In the ninth episode of the first season of Alias, this show is already too much and I JUST STARTED IT. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Alias.Â
Oh, y’all, NINE EPISODES. Nine episodes and Sydney is already being tested as a mole! She is already worrying that she may have spoiled her cover by saving Dixon’s life with a CIA sat phone! EVERYTHING IS A FUCKING MESS, AND I CAN’T BELIEVE HOW QUICKLY THIS SHOW TURNED INTO A DREAM COME TRUE. Sometimes, by virtue of how I do projects for Mark Watches and Mark Reads, I experience certain things out of order. Like, The Lord of the Rings trilogy is a crucial fantasy narrative, and yet it took me years to get around to doing it. In the anime world, I watched Madoka Magica and THEN Utena, and eventually, I’ll get to one of the formative shows that influences both of those. (Sailor Moon, for the record.)
In the J.J. Abrams world, I watched LOST mostly in real time, then got obsessed with Fringe, and I just barely finished watching Person of Interesting. Getting to Alias at this point is super fascinating to me because I can see little things that Abrams and company expanded on in later shows. LIKE: hatch in the ground with a weird logo on it! Mysterious devices! Double identities! Alias, however, feels a lot quicker to the point than LOST did. I do love that first season, but it certainly feels like a long, long con until the sheer genre weirdness of all the seasons after it. Here, though, I’m not even halfway through the very first season, and Alias is barreling towards an awful confrontation between Sloane and Sydney. I thought we might get it here, but the intricately designed bluff that Sloane designs is caught by Jack, and THEN GUESS WHAT IT DOESN’T MATTER BECAUSE THIS IS ALL A DISASTER ANYWAY. I mean, it’s all part of the complicated emotional and political ramifications of this world that SD-6 has helped to create, so it’s not that the end of this episode renders everything before it meaningless.
Escalation is a hard thing to pull off, and that’s particularly the case with things in the horror and thriller genres. Both of them rely on teasing the audience with information—in the form of a physical threat, with the danger of learning the truth, and other such conceits—in a way that makes them believe the story, but doesn’t insult them. I’ll give an example with “Mea Culpa.†I believe pretty much everything here in terms of issuing “threats†within the story with the exception of one act: the resolution of the last episode’s cliffhanger. I’m fine with Sydney surviving that fall, and I certainly didn’t expect her to be dead. I even think the idea of her getting tangled in the ladder is believable! But she doesn’t seem injured at all, and at a fall from that height, surely something was broken or dislocated, right? So, the show issues a threat: Sydney’s fight with Anna ends with her falling. It’s tense and scary and surreal to watch. But once she survives largely unscathed, then the threat has no weight, right?
Fortunately, that’s the only time this happens in the episode. Every other element here that builds suspense is done incredibly well. We believe that Dixon may actually remember Sydney’s CIA codename. We believe that SD-6’s security team has identified Sydney as the mole, despite that she passed her lie detector test.
AND THEN WE FIND OUT THAT SLOANE HAS A HORRIBLY CREEPY ATTACHMENT TO SYDNEY. I! DID! NOT! WANT! THIS! I imagine that Sydney might have been able to exploit that to keep herself safe, but I don’t know how she’s gonna get out of this latest complication. Seriously, though, that whole bit where Sloane said he’s known Sydney was special and was around for most of her life? CANCELLED. GROSS. TERRIFYING. Oh my god, I didn’t know the writers could find a way to make him WORSE!!! But here we are!!!
I just don’t know what this show is going to do next, and that’s such a thrilling thing to get to experience. I thought Sydney was safe for the moment, but the transmitter that Vaughn gave Sydney just exposed her as the mole. RIGHT AFTER SLOANE WENT TO BAT FOR HER, Y’ALL. They’ve kidnapped her and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO HER. How can the CIA possibly intervene? I’m guessing that Jack will have to be the one to save her, but I don’t even know how he’ll do that.
And what of Will? I’m calling it now: he’s getting involved with a trap. It has to be a set-up, a means to keep him involved but unable to prove anything that he believes. My big complaint regarding Will is that he KEEPS DOING THINGS ALONE. Stop it! His main problem is his inability to confirm any of the things that are happening to him, yet he never brings anyone with him, and he never records anything he’s saying or is being said to him. WILL. BE BETTER AT THIS.
The video for “Mea Culpa†can be downloaded here for $0.99.
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