Alias Reviews

Prophet Five Review

2005-10-08T04:48:00.000-07:00

Prophet Five – Those Things I Knew

My season 4 reviews were restricted by my need to find a recurring theme in the plot of each episode and analyse how the theme and each part of that theme impacted the episode [not that any of you care] but I feel the need for restriction no longer.
As attempted in my finale review I have decided just to write freely on my feelings of the episode.

To start with if you haven’t actually seen the episode and don’t want to spoil it I would stop reading, just in case you see something you don’t want to.

Unfortunately, like a lot of the Alias fans out there – I came into the episode expecting to be mourning the loss of my favourite Alias character, no wait one of my favourite characters on television ever. When I first read about it I was almost crying at the though of losing my precious Vaughn, the man that I had loved for 4 years was finally to leave, just when they [i.e. Sydney and Vaughn] seemed to be happy.
At every point in the episode I was praying that it was all hearsay and that he wouldn’t actually bite the dust and at every turn I was squealing and hiding in my seat in the suspense.
Knowing about the impending doom that would befall my television addiction almost ruined the episode for me, one I must say wasn’t bad looking back, although it was far from my favourite, for more reasons than the apparent departure of Vaughn.
One thing I must compliment the writers on is their flawless resolution to the “My name’s not Vaughn” revelation. They could have easily taken the “Vaughn’s a baddie and always has been” road in which I would lose faith in TV all together [even though they pretty much did it by killing him] but they actually tied up the story in a way that made perfect sense, and Vaughn to me will always be Vaughn.
One thing I do think altered the episode was the fact that another character besides Sydney or Vaughn was rarely used. Among them they did have some screen time but only enough to keep the story together on their end and enough to stop them from being left out completely.
As expected, Sloane is looking for a way to save Nadia from the disease that he helped manufacture and apparently it’s gonna be his motivation for a part of the season. I think that if this hadn’t been an element in the episode I would have been disappointed in the writing, but thankfully it was included.
Another thing I came into the episode knowing was that they were writing in a pregnancy and the way it was told was certainly funny as well as suiting to the story. When they were talking about it in the car, I personally was excited at the idea of a Sydney/Vaughn baby but distraught that Vaughn might not be there to see it L
The second that Vaughn stepped out of that car alone, after their discussion I knew that it was the end. The suspense of the scene began to tear me apart and then the car came speeding and the train and…. I don’t want to think about it, I’m mourning. The pure brutality of the CIA/FBI/NSA/some other 3 letter abbreviation dudey [I think, unless I was hallucination] was gut wrenching and to me seemed to be a complete mystery for now. I’m pretty sure we’ll learn about more to why in future.
The final thing I came into the episode expecting was that the odds of a season after this one are small. At first I was upset of the concept of no more Alias but if I have to face a Vaughn-less existence then I’m pretty sure I’ll be happy to see it over, not in a good riddance way but in a it’s time to end sense.
I took me a bit to realise that there was more to come after Vaughn got shot, I thought that was the episode end and frankly I would have been happier if it was, everything that followed was hollow, sad, useless and just what I hate about TV. I watched the best thing that ever happened to TV die, just after they named their child and he told Sydney he loved her – how corny :P and it only added to the sadness…

I don’t know where my obsession with Alias lies now, I guess that’s all to be discovered with the episodes to come.

The Index Review

2005-07-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

The Index – My Allies

The Index is an episode that looking back does not seem one of imperative significance but after watching it I realise that this episode was one of the few that set the bar in mystery and in some of the character relationships.

Sydney and Dixon
Although they are finally working together once again on a task force, Sydney had yet to form a strong working relationship with Dixon, until now. When they come together with Dixon’s need for him to guilty and Sydney’s surprising need for him to be innocent they finally are drawn together in a way they haven’t been in years, and it’s something I have definitely missed.
Dixon’s rigorous surveillance show his need for Sloane to be convicted – after convincing himself to work below a man that he hated, a man that tore his life apart in a scathing search for revenge, he finally has a way to bring justice and no matter what he must cling to it. I fell, despite his over-zealous need for something that con only be trouble, that this brings morals and a new depth to Dixon’s character that’s always been there but never been exploited.
Sydney can connect with Dixon in this state, she’s felt this way about Sloane many times and has done her best to bring him down –but for once she is hoping that he is innocent – it’s funny how Nadia has changed things.

Sloane and Devereux
The Alliance have gone without a mention for quite a long time, we’ve gone through many other baddies and they’ve stayed under the radar, until finally we have in the setting of APO aka SD-6 Lite, the return of the organisation.
In my opinion if The Alliance were to return it should cover more that one episode, used the way it has it’s become one of the ever changing baddies, one of the disposable single episode nasties that is dismantled by Super-Sydney by the episode’s end and to me that’s bringing down a mighty organisation, one we were brought to feel was much more than this.
In spite of that, Devereux and the Alliance were good characters, serving a reasonable purpose to the best of the capacity it was given.
The way Sloane contacted Devereux was very suspicions and although in the end his reasons seemed legit, the episode’s ending seems to imply otherwise, and this time it may involve Jack, with Alias you never know….

Sydney and Nadia
When Nadia thanked Sydney for the birthday party, everyone knew Sydney felt a whole lot of guilt, her ulterior motives weren’t just bad in a sense that she was breaking into her boss’s office but that she were using her sister as a means to do so. Sydney’s rarely ever seen as a bad guy, someone who uses people for her own ulterior motives but for once we get to see her do something we know is baaad.
When she gets caught the expression on Nadia face shows everything that could be going on in her head, realising that Sydney used her to have an excuse to get into Sloane’s house and that she never would have set up a birthday dinner otherwise. A sentence as mundane as “Birthday cake’s ready” took on a whole new meaning – Nadia didn’t have the energy or the ability to comprehend the current situation at that moment, utter hurt and disappointment.
When she makes her birthday speech her words are obviously a stab at Sydney, yet I feel that Nadia of all people should know not to jump to conclusions when it comes to these things, in her world, nothing is as it seems.
When Nadia saves Jack and tells Sydney that she hopes one day that she will do the same, you can see that there may have been a rift created, one that will heal with time.

Dixon and Chase
From her very superior lecture, to the childish “you’re right” and then to the sexy flirtation, Dixon gets to see many sides of Chase, and we begin to see that despite it all there could be something between them.
Compared to Dianne, Chase is a strong woman who knows Dixon’s kind, and to keeps it short I think that they’d make a good couple.

Jack and Nadia
We never get to see these two working together, so you can imagine that it would be out of the ordinary for Jack when it’s Nadia that saves him. To be honest I don’t see it affecting their relationship, it would just seem like something she had to do and Jack will continue on like nothing happened, they fight for the same side so they’re bound to help each other out from time to time – it just so happened that it occurred now, a nice touch.

Quote-Ables

“Blackwell? What a worst dressed list?” – Weiss

“Sydney, figure out a way to get yourself arrested.” – Sloane

“He’s using us again, and that’s not something I’m gonna let him do.” – Dixon.

Sloane: “I take it you have no problem brining Nadia up to speed?”
Weiss: “Yeah, I already did, last night.”
Sloane: “Excuse me?”
Weiss: “Uhh, we were working, we work late, we actually like it. There were other pe- Jack was here!”

Sydney: “I used to meet Vaughn here, when he was my handle at the CIA”
Dixon: “Must’ve been romantic.”

Dixon: “I’m just not realising how difficult your life was at SD-6”

Weiss: “What do you think Arvin?” pause “Uhh, Mr Sloane”

What’s In A Name?
The Index comes from The Blackwell Index”

Scene of the Ep
Dixon and Sydney, when Dixon is telling Sydney of Sloane’s possible evil-ness.

Loathed
No Vaughn on the mission
Liked
Bill Vaughn may be alive
Loved
Nadia driving into the warehouse and shooting everyone

A Man Of His Word Review

2005-06-24T22:29:00.000-07:00

A Man Of His Word – My Old Friends

A man of his word was undeniably an excellent episode with the continuation of the guest appearances by David Anders and Gina Torres. Through out the episode, old friends or enemies were reunited or brought together by the occurrences of whatever was going on. People who hated each other were forced to work together in more than one instance, and people who hadn’t worked together in rather long time were finally reunited.

Sydney and Sloane

During 2 different exchanges at the hospital with Nadia, these two appeared to be more at ease with each other than before. Sydney was almost forced at the start to admit that Sloane had been right about sending both of them off on the mission and you could see it in her face that she didn’t like saying what she had to say. Sloane on the other hand did not notice this lapse in character, as he was too worried about his ailing daughter. Their other scene was the one where Sydney questioned Sloane’s beliefs and how he had begun to feel that despite whatever Rambaldi forces affected them, maybe it wasn’t enough to prevent Nadia from dying, being killed by Anna.

Sark and Sloane

In Jack’s words they are each other’s intellectual match - they have worked together before and admire the other’s expertise. Personally I was glad that they threw in a scene where they were both together, they play off each other in a way that is hard to find. Their conversation was classic, in a way that implied that Sark could even doubt Sloane’s alliances, yet was impressed with his cunning in securing a job running a task force for the US Government.

APO and SD-6 Comparisons

Sark could clearly see the similarities between APO and SD-6, something I saw in the pictures that Slone gave to Sark, showing someone pictures of a ally who was ruthlessly killed was very SD-6. The connection isn’t one that is overly obvious like I was worried would happen – like I was worried it would be, just one that is enough to have an impact on the story.

Sark, Vaughn and Lauren

Sark’s reaction to the dead Lauren was one that was rather surprising, after realising it was Vaughn that killed her; he seemed to break down in tears over her body. Much in the words of Vaughn, it would require him to care about something for that to happen, is it really possible?
The fact that Sark wanted Vaughn to look at her was an interesting one, a spiteful stab at him, making him face up to the one thing that has haunted him ever since he learned the truth about his baaad wife but how does it effect him? To me it would seem it would provide him with additional closure, after “Ice”

Anna and Sydney

Their first show off was in the hospital, after Sydney realised that Anna was here to kill her sister, it ended quickly with Anna escaping and Sydney left open mouthed.
The second time they met in the cemetery was more hand-to-hand combat, where it appeared Anna had the upper hand, right until the end when Sydney overpowered her.
So now Anna’s locked in a CIA prison, where she will remain out of sight for possible another 3 seasons… To me she’s not one of those guest stars who can cause a massive stir when they return, like Sark and Lauren, although having her around was nice for a while.

Jack and Sloane

At first it was a conversation about beliefs, they aren’t strong enough any more so find Anna and kill her. During his speech Jack made an attempt to make Sloane see the light in it all, but in his fatherly concerns he stayed firm on his decision. I see a lot of Jack in this outburst, they way a father than let his love for his daughter consume him and become angry and vengeful, it shows what fatherhood does to Alias.
The second of their exchanges was also in the respect of fatherhood, after Slone discovers Jack endangered Nadia’s life in order to save the mission. In this exchange their “pact” was brought up, making us wonder what they are conspiring about, as it certainly involves their daughters. In this exchange Sloane was again powered by his anger but this time at Jack and was left questioning his allegiances, something Sloane of all people should understand can sometimes not always be fully correct.

Jack and The Doctor

Well first of all it was nice to see the APO doctor from Nocturne return in this episode but the exchange between the two was very revealing. The doctor of course realised that Jack may later need to revive Nadia for his own reasons and both were almost hostile with their exchange.

Sydney and Lauren

So you have to pretend to be the dead wife, the woman who the man you are in love with once loved, no biggie right? The enormity of the task was portrayed well with Sydney’s face and the way Vaughn looked at her as she was getting ready. The way this event added to the dynamic of Sydney and Vaughn and of the episode was awesome and to me, I think it was a nice touch. This was another episode where Vaughn had to confront his demons regarding Lauren, and seeing Sydney, the woman he loved now acting as her would have added to this.

Sydney and Sark

When these two work together you know you’re in for something and in this episode it was pretty cool. With Lauren and Sarks “reputation” it made their time together very interesting – having to act as if all was like it was before, that high-passion relationship that everyone seemed to know about. Vaughn’s line about killing him after Sanko suggested that he watch them together in action was perfectly timed but looking at it from a different perspective imagine being Vaughn having to listen to all of that. His girlfriend acting as his late wife kissing the man he hated the most was a rather interesting combination to play on Vaughn…

Sark and Anna

Anna’s line to Sark about how they were destined to work together made perfect sense, both was as ruthless as the other in getting what they wanted. Sark’s reply about not eating his meal was typical Sark but of course there was the symbolism in when he started eating, almost as if he had assessed the situation and realised that he had to at least lead Anna to believe he trusted her, in order to get what he wanted. With them you get the feeling that the only thing they share ane a career and motives and each would gladly betray the other to get what they wanted, not exactly a solid partnership – something proven when Sark left Anna to Sydney and escaped himself.

Jack and Nadia

Not exactly the first person Nadia would expect to open her eyes to, seeing Jack must have been weird, but what I want to know was if she saw that Jack had an ulterior motive in all of it, rather than just her awakening normally. Nadia and Jack have never really had anything of a relationship, I wonder what it would be like if they did…

Quote-Ables

Sark: “This is classic”
(Classic Sark)

Jack: “You disagree with my methods”
(Why change a tradition?)

Sark: “Four years ago, if I’m not mistaken, you fooled a small army into believing they worked for the CIA when in fact they worked for you. How you convinced the US Government into offering you the real thing is a story I’m dying to hear. Suffice to say Arvin, you have my undying admiration.”

Sark: “You have my word”
Slone: “You word?”
Sark: “Which has a considerable greater value then when you knew me last. Incarceration has given me perspective.”

Vaughn: “Guys like you don’t believe in closure, that would require you to believe about something”
Sark: “Perhaps that’s true, perhaps all I can hope for is a moment for us all to share you, me… her.”

Sark: “Your wife loved me, not even death can change that”

Sark: “It was you, you did this”
Vaughn: “Yes I did”
Sark: “I’ll take you to CRF but I want you to face what you did – I want you to look at her”
(Vaughn sounded proud)

Sloane: “My daughter lays there in a medically induced coma, what else do I have but my faith?”
(And the obsession may be back..)

Sydney: “And then you and I go in alone??”
Vaughn: “As in a glorified date?”
Sydney: “Is it?”
Vaughn: “No – we have to take Sark with us”
(What kinda twisted date is that?)

Sark: “I must warn you, Lauren and I had a reputation, certain intimacies were public knowledge. We must keep up appearances.”
Sydney: “Dream on you perverted freak”
(We all know Sark’s got a thing for Sydney)

Sark: “I told you she(Sydney/Lauren) was special”

Anna: “Anna Espinosa”
Sark: “Julian Sark, nice to meet you”

Sark: “Beware a summit that begins with shred bread, the sated man is at his weakest.”
Anna: “Who said that?”
Sark: A Vietnamese general I had dinner with once, by dessert I had put a bullet between his eyes.”

Sark: “Sydney, I’m a man of my word”

Nadia: “And we didn’t kill each other”
Sydney: “Nope”
(Aww sisterly love)

Sloane: “I would have appreciated as a father to be appraised of you decision to put my daughter’s life at risk”
Jack: “As you do mine everyday”
Sloane: “When I accepted this position I made two agreements, one with Langley and one with you, a pact”
Jack: “That’s still in effect”
Sloane: “But only because my daughter is unhurt. I wonder Jack, what assurances do I have that you will continue to honour it.”
(Eerie)

What’s In A Name?
Came from Sark’s quote, saying he’s a man of his word.

Scene of the Ep
Vaughn and Sark with Lauren

Loathed
Nothing in particular…
Liked
Sydney and Sark
Loved
Vaughn and Sark

Echoes Review

2005-06-12T04:04:00.000-07:00

Echoes – Familiar Faces

The first half of a two-part episode was one that a lot of people were looking forward to, for one main reason – familiar faces. Echoes marks the return of previous Alias stars David Anders and Gina Torres (aka Julian Sark and Anna Espinosa) and also incorporated the return of the mysterious prophet Rambaldi.

The episode can be summarised in the theme familiar faces, some of them were gone for a long time, others for not as long, yet all have the theme in common.

Anna

It was strange to see the return of a character we haven’t seen since season 1 and to be honest I wasn’t sure if the story could live up to the hype, the expectation – it may not have been my favourite episode ever but it certainly wasn’t bad. Anna’s character had an effect on the story, on Sydney, in a way no other could because of their history together. Having her back in the show can add to or change a story’s dynamic because of the tension and drive that she brings to the missions and to Sydney.
In a way, apart from her effect on the likes of Sydney I didn’t quite see why she would have a connection with Sark, of course they’re both bad guys yet other than that there would seem no obvious reason for them to be connected, meh it’s Alias world – things rarely make sense.

