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Alias
Blowback
original air-date: 03-08-04
Be
Kind. Rewind: Marshall became a dad. Sloane had a secret
he was unwilling to divulge to the CIA's shrink. Lauren and
Sark teamed up to create an evil and sexy duo.
Alias
fans waited three long weeks for a new episode and all their
patience was rewarded with was an episode that can be summed
up in one word: disappointing.
Not only
did we have to suffer through another car chase that was little
more than a shameless promotion for Ford cars and trucks ("Quick!"
Syd shouted, "The F-150!"), but we were treated
to an episode that repeated half a dozen scenes over and over.
Whereas this season's "Full
Disclosure" repeated scenes from episodes past, "Blowback"
repeated several scenes told from different points of view.
Now to
some this may have seemed inventive, telling the story through
the eyes of different characters, but, in my opinion, it didn't
work in this episode. The general purpose of structuring an
episode in such a way is so that the audience can get the
entire truth from various perspectives, only in this case
we didn't need the writers to come out and give us all this
extra information. We knew that the person that had called
Lauren early in the morning was Sark, and we knew that wifey
and her new partner were the ones that had been at the facility
infecting the CIA's system with a virus.
The shifts
in perspective didn't allow us to learn anything significant
that we couldn't have learned from this episode being structured
in a more normal manner. All this little trick really did
was confuse and frustrate the viewers by overlapping scenes
where fresh material could have been added to help flesh out
the plot.
The only
good thing about seeing some of these scenes more than once
was that Lauren and Sark's antics were the focus of most of
them, which is a blast to watch. Speaking of the couple, which,
ahem, consummated their relationship in this episode, their
lively banter and searing chemistry were what made "Blowback"
interesting. You can just tell that Melissa George and David
Anders are having a great time playing the backstabbing twosome
because it comes across on-screen.
Props
must also be given to the writers for adding a bit more jealousy
to this love triangle/square/rectangle thing they have going
on here. At the end of the episode, Vaughn holds a disguised
Lauren at gunpoint while Sark has his own weapon trained on
Sydney. Sark tells him that if Vaughn loves SpyGirl, he'll
drop the gun. He does so and the look in Lauren's masked eyes
is one of rage. She doesn't really love him, but it's obvious
that she sure as hell doesn't want him to love Sydney.
Lauren
isn't the only one being possessed by the green-eyed monster.
Sark calls Lauren while she's out with Vaughn and eggs her
on, saying that it must have killed her to watch Vaughn drop
the gun for Sydney. Obviously, Sark is feeling a little left
out of the complicated quadrangle and feels the need to let
Lauren know that he isn't going anywhere.
Marshall,
for the 1000th time, served as this episode's comic relief.
The poor guy got zero sleep thanks to his newborn son and
the pressure to find out where a plasma charge weapon is being
shipped, and he still managed to be amusing, despite the exhaustion.
In between pictures of the estimated damage this bomb could
cause, he throws in pictures of his baby boy and when Vaughn
is trying to diffuse the weapon, all he can say is "You
can do it" over and over again. He provided just the
amount of funny that was needed in this disjointed episode.
Sloane's
little revelation to Dr. Barnett was not even worth all the
build up surrounding it. If they do go this route and we find
that Sloane is Syd's daddy dearest, then it will be regarded
as little more than a cheap, borrowed plot device from Star
Wars rather than a shocking twist. Hopefully, the writers
have more sense than that and there's something else going
on here that will be revealed in episodes to come.
With a
preview announcing that the show is "All New" for
the remainder of the season, all fans can do is sit back,
watch and hope we won't have the misfortune of hearing Sloane
say, "Sydney, I am your father."
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