| Alias
The Getaway
Be
Kind. Rewind: Kane continued her investigation of Jack,
Irina helped the CIA block SD-6's access to Echelon, and Syd
and Dixon rescued Marshall.
Watching
a weekly television series is kind of like being on a roller
coaster ride. Some episodes are phenomenal leaving you feeling
completely jazzed, while some episodes suck and make you wish
you hadn't eaten that corn dog before you struck out on your
adventure. But then there are episodes that are just kind
of level, leaving you feeling neither high nor low.
"The
Getaway" is basically a level episode. There are some
good moments in this episode and some important things happen,
but most of it feels like a set up for the following show,
"Phase One" which is quite possibly the best episode
of Alias to date.
Having
said that, this hour is not without certain merits, or flaws,
so let the review begin.
At the
top of the hour we find Jack fleeing Ms. Kane's lackeys. In
a scene that is clearly paying homage to the series' pilot
episode, Spy Daddy runs into a parking garage only to hear
the sound of screeching tires. A car pulls up beside him and
he draws his gun and points it directly at…Sydney. She
is less than thrilled when she finds out that the Alliance
is trying to take down her Daddy and becomes even more enraged
when she learns that Vaughn knew about Jack's problems and
did not inform her.
Syd and
Dixon are sent on assignment to Nice, France to steal a Gyroscope
(a device that, from as far as I can tell, could make any
ordinary bomb or missile into a really deadly weapon) from
a guy named Schatz at an airport. Syd and Vaughn continue
to argue as he gives her the counter mission, but, thankfully,
before they get very far we see that the Weiss man is back.
After being in the hospital for three months, because of an
injury sustained while trying to capture Derevko, Agent Weiss
is back in action.
I have
said it before, but it needs to be said again: I adore Eric
Weiss and the actor that plays him, Greg Grunberg, whose talents
were wasted on J.J Abrams' Felicity. With his zingy
one-liners and snappy comebacks, Weiss is a joy to watch,
whether he is talking about a mission or about his dog peeing
on the living room carpet.
Like Marshall,
Weiss is just the kind of comic relief that a show like this
needs to keep it from becoming too heavy handed. And, lucky
us, according to this weeks TV Guide (July 12-18) we will
be seeing a lot more of Mr. Grunberg next season when he becomes
a series regular. A very smart move on the powers that be's
part.
So, Sydney
gets the Gyroscope without much difficulty and while wearing
another provocative outfit (Aren't you supposed to be inconspicuous
when you're a spy?). While the CIA techies are hard at work
trying to forge a fake one that she can fork over to Sloane,
Syd agrees to go to dinner with Vaughn who has been encouraged
to seize the day by an "enlightened" Weiss.
They go,
they eat, they flirt, and it was all rather nauseating watching
them pine after each other from across the table and talk
awkwardly about pets and code names. Unfortunately, at least
for them, their little date was broken up by a bunch of Kane's
operatives, who obviously didn't know who they were fighting
and ended up dead courtesy of a quick thinking Vaughn.
And so
the angst between the twosome continues. Thank God J.J. ended
the "will they, won't they" torture in the following
episode because if it had gone on any longer there would have
been serious damage to my television set.
Spy Daddy
teams up with his former wife to try to figure out who really
blackmailed the Alliance and killed Sloane's wife. And they
soon discover that it was none other than Ms. Kane herself.
Jack is cleared and he is left in charge of SD-6 while Sloane
goes on "vacation"; a vacation that involves securing
a device that lets Sloane talk without the Alliance hearing
him and a trip to the Philippines to meet up with his not-so-dead
wife. The episode concludes with the two embracing and Arvin
declaring them to be "free".
I'm gonna
use the roller coaster analogy just one more time. This episode
might not have been the most thrilling ride in the entire
park, but it isn't the worst either. Think of it this way;
you could be stuck riding the teacups.
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