Rambaldi

After abandoning the storyline for a little while having what used to be the centre of the show back in focus was a nice touch, to have all these people return in one episode, why not bring back Rambaldi too? Surprisingly all that he was in there for was Anna’s involvement and to re-introduce the prophecy between Nadia and Sydney – rather than having him the reason behind some of the missions, I think that bringing back some of the mystery, things that effect the missions would have been nice yet the way it came about was good enough pretty much. I feel that the reason behind the return of Rambaldi’s prophecy where Sydney and Nadia fight was because the writers were like oopsie, we forgot all about some major revaluation that could effect everything, I think we better bring it back. To be honest, in my opinion something like that needs a constant build up through a few episodes rather than the speedy reintroduction that this had.

Sark

I just love this guy, seriously he’s awesome, his accent, the things he says and the things he does all rock, I seriously can’t believe that he’s not a regular. Seeing him again was awesome, everything he did was just so cool; I think I’m getting carried away here.
In all rational honesty it was about time we saw Sark again, he brings something to Alias that just makes it so good, the scene where we see Sark and Vaughn in the prison was priceless.
It was typical Sark playing along with APO’s façade just “for the bubbly” and it was a nice touch instead of the stock standard style that most people have become accustomed to

Nadia’s Return

She wasn’t quite gone for long but to the characters seeing Nadia return was seeing a familiar face, finally, after a scary kidnapping experience. Her reunion with Weiss was very sweet although I would have thought, lacked affection, for two people supposedly in love we haven’t seen any kissing or hugging going on, maybe it’s got something to do with the fact JJ knows Grunberg’s wife, lolz.
When Nadia was reunited with Sloane I was kinda creeped out by his dad-ly-ness, it was like the way Sloane talked to Sydney back in SD-6 days, gives you the feeling he might not actually care.
The only real greeting after her kidnapping was Sydney’s who looked very happy to see her and expressed her happiness in a non-creepy non-distant way, just sisterly, and that’s the way it should be.

Lauren

So technically she didn’t return but we had a mention of her, and we discover, for now, she is actually dead – you never know in Alias world. It was weird to hear Sark saying that she was the woman he loved – you always got the feeling it was just a fling thing rather than some whole-hearted committed relationship, it was kinda cool anyhoo, so it doesn’t really matter whether it was a fling or not.

Quote-Ables

Sydney: “She’s supposed to be dead”
Jack: “So are a lot of people”
(A hint towards certain people perhaps?)

Jack: “The category of force you chose to exercise will remain classified”
(Tehe)

Dixon: “There are people out there who want you dead, thankfully we’re not one of them”

Guy: “Your reputation is well earned – still I wish I were younger”
(Tehe, creepy guy though)

Anna: “One day whether you choose to or not, you will help me destroy her”

Sydney: “Please tell me this is not about what I think it is”
Sloane: “If you had faith you would know what I know”
Sydney: “Faith in a 15th century lunatic?”
(Tehe, nice Sydney moment)

Sydney: “I just wish the ghosts would go away”
Vaughn: “Tell me about it”

Vaughn: “Open it up”
Guard: “Procedure dictates –“
Vaughn: “We’re old friends”
Sark: “Actually, given our shared intimacies with your late wife, I may even go so far as to say we’re family”
(Nice, although his logic isn’t quite straight)

Sark: “Mr Vaughn your timing is impeccable – the last of my broken bones has healed and I sit before you a fresh canvas for your aggression. Before we begin whatever inquisition you’re here for there’s a pesky question that has been lingering in my head, do you mind?”
Vaughn: “Alright”
Sark: “Was it the infidelity or the espionage that motivated you to kill the woman I love?”

Vaughn: “That wasn’t for sleeping with the woman I was married to, I couldn’t care less about her”
(Nice how Lauren’s name is not used and she is not referred to as his wife, only as the woman he was married to, as if it was done against his will, which it was actually)

Sark: “So it’s begun”
Vaughn: “What?”
Sark: “Wouldn’t you like to know”

Sark: “I regret to inform you Mr Vaughn, I’m not afraid of the dark.”

Sark: “For the bubbly of course”
(Typical Sark)

What’s In A Name?
Echoes from the past, such as Anna, Sark and Rambaldi

Scene of the Ep
Sark and Vaughn in the call

Loathed
No Rambaldi in the missions??
Liked
Sydney and Anna fighting
Loved
Sark

Détente Review

2005-06-05T22:51:00.000-07:00

Détente – Moving On

I wasn’t actually aware of the meaning of détente until I looked up, but now I understand what it means and why it would be a choice for the episode name. In this episode there were strong tensions between certain people, ones that may effect later stories or later parts of their lives.

All in all the episode was one about moving on, or not moving on as the case may be, some of it was about overcoming differences and some of it was about just trying.

Sloane Eating in Sydney’s House

The first symbol that she’s clearly still very angry at Sloane for everything he’s done in the past, was of course when Sydney returned from a mission to discover Sloane sitting in her house. Given that he is the father of her half-sister, her reaction could be taken as surprising, especially as these angry feeling have been left dormant for the last few episodes. I’m glad that Sydney’s hatred has not gone ignored, it is clear that she has her issues with this man and now was the time to show them. This scene was simply an introduction into what was to come, clearly Sydney’s hatred for Sloane.

Francie and Danny

It’s sometimes hard to tell whether Sydney has moved on form the deaths of her best friend and fiancé at the hand of Sloane. Sometimes we can see that she is living her life and there seems to be no problems but the time come and she begins once again too feel the grief for these two important people. Nadia knowing about them was a nice touch, a sisterly kinda thing brought into the mix, but imagine knowing it was your father that killed these people, those closest to your sister. It was good continuity to bring these characters back into the story as we have not heard a mention of these people in quite a while, it really shows Alias is once again becoming more about what being a spy does to your life rather than just being a spy.

Dixon Dreaming About Dianne

Once again we get the return of a character, killed at the hands of Sloane. Dixon’s speech about Dianne was very moving, knowing that almost each night he dreams of his wife, who tells him to do the right thing, it make it much easier for him to work for Sloane, knowing that Dianne sees it as the right thing, a way to keep an eye on Sloane and to protect his country. It’s clear that as much as he tries Dixon has not yet moved on from the death of Dianne 3 years ago but that maybe there is a chance he can make it through, maybe even getting over it in the end.

Sydney Talking About Irina

Nadia had heard very little about her mother, and when Sydney came to talk to her, trying to explain she was sorry and that Nadia was right to want to get to know her father, hearing that little bit about Irina must have been sweet. One question that has to be asked is if Sydney herself has gotten over her mother’s “death”. She may get the feeling that her dying was just, given she had put a hit on Sydney’s life but to me that would tear me apart more, know you were the reason your mother had to die. Reminiscing to Nadia about Irina may have been hard for Sydney, remembering her mother but it would have been one of the first times Nadia had heard a little bit more about Irina.

Nadia Accepting Sydney’s Dislike

So you’re half sister hates your father, at least Nadia can move on, what a sweet sister. It goes to show how these sisters want to be able to get along, be sisters, despite years of separation things are finally coming around for them.

Sloane Not Moving On – Sydney and Nadia Disobeying Orders

You gotta admit, aside from the fact that they disobeyed orders there mission was pretty cool, girl power style, it was an awesome touch to have Weiss and Vaughn in awe of their girlfriends’ skill in getting the information they wanted.
Unfortunately Sloane did not see it the same way and got all pissed off and would not move on from the fact they didn’t do what he said, so much so that he almost didn’t let them be the ones to go on the final mission onto the ship. Come on Sloane, accept their I told you so and just move on :p

Sydney Getting Angry at Sloane

So we’ve established she hasn’t quite moved on from the whole you-killed-my-best-friend-and-my-fiancé-thing and when she told him so it was pretty cool, getting the chance to blast Sloane like that must have been fun :P Nadia stood there at the same time and heard what Sydney had to say, giving her some perspective on her sister’s feelings, her grieving for these lost people. Maybe what I wonder is if Sydney, like Dixon ever feared for her job during these exchanges, meh, it didn’t seem to be an issue.

Sloane Preventing Sydney and Nadia From Working Together

I didn’t really see it until Jack mentioned it, but for some reason Sloane wont move on from something and doesn’t want Sydney and Nadia to work together. The only reasons I can find behind this plot would either be to prevent the Rambaldi Prophecy (The Chosen One and The Passenger will fight and only one will survive) from coming true or he’s worried Nadia will see Sydney’s side of the story and get all pissed off at him. From what I’ve seen it’s not a storyline that is pursued, mysterious….

Sloane and Orissa’s Past

Obviously Sloane wants everyone to believe he’s moved on from his baddie days, but when he spoke to Orissa he was almost revisiting them inside him to get what he wanted, to be honest what he said was really creepy, he painted such a nice imagery. To be honest I think there will be a lot of people out there that think Sloane is still a baddie, I’m sitting on the fence, but this may convince some that he might still be baaad, and to others, well it’s just another day in the life of Alias.

Arvin “Doing What He Had To Do”

Behind it all Sloane’s fatherly feelings for Sydney may not have entirely dished, imagine how hard it would be knowing you had to completely wreck whatever dynamic there was there (however small) in order to save that person’s mission (or life as the case may be, should the mission have gotten out of hand) Despite not knowing how to feel about his covert activities I felt sorry for the guy at this point. Thinking Sydney would want to transfer from APO would have been a suitable assumption, had he not known Sydney’s determination, of course we knew she wouldn’t give up something she started, come on Arvin – accept it was what you had to do, and you should know better than to assume Sydney would give up.

Sydney Talking To Sloane

She say’s she’ll never forgive hi for what he did to her and her friends, I guess I can understand her reasons for not moving on in this case, she can just accept what’s going on for now and then we can all sit back and see where this is going. Having Sydney despise Sloane is a vital plot in this show, I like it :)

Quote-Ables

Guard: “Who are you?”
Vaughn: “I’m not the one you need to worry about”
(Nicely done, Sydney clobbering the guy over the head right after the delivery :) )

Weiss: “This guys living my junior high fantasy”
Marshall: “Or my current one”
(Yah, I would have thought that Weiss would still dream about lots of cars)

Sydney: “I thought I could do this, work for Sloane again about now, I don’t know, I think I might have been kidding myself”
Dixon: “I dream about Dianne, which isn’t unusual I’ve been told, except for me it’s almost every night. These dreams are always the same, at some point I get to her and I hold her face and I can see it in her eyes, the disappointment, in me, that I couldn’t prevent what happened, then she tells me that she loves me and that she loves the kids and she asks me to do the right think – she doesn’t ask me to, she tells me to – and that’s how I make peace with Sloane, I don’t put the past away or compartmentalise it, I transmute it and make it the right decision today”
Sydney: “I hope I’m capable of that”
Dixon: “I know you are”

Weiss: “Gretchen, I don’t buy you as a Gretchen”
(Another alias, in Weiss’s opinion not fitting, yah I don’t buy her as a Gretchen either)

Marshall: “Uh hold on, let me check. Sorry I’m not much of a sports fan, I’m more of a Scrabble Club guy, Boggle Tournament if I’m feeling dangerous”
(Don’t ya just love him?)

Vaughn: “Maybe she’s a soccer fan”
Weiss: “Oh my god, this is the greatest girlfriend ever”

Weiss: “Would it be weird for you if we were dating sisters?”
(Vaughn shakes head, almost in pity of Weiss’s awe)

Nadia: “I couldn’t be compromised because I was alone, I always thought it was what made me a good spy”
Sydney: “And now?”
Nadia: “I might have been wrong”

Sydney: I wanna make something clear, I will never forgive you for what you have done to me, to the people I love, no amount of time or distance will ever change that. I’ll see you tomorrow”
(Girl Power!)

What’s In A Name?
Détente – The easing of tension
Most likely the easing of tension between Sydney and Nadia, Nadia and Sloane and Sydney and Sloane

Scene Of The Ep
When Sydney and Nadia became friends with the gf and copied the guys PDA and laptop, and when Weiss and Vaughn were in awe of them

Loathed
Yet another new bad guy, all rounded off at the end
Liked
Sloane being blasted by Dixon in one ep and Sydney in the next
Loved
Weiss and Vaughn in awe of their girlfriends

Before the Flood Review

2005-06-05T03:15:00.000-07:00

Before the Flood – Untitled

I put off watching this episode for almost 2 weeks after it aired, due to the fact I was too scared at what would be thrown at me – what cliff-hanger I would get this time. In a complete accident I found out that a major cast member’s life would be in danger in the cliff-hanger and instantly assumed it would be Vaughn, I got all pissed off and abused as many people as possible checking Michael Vartan would be a regular next year. Satisfied from other spoilers I worked up the courage to watch the episode, to discover it was absolutely-frikkin brilliant! This I think is my favourite episode…

I didn’t pick out a running theme for this episode, there was so much going on that I didn’t want to, and my head was mush anyway – seriously I had to scrap my first set of review notes from the first time I watched it coz they made no sense. I watched it again, as I had planned and took different notes, so forgive me if my review is a wander-y but I need to say how I feel and all my speculation for next season.

There were several Rambaldi factors in the episode, of course there had to be, as it was the big story that made it so great. Of course our token of this was the Rambaldi symbol in the sky at the very beginning as our spy-family jumped out of the plane.

It was great to have Marshall and Weiss working together throughout the episodes, the two characters used for comic relief working together lit up the screen, each scene written well, making me laugh. The first of their scenes what when they were thinking as if they were Jack - the using the Blackwell Index, their interaction about Sloane still possessing the index was really well played out. When Weiss explained that the president, the cabinet and all other people of importance had been taken to a safe place, the sadness we saw was really cute. Of course, I feel bad that they didn’t get to be the ones to go into the bunker, especially as it made them feel their job was of no importance to the people of their country, while they were one of the few who were doing their best to save the world from what could be the apocalypse. When Marshall called Carrie, I saw a lot of the scene in Phase One where Dixon called Diane, except in Marshall’s case he had a belief the word was going to end. Weiss stood in the background during the call, and I got the feeling he wished he could call his loved one, to tell her that he loved her, except she was unavailable, on of the ones risking their lives big time to stop whatever was going on.

It was nice to see Brodien return, almost gave a full circle to what was Season 4, and at least this time I can see the relevance of bringing back a character, in the apocalyptic-state, it would be more believable to the viewers if the team knew the person they were associating with.

Rambaldi’s prophecies are obviously taken too literally, blood red horses and fallen angels aren’t quite what they seen, yet it fulfilled the prophecy all the same, the horses were blood red from the light cast by the Mueller Device and the fallen angel was simply what looked like a concrete or marble angel, ripped from a building. Nadia and Sydney did clash, although we’re yet to find out if only one survives, as always the prophecy should not be taken all too literally as the clash ends with Sydney being saved from the fight by Sloane, who shoots Nadia, ending the fight – for now. The fight was rather anticlimactic after Nadia’s vision back in 4x08 “Echoes” where they both were facing each other with guns and Nadia pulled the trigger, in the end the fight was very different and actually ended through Sloane firing. I think that although the scene was effective in pulling the story together it may not have been everything that it could be, like the way we all expected it.
All in all knowing this, that his prophecies may leave room for adaptation are there any others that could have this wiggle room (cool phrase, tehe J)

Sloane may have been a good guy all this time, god who knows when it comes to him? The way that he appeared at the train station, I was rooting for Jack to shoot him dead, but as it turned out he was able to help in a vital way. When he was the one to shoot Nadia on the roof I was shocked, but it make you realise maybe he does want to be do the good thing, he could have shot Sydney, and help find an antidote for Nadia, saving his daughter and enacting the Rambaldi prophecy that he spent so long trying to be a part of. It was nice at the end to admit that

Having 2 of the Derevko sisters together was an explosive scene, the way they interacted showed that they may be on the extreme side but they simply suffer from a case of sibling rivalry. Jack’s chance at torture was simply classic, from his speech about wanting to have more fun, to the way he told her there was no way of knowing whether or not he would inject her anyway, of course I would be worried, after all Jack hates Ylena and after he gets what he wants, if I were him, I’d kill her too. The fact that when Ylena was faced with her own creation, her own doing, to be injected with the infected water and being scared of what she would become made me very angry at the character, she’s done this to so many people, including one whom she told was like a daughter to her, if you’re gonna be ruthless you should at least be fearless, of course if that were the case then Jack, Irina and Sydney would never have gotten what they want, in effect destroying the device.

