunday night is fine, mother.
Yeah, dress myself.
Click, hang up.
Mmm.
Bill? Bill?
The humming is back. It's annoying.
Little privacy, please.
Sorry I'm late. I... I had to drop my kid off.
You're over here.
Your new home.
Not much of a view.
Oh, well, you show up late, you get what you get.
I'm not... I'm not really sure what to do with an office.
You could decorate.
You're an ex-jock. Go for sports stuff.
Right. Seriously, what do we do all day?
We just sit around having therapy sessions?
Sometimes. Most of the time we spend looking for other Alphas.
When we find them?
We identify them, government tracks them,
and some go to the compound.
Compound?
- It's... - That's not its real name.
She just calls it that.
It's the Binghamton Special Research Facility.
It's this place where they send Alphas who misuse their abilities.
Uh, a danger to self or others.
Dr. Rosen says that we don't have to worry about that.
But you do. But we don't.
Ga"Y- Gary, Hmm?
Excuse me. Can I help you?
Is Dr. Rosen in?
I've got some extra office keys for him.
I'll take those.
I should probably give them to him personally.
You have some I.D.? Bonita.
Hi. Hi.
Bonita's a real-estate agent for the building.
She's been extremely helpful and...
Well, if she's so helpful, how about the key pad entry system,
and the lobby surveillance cameras?
I could look into that. I'll walk you out.
Dr. Rosen.
I didn't realize what you do is so security conscious.
What do you do exactly?
Uh, market research.
We're not in market research.
Cover story.
Uh, by the way,
you left this at my place last night.
Oh, uh, ties.
Uh, excuse me.
I'm sorry. I have to take this.
Call me.
Lee. Dr. Singh.
Thanks for coming all this way.
You... You said there's been an escape?
First ever of a Binghamton patient from a moving ambulance.
Someone walked away from this?
The patient's cuffs were somehow severed during the crash.
Marcus Ayers?
Got it in one.
And you have no idea where he is.
I was hoping he might have contacted you.
Marcus and I haven't talked for years.
I try every time I'm up in Binghamton,
but it's his choice.
Has his mental state improved at all
in the time you've been treating him?
If anything, it's gotten worse.
The ideas of reference, the persecutory delusions.
Nathan, hello.
Dr. Rosen, I wasn’t expecting you.
I know Marcus. I know how he thinks.
You're going to need my help.
The situation feels pretty straightforward.
Got an escaped prisoner... Patient, whatever.
All we got to do is find out where Marcus is running to, intercept him.
Marcus doesn't run, Nathan. That's not his style.
Have you ever played chess with him?
Marcus plans meticulously.
He thinks through every move, but he's always attacking.
Marcus sees enemies everywhere.
And we know what happens to Marcus' enemies.
If he's broken out, he's perceived a problem
and has decided to fix it.
The question is, what's the problem?
Or who?
I'll see what I can do.
It's a simple game, 64 squares, 32 pieces.
Given any position on the board,
there are only a few logical moves.
Understand that, and the game becomes predictable.
Well, you're...
You're not taking the human factor into account.
People don't always make the perfect move.
They do, though.
For them, it's their perfect move.
Well, now we're getting to the heart of what we've been working on.
You believe that everything that happens in your life has intent.
That there are no accidents or no mistakes.
Life isn't like that, Marcus.
It's... Sometimes, it's a flip of the coin.
The universe isn't random.
Things happen because people want them to.
It's just moves. And forced moves.
Well, what about you and me?
You didn't choose to be my patient, did you?
Forced moves.
My roommates don't like me,
so they throw a party right before finals.
I get angry, and the police show up.
The judge makes me go to counseling, and I'm here with you.
It's a chain of events, cause and effect.
You don't really believe your roommates
planned all of that, do you?
I can see things.
How everything led to this.
How couldn't they? Why can't you?
Because you're not like everyone else, Marcus.
Your brain scans revealed a...
A unique neural anatomy.
That's why I took such an interest in your case.
I'm calling people like you "Alphas."
Alphas. Acceleration. The first variable.
I like that.
Let me ask you,
is there anything out of the ordinary
that you can do?
We're on our way home now.
Yeah, no, we're just leaving the office.
Mom, I never said that I would marry him.
I said that I would meet him.
Mom! Mom!
Don't say anything.
No, I thought you handled that well. No, you didn't.
