Review of Episode 1: Prophet 5
09/29/2005
Marshall: "I mean, we're friends. We do lunch."
I don't like this.
Dan said halfway through that he felt they were yanking his
chain, and I think he's right. When Lehman was talking about
how the people who were after the book would stop at nothing
to silence Vaughn, I thought, aha! The new bad guys have to
think that Lehman and Vaughn are dead, or they'll never stop
looking for them. And hey, closed coffin, right? Did the bad
guys find a way to extract Vaughn again? Did APO? Was he wearing
squibs? Were the doctors in Italy (and Sydney and Jack) faking
it?
I don't know. And I'm not sure enough to feel good about
it. If Vaughn is really dead and Vartan out of the show, I
am seriously bummed. They spent four years developing Vaughn
as a character, and now he's gone. I didn't feel moved by
his death scene; I felt manipulated and pissed off. I'm bummed
about Nadia's "permanent coma," too. They spent
an entire season developing Nadia as a character, and now
she's gone, too. I almost don't want to watch this season.
And as feminist as I am, frankly, I feel uncomfortable with
the pregnancy thing, too. Wouldn't it have worked better if
they'd written Sydney out of the show or minimized her role
until Jennifer Garner gave birth? What about the loss of Sydney's
eggs? Wouldn't a Rambaldi plot make more sense, considering
that they tried something along these lines before?
So what do we know at this point? That the Mueller device,
designed by Rambaldi, has something to do with Prophet Five,
the "book" project that Lehman, "Bill Vaughn,"
and Rene Rienne's father all worked on. That Vaughn chose
to become Sydney's handler six years ago because of the Mueller
device. That Vaughn was working with Rienne, a "known
criminal," to find out what happened to his father. Yes,
Vaughn had his own agenda, but this isn't like Irina: how
does this add up to double agent? Am I being dense?
Bits and pieces:
-- There was no credit sequence. We have three new cast members:
Rachel Nichols, whom I think we saw as super-hacker for a
moment; Elodie Bouchez as Rene Rienne, and Balthazar Getty
(did we see him here?). Greg Grunberg was listed as a special
guest star. I don't like that. And there was no Mia Maestro.
I don't like that, either.
-- The best part of this episode was Sydney telling Vaughn
she was pregnant right before they jumped off the cliff.
-- Michael Vaughn's real name was Andre Michaux. Not that
it matters, since he's been Michael Vaughn since he was eighteen
months old. His father's watch was more than a keepsake. I
wonder if Lauren knew that when she got it fixed?
-- Jack is the APO director now, and Sloane is in jail. How
did Jack miss Gordon Dean being a ghost? That's not like Jack.
-- I liked the bit with Dixon telling Sydney that he should
have trusted her back in the SD-6 days.
-- I wish we'd seen Vaughn and Weiss waltzing. My mental
picture has to be enough, I guess.
-- All of the shots on Jennifer Garner in this episode were
designed to conceal her pregnancy. To me, it was like a neon
sign.
-- This week's itinerary: Cape Town, London, somewhere in
Italy, Mexico City, and a road halfway between L.A. and Santa
Barbara.
-- This week's hot look: Well, sort of. Long blonde hair,
gorgeous print dress, scarf strategically draped to disguise
her pregnancy.
-- Vaughn: "Owen. Sounds like something you name a gerbil."
Sydney: "Clementine is cute." Vaughn: "For
a fruit." Sydney: "It's also a name." Vaughn:
"It's also a campfire song." They did settle on
a name: Isabelle Bristow Vaughn. Very pretty.
I liked this episode a little more when I stopped feeling
pissed off and looked at it objectively. But still, it was
unsatisfying. Two out of four spies,
Billie
- Review by Billie Doux
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