When the device was destroyed, the wall of water once again fell, I must ask, was the contents of the ball the same as the one at the end of season one?? Will it cause the return of the virus that almost killed my-name’s-not-Vaughn? The way, when Sydney, my-name’s-not-Vaughn, Nadia and Sloane, ran from the on coming water rushing at them before they got back to the bunker had many similarities to the Season 1 finale, except this time they made it back, effectively saving themselves and the world.

Of course, the ending, the way everyone was saved (bar Nadia and Dixon) was just too perfect, they took our favourite couple to Santa Barbara and there was talk about eloping and how much they loved each other. Then of course Vaughn had to go and tell Sydney he had a secret. Irina revealed earlier that she knew about this secret, yet still gave him her blessing and later talked to Sydney as if she knew there would be a wedding, this leaves me with hope that whatever he did is not something that will destroy their relationship, if it is, I’ll get extremely pissed of and torture some exec Jack-style. One thing I can assume is pretty safe to guess is the fact that Vaughn did not see ramifications such as this when he first signed on to do whatever he did, he probably did something for his job and may not have foreseen himself falling for Sydney, having to stay as Michael Vaughn to stay with her, but hey, it’s pure speculation, chances are everything I’m coming up with won’t actually be what happens
There are various speculations to what Vaughn has done, mine include:
Vaughn was an agent working for Kendal or the DSR ensuring Sydney completed the Rambaldi prophecy, so they could prevent the apocalypse
Vaughn was a Rambaldi follower or another person in a Rambaldi prophecy ensuring Sydney completed the Rambaldi prophecy, so they could prevent the apocalypse
Vaughn is Rambaldi :P

As you may see the ones I like, I like because they could cause minimal damage to Sydney and Vaughn’s relationship, but of course the Ask Ausiello column tells me the story is awesome, so I have hope. As you can also see I’m more worried about Sydney and Vaughn’s relationship than the fact they were hit by a car, reliable sources ensure me the both live J

One thing nagging in the back of my mind is that the scene may have been a dream sequence, the dialogue and Sydney’s hair going into the reason for my theory. I’m not sure how it would all fit into the story if it was, thus why I don’t believe it’s true, just a remote possibility.

Quote-Ables

“They do understand that destroying this device with conventional explosives would cause enough toxic fall out to make Chernobyl look like a kitchen fire” – Jack
(Just to get a perspective of the impending doom…)

“What would Jack do in this situation? Jack is the king of this sorta thing.” – Weiss
(Nice to be recognised)

Weiss: “I thought Sloane turned The Blackwell Index over to Langley”
Marshall: “He didn’t, it’s complicated”
Weiss: “Yeah, not really, Sloane’s evil, why wouldn’t he hold onto blackmail material on world leaders?”
(Have some faith… :P)

Jack: “Marshall and Weiss are working with the Russians, stubborn bunch you’re countrymen”
Irina: “We like to control our own fate, you never put much faith in that, did you, fate, destiny?”
Jack: “I have about as much faith in horoscopes and fortune cookies”
Irina: “Look, Rambaldi wrote that when blood red horses wandered the streets and angels fall from the sky The Chosen One and The Passenger will clash and only on of them will survive”
Jack: “You’re really through the looking glass, aren’t you? When I see angels fall from the sky, I’ll start to worry.”
(Started as a cute exchange, ended in an oh crap moment)

Sydney: “Hey Brodien. That ear healed up pretty nicely”
Brodien: “Yeah, if you plan on putting any other holes in me, just go ahead and tell me now”
(Nice continuity)

Irina: “You shouldn’t wait”
Vaughn: “For what?”
Irina: “I saw the ring”
Vaughn: “You know what? You killed my father, the way I see it, I don’t have to ask for your blessings.”
Irina: “Despite that, you may have them, along with some advice.”
Vaughn: “Marital advice from you, wonderful, like what? Don’t betray your spouse?”
Irina: “Yeah, that would be one of them, but even between a husband and a wife secrets are acceptable, however your activities are not”
Vaughn: “What are you talking about?”
Irina: “You’re not as covert as you’d like to think. Consider my life an object lesson, if you don’t want to end up like Jack and me, tell Sydney the truth.”
(Loved the sarcasm and the way they play off each other, but a secret... oh god)

Sydney: “Vaughn asked me to marry him”
Nadia: “Sydney, that’s amazing”
Sydney: “I’m sure there are plenty of brides that want to kill the maid of honour – I’m not one of them”
(Sydney reassuring Nadia she doesn’t want to fulfil the prophecy, what I want to know is if Sydney still wants Nadia as the maid of honour now she’s a zombie)

Weiss: “What’s the significance of the green balloons?”
(I will never see green balloons the same way ever again after hearing whatever Weiss and Marshall saw)

Weiss: “Oh, sure thing minister, or should I call you – (Russian accent) Cowboy”
(Tehe, same as above but for cowboys)

Nadia: “You’re right, I see my future, two minutes from now I see myself killing you. The only reason you want me is because you believe I’m the one to stop Sydney Bristow, but she is my sister and you mean nothing to me”
Ylena: “I’m sorry you feel that way”
Nadia: “What’s that?”
Ylena: “Don’t worry darling, it’s only tap water”
Nadia: “I will never betray my sister!”
Ylena: “We’ll see”
Nadia: “Nooooooooooooooooo!”
(Dun, dun, dun, cute exchange btw.)

Vaughn: “Syd!”
Sydney: “Did I forget something?”
Vaughn: “Yeah, me. I’m coming with you.”
Sydney: “Did my dad change the plans?”
Vaughn: “No I did, I’m joining you on the roof”
Sydney: “It’s a one person job, my mom will relay the wiring instructions and I can disarm the device myself.”
Vaughn: “I know you can but you can’t out run the wall of water that things gonna turn into.”
Sydney: “How are you gonna help me?”
Vaughn: “We’ll figure something out. You’ll run faster if I’m chasing you”
Sydney: “I’ll be fine and they need you in the bunker…”
Vaughn: “Syd”
Sydney: “You won’t get Ylena – don’t say it. I’ll see you in a few minutes (walks away, turns and walks back) Just in case, yes”
Vaughn: “Yeah?”
Sydney: “Yeah I’ll marry you”
(They kiss)
Sydney: “(Takes the ring) It’s perfect – so are you”
(They kiss)
Vaughn: “Go”
Sydney: “I’ll see you”
Vaughn: “I know”
(AAAAAAAAAWWWWWW, awesome, completely, wow J)

“Honey, I don’t have a lot of time but I just wanna tell you that I love you – I don’t get to tell you that often enough (Listens) No I have not been drinking!” – Marshall
(Isn’t it nice to have a wife with no faith?)

“Hello sis, ever since you were 11 there was something I wanted to do” (Punches her) – Irina
(Sibling Rivalry J)

Jack: “You have to take her out”
Sydney: “No dad, she’s my sister”
Irina: “She’s not you’re sister anymore”
(Once infected – they’re gone)

Irina: “ I’ll give you the chance to do the right thing – not that you were ever any good at that. Which wire?”
Ylena: “It’s useless, in a few minutes, when the signal broadcasts the whole world will be different, however you plan on torturing me, I’ll hold out for at least that long”
Irina: “I’m not gonna torture you – I’m gonna let him do it and he really doesn’t care for you, especially after you tricked him into killing me. One thing you should know about Jack, he hates being anybody’s puppet.”
Jack: “I’m actually hoping you don’t tell us what we need to know, there’s a 50/50 chance Sydney cuts the right wire, I’m willing to take those odds, if it means I am able to stand here and watch you turn into an animal.”
Ylena: “You’re not a [inaudible word] man Jack”
Jack: “I didn’t used to be but it’s been a rather interesting year for me, it’s made me re-evaluate certain parts of my life. I’m trying to have more fun these days”
Ylena: “Wait! How do I know you wont inject me anyway?”
Jack: “You don’t”
Ylena: “White! Tell her to cute the white wire”
(Irina Shoots Ylena Dead)
Irina: “Sydney, cut the blue wire.”
(A combination of the best Jack line ever and an awesome Irina moment)

Jack: “No one can hold onto Irina Derevko for too long”
(Damn it; is this a hint that there’ll be no Irina next year?)

Irina: “3 years ago when I told you, you were The Chosen One, that only you could take down the greatest evil, I know your mind must have been overwhelmed with confusion but tonight you should recognise, that you’ve done just that. I’m so proud of you”
Sydney: “Thank you”
Irina: “Sydney, you may not see me on your wedding day – but I’ll see you”
(Aaaaaw, once again the Rambaldi storyline is closed, and we get a hint that Irina thinks the wedding will go ahead)

“I didn’t think I’d ever say this – but I believe you were trying to do the right thing”

Sydney: “I had a thought – What if we blow off the big wedding – what if we do it on the beach?”
Vaughn: “The beach?”
Sydney: “What do you think?”
Vaughn: “I like it, barefoot on the beach – you’d look sexy as hell. But what about you dad – he doesn’t look like the kinda guy who likes sand between his toes”
Sydney: “That’s true – so we won’t invite him”
Vaughn: “You’re father?”
Sydney: “What if we don’t invite anyone – we just elope”
Vaughn: “You serious?”
Sydney: “I would love it”
Vaughn: “Alright then, we’ll elope”
Sydney: “Have I told you that I love you?”
Vaughn: “Yeah, but tell em again.”
Sydney: “I love you”
Vaughn: “I love you too”
Sydney: “I know – say it again”
Vaughn: “I love you Syd – that’s why I need to tell you something, just so there’s no secrets between us.”
Sydney: “Okay – whatever it is I can handle it, just don’t tell me you’re a bad guy. You’re not a bad guy are you?”
Vaughn: “Depend who you ask.”
Sydney: “Vaughn?”
Vaughn: “It’s from a long time ago, before we met, actually it’s the reason we met, it’s no accident that I was the one you came to when you walked into the CIA with your story about SD-6”
Sydney: “Wait Vaughn, I don’t understand, what are you telling me?”
Vaughn: “Well for starters, my name’s not Michael Vaughn.”
(WHAM! Car is hit)
(So in once scene, we got a cool conversation about eloping, the “I love you’s” I’ve been waiting 4 seasons for and the Vaughn goes and points out there may be some sinister history)

Note-Ables

There’s only one that I picked up on throughout this episode worth mentioning and that would be that on Ylena’s big world map there were pins over various places, most likely indicating areas where she would attack, there were no pins over Australia, does that mean I’m safe??

What’s In A Name?
Before the flood, the liquid in the red ball or the flood of evil on the world

Scene of the Ep
Either when Sydney accepts the proposal or the start of the last scene

Loathed
The panic the cliffhanger puts me in… No Sydney and Vaughn??
Liked
Irina Derevko
Loved
Finally they’re engaged

The Descent and Search and Rescue Review

2005-06-05T03:00:00.000-07:00

The Descent and Search and Rescue – Floored

As soon as I had finished watching both these episodes of Alias, I got kicked off my computer, so I didn’t get the chance to write the review right away as I usually do.

The episode itself was in my opinion so good, everything was swirling around in my head, I was ecstatic, the stories that came through in these episodes were by far the best ever. I have been overly obsessed with Alias ever since Season 1 yet I don’t remember feeling this pleased, amazed by an episode before. I have watched an episode and thought it great found myself thinking about it, but never have I felt the way I did this morning. In my opinion (many people will disagree with me here) these two episodes have been better than Phase One, Almost Thirty Years, The Telling or The Pilot; all these episodes have been among people’s favourites, among mine, but none of them lived up to everything this episode presented.

I went onto the exercise equipment, as I always do, half an hour a day and started writing the review in my head, for some reason time passed much quicker than ever, my mind was lost in everything Alias, there was the buzz around me for about an hour. Right now, I feel as if the experience was almost a dream, I have no idea why, but I plan on watching it all again tomorrow, just to relive it and not have to worry this time about my review notes.

My new policy is that I may read the spoilers, as I always do but I won’t read the forums or the reviews of an episode before I watch it, I’m beginning to enjoy the thrill of the little surprises that add to an episode, thing I don’t know about it.
To me, during the entirety of these episodes there were so many of these surprises, these floored moments, it was a theme, the writers were throwing all these awesome surprises in our face and I loved every minute of it! So what were the sort of things that had us floored? I’ve decided to do both episodes in one review but I’ll separate each part by episode.

The Descent – Running Theme (Floored)

Someone Breaking Into The CIA

When we saw, in the first few moments of the episode, some enemy jump onto a CIA agent I literally jumped out of my chair, the noise and the action gave me such a fright! I had a reminiscent feeling to the time Lauren broke in, in last season’s finale, but it was also intriguing to see them stealing all of the Rambaldi artefacts that were in the DSR’s facility, I was shocked and worried how it would all turn out, but apart from being baaaad, it was good because it lead us to this great story.

Vaughn Talking With Marshall and Jack in APO

Of course, I knew it was coming, I guessed weeks ago in a non-descriptive brief said Vaughn asked Jack a surprising and momentous question, I somehow knew it was that he would ask for Sydney’s hand in marriage, call it shipper intuition. SO I have been, for the last three months or so, been building up to this moment where I knew lots of my Alias dreams would come true. Even though I knew it was coming, I consider it a floored moment.
I was kinda surprised when Vaughn was so open about the fact he was going to propose with Marshall, I wouldn’t trust that guy not to tell Sydney, but anyhoo, it was really sweet, I especially loved Marshall’s reaction.
When Vaughn spoke to Jack I was proud of the continuity, not only of how we were reminded of Jack’s dislike for Vaughn but how it was not unlike the way he spoke to Danny when he too asked for Sydney’s hand almost 6 years ago (in Alias time) The scene was well played out, I liked how the question was left open and hoped that there was more to come.

The Raid on APO and Sydney and Nadia’s House

When those agents first stormed into APO I thought they were the bad guys, faking an order from Chase, a continuation of the raid at the very beginning in an attempt to get an artefact that may not have been at the DSR. Of course when we saw Chase storming into Sydney and Nadia’s house we knew it was for real. It surprised me at first but it all fell into place, the leak Ylena had created had been discovered. Some of the raid, namely the scene between Sydney and the guy that had searched her room for weapons was quite funny, and despite being worried that Nadia was about to be carted off to jail alongside Katya, I enjoyed the scene.

Finally Figured It Out About Ylena

I wasn’t shocked that they finally figured it out, just that it took them weeks with her being right under their noses for them to catch on. Them knowing allowed the story to be furthered and finally for Jack and Sloane’s agenda to be partially fulfilled with the discovery of Ylena.

Someone Who Finally Has Rambaldi Answers

After 4 years of chasing it turns out there is a man with lots of answers when it comes to Rambaldi, this Drake guy seemed to come in at the right time, but why only now, I feel that he could have been used for answers earlier in this whole quest. It was nice that we were no longer solely relying on some Rambaldi text but a guy who claims to know what’s going on.

Nadia like the Virgin Mary, a Living Embodiment of Rambaldi

Okay, huh? Like the Virgin Mary… that was err... extreme but anyhoo apart from being kinda peeved that this guy cared more about Nadia than Sydney (not that he had to chance to express his feelings towards the Chosen One, just the fact that he didn’t at all) I thought it was slightly weird with his over obsession with Nadia because she was almost like a relative of Rambaldi. It’s surprising to see just how important the likes of Sydney and Nadia are in the world of these warper Rambaldi followers, they’re almost celebrities by today’s standards, I really wish Drake had the chance to meet Sydney, he might have gone into cardiac arrest.

We’ve Seen The Sphere Of Life At Last

Floored, literally, we finally get to see it, and this time only 20 episodes after it was first brought up. The way Sloane exclaimed they were the first people in there since Rambaldi was eerie but true.
When we first heard of the Sphere of Life it was supposedly to hold Rambaldi’s essence… well from what I saw there was none of is Mojo in there, all we got to see was that when Nadia touched it, she got to see a little piece of what Rambaldi really wanted, maybe I’m missing something, maybe that was it… maybe.
When I first heard about it I expected it to be hugenormus, just coz it contained Rambaldi’s “essence” apparently not…
I could go on over analysing getting to see the Sphere of Life and what it was all about, but honestly I don’t see the point, it was awesome, end of story.

