{"id":6719,"date":"2018-01-18T13:00:42","date_gmt":"2018-01-18T21:00:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6719"},"modified":"2018-01-08T11:14:45","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T19:14:45","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s01e09-mea-culpa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/01\/mark-watches-alias-s01e09-mea-culpa\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S01E09 – Mea Culpa"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the first season of Alias<\/i>, this show is already too much and I JUST STARTED IT. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life with a CIA sat phone! EVERYTHING IS A FUCKING MESS, AND I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T 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<\/i> 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<\/i> and THEN Utena<\/i>, and eventually, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll get to one of the formative shows that influences both of those. (Sailor Moon<\/i>, for the record.)<\/p>\n

In the J.J. Abrams world, I watched LOST<\/i> mostly in real time, then got obsessed with Fringe<\/i>, and I just barely<\/i> finished watching Person of Interesting<\/i>. Getting to Alias<\/i> 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<\/i>, however, feels a lot<\/i> quicker to the point than LOST <\/i>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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not even halfway through the very first season, and Alias<\/i> 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T MATTER BECAUSE THIS IS ALL A DISASTER ANYWAY. I mean, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s all part of the complicated emotional and political ramifications of this world that SD-6 has helped to create, so it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not that the end of this episode renders everything before it meaningless.<\/p>\n

Escalation is a hard thing to pull off, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s particularly the case with things in the horror and thriller genres. Both of them rely on teasing the audience with information\u00e2\u20ac\u201din the form of a physical threat, with the danger of learning the truth, and other such conceits\u00e2\u20ac\u201din a way that makes them believe<\/i> the story, but doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t insult them. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll give an example with \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mea Culpa.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I believe pretty much everything here in terms of issuing \u00e2\u20ac\u0153threats\u00e2\u20ac\u009d within the story with the exception of one act: the resolution of the last episode\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s cliffhanger. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m fine with Sydney surviving that fall, and I certainly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect her to be dead. I even think the idea of her getting tangled in the ladder is believable! But she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seem injured at all<\/i>, and at a fall from that height, surely something was broken or dislocated, right? So, the show issues a threat: Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s fight with Anna ends with her falling. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tense and scary and surreal to watch. But once she survives largely unscathed, then the threat has no weight, right?<\/p>\n

Fortunately, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the only<\/i> time this happens in the episode. Every other element here that builds suspense is done incredibly well. We believe<\/i> that Dixon may actually remember Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s CIA codename. We believe that SD-6\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s security team has identified Sydney as the mole, despite that she passed her lie detector test.<\/p>\n

AND THEN WE FIND OUT THAT SLOANE HAS A HORRIBLY CREEPY ATTACHMENT TO SYDNEY. I! DID! NOT! WANT! THIS! I imagine that Sydney might<\/i> have been able to exploit that to keep herself safe, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know how she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gonna get out of this latest complication. Seriously, though, that whole bit where Sloane said he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s known Sydney was special and was around for most of her life? CANCELLED. GROSS. TERRIFYING. Oh my god, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know the writers could find a way to make him WORSE!!! But here we are!!!<\/p>\n

I just don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what this show is going to do next, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve kidnapped her and NO ONE EVEN KNOWS WHAT HAPPENED TO HER. How can the CIA possibly intervene? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m guessing that Jack will have to be the one to save her, but I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even know how he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll do that.<\/p>\n

And what of Will? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m calling it now: he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s getting involved with a trap. It has<\/i> 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\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s saying or is being said to him. WILL. BE BETTER AT THIS.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mea Culpa\u00e2\u20ac\u009d can be downloaded here for $0.99<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n

– My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now available for pre-order!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"