Legion World Forums LEGION COMPANION The Anywhere Machine Alias 2001-2006 (Spoilers)

cool post Stealth !!

i need to look over my DVDs and choose my favourites, although mine will only be up to season 3, and a few episodes from season 4, so far !!

actually, my next episode to watch is .... 'Nocturne' !! so i'm looking forward to seeing that one !!

the first one that comes to mind is from season 3, 'Full Disclosure' where Director Kendell reveals all to Sydney, about her missing 2 years, i loved that one !!

i'll get back to you with my next 4 episodes .....

Matthew.

I don't know the names of any of these, but off the top of my head:

-- The episode that pits uber couples Syd and Vaughn against Sark and Lauren. Lots of twists and double-agent turns and an interesting comparison / contrast between the (three if you count Vaughn/Lauren) couples.
-- The one where they take down SD-6. I really didn't see it coming. This was a major change in status quo and Vaughn and Syd finally get together!
-- The one where Irina breaks out and double-crosses Jack -- again!!

I can't really remember any other specific episodes, but there were a lot of them -- this show was consistantly great for longer than most before this season.

Specific moments/episodes I loved:

1. the sight of Francie's murdered body, only to have the camera pan to Francie's evil double!!!

2. the awesome kickbutt fight scene with evil Francie and Sydney to the "death" which acted as a springboard for Syd's missing year storyline

3. Vaughn and Sydney posing as a married couple in the suburban spy neighbourhood and having to face off with another couple at the car dealership - a great hybrid idea on the Truman Show/The Most Dangerous Game concept

4. Syd and Vaughn's car crash and Vaughn's revelation: "My name isn't Michael Vaughn."

5. the triumphant return of Vaughn ---alas, one can only dream

Thank you all. This is simply wonderful.

Matt, "Full Disclosure" is a favorite of mine as well; even though Terry O'Quinn is excellent on Lost, I still think he's always at his best when he's called on to bring much-needed substance to generic authority figure characters such as Kendall.

And please share your thoughts on "Nocturne" in this thread once you've seen it. I would be very interested to read them.

Drake, I totally agree on the Syd/Vaughn versus Sark/Lauren one; as I've said before, I think the whole bizarre love triangle-turned-bizarre love quadrangle was one of the best things about Season Three.

Owl Lad, good call on the Truman Show/Most Dangerous Game episode; another great example of a Season Four stand-alone that really did work.

If anyone else wants to contribute their favorite episodes/scenes, you're still welcome to.

And here's the next question: what was your favorite one of Sydney's aliases?

It's difficult to choose just one, but I choose Beatrice Cunelli, the very wealthy and very demanding Italian lady on holiday in Morocco.

No one else has a favorite Sydney alias? Oh well.

Here's another question: who do you think will still be standing when the end credits roll for the final time?

My guesses are:

Alive: Sydney, Rachel, Nadia, Dixon, Marshall, Boring New Guy Whose Name I Can't Be Bothered To Remember

Dead: Jack, Sloane, Irina

Interesting -- so the parents have ultimately pay for their sins? Any predictions about Syd's baby?

I want to say that Nadia will die, but she's the source of Slaone's redemption and I think JJ wants to redeem him. I almost feel that one of those two has to die. Irina will probably vanish again, her fate undetermined.

Marshall's wife will reveal herself to be a witch and use a time traveling spell to allow Sydney a chance to save Vaughn...

Regardless of who lives or dies I really wonder whether JJ Abrams will opt for a "happily ever after" kind of ending or leave us with a "WTF?!?" ending. Hard to say (this is the guy behind "Lost" after all). I'm leaning towards him wanting to wrap things up sentimentally (this is the guy behind "Felicity" after all) especially since the overall arc of the series has been about Sydney trying to reconcile her work and her family life. It would be incomplete if she didn't manage to do that by the end (which is why killing Vaughn was such a wrong move).

Or the last scene will be Felicity Porter-Covington waking up from a five year coma and saying to Ben, "I just had the weirdest dream"...

That's where I think it seems to be headed -- if it happens, I won't be 100% happy (I'll come back to that in a moment) but at least I'll know my prediction was right.

I predict the last shot will be of Sydney with her baby, and it will be either hinted or stated that she is determined to be the Anti-Irina.

Adding to the possibility that Sloane rather than Nadia will die: I read a very minor item last month (can't remember where, sorry) reporting that Ron Rifkin had filmed his final scenes for Alias, and was headed to New York to star in a play.