You would've stood up to her.
You would've been stronger.
Look, I haven't talked to my mother in years.
Or my father or my sister,
so I wouldn't use me as a yardstick for anything.
I don't know. Maybe you're better off.
That's what I keep trying to tell myself.
Good luck.
Tough first day?
It'll get better.
You know, my drill sergeant used to tell me the exact same thing.
Look, I know you're feeling pretty useless right now, but...
You don't know anything about me, Nina.
Well, I know you have excellent hand-eye coordination.
And Rosen thinks you belong here.
I'll see you, Hicks.
Nice car.
I borrowed it.
Hi. I'm looking for Dr. Rosen.
I don't know what Dr. Rosen told you
over cocktails last night, but it is not...
Cocktails?
We all know Dr. Rosen's got some game, obviously.
Oh, Bill Harken, right.
I'd shake your hand, but don't want any broken bones.
Miss Theroux. No eye contact, please.
Rachel. Do we know you?
Miss Sullivan, you're early.
Oh, well, we were all just getting acquainted.
Your cell phone is encrypted.
That's right, Gary. It is.
Agent Sullivan is overseeing our group
while Wilson is on assignment.
Glad you're here.
We need to gather in the conference room.
We've got a case. This way, please.
Uh, about that...
You and I need to talk first.
In private.
According to Marcus' files, he blames you for his institutionalization,
which he brought up repeatedly at Binghamton.
And now you're saying you think he broke out
with a specific goal in mind.
What's to say that goal's not you?
Uh, I...
I don't see it, frankly.
Marcus left me a message.
What?
At the accident site, and I followed it.
And if Marcus wanted me dead, I would be.
Wait. He contacted you, and you didn't tell anybody about it?
Well, not contacted, not directly.
He wanted to remind me of something.
Of a place and time.
Okay, so he doesn't want to kill you,
but apparently, you still have a conflict of interest.
Forgive me, but I don't think we've known each other
long enough for you to make that presumption.
All right, this is not what I was aiming for between us.
Let's start again.
I have no interest in playing games.
I won't withhold information from you
without a good reason.
Look, I wasn’t all that happy
when they started assigning us fieldwork.
That's not what I had in mind for my group.
Working under Don Wilson,
finding people for Clay and his tactical teams.
But apparently that's the reality now.
So let us do our work.
Marcus has the ability to predict and even control
cause and effect in the physical world.
He can create elaborate chains of events,
drop a coin and cause a car to crash,
pull one wire and ignite an entire building.
Now you all know what I know.
Just remember,
Marcus' abilities make him unpredictable
and potentially extremely dangerous,
so no unnecessary risks.
Unnecessary risks.
How do you know if a risk is unnecessary?
What's a necessary risk?
Gary, you're just gonna be scanning cell phones and street cameras, okay?
Yeah, but I get headaches if I go too long.
Well, that's pretty safe. Is that a necessary risk?
No, you're gonna be okay.
Is that an unnecessary risk?
Marcus has been on the loose for almost a day,
and you don't even tell me?
I know it always troubled you,
the fact that I chose to send Marcus to Binghamton.
Not as much as it bothered you.
I always worried that, you know, I would be next.
You know what happened to my boyfriend
and what I made him do, I hurt someone.
And so has Hicks and Harken.
Never intentionally.
Yeah, but you're the one who gets to make that choice.
Who goes and who stays.
Nina, that's something I think about every day.
Cause.
Effect.
Uh, from now on, let's avoid sharp objects.
Learning anything?
Well, I can tell you he's no lost little lamb.
That man's got a mean streak.
Driven by paranoia.
Since he can control so much in his environment,
he has a hard time understanding why others can't.
So, when people fail him, he assumes malevolent purpose.
Yeah, I get that.
Precisely why I wanted you to take a look at this,
because your neural anatomy is quite similar to Marcus'.
So you're telling me my mind is wired like a psychopath.
No, I'm not saying that.
Neural anatomy and psyche are two very different things.
Marcus blames everyone else for the things that go wrong in his life,
whereas you turn the blame inward.
You obsess on every moment of past failure.
I don't know, Doc.
I mean, I look at this guy's face and I think,
you know, he blames everything and everyone,
but somewhere inside of him,
he is pointing that finger right at himself.
What are you finding, Rachel?
Well, there weren't any fingerprints,
but I did find a tiny smudge in the grooves.
