Review of Episode 22: Before The Flood
5/25/2005
Irina: "Consider my life an object lesson. If you
don't want to end up like Jack and me, tell Sydney the truth."
Holy cliffhanger, Batman!
"Alias" does a season-ending cliffhanger better
than just about anyone. The last minute made me literally
jump out of my seat. Is Vaughn dead? And if Michael Vaughn
isn't Michael Vaughn, who the hell is he?
Let's recap. Early on, Irina said she knew about Vaughn's
"covert
activities" and wanted him to tell Sydney the truth...
but she also gave him
her blessing. He mentioned Bill Vaughn ("You know what?
You killed my
father. The way I see it, I don't have to ask for your blessings."
"Despite
that, you may have them"). What was all that Bill Vaughn
crap about this
season if Michael Vaughn isn't really Michael Vaughn? Was
he a mole at the CIA because of Bill Vaughn, and is that why
he pretended to be Bill Vaughn's son?
Yes, he was always our boy scout, but he turned into a dark
avenger pretty quickly. In the car, Sydney said, "Whatever
it is, I can handle it. Just
don't tell me you're a bad guy." Vaughn looked worried.
"You're not a bad
guy, are you?" Vaughn: "I guess that depends who
you ask." His loyalties
are not in question, and we know he really loves Sydney. So
was he a double who changed sides? Was he originally an Alliance
plant?
I'm just blowing smoke here. I don't have a freaking clue.
Moving right along... Jack and Irina. Are they cool, or what?
They're so
much fun now that they've finally come to terms with their
bizarre marriage. The scene where Irina threatened to let
Jack torture Yelena was just ... well, it's odd to describe
a torture scene this way, but it was cute, wasn't it? I also
loved Irina executing Yelena ("Sydney, cut the blue wire").
The best part was Jack letting Irina go free in the end. If
we never see Irina again on this show, at least we got some
closure.
I wasn't all that surprised that Sloane turned out to be
good, but I *was*
surprised when he shot Zombie Nadia to save Sydney. At least
Sydney has finally accepted that Sloane has truly changed.
And frankly, I'm partly
disappointed. Sloane made such a fabulous villain. Well, maybe
he will
again, someday.
So. All that build-up, and no fight to the death in the glow
of the big red
golf ball. What gives? "Alias" doesn't usually give
us a build-up like
this without a real climax. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad Nadia
is still
with us, albeit in medical limbo. I wonder if the Powers That
Be changed
their minds midstream about killing off Nadia when they found
out Jennifer Garner was pregnant. Cheer up; maybe we'll get
another apocalypse next year.
[Of course, we could also take the brackets in the Rambaldi
symbol <o> as Yelena and Irina. *They* certainly fought
to the death. Or outwitted each other to the death. I'm not
sorry Yelena is gone. She never clicked as a character for
me.]
This episode actually would have made a good series ender...
if they had left out the last two minutes. :) But I'm very
glad it's not the end.
Bits and pieces:
-- When Yelena was trying to turn Nadia, why didn't Nadia
freaking LIE TO HER? I was actually yelling, "Nadia!
Lie to her, already!" I mean, isn't
Nadia a secret agent with covert skills or something?
-- This week's Most Obvious Symbolism was the broken statue
of the Madonna; Nadia was referred to just last week as the
Virgin Mary. (Interesting that we got a broken Madonna statue
in the "Lost" season finale, too.)
-- I thought the contaminated water was all over the world
already. Why
didn't the APO team get infected?
-- The wall of water was a return to the season one cliffhanger.
And Vaughn escaped it this time, only to fall victim to a
Ford Focus.
-- No Katya in this one, and now Yelena is (thankfully) dead.
Too bad that
we'll never the three Derevko sisters together.
-- That guy Brodien who asked Sydney not to put any more
holes in him right before he got rebarred by a zombie was
the one Sydney dressed up and stuck an earring in, earlier
this season.
-- Weiss and Marshall holding the fort was very cute ("What
would Jack do in this situation?") They talked about
cliques and high school; there was a similar riff on "Lost."
-- I often turn on the close captioning the second time I
watch an episode, and close captioning often starts with an
ad. This time, it started out with "Close captioning
by Ford." Those chickens had better watch out.
-- This season ender was so Buffy-like, what with the zombies
and the
Apocalypse and the Sydney and Nadia fight to the death resembling
Buffy and Faith. But somehow, not the same.
-- Jack: "The last year has made me re-evaluate certain
parts of my life.
I'm trying to have more fun these days." :)
-- Irina: "Rambaldi wrote, when blood-red horses run
to the streets and
angels fall from the sky, the Chosen One and the Passenger
will clash and only one of them will survive." Jack:
"You really are through the looking glass, aren't you?"
-- Could Spy Family chuting in be considered "angels
falling from the sky"?
-- This week's itinerary: Sevogda, home of the big red apocalypse,
and Santa Barbara, the place Vaughn never quite gets Sydney
to.
Three spies for the apocalypse plot and five for the cliffhanger,
which
evens out to four out of five spies. All in all, season four
was a bit
choppy and I wasn't thrilled with so many stand-alone episodes,
but we did get some awesome arc stories and an absolutely
classic cliffhanger. I do love this show.
Billie
http://www.billiedoux.com/
- Review by Billie Doux
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