There is a dark side to me that wishes that would happen, because Irina is the ultimate wish-fulfillment character for that side of me -- she gets away with everything, and always looks beautiful doing it. But I still predict that all three of the shows parental figures will meet their end. I should add that I think the only way Jack and Irina -- the most indestructible characters in the Alias Universe -- could ever die is if they kill each other.





I predict the "happily ever after" ending because, as I've said in the Lost thread, it's my opinion that Lost is a JJ Abrams show in name only. I agree that the death of Vaughan has diminished the possibility of a fully satisfying ending, and it's sad when real life intrudes on a good TV show's story the way it has with Alias. I have a feeling we're going to see Vaughan near the end, as a guardian angel to Sydney and their baby.




Better yet, Felicity will be sitting at the bedside, and the one waking up from the coma will be Hannah Bibb, the character Jennifer Garner played on that show!

some cool thoughts on how you think the series will end !!

i'm not sure what sort of ending i'd like to see ??

a happy resolve or a 'cliffhanger' leaving more questions .........

Matthew.

Still five weeks to go. *sigh*

This thread's last question for the moment is a poll question:

Which Alias character was funnier: Marshall Flinkman or Eric Weiss?

I vote for Marshall, so that starts us off at:

MARSHALL -- 1

WEISS -- 0

my vote goes to Marshall !! much funnier IMO !!

loved the episode from season 4, where he has to be the agent to save Sydney !! i thought it was interesting that in this same episode, it featured Marshall's car as being a silver MINI !!

wonder why they picked this car, over anything else !!?? i suppose in the US where most cars a pretty big on the whole, a MINI is probably the smallest car you guys have on the roads !!

Matthew.

i've now come to the end of season 4 !!

great final episodes, although on the whole, i thought this season lacked 'direction' in some way !? [ does that make sense ! ] i just thought the 2nd and 3rd season had a more defined storyline running through them ! this one sort of seemed to have more 'one off' episodes !!

don't get me wrong, i still loved it !! and there were some great moments, i thought the SLONE 'clone' was great and Joel Grey was some great casting !!

the episode directed by Jennifer was great and it was cool seeing some of Slone's 'backstory' and the return of Amy Irving !!

the episode where Syd has to pretend to be Irena [ to Jack ] was amazing !!

and of course the return of Irena in the final 2 episodes was brilliant, she's such a great character !! and Lena Olin is cool !! hope she returns in season 5 !!

and of course the cliffhanger with the car crash was unexpected !! [ although i knew Vaughn dies, i had thought it had happened during the end battle, and not after the fact !!

and the reveal that Michael Vaughn is not his real name is interesting !!??

i had read in some gossip magazines [ here in the UK ] that Jennifer Gardner had got Michael Vartan taken off the show, because of their break-up from dating each other !!??

i hope this isn't true !!?? as that would be really sad on her part !!

on my DVD there are loads of outtakes, that feature many scenes of Michael and Jennifer together laughing when they mess up a scene, they seemed to get on really well still !! although i suppose they would show clips of them not getting on !!

guess i'm gonna have to wait a while till we get season 5, i now hope the ending has some big RAMALDI storyline that ties all the elements together from the 5 seasons !!

Matthew.

MARSHALL 2, WEISS 0

Oh god, driving in the States is such an exercise in absurdity, with all those big stupid things that barely fit inside the lanes.

The purpose of all the one-offs was to make the show more accessible to viewers who, in the past, had been intrigued by the show, but found it too confusing to jump right in. I was one of those viewers, and Season Four was the first time I really started following the show. This approach paid off, because Season Four's ratings were actually some of the best in the show's history, despite the uneven week-in-week-out quality. This current season's ratings went down because of the timeslot change, and the bad buzz from the Michael/Jennifer rumors and from the not-very-well-kept-secret that Michael was leaving. Plus ABC probably decided that since there were now enough episodes now for a rerun package, keeping Alias on the air was longer a priority (it's one of their most expensive shows, and in its first three seasons, it had a reputation for constantly going over schedule and over budget.

Irina is one of my favorites, and it looks like she's going to dominate the second half of Season Five.

I hope so, too, because despite many viewers' wariness of Rambaldi, I think it's really the backbone of the show.

The next episode has been delayed until April 19.

season 5 starts here in the UK at the end of this month !! and for the first time [ whilst watching 'ALIAS' ] i'm up to date with it, so when the new season airs, i can now watch it each week, as it's on !!

i can't wait ......

Matthew.