It's old, but I'm pretty sure it's...
Ash.
Yeah. How'd you know that?
Past failures.
Dr. Rosen!
What took you so long?
Dr. Singh says you have a team.
He says they're a bunch of misfits, I'd fit right in.
Are they here, huh? Are they gonna try to stop me?
Is that why you left a trail for me to follow?
Would you like to meet them?
I think you'll find that they're not your enemies.
So you're not my enemy? No.
Your enemy has only ever been your thinking, Marcus.
You've got to understand that.
God, where have I heard that before?
Oh, that's right, from Singh and his staff for six years.
You told me I was special.
Then you handed me over to people
that spent all their time telling me I'm broken.
Mmm. God, that tastes good.
You know, Singh won't let me have any sugar.
Is that why you brought me here,
to tell me about all the horrible things
that are happening to you at Binghamton?
You're saying this is news to you.
That you don't know what's happening to me?
The only thing that they've ever tried to do to you up there
is to help you understand your feelings of persecution
so you could live a normal life.
Maybe in the beginning.
But things have changed, you know?
It's not just ping-pong and group therapy anymore.
What's changed? I don't know what you're talking about.
And now, outright denial.
What am I denying?
Binghamton.
Big plans for the future.
This is your mind deceiving you again, Marcus.
There are no big plans for...
Then why was I in that ambulance, huh?
I don't know. I...
You don't really know what's going on at Binghamton.
And you don't know why we're having this conversation.
No, I...
And you don't even know when you're being used as bait, do you?
Not much use, are you?
Marcus.
Sorry, Dr. Rosen.
Our time is up.
Someone call an ambulance!
You should've kept me in the loop.
Maybe then one of my men wouldn't be dead.
And you are blaming me for that?
You're damn right I am.
Okay!
All right, we are all on the same side here.
Now, we need to start sharing information,
or we're gonna have more screw-ups.
I'm not the one acting like a cowboy.
Nathan, let me ask you something.
Marcus was furious about his treatment at Binghamton.
He talked of plans.
Something that he thought was going to happen to him off site.
Do you know anything about that?
All I know is Marcus Ayers is a paranoid and a killer.
So, sorry if I can't see him as a victim.
Now, I got a next of kin to call and a murderer to catch.
If you knew where to find Marcus, you should've told us.
I suspected. I did not know.
We shouldn't dismiss what Marcus has been saying.
His persecutory delusions often have a basis in truth.
They may even indicate what he intends to do next.
So you think that Marcus' fears,
his talk of plans, there's some truth to it?
We need to talk to Dr. Singh.
Thank you.
Lee, I heard what happened. I'm glad you're all right.
Oh, I don't think Marcus was trying to hurt me.
I really don't. You're alive.
Seems to prove your point.
On the other hand, he might not feel so kindly towards me.
Nothing like being thrown into the deep end.
Vijal, is there anything going on
at Binghamton I should be aware of?
You haven't, by any chance,
modified Marcus' treatment plans, have you?
Is that what Marcus told you?
Why was he being sent off-site?
Marcus proved unresponsive to traditional therapies,
SSRl's, SNRl's, anti-psychotics.
Sedatives worked for a time, but he developed a tolerance.
We even tried shock therapy.
He redirected the current
and nearly killed one of my techs.
We were shipping him off-site for surgery.
For surgery? To see if we could correct his problem,
suppress his Alpha ability.
Suppress his ability?
Marcus' ability is an integral part of him,
as is the color of a person's skin
or you being left-handed You can't extract that.
But if I could've, that agent would still be alive.
If you'll excuse me, I have another meeting,
more feathers to unruffle.
Excuse me, Dr. Singh, we're not through...
Vijal, I sent Marcus to you as a patient, not as a guinea pig.
Really? You sure it wasn't
because you wanted him off your plate?
Be honest with yourself, Lee.
You have no idea what goes on at Binghamton,
and that's the way you prefer it.
Taxi!
Yeah, yeah.
I'll call you when I get back to Binghamton.
The DOD's sending a notification team over to Singh's family.
Knock on the door.
Uh, I think you should take a look at this.
Two people are dead and this guy thinks
that this is some sort of game?
I'm afraid it's all games to Marcus.
It's all moves and counter-moves.
Yeah, well, I don't know how many moves it's gonna take,
but this game is only gonna end now with Marcus Ayers dead.
