When Alec starts receiving calls of piano music playing, he is reminded of a mission he undertook for Manticore two years previously.

Of all the characters this season, Alec has been best used. However, it's only now that we realize we know very little about him and his time in Manticore. As he points out, Max and her comrades escaped, but the more recent escapees have been doing Manticore's bidding for years and it's been far from easy.

Up to now Alec has been painted as very shallow, but we get a lot more depth here as we find out what happened in one major mission he was sent on: to kill a prominent businessman who was planning to sell out Manticore to the FBI. Ordered to kill his daughter too, Alec finds his task too difficult when he falls in love with her. Now his desire to move from woman to woman, never developing any attachment, comes into better focus, and Max reaches a better understanding of him as well. Whether he will open up remains to be seen further down the line, but knowing what he is going through allows him to become a much more sympathetic character than he has been up to now.

Meanwhile, there are some fun moments with Normal and Joshua, the latter holding a dinner party, and we also realize that despite appearances there is also a lot more to Joshua than meets the eye. His observation of Alec and what he is like shows he has a better handle on him even than Max, which may explain why the mismatched pair seem to get along.

With a lot of tension, especially towards the end, some fast-paced fight action and some strong emotional material for Alec, which Jensen Ackles easily rises to the challenge of, it's a nicely-crafted and very watchable episode.

****

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