Nadia Going To Get The Sphere

The fact that it was Nadia that had to get the Sphere was weird, shocking, why not the Chosen One, being the one chosen by Rambaldi? But anyhoo, her walking across was cool and then what she saw when she touched it had me shocked. Rambaldi always seemed a good guy, you know? I never felt at any point in four years of religiously watching the story that by any means he was a 500 year old Sloane, sure he’s made some badass weapons but so have the American Government. The second Nadia touched it I thought it might have something to do with the prophecy between her and Sydney, in the clip that Nadia sees you watch as someone (most likely Nadia herself) hurts her, then throws a knife into her chest… is this the prophecy being played out? And then when Nadia knew the Rambaldi endgame was the apocalypse I knew the whole thing was an evil scheme. When Sloane then fell through the glass after trying to retrieve the Sphere for himself it was quite dramatic and the noise made me jump, the fact that Nadia stayed not only surprised Slone but me as well.

Sloane Knocking Sydney Out

A bunch of people probably saw this one coming, but I didn’t, I was too busy trying to figure out what Ylena was saying to Drake, and then wham! Sydney’s hit with a hypo in the back of the neck care of Sloane, it was right then I knew that Slone was baaad; and Rambaldi had once again eaten him alive. So did Sloane really hold these motives all along? Was that why he tried to convince Sydney not to come, so he wouldn’t have to harm her? The mind boggles.

Dixon and Chase Getting Together

Well after some flirting in past episodes Dixon got some well over due lovin’. I was surprised how it played out but glad with the end result. It did seem a little useless to the current storyline, but it was nice to see that Dixon has someone, after his wife dying 3 or 4 years ago.

Ylena The Head Of The Covenant

The second this was revealed I was so happy I almost cried. I paused the ep, ran through the house and hugged every member of my family and told them every single good thing about this episode so far. A mystery that has annoyed me for more than a year has finally been solved with a simple, logical answer. I was shocked to finally know who was behind the organisation, ecstatic of course but it also made me think about the various occurrences of Season 3… Wouldn’t it piss you off if your aunt was behind your two-year disappearance?
Well anyhoo it’s awesome to know J

Chase Ulterior Motive

Wad it only me who thought the reason Chase let Sloane go was so she could have him put on the shoot to kill watch list? She wanted him dead; it was her mistake introducing him into the CIA and it could easily be remedied of he died.
Maybe it was just me, but I found it was implied in what Chase said to Dixon when he confronted he about letting Sloane go. It was floored at the fact that even if it was just me, Chase may have a baaad side.

Dixon Shot!

Hearing the shots before we saw who was hurt was what actually caught me at first, was it Dixon or Sloane? Then we found out that Dixon was down and it was, in fact, Ylena who hurt him. So why have him shot in the finale? I just can’t understand why, was it so he wouldn’t be part of the mission at the end so it could be exclusively family (Irina, her 2 daughters, the father or one of her daughters and that daughter’s future-spouse-not-quite fiancé) or was there some other, less obvious reason... Was it just because they want someone to die in the finale (but why?) the questions go on…

The 2 Conversations

At the end of The Descent there were 3 scenes in succession that all managed to have me surprised
Sydney and Jack In The Hospital
Jack and Sydney realise that he always has Sydney’s best interests at heart, they talk about Irina’s death, all a little surprising about how their dysfunctional relationship is getting back on track.
Vaughn and Jack in APO
Jack gave Vaughn his blessing to marry Sydney because it would make her happy, surprising, I never thought Jack would actually give his blessing and it would go ahead against hi will.

Search and Rescue – Running Theme – Floored

Irina Doubled / The Return Of Helix

Well I knew that somehow although Jack killed her, Irina had to be alive and wondered how the writers would explain it. It was cool how Project Helix, which was destroyed mid-season 2 was behind the whole scam and despite how some people may not be happy with the return, for various reasons, I am. It was something that did have me floored because it all made sense, and incorporated something that we thought we had said goodbye to, well it goes to show nothing on Alias ever dies.

Nadia Reopening The Bishop Files

Well oopsie, it appears no one forgot that we have Nadia believing it was Martin Bishop who killed Irina and when she reopened the files I saw trouble coming. I was worried that it was Vaughn that told her to talk to Jack that somehow if Jack found out it was Vaughn that tipped Nadia off he might revoke his blessing for him to propose. When Jack finally admitted it, Nadia seemed as sad as I expected but not as pissed off. I was glad that someone finally sorted out the problem and that Jack wasn’t pumped full of lead for it.

The Big Red Ball and The Orchid

I was completely shocked when I saw that Big Red Ball hovering over the city and released that Orchid had in fact been put into the water and the Mueller device was activated. Like with the bees in “In Dreams” anarchy ensued, and basically a whole mass of terror, confusion and fear washed into the world of Alias. So this is Rambaldi’s endgame? The terror, something that has such a devastating effect on society, all coming together in the current day, put together by a man that lived half a century ago. The question I had to ask was: why only try it on with one city? It isn’t exactly an apocalypse if it’s only one city, why not a huge ball covering the world J Okay so that would have been worse for out heroes, but waaay more interesting. I just didn’t understand… Meh, the world’s gonna be destroyed by the air attacks in four hours anyhoo….

Before The Mission With Sydney and Vaughn

Proposing at APO, not exactly the most romantic setting yet oh-so sweet. I was very very very pissed off when Marshall came in and he didn’t actually go for it… But it was nice, just a weird location… I’m so glad that Sydney and Vaughn are finally on track J

What Ylena Did To Irina

When Irina told Sydney the things that Ylena had done to her in order to find out what information had been on the Rambaldi Document was really baaad even by Alias standards, especially as they were sisters. What happened to Irina was a lot like what happened to Sydney during the time the Covenant were trying to break her, just as evil. I wonder what Irina will do to Ylena should she be given the chance to take her revenge…

Irina Discovering Who Nadia Was

It was so cute, I expected that Nadia would introduce herself somehow but Irina just knew, mother’s instinct I suppose. I guess it’s good that Irina finally gets to meet the daughter she’s not seen for years, just like he did with Sydney.
I must have been nice for Irina, after being tortured by her evil sister, to have all the people she loved around her, Jack, whom she still obviously hold feelings for and Sydney and Nadia her two daughters.

Irina Telling Jack She Wouldn’t Have Killed Him

When Irina was brought to APO, it was nice that she got to sit with Jack. What I did notice was that the terms of her assistance were that she was to go straight to prison after it was over, I’m assuming that somehow she will escape and evade going to jail, but I really would love for her to be a regular next season L
The Irina brought up the fact that if the situation had been reversed she would not have pulled the trigger on Jack., but searched for truth, found another way. It was a nice scene, surprising to know someone so ruthless wouldn’t kill someone she used, but it showed that she must still love him, somehow.

Finally, A Proposal!

The scene between Sydney and Vaughn on the plane had me even happier than know who the head of the Covenant was, this time I wasn’t close to tears, they were actually welling in my eyes, I was ecstatic. The interaction between the two in the scene was excellent, the acting was amazing and the writing was great. The fact that Sydney knew that no matter what they would get through the mission, and that despite what Vaughn had said, they were about to jump into god knows what, she had faith and knew that maybe the anticipation might be what keeps them both going on what could be the most important mission to date.
I can understand why Vaughn would be worried about what would happen on the mission, after all they were about to try to destroy something that almost killed him twice, by drowning and by disease.
I didn’t really mind that they weren’t officially engaged at the end of this ep, I just hope it comes in the next one and Vaughn doesn’t actually die or something even annoyinger and worse.

Notes-Ables

Weiss’s grandfather died
I sat back and watched a few of the scenes as apposed to my usual face right up at the screen, just so I could observe the greatness
Irina’s dead smiling face was eerie
The Blackwell Index Consists of:

Nicholas Marcotte – Tokyo – CZ03 – Case
Sophie Roland – Berlin – CQ04 – Stock
Jonathan Duberrie – Rome – CW04 – Case
Angela Tso – Taipei – CQ04 – Case
Josselyn Letieux – Paris – CS04 – Stock
Peter Anderson – Dubai – CQ03 – Stock
William Gurne – Oslo – CF03 – Active
Palmer Ranckhorst – Zagreb – CA02 – Case
Patricia Mozley – Dallas – CA04 – Case
Santo Korstrzena – Warsaw – CM03 – Active
Malcom Leilich – Munich – CJ01 – Case
Karine Rautiste – Monaco – CX03 – Case
Dominique Belluz – La Paz – CD03 – Case
Matthew Odea – Londn – CX02 – Active
Jamie Dockins – Perth – CS04 – Active
Karina Walberg – Seoul – CL04 – Case
Max Varnes – Cairo – CL04 – Case
Fernando Janousek – Bombay – CQ03 – Case
Lucien Nisard – Bombay – CD05 – Case

Quote-Ables

“It’s as if weapons grade anthrax grows on trees.” – Jack

“No, please, I’ve been dealing with that Chechnyan lunatic for the past couple of hours, whatever business you have will be a welcome relief.” – Jack
(If only he could know what Vaughn would ask next, tehe)

“An assault rifle, a 12 gauge shot gun, 4 hand guns, 2 tasers and a… secret drawer of knives… Let’s start with the knives.” – Search Guy
(Made me laugh, also made me realise how guarded Sydney is)

“She is a Derevko…” – Jack

“You do not know what it is like to be in your presence it is like meeting the Virgin Mary.” – Lazlo Drake (talking about Nadia)

“Do you have any idea how many lesser people have dreamed of this?” – Sloane

“Alright, you may touch the fur, once!” – Sydney
(Loved her alias)

“Well I know that will enjoyable for both of us.” – Katya
(Sounds Sark-worthy)

“If you pulled the trigger, part of you wanted to be manipulated.” – Katya

Ylena: “My men think you’re here to kill me”
Sloane: “You should hire smarter men.”
(Dun, dun, dun, and he’s evil again)

“I suppose I’ve been born again” – Sloane
(He’s a badass again)

Sydney: “Did you have any idea she and Dixon were…?”
Jack” No but I tend to miss those kind of details”
Sydney: “What are you kidding? You’re the master of details”

“Damn you” – Jack
(Wasn’t he pissed off with not-so-Irina?)

Marshall: “When you helped Sloane steal this thing you didn’t know he was gonna change sides, did you?”
Jack: “No!”
(Sounded grumpy, didn’t he?)

“What’s the point, apart from the weirdest terrorist attack of all time?” – Vaughn

“You’ve destroyed a Mueller Device before” – Vaughn
(The looks between Sydney and Vaughn were priceless)

Vaughn: “We have been tasked to rescue a woman who killed my father, your mother, who is supposed to be dead by the way and to disable a giant red ball flying over a Russian city”
Sydney: “Crazier things have happened.”
Vaughn: “That’s kinda my point, Syd without you, I’d be lost in this word, this job, everything, it would make me insane.”
Sydney: “I know”
Vaughn: “We’re gonna get through this”
Sydney: “How can you be sure?”
Vaughn: “How can I not be? We’re still here, Syd…”
Sydney: “What?”
Marshall: “Hey, sorry to interrupt, ready to roll?”
Vaughn: “Yeah”
Sydney: “Vaughn?”
Vaughn: “We should go”

Sydney: “You want me to be rough or you want me to be rough?”
Vaughn: “Oh you’re always rough”
Sydney: “No I’m not”
Vaughn: “Yes, you are”
Sydney: “That’s not true”
Vaughn: “Yes it is”
Sydney: “Are you talking about at home or on ops?”
Vaughn: “Oh both… Hey I’m not complaining!”
Sydney: “If I’m rough it’s because you like it when I’m rough… Are we on coms?”
Jack: “Yes! You’re both on coms right now”
(Weird, yes, but I fell out of my chair laughing, loved Jack’s tone)

“He’s French, I like the French, they’re tender.” - Sydney

Vaughn: “ I had it all planned out”
Sydney: “What?”
Vaughn: “ I was gonna take you to the beach, Santa Barbara, we’d go out for a walk, maybe when the sun what setting. But now we’re here and I don’t know what we’re jumping into and I may never get another chance to do this again. Sometimes I wake up before you do, and I watch you sleep and I am overwhelmed because you’re so amazing and I don’t know why I’m lucky enough to have you in my life, that you’re here with me and I know I want to spend the rest of my life trying to make you as happy as you make me”
Sydney: “My god Vaughn”
Vaughn: “Sydney Bristow, will you marry me?”
(They Kiss)
Sydney: “We’re gonna make it out of here”
Vaughn: Is that a yes?”
Sydney: “Ask me on the beach”
(So happy I cried)

What’s In a Name
The Descent – Could it have been Sloane’s descent into evil or maybe the descent of the Rambaldi endgame onto them, there are a few possibilities (I love it when we get a slightly cryptic ep name J)
Search and Rescue – The search for and rescue of Irina

Loathed
Absolutely nothing at all
Liked
Not Much
Loved
Everything about these episodes
Loved more than love itself
Vaughn proposing

Scene Of the Ep
Either something with Irina or the proposal

Mirage Review

2005-06-05T02:47:00.000-07:00

Mirage – Out of the Ordinary

The title says it all; Mirage was complete out of the ordinary. The episode was unlike anything else Alias and I liked it! The dynamic, the emotions, the relationships were at their best.
One thing that may have made the episode so great is the fact that there were so many things out of the ordinary… this episodes running theme.

Out of the Ordinary:

Dixon Shoots Hydrosek Guy

A light example to begin with but after last week’s moral dilemma of whether or not to shoot Raimes the way Dixon shot that guy at the start of the episode was a bit of a 360 turn. One thing that did satisfy my need for continuity a little was the look on his face after he touched the guy; at least there was some remorse.

Sydney Visits Jack’s Apartment

It was weird even seeing his apartment, but after she said that she’d never even been there it was clear this was certainly out of the ordinary. When talking about her relationship with her father she talks about how dysfunctional it is, which was a nice nod to their ever-present trauma. The way the apartment looked surprised me, in my opinion it didn’t really capture Jack, it almost had too much feeling, style even. I don’t know how I would have pictured the house that Jack lived in but I did expect it to be extremely minimalist (which it almost was) and very white (which it wasn’t really)
The symbolism of what it took Sydney to visit this apartment, the possibility he was MIA, showed how broken they are, hopefully this being the first step towards repairing their relationship.

Jack, happy?

In some of the scenes of today’s ep Jack seemed happy, which to me was weird. Of course later on I found out he was hallucinating, maybe that’s why, but it was still very weird. I assume it must have been written into the script that he were to act that way, I wonder why the writers chose such a demeanour?

Main Character Dying

It’s not strictly out of the ordinary but the concept of a main star of a show being given a quick-killing terminal illness without the intent for them to leave the show is a bit weird, no? It just proves to you that this is Alias and everything is a bit different

Jack Talks of Laura as His Wife

Okay, okay so when we found out he was hallucinating it explained a lot but I didn’t know that when I took this note and it struck me as odd. It actually went to fit in with a better purpose, cause the later story... so meh.

Jack Hallucinating the Whole Time

Being Little Miss Spoiler Queen that I am I’m rarely floored by Alias surprises, unless it’s when I’m reading them on spoilerfix.com, but honest to goodness I did not see that coming! It was an excellent little surprise and it fitted the story so well, my only question being how did Jack get the meds in his bathroom if he wasn’t actually seeing a doctor? They looked like legitimate prescription drugs and obtaining them would be a whole new level of hallucination. Another thing that I thought was weird that there was once scene that can’t have been a hallucination, the one where Jack goes to get the poison to “cure” himself… otherwise how could he get it??
Anyways I approve whole-heartedly with this story move!

An Intruder Not Being Caught

I am, of course, referring to Coke Bottle Glasses going into Nadia’s laptop; people always get caught in this situation!! Well given that it’s always the goodies that get caught and never baddies I beginning to see a pattern. I was so disappointed when Nadia didn’t find him; I was looking forward to a Nadia/Weiss vs. Elena/CBG fight L Oh well, I guess we’ll leave that mystery for another day…

Sloane Hatching His Plan

I’m not saying that Sloane hatching a plan is out of the ordinary, just the way he was acting when he did, all talkative and intense, un-Sloane-ly. It’s things like this that make me think he really is a villain and that APO is just his creation to serve him a better purpose.

