In the tenth episode of the second season of Alias, MY HEART COULD NOT HANDLE THIS EPISODE. Intrigued? Then it’s time for Mark to watch Alias.Â
WHY IS THIS SHOW DOING THIS TO ME.
A Reminder
I suppose this is my own fault, given that I completely forgot that Alice even existed. To be fair, it’s almost like Vaughn (and the show itself) forgets from time to time, so maybe I won’t give myself all the blame. Still, I was so lost in the possibility that maybe Vaughn and Sydney could pursue something that the reminder of Alice’s existence was like being dropped off a building. It’s admittedly hard to care about a character who appears so infrequently onscreen and who we know virtually nothing about. Aside form her physical appearance and knowing that one of her parents passed away recently, I still feel like she’s a stranger. Worse still is that Vaughn clearly loves Sydney. Why is he staying in this relationship? Well, I suspect that there’s something he feels for Alice. Guilt? Obligation? It’s possible he loves two people at once. But at the heart of this, I worry that there is a deception going on here. It’s a motif of the whole show, of course, and applying it here is mostly speculation. But how much of his life is Vaughn hiding from his wife, beyond telling her that he works at the State Department? Does she suspect that his attention or affection is elsewhere?
EVERYTHING IS A MESS.
A Beginning
I JUST NEED TO KNOW, OKAY??? Is Irina telling the truth? Is she truly trying to reckon with being recruited into the KGB as a teenager? Is she genuinely cognizant of what she was brainwashed to do and to believe in? Is she trying to repair the damage she’s done? Either way, Lena Olin is giving one hell of a performance, and I feel so compelled to believe her. That scene on the roof of the CIA holding facility was UNREAL. It’s also the first time she’s tried to apologize to Sydney, and granted, it was cut short. Maybe she knew it would be. But it still hit me hard, y’all, and it could be the start of something meaningful.
Not just with Sydney, mind you! She also reaches out to Jack in her own way after Jack discovers that they are technically still married. Which is REALLY WEIRD. I guess Jack never got around to doing anything with his marriage because he thought Irina was dead? Right? Awkward, y’all! WHOOPS, WE’RE STILL MARRIED.
Look, I don’t think he’s ready to trust her, and it’s gonna take YEARS for him to get to a point where he believes her intent and purpose is actually good. But this is a start… maybe???
An Inquiry
HOLY SHIT, FAYE DUNAWAY IS PERFECT FOR THIS ROLE!!!! I just love watching her make all those facial expressions and I love knowing that her character exists to be friends with LITERALLY NO ONE, and I WANT MORE. Well, I want more knowing that Kane might have accidentally stumbled on a terrible revelation: she recognizes that Jack Bristow is the only person who isn’t afraid of Arvin Sloane. So while he’s not the person blackmailing Sloane over his wife, it opens the door to a different kind of suspicion. Oh god, IS SHE GONNA EXPOSE JACK AS A DOUBLE AGENT?
An Out
Marshall occupies a strange spot in this show. Since the beginning, he was the nerdy tech op who never strayed from this very trope-filled characterization. Until this episode, the writers never bothered to do anything new or interesting with him. Indeed, every appearance he made followed an identical formula: he was super awkward, he said something ridiculous, he introduced some cool piece of tech, and then he was gone.
SO YES, I WAS VERY EXCITED TO FIND OUT THAT HE’D BE GOING ON A MISSION. Yes! Finally! Do something different with him! Then, the writers upped their game by having Vaughn give the most exciting countermission thus far: they were going to extract Marshall. They had to! There was no way to run this con with him present (given his photographic memory), so the only option was to finally reveal the truth to him. Now, y’all know that’s one of my favorite tropes ever, and I also knew this would be especially crushing to Marshall. (Seriously, though, the day we get to Dixon being told the truth… H E L P.) His mission was properly ridiculous—as it should have been—mixing tension and humor, but I couldn’t ignore that as soon as it was over, his life as he knew it would be over. How was he going to react to knowing the truth? To knowing that he was complicit in terrible, terrible things?
WELL, I GUESS I WON’T FIND OUT YET. Hell, I don’t know if I’m finding out at all. I can’t remember the name of the man who orchestrated the kidnapping of Marshall, but what if he tells Marshall the truth? What if Marshall is killed? What if SD-6 rescues Marshall before the CIA can get to him? WHY DID YOU DO THIS TO ME?
The video for “The Abduction†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.
