{"id":6723,"date":"2018-01-23T13:00:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-23T21:00:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6723"},"modified":"2018-01-16T18:54:51","modified_gmt":"2018-01-17T02:54:51","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s01e12-the-box-part-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/01\/mark-watches-alias-s01e12-the-box-part-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S01E12 – The Box, Part I"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the twelfth episode of the first season of Alias<\/i>, this show cares not for any part of me. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Given the nature of how Alias<\/i> unfolds, I feel pretty confident saying that the huge reveal at the end of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Confession\u00e2\u20ac\u009d would have been dealt with different on another show. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the kind of reveal that re-contextualizes an entire story, which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t to say that it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do that here. IT TOTALLY DOES. But Alias<\/i> doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t focus on it the way I anticipated. It informs the initial story here, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only a part of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Box.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d BECAUSE THIS EPISODE FLINGS ITSELF INTO ANOTHER DIMENSION IN THE MIDST OF SYDNEY MAKING ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT DECISIONS OF HER LIFE.<\/p>\n

Which I do suspect is the point. After learning her mother was the KGB agent, Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s world is turned upside-down. Again<\/i>. I FEEL SO BAD FOR HER, OKAY. Can she get a vacation? LIke a trip to some tropical location where she can hang out on the shore and drink margaritas and NOT HAVE TO DEAL WITH ANY OF THIS BULLSHIT?<\/p>\n

Which is why I so deeply understand why she just wants to leave. She has faced so many threats to her life, and yes, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of the job. I suspect she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t find that element as bothersome as all of the lying and double lives. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s exhausting! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s discouraging to find out that yet another aspect of you life isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t real, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Box\u00e2\u20ac\u009d doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t exactly delve into the horrible ramifications of this new twist in Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life. OH, she certainly asks<\/i> about it, but how can Jack answer those questions? Did Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mother have a child because she wanted one or because it was part of a long con? Did she ever care for her daughter, or was she just a means to an end? HOW CAN SHE EVER GIVE SYDNEY CLOSURE NOW THAT SHE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DEAD??? I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tired. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m tried thinking about it, and thus, I found Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision to leave SD-6 to be utterly and completely believable. Who wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i> want to leave this all behind at this point?<\/p>\n

But Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s decision is met with two surprising developments. First, one of Vaughn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s co-workers reports him as having an unhealthy and unprofessional relationship with Sydney. AND LIKE\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 OH BOY. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we can deny that Vaughn clearly<\/i> has feelings for her, and IT REALLY FEELS KIND OF INEVITABLE THAT THEY\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE GONNA SEE ONE ANOTHER SOME DAY. It also<\/i> doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Vaughn is combatively defensive about it all. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna suggest that if you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re accused of something, the worst way to defend yourself is to immediately try to fight someone??? Like, it came off instead as if this claim was obvious rather than ludicrous. GOOD JOB, VAUGHN.<\/p>\n

But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the arrival of McKenas Cole that throws this episode into chaos. Sydney returns to SD-6 to try to tender her resignation, and that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s precisely when a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153forgotten\u00e2\u20ac\u009d SD-6 agent returns to enact his revenge. The show careens into an unnerving and thrilling scenario that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s evocative of Die Hard<\/i> (I CAN MAKE THAT REFERENCE NOW, I ACTUALLY GET IT) in as much as it fits within the general Alias<\/i> storyline. The more I think about it, the more clever this intrusion. Cole and Sydney have a commonality: both of them were lied to by Sloane. Both believed that they worked for the CIA and learned the hard way that they did not. Unfortunately, Cole\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story is vastly worse, given that he learned the truth WHILE BEING TORTURED BY THE RUSSIANS.<\/p>\n

Thus, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an emotional and visual parallel between the two of them, but I those parallels are largely superficial, especially given that Cole is nothing<\/i> like Sydney. Quentin Tarantino cranks up the bizarre, unsettling nature of this character, and HE MAKES ME SO UNCOMFORTABLE EVERY TIME HE\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ON THE SCREEN. (That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also in general, as Tarantino gives me the creeps I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T LIKE HIS FACE OKAY.) Coles\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desires are for revenge, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t understand that. I also didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really feel that bad for Sloan, since it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear he left Coles to die on that mission. PLUS, I HATE SLOANE. But the writers brilliantly find ways to make us care. We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t want the SD-6 facility to collapse in on itself, killing everyone inside. (I am deeply invested in Dixon surviving and getting to know the truth, okay. I DESPERATELY NEED IT.) So it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less about protecting Sloane! WHICH IS GREAT! And yet, this episode is still unbearable<\/i>. It is tense and frightening and odd and IT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S ONLY THE FIRST HALF OF IT. Those needles! I hate them! Why do you do this! Why must you hurt me this way!!!!<\/p>\n

And I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even talked about Will yet. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all: I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m nervous. Which is my baseline emotion for watching this show, I REALIZE THAT. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard for me to trust what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening to him, given that we don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know who<\/i> is exactly sending him on this journey. Granted, Will is very much aware of how creepy and terrible this is, and his own internal conflict is between his desire to, like, NOT DIE, and his own curiosity. But it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s important to note that he actively chose to reject<\/i> his pursuit of the SD-6 story, and this creepy source FORCED HIM RIGHT BACK INTO IT. I just???? Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. This source faked a call so that McNeil\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s daughter would think it was Will. THIS IS ONE THOUSAND PERCENT NOT OKAY.<\/p>\n

Whew, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, this is fucked up<\/i>. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t wait to see more.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Box, Part I\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":"