In the eighth episode of the third season of Alias, please give me a break. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Alias.
Trigger Warning: For extensive talk of racism, torture.
I feel like I need to write two reviews for “Breaking Point.â€
I
Gods, what an appropriate title. This is a huge episode in the season’s mythology, a chance for characters to make definitive choices that will forever change their arcs. (Especially for Lauren, y’all. I’M SO EXCITED.) But it’s also a particularly dark episode, one in which the villain is the U.S. government itself. (Or at least one part of the government; I think Alias in general is not quite ready to fully criticize America.) On a purely entertainment level, it’s a dizzying, frightening story, and I YELLED A LOT. LOTS OF YELLING.
One element of this that makes it so compelling is that these characters get deeper and deeper into this problem, so much so that the ending leaves the audience in disarray. All of the main characters except for Dixon (who is suspiciously absent… more on that in a second) break countless federal laws in order to rescue someone that they care about. They organize a heist that is dangerous, risky, and incredibly foolish. In fact, that’s part of the reason that it’s so fun to watch: everyone knows it is a bad idea, and it’s their willingness to push past it that makes it all so admirable.
Well, I don’t know about Arvin Sloane. I perpetually mistrust him, and there’s no exception to that here. I AM DEDICATED TO DOUBTING HIM AT EVERY TURN. I understood why he signed up for this mission to help Sydney. It made lots of sense to me. But jumping in front of a bullet meant for Jack? Okay, that is… less believable. But it happened! And it wasn’t an accident! And like Jack, I couldn’t think of a single altruistic reason why he would do this because I cannot fathom the very idea of him being altruistic, you know? IT IS NOT BUILT INTO THE MATTER OF ARVIN SLOANE. But… oh god. What if I’m wrong? What if he really is as horrible as I think he is, but he genuinely misses everyone who used to be in his life? What if he couldn’t bear the thought of losing Jack, and he did the first nice, selfless thing in his whole life?
I AM VERY UNCOMFORTABLE WITH THIS THOUGHT.
Aside from Arvin, though, there’s development with Vaughn and Jack, and I am continually impressed at how much Jack seems to have finally accepted Vaughn as one of his peers, rather than someone beneath him or less than him. They’ve been forced in that direction by circumstances, and I’d be remiss of me not to point out that they did clash recently over what they felt was best with Sydney. Still, it’s been a gradual journey over these two and a half seasons, and I WANT TO SEE MORE OF IT.
Which brings me to Lauren, who was determined to believe in Lindsey, who put faith in her government and the people she worked for, who was certain that Vaughn was overreacting in regards to Sydney. Truly, Lauren had no reason to disbelieve her boss. From her perspective, the CIA was being reckless and ridiculous, and Lindsey was just doing what he was supposed to. And more than anything else, she was offended by the notion that she was complicit in anything unethical.
Yeah. About that. Lauren could claim to be acting ethically and morally, but that doesn’t mean she was. I get why she was so defensive, but Lindsey cares about results, not the means he uses to get there. At the same time, this was a chance for Lauren to finally move from being an NSC shill to… well, a much more complicated place. Y’all, she killed someone. She’s not even field-rated! How is that going to affect her???
II
Over the course of years and years of doing this Mark Does Stuff project, I hope I have made it clear that sometimes, consuming media means that I have to compartmentalize. Indeed, as someone who is both queer and brown, it means that there’s a lot out there that simply isn’t for me. There’s a lot put out into the world that doesn’t view me or folks like me with equal respect or consideration. Some of it is intentional, a lot of it is done by default, particularly since that default has been the standard for so long.
“Breaking Point,†which was made in a post-9/11 world, borrows heavily from an actual reality. There are still sites around the world in which prisoners can be taken without any due process or access to legal services. They are tortured, denied any rights, and some will probably remain incarcerated in some form until they die. There will never be any recourse for them unless America is willing to take a hard look at itself and change our justice system and dismantle our obsession with our military.
Those people are overwhelming non-white. Perhaps almost entirely so.
Yet “Breaking Point†takes an issue that affects brown and black folks around the world, and it centers those anxieties on two white people, one of whom is ultimately revealed as an operative himself. Thus, the show is able to invoke a very real terror and anxiety through its storytelling, but it never has to engage with the notion that the CIA has been monstrous to populations across the globe, that the CIA is just as brutal and horrific as the NSC is portrayed here. Instead, whiteness is now front and center, and we wince and freak out over the violence done to a white woman. It challenges nothing, and the pain that other groups go through is appropriated for dramatic effect. It’s all the more glaring that the show’s only other non-white character is pushed out of the action very early on, and we don’t see Dixon once Lindsey takes over. There are a couple Black men held in cells that we see, but that’s it. The whole experience felt… odd. Off. Wrong. And not in the ways that the show intended.
Just something to think about.
The video for “Breaking Point†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
Mark Links Stuff
– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT, is now available for pre-order! If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter! DO IT.
