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Alias
After Six
original air-date: 02-15-04
Be
Kind. Rewind: Jack was told to kill Sloane, Syd
and Vaughn shared a near-death kiss, and Lauren stepped
up her evil actions for the Covenant against the CIA.
I’m
a TV junkie. I freely admit it and embrace it, no matter
how nerdy it may make me appear. And, despite the perks
that being an addict affords me, such as dozens of VHS tapes
and DVDs immediately available for my viewing pleasure or
tons of useless knowledge about all of my favorite shows
and their characters, there are certain pitfalls to my obsession.
For example, there is a certain sinking feeling that every
truly obsessed fan gets in his or her stomach after they
watch an awesome episode of their favorite show, only to
learn that the damn network isn’t going to give you
another fix for three weeks! Denial is the first response,
followed by the grave knowledge that you will be going through
serious withdrawal during this time period.
Of course,
this is exactly what I’m experiencing after watching
this week’s episode “After Six.” What
does ABC need to bump Alias for? I mean, who watches
the Oscars anyway?
My petty
ranting aside, “After Six” is the best episode
we’ve seen in a long time and that is largely due
to the fact that villains with actual personalities, rather
than the nameless Russian or Korean generals we’re
used to, have returned to the show.
Who
in their right mind would have thought that watching Sark
and Lauren on an international killing spree would not only
be entertaining, but far more interesting than watching
whatever it was that Sydney and Vaughn were up to? I sure
as heck didn’t, but I was pleasantly surprised by
how much chemistry these two baddies have. Melissa George’s
Lauren is far more amusing when she’s being an evil,
scheming murderess than when she’s pretending to play
house with Vaughn. Throw her together with the ever-smirking
Sark, add a plan to become higher ups in the Covenant and
you’ve got a hell of a good time.
Personally,
I’m willing to give up on Syd and Vaughn right now
and urge J.J. Abrams to devote more screen time to this
sexy and twisted relationship. There’s no longing
looks or woeful subtext between these two; with Sark and
Lauren it’s all about lust and backstabbing, and there’s
nothing more fun than that.
Though
SpyGirl and Boyscout are still the main focus of the show,
their pining for each other was, thankfully, kept to a minimum
by the need for an actual plot to take place.
The
best scene of the entire episode happens when Marshall tries
to get the pair through a series of death traps (created
by useless guest star Vivica A. Fox) while simultaneously
getting Weiss ordained so he can marry pregnant girlfriend
Carrie before she is rushed off to have their baby. Few
shows could mix comedy and suspense this well, but the writers
and director made this look like a walk in the park…minus
the land mines of course.
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Ms.
Fox might not have made much of an impression on viewers,
but bringing Quentin Tarantino back as Cole, who is now
“the man in front of the man” at the Covenant,
was a stroke of genius. Tarantino’s character is just
wacky enough to be funny and just scary enough to be believable
as a cold-blooded killer. Again, allowing villains to have
not only names, but also character seems to make all the
difference when it comes to watch-ability. Hopefully, he’ll
hang around for a few episodes now that he seems to be in
charge of Lauren and Sark’s actions within the mysterious
organization.
Sloane’s
storyline was confusing and not really worth trying to figure
out. He has a big secret, one that plagues him and drives
him to inject himself with some weird looking green drug.
Like this is something all that original. All bad guys turned
good guys are troubled in some way or another, so what sets
Sloane apart from the rest of them?
Whatever
his big secret is, it will most likely be revealed when
the next new episode airs, which is about 20 days, 21 hours
and 9 minutes from time that this review was written. Not
that I’m counting or anything.
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