Domino number one.
How'd you come up with that?
I just kind of worked my way backwards.
Like I could see it.
Similar, but not the same.
There's no prints, no trace particles.
It's completely clean.
They're no help. Everyone saw something different,
none of it useful.
So all this, and we're at a dead end.
Not quite, Bill. I found this.
Marcus is obsessed with chess. Yes.
I think Marcus' killing of Dr. Singh is his latest move.
Assuming Singh was the rook,
who do you think is the black king?
Pollen, there's lots of pollen.
Stargazer lilies, that's where the pollen came from.
Okay, well, he could've picked that up anywhere, right?
Hotels, restaurants, flower shops.
Gary! I need you to do a search.
I can't search any better than anyone else, Bill.
I'm not Google guy.
I know, but you are camera guy, right?
Yeah. Right.
So I need you to search cameras,
security cameras all over Manhattan.
Yeah, I can do that, but which cameras, Bill?
What am I looking for?
Specificity.
You're looking for stargazer lilies.
Stargazer lilies. It's a flower.
You got it?
Stargazer lilies. Yes, yes.
Thank you.
Why don't you tell me
what happened in that apartment?
Gas mains blow up all the time.
It was an accident.
You don't believe in accidents, Marcus.
Ugh! I know you're mad at me,
but did you have to take it out on the coffee?
We're not here to talk about coffee.
I don't understand why you're so upset, okay?
You're my doctor.
You're supposed to take my side.
Two of your roommates are in the hospital
with second and third degree burns.
Look, I'm sorry the building burned down, okay?
It was a nice place, and it was rent controlled.
It's not like anyone died, okay?
No one was going to die.
Unless I wanted them to.
Marcus. I can't follow...
Marcus. ...the cause.
I think you need more help than I'm able to give you.
What did you do?
I'm going to send you to a place
where you can get the care you need.
Now, Marcus, this is Nathan Clay.
He's the gentleman who's going to bring you there.
That's mistake number one.
What? You cannot get sentimental.
That man is a killer.
He was a patient first, Bill, my patient.
I keep wondering what I could've done differently.
If I had known then what I know now, I...
You know, I might've been able to prevent all this.
Doc, Doc, don't go there You know how many times I hear that?
How many times I hear mothers say,
"I can't believe my son did this terrible thing,"
or, "I was his teacher, I should've known better."
Let me tell you, what you're doing
is exactly what every good person does
when somebody that they know that they're close to,
does something bad.
Now, the fact of the matter is Marcus was probably born broken.
Nobody is born broken, Bill.
Life just conspires.
I encouraged him.
I actually helped him perfect his ability.
I might as well have put the gun in his hand.
And now we're gonna stop him.
Search parameters.
Bill, Bill, you have to be more specific,
not all the stargazer lilies,
not all of Manhattan, just the important parts.
Okay, okay. Stargazer lily...
Okay, what are the important parts?
The parts involved in the case.
Stargazer lily locations are set
Places and people involved in the case are set
We're looking for the intersection.
So, Gary... The overlap.
Okay, so did you find anything?
Yeah, Bill, it's what I do.
Office tower near the Federal Building.
Dr. Rosen, I... Here.
Stargazer lilies in the lobby.
Clay and his team working out of
a temporary location upstairs.
Yeah, a chess piece sitting next to a whole table full of flowers.
Smell nice, if you like that kind of thing.
Marcus was right there, and I'm guessing he still is.
So you're saying I'm the black king?
I like that.
He's coming after me, let him come.
This isn't a game, Nathan, chess or otherwise.
I know that. Better than you.
From now on, call me Your Highness.
Let's wrap this up.
I'm waiting!
Clay, unbelievable.
The guy's got a pair of brass ones.
I'll give it to him. He chose his ground well.
Open space, no moving objects.
Not a lot for Marcus to work with.
The area's been cleared,
but Clay's got snipers on the roof.
This isn't going to work.
Clay's ambush.
Marcus would've seen this coming a mile away.
It's too logical a counter-move on our part.
You sure about that, Doc?
You ask me, Clay makes a pretty tempting target out there.
He's not gonna just walk into a trap.
It's up to us to find out what his next move's gonna be.
Rachel, you're gonna come with me.
Nina, you're gonna stay with Hicks.
