And that teenager, Trent Stafford (played by Jackson Rathbone, aka Twilight's Jasper Cullen) spends the episode looking shell-shocked. In theory, I get the reason for that, but it's boring as hell to watch. While Rathbone is cute (and puts me in mind of a young Jeremy London, here), there's no there there. Rathbone's post-invasion Trent looks exactly like his post-Bella-blood-exposure Jasper, without (thank heaven for small favors) the ridiculous Jasper Cullen wig. There's no reason to think he's going to be a recurring character, so there's no reason to get invested in any chemistry between him and Kay Panabaker's Daphne. Since there's no real chance he's going to be a recurring character, why not up the stakes for Daphne and for the Powells? Why not have Daphne fall for him, then have his home get invaded, then have him do the PTSD shuffle, then have Daphne read his mind, and then kill him off? All I could see while watching him was a metaphor for how much potential this show squanders -- week after week. And you want to talk about waste? Well, then, let's talk about the B-plot.

While the Staffords are being invaded by masked marauders, the Powells are being invaded by the Cranes. The Cranes are Stephanie's parents, and if you were expecting anything other than trite, cliched in-law angst, you haven't been paying attention. If you were expecting the Powells to buck the secret superhero trope (like they did with their friends and their couples' therapist in the pilot) you were wrong. If you were expecting to learn that the Cranes are somehow involved in the Global Tech/super-power intrigue, you are writing a way better show in your head, than you're getting on your screen. Here, it's just the same shit, different show, and I'm sad to say there's no indication that it's going to improve.

When I first heard Cybill Shepherd was going to play Stephanie's mother, I was thrilled. I mean, she's Cybill Freaking Shepherd. But what do they write for Ms. Shepherd? They write her as a mother who is critical of her highly respected scientist-daughter for the cardinal sin of achieving some modicum of professional success and academic glory. Really? In this day and age? That's a plot straight out of the 1970s.