Sydney and Vaughn’s Interaction Before She Was Laura

I just loved the way they seemed happy, couple-ly and it’s not exactly out of the ordinary but after last week it felt that way. I love the way their relationship has developed, the way Vaughn helped her through it as such, it just gave me the warm fuzzies

Sloane Knowing Where Everything Goes in Jack and Laura’s House

Not really out of the ordinary but it is kinda creepy, you gotta admit. Shows just how much time Jack and Slone spent together, they were best friends after all, just the thought of a “bond”

Jack Thinking Laura Was Perfect

So we already knew he thought this but knowing she was Irina Derevko makes her far from perfect. Of course the writers would be going for irony in this scene and they certainly got it…

Irina Knew Jack Was An Agent

It was extremely weird finding out that Jack told Irina everything, or am I missing something? Wouldn’t one of them have brought it up in many of the reports read about their “relationship”?? Wouldn’t we have known before now? It was quite weird I thought maybe Jack subliminally twigged that Laura was Sydney and told them what they needed to know inadvertently but I’m pretty sure I’m wrong.
But why make this part of the story that is Laura/Irina and Jack?? It’s a confusing move

Jack Open and Emotional

Just like Sydney in “Nocturne” Jack’s true feelings came out by way of hallucination, the scene was brilliant, the writing, the acting and the dynamic of it all were excellent, fitted in with wherever Alias is going. The way he spoke of Sydney made her cry, it was so sweet the way he loves his daughter and his wife, kudos to Victor Garber and Jennifer Garner for their acting in this scene

Liddell 30 Years Older

After many eps of seeing the guy the way Jack must have remembered him it was weird seeing him the way he was actually, old perse. It was good to know that the guy was actually till alive and evidently able to help Jack. They way his character was used was clever and effective, I like!

Elena plugged Coke Bottle Glasses

Not shocking in “Oh she killed him!” sort of way, because we know she’s a bas-ass, just to why she would do it… It was a sort of hmm… moment

Note-Ables

The guy identified only as “Coke Bottle Glasses” was in Legally Blonde
The scientist Jack meets looks at first glance like Bradley Cooper
Nadia is: Agent-087SANTOS
They hired someone to be young Sydney, sweet J
Sloane knows lots about the Bristow’s, eerie
Evidently Laura hated Arvin
In Jack’s hallucination the surviving doctor’s rat’s name was Milo, Rambaldi reference??

Quote-Ables

“You must tell me if I become a burden” – Sophia
(If only Nadia knew…)

“Dinner, food? Are you kidding me, yeah!” – Weiss
(Hmmm… food :D)

Sydney: “Thank you Marshall, remind me to kiss you”
Weiss: “What did she say?”
Marshall: “Nothing”
(Cute J Marshall going all awkward, how Marshall, who’s even cuter J)

“Sydney deserves to know she is the most important thing in my life, she and Laura of course.” – Jack
(Eerie, it was the first sign he thought it was 30 years ago but also nice to know how he feels about his daughter)

“Yes, he could (disappear) if he was hidden by my father.” – Sydney
(Sydney knows her fathers potential)

“She asked me if you were tall, dark and handsome, I told her you were tall.” – Nadia
(Aww, Nadia and Weiss make a nice couple, nice to know where they stand J)

“You know it’s not too late, we can still have Weiss dress up as Irina, I’m sure he’s make a great housewife” – Vaughn
(I love the mental image of Weiss dressed as Irina)

“Besides we’ve got snipers everywhere if it starts to get inappropriate” – Vaughn
(Eeewy mental that it brings, but also funny and kinda sweet)

What’s In A Name
The name of this episode most likely originates from Jack’s hallucinations, the mirage of the doctor and also of the mirage APO created of Laura to reveal the location of Liddell.

Scene Of The Ep
Before and including the scene where Sydney is Irina, from when she’s talking to Vaughn and then pretending to be her mother.

Loathed
No one’s caught Elena yet
Liked
The relationship dynamics of this ep (Weiss/Nadia Vaughn/Sydney, Jack/Sydney etc)
Loved
The overall story and where this could be going

In Dreams Review

2005-06-05T02:36:00.000-07:00

In Dreams – Pieces Of A Puzzle

Not surprisingly the general consensus for this episode is that it was too slow, maybe not even that good but I really enjoyed this episode.
The show is the characters and without them, without being able to see them, their emotions, their beliefs and so on there is nothing to build on.
Many people aren't as happy with Season 4 as the others but in actual fact it is one of my favourite seasons.
In my own opinion and experience, I find that with Alias the first 9 or so episodes of a season are never as good as the end, a bit slow moving and then you get to the end and it all comes together, all comes out and there’s this awesome story (it even happened with Season 3, on a smaller, less sense-making, lets-fix-this-mess climax)
In Dreams began to prove to me that although Alias may not always be wham, bam action it has an emotional side, one that it needs, at least in my opinion.
This episode wasn't my favourite, of course, but it still had its moments. It may not be the exact same Alias we knew back in season 1, but to be honest changes are good.
The climax of this season looks really good and if In Dreams is anything to go on the emotional level of all this then we're in for a roller coaster, not that that’s a bad thing :)

Alias to me and to most people is one big puzzle. They give us pieces of that puzzle from time to time, give us clues to a character’s history or motive and then it can go ignored for episodes at a time. To me, the episode In Dreams began to give us more of these puzzle pieces, ones we knew we needed and completely different ones, ones we didn’t know existed as such.

These pieces were:

The Mueller Device

Whether or not this device had more than one purpose we finally learned at least one of them, we knew it was a battery and we discovered it powered something that turned those affected by the Rambaldi serum evil. I was really glad to finally see a purpose for this elusive device although I had always believed its purpose was to create and breed the “Ebola-like” virus that Vaughn contracted mid-season 2. The way this device has been reintroduced into the story had intrigued me, and has been well done, not like it was just brought back into the picture because they couldn’t think of anything else.

The Orchid

From the way the scientist spoke of the orchid I take it that this orchid has lived a long time, like the 400 year old flower, back in season 2, that Rambaldi used to test his immortality theories on, if so, despite Sloane’s anger at the suggestion 3 episodes ago, the immortality theme has been far from abandoned and despite not being Rambaldi’s endgame is still a major piece of the Rambaldi puzzle.

Clone and the magical, identical brains

Arvin Clone himself was a major puzzle and the way he spoke when he first came into APO began to confuse me. I wasn’t sure what to think when he seemed so convinced he was Sloane, I assumed he was just like Slone, too stubborn to blow his cover or that he was just deranged and had been altered in some way or another by one of the many Alias methods. I was right on the money with the second when we discovered McCullough had altered his brain to make him believe he was Slone. When I tried to explain it all to my sister the way I opted to word it was like a contrast to Project Helix. Project Helix changed the person’s physical appearance to make them look like another, although they still had their own mind, their own brain so to speak. The process used on Clone was the exact opposite; it left his appearance untouched but changed his brain to be exactly like another’s. The way this occurred was farfetched, it wasn’t something I would have thought of before, being able to make someone have an identical brain to another but it certainly can effect the story line from now on, unless our agents are sent in to destroy it, much like they did to Project Helix back in season 2. McCullough obviously is working for someone, my money’s on Ylena, given her current involvement in the Rambaldi storyline, yet why would she want to steal something to put in the water if she already has the Hydrosek water contaminant? If I am right there is obviously a Rambaldi involvement in the whole water-contaminating biz and it might have to do with the (major spoiler alert, highlight and copy to read) Rambaldi endgame Ylena puts into play this season finale

Jacqueline

After appearing 3 episodes ago, Jacqueline remained a mystery; a piece of a puzzle until we discovered it was Sloane’s dead daughter in this very episode. To be honest I think the death could have been more scandalous, more Rambaldi involved, yet the emotional complexity was well written and well acted, I just didn’t see the point of making it the resolution to the mystery, it’s not like something Alias does.
Having a dead daughter and now knowing about it may add to Sloane and Nadia’s relationship, which to me isn’t a bad thing, having these two connected will do well for the storyline.

The Return of McCullough

It was a nice blast from the past to see this familiar face pop up again after disappearing sometime in Season 2. There was no reason obvious to me to why they chose this specific character to reintroduce into the story, but I’m not complaining.
When Vaughn and Dixon questioned McCullough and he refused to divulge the location of the orchid when he brought out his own sugar I knew right away, for no apparent reason that it was something to kill him with, was it just me that was totally obvious to? What further confused me was that after reintroducing this character, one that had a fairly large role in Alias for a season and a half after being gone so long, why kill him after a few minutes screen time? Weird….

The Formula and Omnifam

After revealing in Season 3 one of the main reasons he set up Omnifam was to gain access to information that may help him find Nadia, I didn’t question Sloane in having another motive, things began to slide into place when we discovered that he did so so he also carry out one of Rambaldi’s plans. What I don’t see right now is the purpose of all of this, how it fits into the big picture, Rambaldi is back and in a big way but what does all this mean, why bring it up? In Alias there is always more to the story and I won’t be duped into thinking that this isn’t all part of a bigger plan.

Breaking Clone

The way the broke down Clone was a convenient way to explain who Jacqueline was, despite being a seemingly dead ended story, at least for now. The scenes in Slone’s subconscious were like that of “Conscious” where Sydney was sent back to relive her past and to try and remember where she’d been for 2 years. Sloane’s may not have been so changing, yet they were still revealing and in the same style.
When I say Amy Irving’s name in the guest star list while reading spoilers I got excited at the prospect of her return, I was glad she was back although it was only in a memory and was not alive as I had hoped.
When they administered the memories to Clone I assumed he would watch all of it but instead they flashed across his mind and then shazam! He was back. I was surprised at how quickly he changed and was sceptical to whether or not ‘Ned’ was playing along or whether the writers realised there were only a few minutes left in the episode, then, he went insane. It began to seem more real then, although it was confusing, at least they got the location of the orchid. My hope/theory is that they’ll go there and find Ylena/Sophia and her badass side will be revealed, hopefully, hopefully….

Quote-Ables

Rambaldi Guy: “You, got to hell.”
Clone: “No you first” (shoots him)
(Tehe)

Dixon: “Smile and look like a lot of money”
Nadia: “Dollars or Euros?”
Dixon: “Euros, definitely.”
(Scary, in this exchange I thought Nadia was Sydney, they’re more sisterly than I thought)

“What kind of question is that, of course I know you!” – Clone
(Well that was what began to confuse me, he knew them and knew everything about them???)

Nadia: (to Jack) “Marshall would like to see you.”
Clone: “Tell him (Marshall) that I say hello.”
Jack: (leaving)“Try not to kill him (Clone)”
(Cute exchange combining the Jack-ly-ness that I love with the eerie-ness of Clone)

Note-Ables

The Rambaldi papers were Lot 47
The ep was Jennifer Garner’s directorial debut, although she does not intend to direct in future.
Sloane used that dilettante word again!!!
Marshall had a gun in the auction scene
McCullough came back, albeit for a short time.

Scene Of The Ep
Sloane’s memories

What’s In A Name
The name of this episode was evidently taken from Sloane’s memories, or dreams, that in his dreams a sad secret hid, only to be revealed.

Loathed
Lack of Dixon, Marshall, Vaughn and Weiss use in this ep
Liked
Where this is going
Loved
The return of Amy Irving

A Clean Concience Review

2005-06-05T02:33:00.000-07:00

A Clean Conscience - All In The Family

A Clean Conscience, an episode to follow one (Another Mr Sloane) that I thought was pretty good and to me most of the story in it seemed like a fill in. Of course they needed this episode to bring in the “Sophia is Ylena” story but apart from that certainly wasn’t my favourite.

The running theme for this episode was clearly present in the Sophia storyline of this episode although may not have been so prominent otherwise. For this episode it was All In The Family

Jack Talking To The Doctor About Sydney

So at least Jack sees someone about the genetic mutations he is suffering from. It was a nice nod towards family when the doctor knew a lot about Sydney, one thing he did urge Jack to do is to tell Sydney about the illness that is slowly killing him (It makes me want to cry) and to be honest I hope he does soon; we can’t have Sydney in the dark all along.
One thing I can’t quite understand is the writer’s motives for bringing this illness onto Jack; he is one of the strongest characters in the show. There’s something inside of me (blind hope, most likely) that thinks that they’ll end up being some miracle cure but another part of me (the more rational, objective side) thinks there is a chance we may have to say goodbye to Jack, but I doubt it. What does Jack’s illness add to the over all story? I can’t see how it slots in just yet but as everything in Alias, truth takes time. I just hope that it’s all for the better.

Sloane Describes Sophia as his family

His words were something like “You’re family to Nadia so you’re family to me” and to be honest I think he knew there was more than meets the eye to Sophia at that point and it was just another Sloane-ly comment. Hopefully he’ll live to regret his words when everyone discovers who Sophia really is.
Watching Sloane take Sophia’s print then pass it off to Marshall for testing was what I thought would be the way he found out about Sophia’s duplicity, although all we got was a killing of some guy, probably the only person Ylena got close to being caught for killing.

Sloane Knew Who Was After His Daughter

When first mentioned in the episode his remark seemed cryptic but all became clear in the scene where Jack and Sloane come clean to their daughters. I wrote this down at the time as a note, something to do with all the family stuff going on in this episode but can be better reviewed later on in a different section, with a better knowledge on the situation.

Dixon and Raimes Talk About Family

Supposedly the main story of the episode was the Dixon story arc, although again I felt it kind of a fill in. It was nice that in the middle of it all Dixon and Raimes had a nice talk about family, tied nicely in with my theme.
The mission annoyed me in that it rarely involved any other members of APO asides from Vaughn and Dixon, and even when it did it was only short scenes about getting intel to help them. Looking back you also see how rarely Vaughn is used throughout this episode, which is such a shame because he may have been able to bring another level to the story instead of what was supposedly a Dixon-centric episode. To me the story fell flat, with 2 agents still on the mission at the end of the episode, what wouldn’t surprise me is that if in the next episode they’re both back with a 3 or 4 line explanation to how the mission ended.
To me one of the best parts of the mission was the talk between Dixon and Raimes about family and how it changed Dixon as a man as well as an agent. When Diane was mentioned once more it brought a nice feel to the scene in that we got a little insight into Dixon, more so than we would usually see.

Jack and Sloane Come Clean To Their Daughters

We finally get some more insight into what Jack and Sloane have been scheming about for the last season and now they see that for some part they may not only have to look out for themselves but for their daughters and they tell them about Ylena’s surveillance.
What struck me about this storyline is that it was what was originally intended for Sydney to find in Wittenberg, that someone had documented her and Nadia’s lives, although it was originally it was supposed to be Jack, now it’s Ylena. Are they taking the story in the same direction as they originally intended at the start of this season? What will this bring to the story knowing that the whole time Alias has been in existence, Sydney’s life has been watched by her estranged aunt? What will it add to Alias that needs to be brought?

Ylena Is The Cruellest Of The Derevkos

Ironic that this should be brought up seeing as she is the only sister we have not been able to see in action, see her capacity for cruelty and evil.
If she’s anything like either of her sisters we can assume she can be a bad ass when she wants to be.
In bringing Ylena into the mix it brings along a few questions along. Why did Ylena fall out with Irina? Did Irina know that baby Nadia was in the care of Ylena? I’m sure both questions will probably be answered in time but until this episode I was sure I knew the answer to the second question, I assumed that she did know until I learned that they fell out about 30 years ago which coincides with the time in which Nadia would have shown up at the orphanage, it leads to the possibility that that was why they fell out, over Nadia so to speak.
Well the best part of the episode was the Ylena story arc, so I’ve very optimistic for what’s to come.

Quote-Ables

“I’m not suggesting you write you memoirs, although it would make a hell of a read…” – Jack’s Doctor
(As we all thought, Jack has many secrets and has had a life full of scandal, get writing, after all it does sound like something I would enjoy.)

“You’re father is a good man, I can tell” – Sophia
(Do you think she knew he was Arvin Sloane at this point, being Ylena Derevko and all??)

“Because if they called it code breaking they couldn’t charge a thirty grand tuition” – Sydney
(A course in hacking, well said…)

“Sydney has had to face so many things in her life, too many for someone so young and now given my condition, I don’t want to burden her, it’s unfair” – Jack
(We all know Sydney’s life has had it’s ups and downs but how will she react to a dying father?)