Fan out, move very slowly and carefully.
If you see or hear anything, call us.
Let's go. I need your eyes.
Lee.
So this is how we deal with Alphas? Nina...
When things go wrong we assassinate them?
Marcus brought this upon himself.
He did kill someone.
Snipers on the roof?
That's not what I signed up for.
Trouble?
Understandable concerns.
Come on, guys.
What are they trying to do?
Box him in.
Oh, maybe Rosen's right. Maybe he's playing us.
Hey!
Hey! Stop! Freeze!
Come on, Rachel, what do you hear?
I'm scanning. Let me concentrate.
Okay.
I smell something.
Get back! No!
Gas, there's gas in the sewer.
There he is! Stop!
Stop or we'll fire!
Are you okay?
Yeah.
Checkmate.
Son of a bitch.
Marcus, why are you doing this?
If I'm your target, you could've taken me anytime
I have something to show you.
Drive.
Gary. Yes, Gary, I know it's late.
Listen, I need you to track a black SUV, government plates.
They just left the Federal Building a few minutes ago.
Okay, I can see them.
Yeah, they're headed north on Henry Hudson.
And he's going very fast. It's illegal to go that fast.
Yeah, well, if you think that's illegal, you watch this.
Stay on them, close, but not too close.
Get after them.
Marcus, please, don't do this.
No!
We're 50 meters up.
It takes a little over three seconds to fall that far.
That means a body would hit bottom
going something, like, 70 miles an hour.
If you're trying to scare me, Marcus,
you're doing an excellent job of it.
You have every reason to be afraid.
We all do.
No matter what side you're on.
There are no sides here, Marcus.
But you have broken the law.
You have hurt people.
What have you always said? Cause and effect.
And now this is where we find ourselves because of that.
It's not that simple.
What they plan to do to me.
What they plan to do for all the Alphas at Binghamton.
That's got nothing to do with the law or medicine
Of common decency.
But that does not justify murder.
It's not murder.
Singh was a casualty of war.
War?
I see what's coming. 20 moves ahead.
I thought that you could, too.
That you had to be a part of it.
But now I realize you didn't see it coming.
You don't...
You don't see anything.
I'm trying, Marcus. Believe me, I'm trying.
All units, looks like they're heading into Inwood Hill Park.
It's an out of context problem.
What? Out of context problem.
That's what the Alphas are.
No one saw us coming, so the response is instinctual.
Panicked. Violent.
Yes, but it doesn't always have to end in violence.
The Alpha phenomenon, it's an opportunity for us,
for all us, for you.
It's your gift.
My gift? Yes.
My gift got me locked up for six years.
Terrified Singh so much,
he was willing to cut my head open to pull it out.
He wanted to turn me into nothing!
He wanted to turn all of us into nothing!
He was afraid of us.
And maybe he was right.
Marcus, you are a much better person than what you are doing.
I miss that.
And your belief that somehow trajectories can be altered,
even once the dominoes have started to fall.
They can. They can.
You can always change. No.
You're wrong.
It's too late for me. My path is locked in.
No. No.
The sides are only gonna get more rigid, more predictable, but you,
you're the variable, the part I could never see.
You still have one move left to make,
the only thing that might get you
to this rosy future you cling to.
And what move is that?
Kick over the chessboard.
Good job, Gary. We found them.
Right on time.
No, Marcus...
They need to see this.
Aye rs!
Bill! No! It's not necessary!
Please, put your gun down.
This is all playing out the way it's supposed to,
you and me standing here.
This is the best possible outcome.
If I'm wrong,
they'll take me alive.
Nathan, no!
Still no sign of the body?
In his debriefing, Clay swore he hit Marcus
square in the chest.
So I guess chances are his body got taken up with the current,
which means it may take weeks to find it.
Or we may never find it at all, right?
And then there's that.
Agent Sullivan, have you ever heard of the phrase,
"Out of context problem?"
Like the Spanish and the Aztecs. Yes. Exactly.
The Aztecs were able to handle anything their world
threw at them until the Spanish showed up.
Yes, and destroyed them.
See, Marcus said that
Alphas might be our out of context problem.
Do you agree?
I think it would be a mistake to get into that kind of thinking.
Us versus them.
It should be us and them. That's the only option.
Let's hope you're right.
It's been 18 hours. You want to call it?
Nope. Keep looking.
Yes, sir.