History Series / Alphas

** Kerns is a subversion--he's completely blind, but that's to make way for his echolocation, meaning he can tell perfectly well what he's "looking" at [[spoiler:and as later revealed, he can enhance it into outright MakeMeWannaShout; he can emit vibrations which can make the walls vibrate themselves apart]].

* MakeMeWannaShout:
** Kerns has an inaudible version of this. He has the ability to project sound waves that can vibrate objects apart and throw people across a room.
** An Alpha criminal in season 2 plays it straight, using a store PA to broadcast and ear-splitting screech that disables everyone but himself and his accomplices.
** A victim of the photic stimulator in the season 2 finale discovers that he has this ability, but is very unsettled by it.

* DisappearedDad: The father of Skyler's daughter Zoe is never mentioned, nor his absence explained.

%%* AwesomeMcCoolName: Stanton Parrish.

* AdultFear: One can only imagine what went through the mind of Gary's mother when she learned that her autistic son had been [[spoiler: confined to a government holding facility]] in the season 2 premiere. Or, for that matter, what goes through her mind every day when he leaves the house to do a job that could potentially result in him being killed in any number of gruesome and horrifying ways.

* ObligatoryWarCrimeScene: In "Original Sin", an attempt by government agents to arrest the leaders of Red Flag (an Alpha terrorist organization) gathered for a meeting quickly descends into chaos as some of the Alphas resist and the government agents open fire. They kill everyone they see, even those trying to surrender or hide. They shoot Bill (in his vest), failing to distinguish him from their targets after a demonstration of SuperStrength. One agent nearly kills ''Gary'' when he has a tantrum over finding Anna's body - given that he weighs ninety pounds soaking wet and can barely lift the baton he was whaling on the agent with, it comes off very much like a Nazi about to [[KickTheDog stomp on a yapping chichuahua]]. The scene demonstrated how unprepared and heavy-handed the government is when dealing with Alphas and that the situation has reached the level of a war.

* {{Crossover}}: Lindsay Wagner's ''Series/{{Warehouse 13}}'' character Dr. Vanessa Calder appears in "Never Let Me Go" bringing this show into the same universe as that and ''Series/{{Eureka}}''.
* CruelMercy: In the season 2 finale, [[spoiler: Rosen suggests letting Stanton live with the pain forever rather than kill him to Hicks.]]

* DidntThinkThisThrough: Kat defeats the Caretaker in "If Memory Serves" by hitting him with a truck, pinning him to Hicks' rental car (the Caretaker had taken Hicks as a hostage) before pushing both him and the car into a lake (so the Caretaker will drown). Only after the fact does it occur to her that Hicks might be locked in the trunk.

* MohsScaleOfScienceFictionHardness: Leans toward the hard end of the scale. Superpowers tend to at least be within the realm of possibility, and most have necessary drawbacks to make them work.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Stanton Parrish.
* BadassNormal: Clay counts (although he's a bit of a JerkAss too).
* BadassBeard: Rosen had a pretty impressive beard in the pilot, but for some reason he's shaved it off by the second episode.
** The beard is back in the season 2 premiere, after Rosen's been institutionalized for a while. So far, he's been keeping it. But that's subject to change.

* NotSoDifferent:

* ConspicuousTrenchcoat: It's preeeeetty obvious who the bad guy is in the pilot.
* CoolOldGuy: Lee Rosen.

* DataCrystal

* GirlNextDoor: Rachel comes off as this, especially as compared to the more glamorous Nina.

* GrayAndGreyMorality
* GunsAkimbo: Hicks is able to pull this off in the fourth episode thanks to his ability.

* StarterVillain: The Ghost.
* StockSuperpowers:
** CharmPerson: Nina's power allows her to manipulate the wills of others, making them extremely susceptible to suggestion.
** SuperReflexes: Hicks' power. He can pull off amazing athletic feats of timing, but only when he isn't focusing on it.
** SuperSenses: Rachel's power. She can enhance any one of her five primary senses, though at the expense of the other four.
** SuperStrength and SuperSpeed: Bill's control over his fight-or-fight response. He can push a stationary SUV sideways and run fast enough to keep up with a speeding car. However, all that adrenaline has the drawback of causing him to overexert himself after a few minutes of use.
** {{Technopath}}: Gary's power, to a degree. He can see (almost) every electromagnetic wave around him and search through them. An Alpha in season two is able to control any technology through electrical impulses. It seems to require physical contact with the actual wires, but she can fabricate video in real time once she's hooked up.

* WithGreatPowerComesGreatInsanity: Nina in "When Push Comes To Shove".
** Stanton Parish also counts with his ImmortalityImmorality.

* RealityEnsues: After exposing the Alpha phenomenon to the world during the first series finale, the second series begins several months later, where a publicly discredited Dr. Rosen is now confined to a mental hospital.

** ImmortalityImmorality: Rosen believes that the drawback to Parrish's power is the loss of his humanity.

* AmbiguouslyJewish: Lee Rosen. This would presumably qualify his daughter Danielle for this trope as well, although, since we know almost nothing about her mother, she is more ambiguous.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName:
** Red Flag is coming off as this. They don't have the uniforms but their superiority complex over normal people and not batting a eye to mass murder of normal people for their cause of their kind help.
** Rather interestingly, The US Government itself often comes off as this in other ways: Heavy prejudice against those who are different, dealing with the aforementioned "different" people with incarceration or death sentences, militarism and so forth. [[TheAlcatraz Building Seven]] also comes off as something of a Concentration Camp in season 2.

* AllCrimesAreEqual: Eric, the goofy Alpha who used his passive and mostly harmless ability to cheat at poker, gets sent to the same concentration camp[=/=]human experimentation facility as the various [[PersonOfMassDestruction dangerous sociopaths]] who used their powers to go on rampaging killing sprees. There is a special building for the really dangerous Alphas, but it's still somewhat overkill.

* AmbiguouslyJewish:
** Lee Rosen. This would presumably qualify his daughter Danielle for this trope as well, although, since we know almost nothing about her mother, she is more ambiguous.

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Red Flag is coming off as this. They don't have the uniforms but their superiority complex over normal people and not batting a eye to mass murder of normal people for their cause of their kind help.
** Rather interestingly, The USA Government itself often comes off as this in other ways: Heavy prejudice against those who are different, dealing with the aforementioned "different" people with incarceration or death sentences, militarism and so forth. [[TheAlcatraz Building Seven]] also comes off as something of a Concentration Camp in season 2.

* AliensMadeThemDoIt: Cameron and Nina in "A Short Time in Paradise".

** Gary is a {{Technopath}}, but he's also TheRainman because sensing the entire EM spectrum isn't of much use without [[RequiredSecondaryPowers a brain fast and obsessive enough to process the information]].

* TheRainman: Gary, very much. Indeed, he is even called "Rain Man" in one episode... but he doesn't get the reference, since he's not allowed to watch that movie.

* StockUnderwear. Nina's got the black bra part of the black bra and panties variety, as visible when [[spoiler:she and Hicks were making out.]]

* {{Adorkable}}: Gary.

* TortureTechnician: Agnes is an apologetic example of this, as her ability makes it impossible or very difficult to hide anything from her, but it also causes enormous amounts of pain to whoever she touches.