Jack: “There’s something we need to tell you, something you have the right to know, it concerns your mother’s sister.”
Sydney: “Katya?”
Jack: “Ylena. She was one of the KGB’s foremost assassins, responsible for the murders of countless diplomats and politicians throughout Eastern Europe. In the course of her work she earned the reputation for being the cruellest of the Derevko women.”
Nadia: “Why are you telling us this now?”
Sloane “Because almost 30 years ago Ylena disappeared, it was rumoured that she had a falling out with Irina. Ylena severed all ties with the KGB as well as her family, both the CIA and the KGB tried to find her, but to no avail, even Irina couldn’t locate her.
Sydney: “But you found something?”
Jack: “I received a message from an associate about a year ago that led me to one of Ylena’s safe houses in Warsaw.”
Sloane: “Inside we found this”
Sydney: (looks at pictures) “That’s me in college.”
Nadia: “This is my old apartment in Argentina.”
Sydney: “My grad school transcripts”
Nadia: “I was 9 here”
Jack: “Given what’s here we can assume that she’s been surveilling you both for about a decade.”
Sloane: “We can also assume she was responsible for the attack on Sophia”
Nadia: Why, what does she want from us?”
Sloane: “I don’t know, we’re doing everything we can to find out.”
(Change To Ylena’s Location) Weird Assistant to Ylena: “It’s me, the plane is in the air, do we know where they’re headed?
Ylena: “I’ll contact you once I have their final destination.”
Weird Assistant to Ylena: “I’ll be waiting, I won’t let you down Ylena.”
(Change back to APO) Sydney: “Do we have any idea where Ylena is now?”
Sloane: “At this point she could be anywhere”
(I started out just taking a few lines but ended up noting the entire scene, Alias excellence shines through in an amazing plot twist.)

Note-Ables

· The name of the terrorist cell was the Beograd Faction, that’s the second organisation with “faction” in their name this season (Also 3rd Faction)
· When a brief stated that “Dixon faces a moral dilemma while on a mission with Vaughn” I assumed that Vaughn would play up, instead it was Raimes
· Was anyone else yelling don’t shoot to Dixon when he had the gun pointed to Raimes? Did anyone else feel relief wash over you when we find out he didn’t actually kill the guy??
· Did no one else guess that the necklace was a listening device??
· A Dixon-Centric episode (We’ve also had Marshall, Nadia and Sloane centric eps)

What’s In A Name?

The use of name “A Clean Conscience” is pretty self-explanatory taken directly from a quote spoken by Jack’s doctor.

Scene of the Ep

Well I quoted the entire thing, it stood out in the episode, of curse the final scene where we find out about Ylena following Syd and Nadia and then discover that she is in fact Sophia.

Loathed
Under use of Vaughn, Lack of APO involvement in the mission, The “just filling in” feeling
Liked
The return of Sophia
Loved
The Final Scene

Another Mister Sloane Review

2005-06-05T02:27:00.000-07:00

Another Mister Sloane: The Return Of…

I began to watch this episode, on my computer as usual and also as usual I had a pen and paper in my hand. It’s just a habit I developed, every time I watch my TV shows on my computer I doodle or I write down quotes as they pass by me… I don’t know what it is that makes me want to do this but it’s just my “thing”
In the first few minutes of this episode of the ever-brilliant Alias I began to take notes, yet today I deliberately tried to make a pattern out of them. After I had written down a few points I happened to jot down a quote I like.
Then it hit me… I could link my patterns and use my quotes to form a review of the episode.

Quite often I find a recurring theme in each episode and for this the recurring pattern was the return of…Another Mister Sloane featured the return of many things previously seen in Alias

The Return Of Arvin Clone

Yes, he may have never left after appearing in the last ep but I need a place to discuss this mysterious character. I am assuming from what I have seen and what I have read this guy actually thinks he’s Sloane (It’s Alias, anything can happen) this makes him just a teeny-weeny bit insane… Why pretend to be Arvin Sloane? Well evidently Sloane seems to be the foremost authority on Rambaldi so in pretending to be him he gains an instant status in the world of Rambaldi. Another already proved theory is to be able to use his contacts. Sloane’s been involved in the intelligence world for more than 30 years (from what I can gather) and in that time has probably gained an impressive contact database.
Obviously Arvin Clone holds some interesting potential. He’s managed to re-introduce Rambaldi into the world of us Alias freaks, but what more is to come from his character? A big Sloane/Clone face off hopefully… and maybe a look into Clone’s endgame would be nice (i.e. What the giant red ball is for)

The Return Of The Red Ball

Just when you think you’ve seen that last of something… Purely by coincidence one week before watching this ep I watched “Enemy Walks In”, the first ep of Season 2. This episode was the last time you see that big red ball until now… It was always a mystery what this ball was, or what it was for. The water inside the ball contained the disease that almost killed Vaughn mid Season 2. The choice to bring back the ball was an intriguing one considering the real Sloane never built it, yet Mr Clone who seems to believe he is him is in the process of building it, maybe it’s about what Clone thinks Sloane should have done, or should be doing.
So what does it do? Apparently it’s a battery for some other Rambaldi artefact, so what will this artefact do? Being as obsessed with spoilers as I am I have a rough idea of what it might do, although even then I’m wrong more than 50% of the time. All I can assume is that the big red ball will most likely become a battery for something that will either pose a great danger or lead to something that could cause great danger (like The Telling, that seemed harmless only spitting out the word “peace” {and some brainwaves I think????} but then lead to the passenger, but that didn’t exactly cause damage... oops there goes my theory.) Well you get my (longwinded) point.
The Return Of A Kidnapped Scientist By Arvin Sloane To Help Build A Rambaldi Device

The titles kinda longwinded but does anyone else feel the déjà vu? Late Season 2 Arvin kidnapped Christian Slater (okay so he had a different name but I can’t remember it and can’t exactly be stuffed looking for it) to help create the Firebomb thingo that targeted people and turned then in ash and here is Arvin-II kidnapping Margaret Sinclair to create The Big Red Ball. It wasn’t such a drawn-out story this time and I think we may have seen the last of this scientist, either that or she’ll return for 5 mins next week for a debrief where she spills the goss on what Clone’s doing.
All in all she was kinda irrelevant to the story… (in my humble opinion anyway)

The Return Of Rambaldi

So technically the guy reappeared last week when Vaughn had to steal a manuscript being transported from the DSR but this week it was full on Rambaldi once again and I loved it! It was a great story and a great way to reintroduce the character that seems to make Alias what it is. I was kinda let down by the lack of Rambaldi in Season 4 (which is shaping up to be the best season in my opinion) and now he’s back and hopefully here to stay. Rambaldi adds something to Alias, the way it draws viewers in, it creates mystery and it’s something that we’re given bit by bit, it’s been 4 years, yet we still want more. To be honest I don’t know if I want to find out what the whole Rambaldi endgame is just yet (as mentioned in the ep and discussed in here later on) because I’m not ready for all the Rambaldi-ness to be over.
What I do want to see is someone cast as this character… I wonder if that will ever happen.

The Return Of The Bridge

Okay so it’s nothing but a measly bridge, in this ep it’s the place where Sydney and Vaughn tell Jack about Sloane’s evil schemes and it was (I’m pretty sure) either the same, or very similar to, one of the last places Jack saw Sydney before she disappeared for 2 years. In the last ep of Season 2 Jack met Sydney here to discuss the possible duplicity of Will or Francie (one of the two the details are sketchy) and when it appeared today I just remembered. It’s really of no relevance to the story but it give me a feeling that we’re pulling back to what Alias used to be mixing everything old we loved about Alias with new people, stories and agencies to create something that’s even better.

The Return Of The Sphere of Life

It itself didn’t return but it was mentioned. I’m assuming it was what Nadia was talking about in Sienna that she and Sloane went to find at the end of Season 3.
We never did learn exactly what it was, only that Sloane used it as yet another bargaining chip to get the CIA on his side. To be honest I feel like it’s another Telling, which we didn’t see for 18 eps after it was first mentioned. I think there’s a chance this might have something to do with the upcoming Rambaldi fun and games, in fact I hope it does because the 18-episode deadline is 2 eps away….

The Return Of The Double

So this time they might not be so genetically-identically convincing but the war of the duplicates is back.
What is it about having people pretending to be main characters on Alias? It brings a certain interest and to me a certain frustration (not with the story itself just with wanting the other characters to know). Back in the old days of season 2, about 3 or 4 years before this episode is set we all wanted Sydney to discover Francie was a double and start screaming at the TV it’s not Will it’s Francie!! This time around at least they all know who’s “doubled” as such and who the double is.

The Return Of Sloane’s Relationship With Rambaldi

When I say relationship it sound like a love affair, yet that is what it almost is. He’s denied himself of it for almost a year yet being faced with the prophet once again it seems that the relationship has been rekindled.
It seems that Sloane may love Rambaldi yet the appeal is lost on me… what is so important about this guy to Sloane??
It seems that this obsession will shape the story of the episodes to come in one way or another.
One way that I have come to viewing this obsession is likening it to that of a drug addict and drugs. It does something to them... a great feeling that eventually is short lived then they’re out looking for the next high (or artefact) Sloane cleaned up his act, for the sake of his Rambaldi-related daughter but on seeing it and on feeling the Rambaldi-ness once again, he’s hooked.
What will come of Sloane and his dependency?? Who knows…

The Return of The Rambaldi Picture of Sydney

Ahh yes, the portrait the wonderfully artistic Rambaldi drew of Sydney centuries before she was born. It was enlarged and hung on the wall of the DSR Vault, it caught my eye and I added it to my list. This picture reminds us that Sydney holds an involvement in all this Rambaldi business, will she hold any major part, being the Chosen One, in the up coming Rambaldi storyline? It seems that this may be a possibility..
Oh deary me, there’s just too much to ponder when it comes to Rambaldi and these storylines.

The Return of Omnifam

After disappearing sometime during late Season 3, some guy Sloane knew reminded us that Sloane once started a charity. The way this man spoke it was almost as if Sloane had an ulterior motive when it came to Omnifam… Which he did, in a way, he confessed to starting the organisation to access information unavailable to him in order to find Nadia, yet this motive was not the evil one the contact implied.
Just hearing the name again made me think, although it probably had no relevance to any future storyline.

The Return of “The Agreement”

As mentioned earlier this season Jack and Sloane have an unspoken (well unspoken to us) agreement that involved Ylena Derevko and their respective daughters. I hope before the season we learn what exactly this agreement is and whether or not it’s legit. It seems to be one of these things that the Alias writers dangle in front of our face, a mystery to intrigue us then refuse to explain.

The Return Of The Immortality Theory

Yes, this was the big one. All along we have been lead to believe that Rambaldi was about immortality yet it appears we have “bough the rumour” and now are simple-minded dilettantes*. Well what can it be about then?? With the endgame most likely rearing it’s head before the Season’s end it’s hopefully a question quickly answered. That’s one thing about Alias, it will give you lots of questions and then never answer them or won’t answer them for weeks to come.
With Rambaldi most certainly back on the Alias agenda they’ve gotta be planning a big conspiracy that will hopefully shock us all yet now it has nothing to do with what any of us have been lead to believe for the last 2 years, or 4 years in Alias time.

*Dilettantes – It took me forever to find the correct spelling for this word and subsequently the correct meaning but now I know and for those of you who are as blonde as I am I will provide the meaning for peace of mind.
Showing frivolous or superficial interest; amateurish; "his dilettantish efforts at painting"
Dabbler: an amateur who engages in an activity without serious intentions and who pretends to have knowledge

Quote-Ables

“You ask me, both of them give me the creeps” – Roberts
(Well put, summing up most people’s opinion of Arvin Sloane/Clone)

“You want me to do to you what I did to my wife?” – Jack
(I read this quote before I watched it and assumed it was Vaughn that said it to Sloane or something... I was happy to see the way it was used with Jack angry at Sloane thinking he caused Irina’s death)

“You dangle bait in front of a man like that, you lose a hand” – Roberts
(Seemed appropriate advice for anyone in Alias world)

“Some place safe – like Mars?” – Roberts
(Also seemed appropriate to those involved in the world of Alias, there is almost no place on this planet that is safe)

Sydney: “I saw him at the hotel, it was only for a moment but I know now what Roberts was talking about. The man – the impostor, everything about him is Sloane, his clothes, his posture, the way he looked at me, it’s the way you look at me”
Sloane: “And how is that Sydney?”
Sydney: “Lets just say it’s equally disturbing”
(An exchange that perfectly voiced Sydney’s hidden hatred for the man that killed her fiancé and fooled her to working against her country at the same time as being quite funny)

“You don’t know what I saw. Last year when my father and I went to Sienna, the closer we got to finding this artefact that he wanted the more he began to change. I saw him slipping away from himself, his passion, this desperation to connect with Rambaldi it completely overtook him. He became a different man, his eyes were mad, lost. I didn’t want to be around him after that. The only reason I came back to join APO was because he promised me that part of is life was over.” – Nadia
(An insight into the Rambaldi-ness that we missed at the end of last season)

Jack: “Weiss, make sure the jet is on standby, co-ordinated an in country rendezvous with Sloane for 1200 hours.
Weiss: “1200, Jack it’s me, you can say noon”
(The comic relief we need from the ever-funny Weiss)

Sloane: “The only limitation that was necessary while I was at the DSR is you. When I was studying those manuscripts, the only thing my thoughts kept retuning to was you. I was surrounded by symbols of all the things I once believed in and it all felt meaningless. Having a daughter – knowing you, means more to me than anything ever has or ever will”
Nadia: “What about Sienna?”
Sloane: “I can’t change what you witnessed in Sienna but I can assure you that that man you saw there no longer exists.”
(Firstly we get to see the fatherly Sloane, the reformed man that Nadia wants him to be, ironic because the man they are talking about resurfaces about 5 minutes later… Also another titbit of info about whatever went on in Sienna)

“All our years working together, this is the first time I’ve been with you in action, up close.” – Sloane
(Quite surprising that in her many years of working for him at SD-6, they don’t end up working together until on a mission with the good guys.)

“Is that was you think this is all about, immortality? You bought the rumour you simple minded dilettante!”
Sloane
(The sentence that changed everything we thought we knew.. So what is Rambaldi about??)

Note-Ables

Sienna – Location Of The Sphere of Life??
Names used in reference to the double – Arvin Clone (my fav), Marvin Sloane, The Rolling Sloane.
Sydney recognised Arvin Clone without ever seeing him before
Sloane spoke about a mission 4 years ago in Moscow involving Sark. Obviously a mention of a Season 2 mission.. but what one??
The look on Sloane’s face when he saw all the Rambaldi artefacts in the DSR vault, talk about a kid in a candy shop who hasn’t been allowed candy for a year….
The giant ball is a battery??
The Giant Ball has been animated a bit differently this time around.. it looks less like a golf ball and more like a spherical ocean
Margaret Sinclair is the name of the scientist (just noted it to remember, as I forgot the name of her Christian Slater counterpart)
1500 Corta-Burrerou Santine, Santiago (definite spelling mistake there, I’m just writing phonetically) The address of Clone’s operation
Sloane as a CIA field agent, first time in 30 years??
Arvin Clone’s office quality aint in keeping with the real Sloane’s… just goes to show he might not be exactly the same
Jacquelyn?? What’s that, who’s she. Obviously this name has some relevance to Sloane and Mr Clone knows why. So is it a person, if so who? Is it to do with love, Rambaldi or is there something we don’t know about?
At the very end, one of the final frames of the ep it looks like the blood on Sloane’s forehead spells out KILL, unintentional or sick joke?

What’s In A Name?
This was another self-explanatory episode name, with it clearly taken from the Sloane duplicate.

Loathed
Lack of Syd/Vaughn relationship time, coming after a ep which ended in Vaughn telling Sydney he could never leave the ones he loved (i.e. her) this episode barely recognised their couple-ship (but then again I’m a hardcore Sydney/Vaughn Shipper so maybe it’s just me)
Liked
Nadia and Weiss, a couple posing as a couple at the hotel, they work well together.
Loved
The return of the Red Ball and all things Rambaldi, ahh… memories

Scene of the Ep
The scene in which Arvin bets the crap outta Clone’s henchman, apart from being a little gruesome (which I can handle) it gave us a lil bit of info towards Rambaldi and allowed us an insight into what Nadia might have seen in Sienna. The scene also allowed Ron Rifkin to demonstrate his excellent acting ability, bravo!

P.S. – I just went to my fav Alias site and discovered that in fact the season 2 scientist played by Christian Slater was called Neil Caplan.

