First of all, I actually was thinking of her one night stand with the guy in the bar several episodes later. Secondly, with the earlier one night stand, Alex has just arrived in this world and is absolutely convinced it's all in her head, that it is her fantasy, as opposed to Sam, who after the pilot was at least half convinced it might be real.
Thirdly, about her mother: honestly, how is this more suspect or less understandable than Sam's obsession with his father? The woman had died when she was very young and she had never known her as a person beyond those early childhood memories. And now here she is, and not an idealized figure on a pedestal, nor a villain, either, but someone real.
Fourthly, I liked Alex in general. I liked that her relationships with Chris and Ray were different from Sam's, I liked that she was both manipulative and ruthless enough to push the right button when it came to getting her suspect's boyfriend to become her informer and to make Ray distract the suspect but reverted to a an emotional child when faced with her mother, I liked that while she was attracted to Gene she had just enough self preservation not to let it go further even though she thinks he's her fantasy, I liked her relationship with Shaz, I liked that she never stops wanting to return to her daughter. I liked Alex. More than second season Sam whom I'm still massively ticked off with, and definitely as much, if not more than Gene, who really should have clued into the downside of his type of policing after all the first season of Life on Mars when Ray and Co. got someone killed because they were following his role model but in 1981 is still encouraging his subordinates to beat people into a bloody pulp if revenge is on the menu and then holds speeches about how liberal softies don't get it the next episode.
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Thirdly, about her mother: honestly, how is this more suspect or less understandable than Sam's obsession with his father? The woman had died when she was very young and she had never known her as a person beyond those early childhood memories. And now here she is, and not an idealized figure on a pedestal, nor a villain, either, but someone real.
Fourthly, I liked Alex in general. I liked that her relationships with Chris and Ray were different from Sam's, I liked that she was both manipulative and ruthless enough to push the right button when it came to getting her suspect's boyfriend to become her informer and to make Ray distract the suspect but reverted to a an emotional child when faced with her mother, I liked that while she was attracted to Gene she had just enough self preservation not to let it go further even though she thinks he's her fantasy, I liked her relationship with Shaz, I liked that she never stops wanting to return to her daughter. I liked Alex. More than second season Sam whom I'm still massively ticked off with, and definitely as much, if not more than Gene, who really should have clued into the downside of his type of policing after all the first season of Life on Mars when Ray and Co. got someone killed because they were following his role model but in 1981 is still encouraging his subordinates to beat people into a bloody pulp if revenge is on the menu and then holds speeches about how liberal softies don't get it the next episode.