In the ninth episode of the third season of Alias, the team takes a radical approach to recover Sydney’s memory. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Alias.Â
Holy shit. HOLY SHIT.
Lindsey
You know, as fun as it has been to shout at Arvin Sloan to shut up every time he says something terrible, it’s been a true delight to get a villain as purely evil and self-serving as Robert Lindsey has been. As the main characters get deeper and deeper into a disaster, Lindsey stops pretending to be moral or principled. In fact, he represents a quintessential older white dude position: he is absolutely certain that he is going to get away with all of the evil that he does. Y’all, he GLEEFULLY plans to assassinate Sydney in this episode. Just straight-up kill her! At this point, though, he’s gotten so much institutional support for his actions, so it makes sense that he pursue such a dangerous plot. In the end, he is sure he’ll be able to justify it. To fold it into the NSC’s objectives. To paint Sydney as a dangerous radical who had to be stopped, because look what she did to Lazarey!
But I’m gonna make a prediction. Lindsey has made a critical error here. He misjudged Arvin, no matter what that letter says. (I still want to know!!! How does it prove any sort of endgame???) Arvin, as horrible as he is, is still creepily obsessed with Sydney, convinced he can redeem himself in her eyes, and that means: He would NEVER plot to kill her.
LINDSEY IS GONNA REGRET THIS.
The Hand
I love a plot twist that still works even if there is no foreshadowing for it. Thinking back on this season, I can’t think of a single bit of evidence that the assassination of Lazarey was fake, and YET HERE WE ARE. He definitely did not die on the day Sydney was filmed slitting his throat. In fact, the team now has evidence that he was alive four months prior to the present day. HE MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE. So why would he fake his own death? Why would Sydney agree to it? WHY DID SHE CHOP OFF HIS HAND AND HIDE IT IN A BOX IN THE GROUND?
Conscious
This episode’s greatest achievement is the brilliant use of dream logic, both as a storytelling device and within a visual medium. I do like well-done dream logic, and as wacky as the science for this episode probably is, I still wanted to believe that it was all real because it was presented to me in such a fascinating way. And I’m not just referring to David Cronenberg. (WHAT THE FUCK, THAT IS ONE OF THE STRANGEST CAMEOS I’VE EVER SEEN, I WAS 100% INTO IT.) Despite how surreal and strange this is, the writers give a logic that allows the audience to understand what’s unfolding. It might be scientific bullshit, but it works.
Thus, we get a visceral and creepy look inside Sydney’s mind, and from that, we are finally able to get confirmation of a few basic facts of Sydney’s abduction. Covenant agents took her from her home, along with Allison, and she was taken to a facility afterwards. Behind door 47… something happened? UGH, WHY DID THIS EPISODE END THERE, YOU’RE SO EVIL.
Yet even without that answer, “Conscious†is still a visual and emotional spectacle. I love how this episode looked, and the intense choreography—of images, sounds, colors, violence—every bit of it meant something. (I’m sure there’s stuff I missed, too.) With the production schedule this show had, I’m even more impressed with how gorgeous and haunting this was. And really, that was refreshing, too. The show didn’t shy away from being downright weird. Dr. Brezzel and Kaya were both a lot of fun, and Alias didn’t avoid portraying dream logic as something that’s inherently hard to understand.
I JUST NEED TO KNOW WHAT’S IN THAT ROOM, Y’ALL. Why does this show torment me so???
The video for “Conscious†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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