Nocturne Review

2005-06-05T02:14:00.000-07:00

Nocturne – What We Believe

The episode Nocturne was in the early part of season 4, the section that I see as basic stories, never as good as the ones in the second half. To me this episode had nothing wrong with it; it was just in the early stage where they’re not as memorable, not as “ohmigod what was that!” as the later eps. The story of this episode was one that seemed to blur the lines of reality and fantasy in Alias, we all know vampires aren’t real, yet here they were being used in an episode plot.

Running through out this episode we got to see the beliefs of the characters, whether or not they were true, right or wrong, some of these beliefs were:

Vaughn Believing Sydney Is Afraid

I can admit this season we haven’t seen as much between them as we did in season 2, although I would only have put it down to the fact that the writing chose not to focus on their relationship, more on other things. Obviously I was wrong, Vaughn has seen that Sydney is holding back, that she is afraid of something and he wants to try and sort out whatever problems they have.
Watching this you can tell that the episodes have been shuffled around from the order in which they were written, originally “Nocturne” came after “Welcome to Liberty Village” as in Liberty Village they managed to sort out their differences and realise that things were going to be okay, what I wonder was if the producers shuffled the order to make it seem as though there were even more unresolved issues between Sydney and Vaughn or the more likely case, that there were other reasons.

The Doctor Believing Sydney Was Fine

Obviously for plot reasons, they needed Sydney’s disease to develop so she could have hallucinations, so we could see her deepest fears acted out. What is weird is the fact that even if they caught it they wouldn’t have had a means to ure her, but still she wouldn’t have been allowed to go out on the mission and then a lot of what happened, a lot of what was played out would not have occurred.

Weiss Believing He’s Staying Over

Well we get a chance to see how the Nadia/Weiss relationship is growing; apparently he may have had to chance to stay over. The problem I have with Nadia and Weiss getting together is that there is no reason, no passion behind them, it just seems like the writers want all the loose ends tied up. With Sydney and Vaughn we saw this awesome build up, and behind them we see this passion, their love for one another but with these two they have much less focus in the show therefore we don’t see what’s going on behind it all, where the feelings are.

Dixon Believing It Was A Mistake To Send Sydney Into The Field

For a while I forgot that Dixon held the director role, he was the leader of the JTF in season 3. We got to see his authority from this role some through a little once again in this episode when he suggested it was not a good idea for Sydney to go out into the field. Of course his confrontation made Sloane angry because Sloane believes that he is always right, leading him to make the oh-so-cold comment about Dixon being a dimwit because he never figured out SD-6 was rouge. I feel that it was fitting for Dixon to make this call, his persona and his past would definitely call for an intervention like this, and it was of course nice continuity.

Sydney Believing She Spilled A Mug Full Of Blood

With most of Sydney’s hallucinations, they had a symbolism, they voiced her fear, but this was one of the visions that I could not decipher. Could the blood symbolise her pain or the thing that she has seen in her life, or am I completely off course? It to me seems a mystery, something in the episode with no apparent relevance.

Sydney Believing She Saw Vaughn and Lauren Kissing

Well we discover the scars have not yet healed, something that could be understood given her circumstances. The hallucination made a lot of sense, Sydney was holding back in her relationship with Vaughn because she was scared of being hurt again after last time, feeling betrayed because Vaughn married Lauren during her missing two years. It was nice to see that all was not forgotten, that Vaughn and Lauren of course hurt Sydney a lot and that despite things going back to the way they were she needed to hold back, just in case.

Sydney Seeing The Count Shoot Himself

This was the other hallucination that didn’t make sense, what did seeing the guy kill himself have anything to do with anything. My main theory is that he was the link to Nocturne and that Sydney knew she was dying because of it, in theory, watching him die was like watching herself die from the effects of this guy’s drug.

Sydney Believing Sloane Told Her He Was Going To Betray Her

It’s been clear all along; Sydney does not trust Arvin Slone, especially after what he did to her, to Danny and Francie. This guy effectively came close to ruining her life, yet here she is once again working for him. On some level, Sydney must expect his impending betrayal; after all I think most people suspect Sloane of having a shady end game, getting to see the hallucination was only confirmation of a fear most people suspected she held. What Slone said, how he’d betray her and the people she cared about would die was like everything that happened through season 1 and 2. He betrayed her by making her believe SD-6 was a legitimate branch of the CIA and killed Francie and Danny, simply put she feels that it could happen again, but will it?

Sydney Believing Jack Hated Her

It’s clear through his actions, always looking out for Sydney’s best interests that Jack cares for Sydney more that anything else, yet it can be understood why Sydney would fear that her father heated her, like said in the hallucinations, he may see a lot of Irina in her, Irina the woman who betrayed him, broke his heart.
Bringing this fear up may have come as a surprise to many people but looking at it, at the world Sydney lives in, everyone has hidden secrets and agendas and a fear like this would not be irrational.

Sydney Believing Vaughn Was Bad

Like the previous fear, it is not unlikely in Sydney’s life to suspect others of having ulterior motives, especially looking at some of the things that have happened to her. This fear is really a continuation of her vision of him and Lauren and her holding back in their relationship but this was where the major confrontation was held. Watching the two fight was really good, we saw Vaughn not wanting to hurt Sydney but Sydney to far gone on the Nocturne to recognise her love for Vaughn and to recognise that Vaughn would never hurt her.
At the end of this episode it seems their problems were resolved, Vaughn visited her in the hospital and they got a chance to talk about it, and hopefully things are beginning to get better.

Dixon Believing He Would Be Relived From His Position For Blasting Slone

Well wasn’t it awesome action, except this time only with words. To be honest if I were Dixon, I would expect to be fired for telling Sloane off like that as well, his words were powerful, truthful and also very hurtful should Slone choose to take great offence to what he said. To be honest I’ve got to say good on ya Dixon! It was nice that someone finally put that sleazebag in his place.

Note-Ables

Sydney had to teeth marks on her neck but Cahill had ordinary teeth?
Sydney’s temp went from 111 deg. F to 115 deg. F
The effects of Nocturne prevent the need for sleep
The Grappig Group, Why call your company the Funny Group?
Spiders are good luck?
This episode was dedicated in loving memory of Tricia K. Goken, 1969-2005

Quote-Ables

Sydney: (about bites on neck) “You think it’s sexy don’t you?”
Vaughn: “Only if I did it.”

“What’s going on her, girl stuff?” – Vaughn

“Dixon, in the eleven years that you worker for me at SD-6, I came to recognise your brilliance as a field agent but during those eleven years not once did you suspect that you were working for a renegade organisation.” – Slone
(Ooh, that’s cold)

“Sydney’s not as trustworthy as her mother, I’m going to kill her just like I did her mother.” – Jack
(Erm… okayyy…)

Jack: “Shh, don’t talk, you can’t imagine how much I hate it when you talk.”
Sydney: “What?”
Jack: “The reason I killed your mother, I had a desperate need to make her voice stop ringing in my ears. What torments me now is that every time I look at you, I see your mother’s face.”

Jack: Your mother killer me, just like I’m gonna kill you.”
Sydney: “I won’t let you!”
Jack: “How can you, your tied up?”
(That was an evil laugh moment)

Vaughn: “You took the bullets out”
Jack: “Seemed a reasonable precaution.”
(No duh!)

“I would have said this earlier but when I get done it’s likely that you’ll have me relieved from my position and I didn’t want to do that while Sydney was in the field. I’ve asked myself, countless times, why I never saw the true nature of SD-6, for a while I punished myself over it, finally I realised, my only failure was that of imagination, despite all the evil I had encountered, I’d never imagined a person could exist as thoroughly evil, toxic as yourself. I wont make that mistake again. You want us to believe you’ve reformed, that for the love of your daughter you’ve decided to listen to the better angels of your nature, Arvin, lets be honest, you don’t have any, and on that inevitable day, when your true motive reveals itself, I promise you, I’ll be there, I’ll be waiting” – Dixon
(You go guyfriend!)

What’s In A Name?
Nocturne comes from the name of the drug Sydney becomes infected with.

Loathed
The fact we don’t get to see what brings Nadia and Weiss together
Liked
Seeing Sydney’s fears, how they affect her and how they may be resolved
Loved
Dixon’s monologue

Scene Of The Ep
It’s between Sydney and Vaughn in the hospital at the end and Dixon’s monologue.

Welcome To Liberty Village Review

2005-06-05T01:50:00.000-07:00

Welcome To Liberty Village – Keeping Up A Front

Welcome to Liberty Village appeared to me like an episode set out to straighten out Sydney and Vaughn’s relationship problems, which was fine with me being a S/V shipper. The episode served its purpose well, bringing these characters together and strengthening their relationship that adds to the show in so many ways.

In this episode there was a theme, Keeping Up A Front, there was so much going on underneath the surface, so many things that were not as they seemed, it was basically a lot of what I like about Alias.

So what were the fronts? Where did they appear (at least in my opinion)?

Sydney and Vaughn Being Fun

After a debate with Weiss about going bowling, Sydney and Vaughn ended up declining the invite to instead stay at home and be called boring by good ole Weiss. I don’t think they need a front to be fun, they’re very interesting people, I believe that they think there needs to be a front because deep down they’re somewhat unhappy with their life and think that they’re boring, even if they’re not. Seeing this exchange made me realise that they’ve finally reintroduced the character’s day-to-day lives back into the story, instead of ignoring it much like they did in Season 3, which brought lots of criticism.

The October Contingent

To me the organisation was not keeping up a front in itself but in my opinion the writers are holding back, keeping up a front as such by not having one solid bad guy like The Covenant or SD-6. Again in one episode a brand new baddie arises only to be destroyed at the end of 40 of screen time.
I’m not criticising the current stories of Alias just the invention of new baddies every week, because to me it gets interesting when we’re fighting one person or organisation.

Liberty Village, Happy Families

When first presented to us the purpose behind Liberty Village and having everyone pretend to be happily married families living in suburbia was unclear. It was a little like an episode of Desperate Housewives integrated with the espionage with Alias, a welcome change to be honest. Despite my criticisms over a new bad guy every ep, I liked this one and the front that they held up, having agents in suburbia is not something Alias have explored before. This story also allowed for some cute humour to be introduced, I liked J

“We’re Not Cold”

A quote from Sydney seemed to be fitting, not only having to worry about being boring apparently Sydney and Vaughn are cold. I think it has something to do with the front that both maintained to stop them from being hurt again, these brought on by the damage Lauren caused between them, grr. This episode succeed in fixing a lot of this damage that has hindered their relationship for a long time, most of their scenes when it was just them together brought me the warm fuzzies.

Santa Barbara

The fact they needed to hold up the front of Dave and Karen Parker managed to bring back the fact that at the end of season 2 Vaughn and Sydney planned a well deserved trip to Santa Barbara, plans only to thwarted by Sydney’s “death” When it was first brought up, I was surprised and knew it must have been hard for Sydney and Vaughn to hear this. It was so clear that what happened with Dave and Karen in Santa Barbara would have been what happened with Syd and Vaughn, if only they had made it, of course the ending of this episode leave option open for this story to be revisited and knowing what I know now things are looking good J

Jack and Alexi

There was just something about their exchange that gave me the feeling they were both keeping up a façade for a bigger purpose. Jack held contempt for the guy because he was originally on Irina’s side, back when she betrayed him and Alexi only needed Jack to get the books that contained the name Sentinel. Their exchange was intriguing for me as a viewer because it proved a small amount of insight into whatever secret agenda Jack and Sloane hold.

Quote-Ables

“You guys are about as spontaneous as my grandparents, and they’re dead.” – Weiss
(Aww, poor Sydney and Vaughn)

Tom: “Don’t worry we’re not gonna kill you for a bad story.”
Wife: “At least not on the first night.”
(Eerie, nice to know that they have one day’s grace)

Sydney: “Huh.”
Vaughn: “Yeah”
(Couple-ly exchanges, aww and it basically sums up the entire Liberty Village)

Alexi: “Depends how you define government I suppose.”
(How SD-6)

Tom: “I guess that might help with your intimacy issues.)
(HEY! They’re intimate…)

Jack: “Whenever I was in town I’d but one (a book) for her.”
Marshall: “Oh that’s sweet.”
Jack “The KGB encrypted assassination orders in these pages.”
Marshall: “Oh… that’s not as sweet.”
(Tehe, nice continuity, bringing the books back)

“That’s how we live Phil, fast.” - Sydney
(Describes Alias perfectly, plus loved the delivery)

“I proposed on one knee in sawdust in front of a giraffe with a crooked neck.” – Vaughn
(I wanted to cry at the thought of a thwarted proposal.. well the future’s looking bright J)

“Her attachment made her work problematic at times.” – Alexi
(Wonder how Jack felt hearing this?? Maybe Alexia just said what he wanted to hear)

Sydney: “They’re onto us.”
Vaughn: “Yeah I figured that part out.”
(Tehe, no s**t Sherlock)

Sydney: “Even if we are a little cold.”
Vaughn: “And boring.”
(Not any more! Perfect delivery of these lines J)

Note-Ables

APO called them in after 10 at night??
Alias Karen and David Parker
Some of the terrorists inside Liberty Village are identified as having killed 47 people
Tom monitors their conversation via surveillance when they’re in the kitchen but can’t hear them talking about APO in the bathroom??
The date written in the front of the books Jack gave Irina was Feb 2nd 1979
The word found in the book was Sentinel who is apparently Elena Derevko
Vaughn broke a mirror, that’s 7 years bad luck

What’s in A Name?
Clear reference to Liberty Village itself

Scene Of The Ep
Sydney and Vaughn in the bathroom alone or on the Plane at the End

Loathed
Another new baddie
Liked
Elena Derevko coming into view
Loved
Sydney and Vaughn together, sorting it out.

Ice Review

2005-06-05T01:44:00.000-07:00

Ice – A Blast From The Past

To me this episode is a beginning, the first 3 episodes of season 4 were to explain the cliffhanger and introduce characters and relationships for the following season, after that we’re straight down to the story.
Looking back, now that I’ve seen most of the season a few episodes back at the start of the season, like every season of Alias, I simply recall as not being as good as the ones towards the end. Maybe it’s just me but I have found that every season gets better with age. This doesn’t mean to say that I hated this episode and some of the ones that followed, simply that I don’t feel as strongly about them and that I don’t think they were as instrumental in shaping the season to make it as great as it always is before it ends.

The recurring theme for this episode was “A Blast From The Past” as to me it featured many things Alias have used before, combining them to improve the show to the next level.
The things I found returning from the past were:

The Failed Mission

The opening scene of the episode, the scene that eerily introduced us to Ice, had a “have I seen this before?” feeling. There was just something about it, the colours, the music it all reminded me of another market scene that I’m sure Sydney too part in while in SD-6. Not to say that makes it wrong, just familiar. The scene itself was just an intro, served no greater purpose than to bring us into the days espionage.

Vaughn Seeing Lauren

In the market we see Vaughn look at the back of a woman’s head, to him he’s seeing Lauren until she turns around and well, it’s not. Obviously Vaughn believing he saw Lauren was foreshadowing what was to come for his character in the episode. One thing I felt about it was that it was the first thing of this nature we’ve seen, like the writers were trying to force the concept of Vaughn not over Lauren so it would be more believable later in the ep when he talks to Kierra/Mehgan about it. It was a little rushed, it was almost if they thought; well we saw Vaughn last season all insane coz of his evil-mole wife and then oopsie we made him all happy again, maybe we should revisit that, tie the loose ends up.

Sydney and Vaughn’s Interaction at APO

The way the two spoke outside APO near the beginning of the ep was pretty much like the way the were before Sydney went AWOL and Vaughn married Lauren, almost like although the writers had the intention of making their relationship look vulnerable for this ep at least they may as well appear as they’re on the right track, which makes me happy. Vaughn + Sydney = me happy J

Omnifam

When Sydney goes to the hospital she’s undercover as an aid worker for the UK branch of Sloane’s charity. In my recollection this is the first mention of Sloane’s charity in a while, nice to know it’s still in use, also a nice way to bring it back and remind us they’ve not completely forgotten

Another Hospital

This isn’t the first time our agents have gone undercover at a hospital, they’ve also done this back in season to try and find out about the virus Irina was developing, it just goes to show that designer diseases are all the rage in the criminal world. I liked the use of a hospital in this case; it was played out quite well for the purpose it needed to suit.