Excellent. And, as always, feel free to share your thoughts in this thread.

Okay, here's the schedule for the remaining episodes:

Wednesday, April 19, 8:00 (2 hours)

Wednesday, April 26, 8:00

Wednesday, May 3, 8:00

Wednesday, May 10, 8:00

Wednesday, May 17, 8:00

Monday, May 22, 9:00 (2 hours) (Series finale)

I'm not usually here at LW at night, but I'm going to be making exceptions on the above nights, to get my thoughts down as soon the episodes are over.

Firstly, I'll vote for Marshall - I mean, the guy's last name is "Flinkman", he was created for comedy! I think the second funniest character isn't even Weiss, it's Jack - either as straight man or when he shows his really dark sense of humor (usually when he's about to kill someone), it usually comes out of nowhere.

I'm psyched about these last episodes - I actually stopped watching the show when they brought in new characters and got rid Vaughn and sidelined Garner for her pregnancy. It was like the last season of "X-Files" in terms of a show losing what made it fun. But now it seems like they're going to throw everything and every old character back at us for the show's final round -- this should be fun!

Marshall 3, Weiss 0.

I agree that Jack has had some of the show's funniest moments. I didn't include him only because he's not a "comedy relief" character.

I stand by what I said earlier in the thread -- I think the first couple episodes of the new season were promising. But after that, it all started going very wrong. I still kept watching, though, hoping they'd find a way to turn it around. And they did, even if the cancellation was the catalyst. Yes, this show is definitely ending at just the right time.

On the other hand, it's hard to let go, especially since I didn't get into it until the fourth season.

When it's over, I think I'm gonna hit the reset button by using this thread to review all the episodes.

Hmmm...

The first hour was great, the second hour a little iffy but still good.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">It's a girl!

But how is it that, in 2006, we still can't see a realistic childbirth scene on TV?

Wait, there's more -- Vaughn's alive, in some Far East monestary.

At the start of the second hour, it looked like Irina was fooling Jack and Syd way too easily. But as Irina herself says, "It's never simple." Seems she's not the head of the evil organization, but rather she's using them for her own ends.

Boring New Guy's a double agent. Can't wait til he dies.

When even Marshall is stumped by a computer problem, Rachel has the answer.

Weiss appeared in the first hour, to help get our friends out of a jam. "Next time, just call."

The evil organization has their claws in the CIA itself.

Irina has a shocking but memorable speech about how she only had Syd under KGB orders, but when she held Syd for the first time, she realized she had to choose between being an agent or failing as a mother. "I chose to fail as a mother." A good reminder of why I never want to have children.</span></span>

Can't wait for the next episode.

<span class="spoiler_containter"><span class="spoiler_wording">Click Here For A Spoiler</span><span class="spoiler_text">Ana Espinosa's back!</span></span>

The UBB instant-spoiler thing is amazing. This post was the first time I ever used it.

That monestary scene was weird -- they almost certainly took old footage of some kind to splice the character in there (notice the preview for next week uses that same footage of the character as well).

It's always great to have Lena Olin on the show - she's so much better than those new agents. She just reeks of mystery and danger when she plays Irina. Amy Acker was good too (I suppose that finger twitch means we'll be seeing her again).

And yeah, that childbirth scene wasn't the best... she was in labor for what, six minutes?

Agreed.

Agree on Boring New Guy, but disagree on Rachel. I like her.


And she wasn't screaming and making threats. That scene was obviously filmed before Jennifer Garner had actual child-bearing experience to draw from.

After being tortured, thrown and punched and endured all that other uber spy stuff do you really think that giving birth would really harm Syd?

Trust me, it would.

Meanwhile, Nadia's recovery has depended on Sloane keeping a foot in both camps; he gets the cure for Nadia, but at the cost of helping the evil organization further their plans. From the previews for next week's episode, I predict that Sloane's going to die next week.</span></span>

The only things I liked about tonights episode both revolved around Rachel:

1. She slapped Boring New Guy. It was part of their cover, but still...priceless.

2. She had the best line: "Uh, guys, who's Rambaldi?"

Oh, and Sydney has named her daughter Isabella.

It was certainly nice to see Will again, but I don't know about his sudden ass-kicker status (Kragh Magah? Really?). At least he gets to bail Syd out of trouble for a change. I didn't mind the Syd duplicate thing so much since the process has been established already (I just hope we can avoid another "which one should I shoot?" scenario).

I missed something - when did we find out Syd and her dad faked Vaughn's death?