Review of Episode 5: Welcome to Liberty Village
1/26/2005
Weiss: "You guys are about as spontaneous as my grandparents.
And they're dead."
Was this episode fluff? Could be. Did it have the usual "Alias"
angst?
Probably not. Did I love it? Absolutely. I'm not saying that
I want every
episode to be like the Russian Assassins of Stepford, but
I thought "Liberty Village" was great fun, especially
after last week's amputation-fest.
It was time for a Sydney/Vaughn episode, and it was inspired
to put them in a cliched romance novel situation: undercover,
and pretending to be married. The plot-convenient October
Contingent assassin couples kinda made sense: you don't expect
a loving couple to be assassins, after all. And I loved the
"boring and cold" dialogue, the tuna casserole,
the Used Car Dealership of Death, and the dinner in Paris
plane hijacking.
Last week, Vaughn confessed to someone else, with Sydney
listening, about killing Lauren; this week, he told someone
else, with Sydney listening, about what he had planned for
their aborted weekend in Santa Barbara at the end of season
two. Vaughn seems to have trouble telling Sydney things directly,
doesn't he?
What can the writers do to make this "boring and cold"
relationship fresh
again? The season three Lauren thing never worked for me;
I just found it frustrating. Will it ever be the same after
the no-touching passion from
afar of the SD-6 years? Was this a step in the right direction?
Maybe just
letting them have fun, the way they did in this episode, is
the answer. And
maybe not.
It did feel like the episode was conveniently (via the electro-magnetic
device) over too soon, but the EMT wasn't the focus of the
episode, after
all.
The B-plot this week introduced an intriguing new Spy Family
mystery. And I quote:
Sloane: "So Alexei made good on his promise."
Jack: "Which means our suspicions regarding Sentinel
are accurate. The
Russians are searching for Elena Derevko."
Sloane: "We will have to move up our timetable."
(Jack nods.)
What the heck is going on here? It appears that "Sentinel"
and Irina's
sister Elena are the same, and that makes Elena a spy as well.
(At first I
thought they were talking about Irina -- those names are too
similar.) At
least I was right about Jack and Sloane being in cahoots about
something; we just don't know what it is yet.
This episode was written by Buffy/Angel-alum Drew Goddard,
which may be one reason why I liked it so much. The dialogue
sparkled, so I'm giving this review its very own quote section:
-- Sydney: "We're choosing not to be spontaneous."
Vaughn: "Exactly."
-- Tom the assassin: "If you two are half as good as
rumored, we're in for a treat."
-- Marshall: "More importantly, why are they all dressed
up like the
Cleavers?"
-- Sydney: "He didn't call us boring. He called us cold."
-- Phil, the salesman: "Few things scream freedom like
a brand new
convertible. You put the top down and excitement blows through
your hair."
-- Sydney: "We're attacking an investment firm?"
-- Vaughn: "They tried to kill us over a car. I mean,
if we stay, they might
send us to a supermarket and launch grenades at us."
Bits and pieces:
-- Weiss and Nadia on a bowling date? I wish they'd given
us about two
minutes of that.
-- Coincidentally, Tom the assassin mentioned that Liberty
Village had a
bowling alley. And a fried chicken franchise.
-- Alexei Vasilievich? Isn't Vasilievich a patronymic? So...
no last name
for Alexei.
-- Alexei mentioned that Irina had been "attached"
to Jack. And Marshall
commented on how sweet Jack's inscription to Irina was. Jack
appeared
offended at being referred to as "sweet." :)
-- Sister number three Elena Derevko, or at least her baby,
was mentioned last week, too. Clue anvils. Do you think maybe
we're going to be meeting Elena sometime soon?
-- There has yet to be mention of Marshall's wife, Carrie.
I'm starting to
wonder what's going on there.
-- This week's itinerary: Moscow, and a mystery facility
in the land of
tundra and turnips.
-- This week's language skills: Sydney and Vaughn, both with
the Russian.
-- This week's hot look: Going with a wet look this week,
with Sydney and
Vaughn naked in the shower. It looked like Sydney was wearing
pearls. Just pearls.
Part of me wants to give this episode a five, even though
it was so fluffy.
But I'm also aware that this wasn't a classic great episode
in the grand
"Alias" scheme of things. So...
Four out of five stars,
Billie
- Review by Billie Doux
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