The Photos Of Irina

We got to see lots of photos of Irina, which was nice; it let us see there was a side of her beyond everything else we’ve already seen. The photos did introduce another mystery yet to be solved, is there more to them than meets the eye?? Is the picture of Elena or Katya’s child, or was it simply one of Irina’s (or Jack’s) fabrications. To be honest I hope there is a story behind them, more than we’ve seen cause it sounds really interesting… J

Sydney Listening to Vaughn’s Flirty Conversation Over Coms

Just like in season 3, Sydney had to listen to the man she loved flirt with someone for the purpose of the mission, at least this time it wasn’t with his wife…. I can imagine how this will add to the dynamic of their relationship although I can see things getting worse before they get better (mostly because I’ve seen the following 15 episodes J) To imagine what would be going through each of their minds during this dialogue is hard, Sydney may have been upset, felt bad but she may also have been angry. Vaughn knew she would hear what he was saying, did he say it because he felt it necessary for Sydney to hear or because he had to, to save the mission.

Sydney Saving Vaughn Seconds Before He Became a Human Test Subject

This scene reminded me of, of course, the season 2 opener where Sydney saves Vaughn from being a human test subject for Khasinau. Of course I’m glad she made it in time to save him, I was just disappointed Vaughn wasn’t able to save himself, after all put in this positions 7 times out 10 Sydney would. I wouldn’t have minded if there had been any emotion after they were safe but it seemed there would have been the same reaction if Dixon had saved Vaughn, it was just something that had to be done because they were on the same side.

The Way Sydney Spoke To Vaughn At The End

Much like at the start of the ep, the way the two interacted in the final scene makes me think they’re pulling back to where they used to be. Unfortunately when he fell asleep in the middle of her speech doesn’t exactly foreshadow rosy times ahead, it was nice to see that they’re beginning to work, there’s just more that has to be sorted out.

Note-Ables

Kelly MacDonald (fellow Glaswegian) was playing Kierra MacLaine, exceptional acting on her part
Kierra bribes some guy with strawberries, kookie
Mitchell has swallowed a quarter and a toy car
Vaughn flirting? For the mission I hope….
Confession in a bar, now there’s a church I can live with.
Kierra has a Glaswegian (Scottish) accent but Fintan has an Irish accent, they’re supposed siblings, how does that work?
Vaughn falling asleep, hope that’s not foreshadowing!

Quote-Ables

Guy: “ I can’t make it!”
Sydney: “You don’t have a choice”
(Something everyone in Alias world should know)

“Killed He exploded like a frozen piñata!” – Weiss
(Nice visual)

“(Going legitimate) Seems to be all the rage among evil geniuses” – Sydney
(Anyone in mind??)

Vaughn: “Come on man, it’s gotta look real!”
Dixon: “Vaughn, I hit you.”
Vaughn: “Yeah like a girl…”
(Nice to have these characters interact J)

“Maybe you under estimate me.” – Vaughn
(I think we all do…)

What’s In a Name?
Ice is straightforwardly taken from the name of the substance APO were tracking down.

Scene Of The Ep
Anything with Michael Vartan shone, from confession with Kierra, getting beaten up by Dixon or romantic conversations with Sydney, he owned this episode.

Loathed
Seeing what happened to people infected with ice
Liked
Kelly MacDonald, good actress
Loved
Hearing Vaughn say Glasgow

The Awful Truth Review

2005-06-05T01:42:00.000-07:00

The Awful Truth – Search For The Truth

The goings on in this episode were all about people trying to find out the truth, or for some part trying to cover it up (i.e. Jack)

Jack Trying To Find Out if Sydney Told Nadia He Killed Irina

Kinda gives me the creeps, Jack looking out for his own interests for once, although you’ve gotta admit he has a reason to be worried, after all in not so many words Nadia vowed to kill him. The way he spoke to Sydney about this matter reflected on the tension still between them, even though he did it to save her Sydney knows Jack killed her mother and it’s got to tear a hole in her. I’m surprised that there’s no guilt reflected in Sydney’s character at all, after all her mum dies because of her, and despite believing Irina deserved it, it’s something I have come to expect of Sydney Bristow.

Jack Debriefing Nadia

Another way to look for the truth, a sanctioned psych evaluation, Jack uses this opportunity to his advantage in assessing the danger Nadia poses to him. The scene of the debrief was really well written to reflect on each of the characters personal interests and motives and gave us a small look into the persona of Nadia. I loved Nadia’s reaction to the male partner issue, showing us she’s a real feminist. As it seemed, it appeared Sloane knew of Jack’s ulterior motives in debriefing her, I wonder what he really thought?

Nadia Wanting To Know The Truth About Her Mother’s Death

Nadia seems to be the Sydney we used to know, swearing to kill whoever murdered her mother, that person being Jack (or at least Sydney thought it was Jack.) With her up-bringing differing from Sydney’s in many ways her attitude towards these people and situations will too, watching the way she killed Bishop was chilling, what I want to see is the way she’ll react when she finds out who really killed Irina.

The Mission

When you think about it, most of Sydney’s missions, in part, are a search for truth. This one was just another standard mission where Sydney goes undercover to find out where the Valta is located and the story wasn’t particularly spectacular or memorable, although it served it’s purpose. It was cool to see Sydney playing on a man’s generosity, using her sex appeal to gain access to his house. What I did like about part of the mission was the way we got to see Vaughn cared for Sydney, when Marshall started rambling about Martin Bishop’s lady-killing instincts Vaughn’s reaction was nervous and angry, later on in the ep you also get to see him again worried about Sydney, being a die-hard Sydney/Vaughn shipper this just made me oh-so-happy.

Weiss’s Discovery of Sydney, Vaughn, Jack, Dixon and Nadia’s allegiances

So why keep one single character in the dark for only 2 episodes? I found keep Weiss out of the loop for one episode entirely pointless and at aimed to prove no point. One way I saw it was the writers trying too hard to make Season 4 the new Season 1 which almost annoyed me. I didn’t see the point in suddenly bringing him in either, it was like they forgot about him then realised he was a character and wrote him in and they also didn’t give the guy enough credit... do you not think he was going to think something was up when everyone quit?
It doesn’t matter anymore; he’s back in and still one of my fav characters.

Quote-Ables

Weiss’s Friend: “You’re so old!”
Weiss: “Dude, you’re so bald!”
(Just made me laugh)

“The fact that I have one something that might give you a warm and fuzzy feeling makes me want to kick my own sister out of my house.” – Sydney
(Her anger for Sloane voiced, while being comical)

“Why is my partner a man?” – Nadia
(Love the feminism)

“Sometimes a satisfying lie, Sydney, can do more good than the awful truth.” – Jack
(Dun, dun, dun, makes Jack look evil don’t you think??)

Note-Ables

I loved the accents everyone had in the opening scene when they’re robbing the bank
When Jack walked into the party, and the dialogue that followed was priceless
The way Marshall made Vaughn nervous about Bishop posing a threat to Sydney and then the look of worry on his face when Dixon says Sydney’s on her own now may have been bad for him but gave me the warm fuzzies
I like seeing that Marshall didn’t fix the watch’s overheating problem
I like how Jack catches onto Nadia’s feminism

What’s In A Name?
The ep’s name clearly taken from the quote from Jack

Loathed
The way the Weiss story was handled
Liked
The awesome car that APO was controlling to make it look like Sydney had crashed
Loved
Vaughn’s facial expression when they said Sydney was in on her own

Scene of the Ep
The scene where Jack comes into the party and talks about e-vites

Authorised Personel Only Review

2005-06-05T01:35:00.000-07:00

Authorised Personnel Only, Part 1&2 - At Last

The first thing we heard upon the return of Alias was the song “At Last” which made me think… It’s been months since Alias ended and we’ve had to wait longer than usual for the return of our favourite show but at last it’s here!
My running theme for this episode is just that, At Last. There are so many things in the episode that I love to watch each week but for the last 6 months or so I’ve had to go without. So at last the return of my favourite show and everything that makes it so great.

One thing I did notice was the abrupt change in story direction. On the Alias official site (www.abc.com/alias) the synopsis for 3x22 – Resurrection, or the Season 3 finale said that what Sydney found out at the bank was that “She cries as she peruses files documenting her life, each one bearing Jack Bristow's signature” I also read somewhere there were also pages documenting Nadia’s life as well.
But after reading that you can imagine I found it weird when they totally abandoned that story because to be honest with you it sounded damn interesting. I guess that didn’t want to change Jack’s loyalty totally and JJ needed a way to conveniently kill of Irina seeing as (until now) they have been unable to negotiate her return. We can’t change what never happened though, so on with the review.

At Last Another Fight Scene

After knocking out some poor scientist we get to see Sydney in a full-blown fight, boy was it great to see Alias at it’s full again. The first time through we didn’t know who Sydney was running from and why so we may not have got the full impact and the second time through it was intertwined with Vaughn’s fight scene, this gave us a chance not only to compare the two fights but it increased the action and the tension.
One comment I did have about Vaughn’s scene was that it made him look a bit like a sissy… He was the underdog the entire time with the thug always having the upper hand and then when he finally gained some ground Vaughn knocked the guy out by whacking him over the head with a teapot, funny, yes and ironic…

At Last Another Close Escape

It’s one of the things that Alias is famous for, putting the characters in a position of grave danger and then having them escape just in the nick of time.
If Vaughn took any longer taking out the thug Sydney would have fallen hundreds of feet from a moving train… splat. When I think about it I liked this close escape because after saving her “just in the nick of time” Vaughn got a cuddle and a *look*, a look that meant “aww J”

At Last Another Episode In Media Res

No show I was can manage to create the suspense I love apart from Alias. Starting an episode halfway through the action then cutting back is an excellent technique to get people interested… worked well here.

At Last Another Club

Okay, so eventually I might complain about the overuse of clubs in Alias but seeing one again brought back happy memories.

We didn’t exactly get to see the club for long, with Sydney and her contact making a beeline for the bathroom as soon as they got in, but the essence was still there.
To be totally honest the idea of a club seemed kinda unnecessary, but still, memories!

At Last The Opening Credits

I’m not sure how I didn’t go insane without hearing that familiar tune every week but I was very happy to heat the strains of the Alias theme once again. I love the new credits with all the clips of Sydney in her many disguises, well done!

At Last SYDNEY AND VAUGHN!!

Okay so I’m a major S/V shipper but the fact that they can finally recognise that Alias just doesn’t work without these two together makes my day.
Despite Sydney’s “taking it slow” talk, I was just happy at that point to see them together, I didn’t care whether things were going to be slow or not.
One thing I did find was that if Sydney wanted to take it slow, what followed her first APO mission wasn’t exactly… well slow, but apart from her contradiction I was overjoyed to see the couple together again.

At Last Another Mission

Alias wouldn’t be Alias without the missions, that’s a fact and just to see the APO team kicking but made me happy. All the missions in this ep were all awesome, well acted and great to watch, that’s all that needs to be said. It may just be that I’m so happy to see the return of Alias that I’m blocking out any flaws, which I know there were, yet I don’t care… Alias is back and is beginning to straighten out the mess that is referred to as Season 3.

At Last More Family Trauma

In Alias it’s unavoidable and in this episode it’s more present than ever. The family trauma’s are not just between Sydney and Jack but also between Nadia and Sloane and Nadia and Sydney.

Sydney and Jack

So you think your father killed your mother just to satisfy his own peace of mind, wouldn’t you be angry? At first I didn’t understand why Jack wouldn’t tell Sydney the reason he assassinated Irina but then later on in the episode he explained it al for me. The fact that he not only killed the woman (I’m sure) he loved for her, but then allowed himself to look bad in order to protect his daughter from the emotional harm it could cause proves, however much we may be lead to doubt it, Jack is the ultimate father. I don’t feel sorry that once again their relationship has been harmed because the healing is the best part to watch, lets just hope it’s a speedy recovery.

Sydney and Nadia

Neither knows where they stand really, they both have the same mother but at this point it’s one of the only connections they see.
I do see many things about Nadia that are also traits of Sydney’s, but of course that’s to be expected seeing as they’re sisters.
Over time a bond between them will form although there is a possibility of their relationship being hindered by Sydney holding back the secret of who’s behind their mother’s death, I’m sure eventually all the secrets will come out and I can’t imagine what effects this may have just yet.
Both the characters Sydney and Nadia are well acted, which adds to this on-screen relationship, I’m glad that the writers are now exploring new family ties and I hope that it will offer good story opportunities in the future.

Sloane and Nadia

To me they seem a little like the old Jack and Sydney, their problems may be different but their motives are the same. Both want to be closer to their respective relative, yet there are always (generally spy-related) problems holding them back.
To see this relationship prosper might be a bit strange, we’ve seen Sloane trying to be a father figure to Sydney before and that was creepy, hopefully with Nadia we won’t allow our judgement of Sloane’s fatherhood to be clouded by past experiences.

At Last, Marshall

This guy is just… well there’s something about this character that makes everyone love him. I was surprised there was no mention towards the bullet he took last season in the finale but I’m just glad he’s alive.

I was surprised he was not recruited right at the start of APO, seeing as he was part of the SD-6 team 5 years ago, I can only assume the reason they kept him out for a little while was so they could bring him in in the way that they did, with a bag over his head, no less. Either that or they forgot about him and couldn’t be bothered rewriting some of the scripts.

At Last Another Father/Daughter High Speed Rescue

This one’s been gone longer than the rest, the part where Jack pulls up in a car just in time to save Sydney from the goons that are chasing her.
The fact that at this point Sydney was still mad at Jack added to the dynamic of the scene, it was just good to see it again.

At Last Another Torture

No, I’m not sadistic but getting to see Sydney hold her own against some guy was just the way Alias should be. The scene was well done, I’m just glad there was no dentists in this one.

At Last Some Answers About Irina

After about a season of being in the dark, we finally find out a little bit about the illusive Irina Derevko. So she’s dead, I don’t think so! On Alias those who are dead are rarely ever dead.
Apart from being a name on a computer screen, a person in a chat room, Irina Derevko has not graced our screens for a year and to finally have the story taken somewhere is good, now we just have to sit tight and wait for what really happened…

Thinking about it I realised that actress Lena Olin has had a chance to greatly alter the Alias storyline, had she come back in season 3 it may not have been so much of a waste of time, to be brutally honest, looking back season 3 achieved nothing apart from introducing Nadia. I now know that Olin has signed on to come and do 2 eps at the very end of this season, can’t wait for that!

Quote-ables

“Last year sucked” – Vaughn
(Well said, the perfect way to describe the past year…)

“I just want you to know that I’m there for you, if you need me, If you need to stay with me for a while because your house is… ashes.” – Weiss
(At a loss for words, the ever-comical Weiss offers Vaughn his support after burning his house down)

“Then allow me to ask the most obvious question in the history of time; How can the CIA let that man, who ran what amounts to a terrorist cell within the borders of this country, run anything?” – Sydney
(The question we all wanted to ask)

“You sure she’s really out? Fake quitting’s seems to be all the rage.” – Sydney
(Apparently that was glib, what’s glib?? Questioning Nadia’s alliance… that’s not sisterly)

“We had eggs.” – Marshall
(So Marshall ate eggs with Sark…)

“Am I dead?” – Marshall
(So APO is heaven then? That’s surprising)

“Ahh Syd? {*whispers*} Sloane is here.”
(And nobody noticed???)

“Get in! You can be stubborn later!” – Jack
(Sydney take’s after her mother, doesn’t she?)

Note-ables

No one got suspicious when Sydney, Vaughn, Jack and Dixon all quit at the same time??
Vaughn burnt his house down
APO is located at a train station where SD-6 was located at a bank which allowed for it’s agents a cover… why not make APO agents train drivers?
Why did Sloane pick Vaughn as an APO agent? They’ve never worked together.
Director Chase had scary eyelashes
Jack recognised Vaughn as the person Sydney loves and trusts most
In the flash back to the bank Sydney starts crying before she knows what she’s reading about… weird (It was later explained that she guessed… but I felt that was a bit farfetched)
How did Vaughn get an idea to what Sydney might have found in Wittenberg??
When stealing the sword how can the APO agents here the guard’s radio transmission through their own radios when the guards can’t hear theirs?
A coke bottle triggered the alarms, there was a bit of product placement…
New code names are: Sydney – Phoenix
Vaughn – Shotgun
Marshall – Merlin
Jack – Raptor
Dixon - Outrigger

What’s In A Name?
The episode name was straight forward, a reference to the new agency’s name.

Loathed
The death of Irina!!
Liked
Having Alias Back
Loved
Vaughn and Sydney!!!

Scene of the Ep
Ohhh, it’s gotta be the scene where Jack and Sydney talk about Irina’s death after Syd finds out the real reason Irina was killed