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Alias
A Missing Link
original air-date: 10-19-03
Be
Kind. Rewind: Jack prevented Marshall from identifying
Syd as Lazarey's murderer, Lauren and Sydney clashed for the
first time, and Spy Girl and Boy Scout embarked on a mission
together just like old times.
While this week's episode has some major issues concerning
believability (we'll get to that soon enough), it did entertain
and helped expand on this season's big mystery: what exactly
happened to Sydney Bristow?
At the
beginning of the episode, we're right where we left off. Syd's
conflicted about killing Lazarey and Jack tells her that keeping
her involvement a secret is the only way for her to really
learn the truth without being subjected to mind-numbing pain.
Spy Girl later tells her father that maybe she should have
told the CIA what happened immediately after she found out
because she thinks the procedures the government would perform
on her can't be any worse than the pain of not knowing. Jack
counters with an emotional, "Yes, they can."
Obviously,
the writers are hinting that Jack might have first hand experience
regarding the techniques the CIA uses to recover memories.
Perhaps, they used some of them on the senior Agent Bristow
after Laura/Irina died/disappeared.
Of course,
Jack's superb parenting skills are called into question later
in the episode when he reveals Syd's crime to Dixon. Yes,
it was a smart idea to tell the truth after Sydney was assigned
to a deep cover case because Dixon cannot inform Laura or
the NSC without jeopardizing the mission, but what happens
when the operation ends? Won't Spy Daughter then be subject
to the very practices that Daddy was trying to protect her
from?
It's possible
that Jack believes that Sydney will recover her memory so
that the CIA won't have to go to extremes to find out what
happened, but all in all this just seemed like a huge leap
in reasoning for the normally level-headed Jack.
 Speaking
of things that didn't make sense, why was Vaughn called into
Dixon's office with Sydney when it was revealed that she was
Lazarey's murderer? There was no reason for him to be present,
he was not involved in concealing the tape at all, and the
scene would have worked just as well if he hadn't been there.
The main purpose of exposing Vaughn to Sydney's indiscretion
was so that he'd have to lie to Lauren and the writers could
create even more tension between husband and wife and further
complicate the Syd-Vaughn-Lauren triangle. Because, you know,
there just wasn't enough angst between the three of them to
begin with (insert eyeroll here).
The best
part of the episode had to do with the mission to stop a group
of criminals from getting their hands on bio-weapons. The
head of this group is Simon Walker, a British man who seems
to be in league with Sark and the Covenant in some capacity
or another. Walker also knows Sydney not as her Spy Girl self,
but as an assassin named Julia. Syd, whether she is just a
really good improviser or subconsciously remembers how her
alter ego behaved, has little problem slipping into the role
of Julia.
The fact
that Syd was not just a mindless killer being controlled by
some outside source, but had an actual identity and relationships
during the two years she can't remember is very intriguing.
She obviously was used for someone else's purposes, but it
seems that she was also capable of independent thought and
decision-making. This will most likely cause Syd to feel double
the guilt, which will up the overall angst factor of the show.
Goody.
While
we're on the subject of angst, the number of tormented looks
exchanged between Boy Scout and his former love peaked at
four this episode. Doesn't seem like too high a number, does
it? But, when you consider that the show is an average of
42 minutes in length, divided by a total of four looks, that
forces us viewers to sit and watch one of these longing-tortured
gazes every 10.5 minutes. Add in the factor that the tension
between the two is rapidly increasing and we may soon see
a show that has no dialogue; it will just be a show about
two people staring at each other. Man, I knew math would come
in handy some day.
 Let's move on to my favorite part of this episode; the sheer
ridiculousness of the scene where Syd has to steal a necklace
in order to become a part of Simon Walker's team. First of
all, there's no way Spy Girl would have walked away from a
dive off a balcony that high into a pool that wasn't that
deep without so much as a scratch on her. And, second, there
is no way that all those people around that pool wouldn't
have reacted in some way to her death-defying jump, and I
mean other than a pool boy handing her a towel. Third, the
necklace is seen wrapped around Syd's ankle when she gets
back to the team's van, but it is not shown on her anywhere
when she dives and it's highly unlikely that it would stay
of her ankle in this situation anyway. So, the question is:
Was this simply another scene created to get Ms. Garner to
strip down to her skivvies?
The answer
is an emphatic yes, and the sad part is they have accomplished
this task with more believability in past episodes, so you'd
think they'd have it down to a science by now.
This week's
cliffhanger, Vaughn passed out in the woods after Sydney stabs
him, is really no cliffhanger at all. We all know that Spy
Boy will live to see another day and share many more deeply
meaningful gazes with Syd and wifey (if any one wants to place
bets on exactly how many, feel free to email me). Learning
the truth about Sydney's disappearance and finding out exactly
what her split personality Julia was up to while Ms. Bristow's
brain was on sabbatical is something to look forward to. Seeing
more of the already tiresome triangle is something to dread.
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