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Alias
Firebomb
original air-date: 02-23-03
Be
Kind Rewind: In "A Free Agent" Dixon told his
wife all about SD-6 and how the CIA wanted him to come work
for the good guys. Diane told him she would leave him if he
did join up. Sloane took mathematician Neil Caplan and his
family hostage and forced Caplan to work on putting together
the Rambaldi device by threatening to kill his wife and child
if he didn't cooperate. Sydney and Vaughn rescued Caplan's
family and learned that Sloane was on his way to a Swiss bank
where he went to retrieve a device that will help Caplan's
work. At the bank Syd, Vaughn and Sloane faced off, guns pointed,
but Sloane was holding an ace up his sleeve. If Sydney didn't
agree to drive Sloane away from the bank then he would set
off a bomb that he rigged the building with.
Before
we begin the review, congrats should go out to Alias
cast members Jennifer Garner, Victor Garber, and Lena Olin.
All three were nominated for Emmys this past Thursday for
their portrayals of the deliciously twisted Bristow family.
Now, if only the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences could
get it right in whole lot of other categories then we would
be living in a perfect world. But, I guess possessing taste
or brains isn't a prerequisite to becoming a voting member
of the academy, so what can you do?
Anyway,
"Firebomb" picks up where "A Free Agent"
left off, with Sydney driving Sloane's getaway car. The first
ten minutes of the episode suspiciously resemble an ad for
Ford Focus, with many shots of the "Focus" logo
on the back of the car and even a dialogue between Vaughn
and Marshall about the make and model. Thankfully, after this
shameless advertising plug, the episode picks up.
However,
I was totally expecting them to throw in at least one Nokia
cell phone ring somewhere.
Sloane
escapes by jumping from the car into an awaiting van and Sydney
later tells Kendall that they aren't doing enough to try to
capture Sloane. Syd and Vaughn have a cute moment after they
come home from a hockey game, but it turns sour when they
find a bug in Sydney's apartment planted by Evil! Francie
who sets up and then murders Sydney's plumber so the dastardly
deed cannot be traced back to her.
 After
Caplan finishes his work on the Rambaldi device, Sloane makes
his way to Kandahar to meet up with a warlord named Kabir
who can finance Sloane's ambitious plans for world domination.
The CIA learns that these two fellows are pooling their resources,
but the problem is they don't know where Sloane and Kabir
are. The only one who does is Dixon and he's not giving them
any information.
Kendall
brings in two smarty pants from Harvard to try to figure out
who in the world could give them information about where Kabir's
headquarters are, but it's Will who ends up making the best
suggestion. Will informs them that Kabir's ex-wife is living
in Mexico City and that she might be the one to give them
the intel they need. Bradley Cooper is adorable in this scene
as a nervous yet remarkably well informed Will.
Since
there is some doubt as to who will return to the drama in
season three, let me just say that Cooper is definitely a
keeper. Like Kevin Weissman (Marshall) and Greg Grunberg (Weiss),
Cooper has the ability to be extremely humorous, but he can
also play serious and vulnerable, qualities that enable him
to make Will work on many different levels. So do us fans
a favor, J.J; save some money on those crazy outfits you put
Ms. Garner in every week and keep Mr. Cooper in the cast.
Moving
on. Before Kabir is willing to provide Sloane with what he
needs the warlord wants to know that Sloane can provide the
goods that he claims to have, which is the weapon that Caplan
put together. Sloane tells Kabir to pick the first target
and he chooses none other than his ex-wife, Aliyah Kazabi,
the same woman that the CIA is sending Vaughn and Sydney to
Mexico City to meet with.
 Disguised
as a frumpy old lady, a first for Garner who we're used to
seeing in more jaw dropping attire, Sydney makes her way to
a church close to where Kazabi's office is. What she and Vaughn
don't realize is that Sark is there getting ready to test
the weapon on the selected target. While Kazabi refuses to
help Sydney, the CIA picks up a satellite transmission that
contains the word "Rambaldi" from just outside the
church's coordinates.
Syd, Vaughn
and a knocked out Kazabi (hey, it was for her own good), flee
the scene, only to hear Weiss tell then that there is a huge
inferno behind them. They see nothing, but when they return
to the church they find the incinerated bodies of those that
did not escape the device's effects. The people burned from
the inside out and had no way of protecting themselves. After
seeing this, Kazabi agrees to give the CIA what it needs.
You've
got to give props to the crack-geniuses that make up the writing
staff for this gruesome little death scene. It was, to say
the least yucky, and convinced us all that with the Rambaldi
inventions Sloane could cause some major damage. Then again,
they could have just thought it'd be fun to light some stuntmen
on fire. There's a little pyromaniac in us all. To thank Sloane
for supposedly killing his ex-wife Kabir gives him a Buddhist
statue that he has been admiring since he arrived and the
money he needs to continue his work.
Sydney
uses the information that Kazabi gave the CIA to locate Kabir's
headquarters where she tries to steal the weapon, but the
intelligence that Kazabi provided turns out to be faulty and
she gets captured. Vaughn tells Kendall to get her out of
there, but, like the bastard he is, he refuses to risk any
more agents, so Vaughn goes to the one man that can help him…Dixon.
Sydney
refuses to speak while Kabir holds her hostage even though
he says that he will kill her if she does not confess that
she's CIA. All hope seems lost, as Kabir gets ready to take
out Spy Girl's knee caps, but Vaughn accompanied by Dixon
gets her out of there in the nick of time.
At the
end of the episode, Sark complains about how the CIA got away
with the weapon when they rescued Sydney and doesn't understand
how Sloane can be happy about all this. Sloane, choosing to
ignore Sark for the moment, picks up the statue that Kabir
gave him and smashes it. Inside is a piece of paper that just
happens to be the missing piece to the front page of Rambaldi's
manuscript.
Considering
the breakneck pace that this series usually runs at, this
episode seems impossibly long, not that that's a bad thing.
Many times I find that the show ends too quickly, making me
wish it were next Sunday already, but this episode managed
to juggle a ton of plot points in a single hour without being
too confusing (says the reviewer as she realizes that this
review is nearly three pages long).
Just do
us a favor guys, stop wasting show time by trying to sell
us Nokia cell phones and Ford Focuses. That's what commercials
are for last time I checked.
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