{"id":6811,"date":"2018-04-19T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-19T20:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6811"},"modified":"2018-04-09T14:01:18","modified_gmt":"2018-04-09T21:01:18","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s04e05-welcome-to-liberty-village","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/04\/mark-watches-alias-s04e05-welcome-to-liberty-village\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S04E05 – Welcome to Liberty Village"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifth episode of the fourth season of Alias<\/i>, I TRULY LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT THIS. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard for me to avoid comparing this to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Arcadia,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d one of my truly favorite episodes of The X-Files<\/i>, which somewhat accomplishes the same thing in a completely different manner. They both use a trope I love and adore: people who are kinda or definitely attracted are then forced to work together and PRETEND TO BE MARRIED. And what happens when they have to hang out??? And pretend to be a couple??? Will they or won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t they<\/i>??? Shall the dramatic and sexual tension destroy me?<\/p>\n

While there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a direct similarity at the start of both \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Arcadia\u00e2\u20ac\u009d and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to Liberty Village,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d these stories aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t like one another at all. First of all, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s clear that this episode is meant to trick us right form the start, namely in that the cold open seems<\/i> like it takes place in America when it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t AT ALL. The trick of Liberty Village provides a sense of isolation to the story, and on that point alone, this episode is brilliant<\/i>. If we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re to truly feel like this is a hopeless, terrifying situation, then the reveal that this actually<\/i> takes place in the middle of nowhere in Russia is necessary. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s downright evil<\/i>, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and it works in favor of building a narrative that isolates Sydney and Vaughn. They can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t communicate with the CIA, and the only means of passing any<\/i> sort of information along is both in one direction and<\/i> destroyed halfway through the episode.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So what the hell do these people do?<\/p>\n

Before \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to Liberty Village\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gets us to that point, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re taken on a stressful, bewildering journey through the secret base that the October Contingent uses to train operatives to be American. In the midst of this is a pretty scathing indictment of what it is that we consider American. It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t lost on me that all these couples were white, that the cultural traditions on display were exaggerated stereotypes of whiteness. If there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s any way to hide within the US, this<\/i> was the way to do it. Thus, every silly trope becomes a frightening means of potentially deceiving others. That tuna casserole that needs to be refrigerated? The preppy outfits? The proper way of speaking? Each of these absurdities becomes part of a weapon that hides in plain sight. Of course, to the audience, many of these traditions are probably bogus or ridiculous. (I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t had a casserole in over twenty years, and it is truly one of the best silver linings to being kicked out of the house: I willingly didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t eat any \u00e2\u20ac\u0153white\u00e2\u20ac\u009d food for AGES. I still hesitate to eat at other people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s homes if I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what kind of food they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll have. If you ever see me live, ask me to tell the Struggle Thanksgiving I once went to.) But as applied here, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re so damning<\/i>. Why?<\/p>\n

Because it is believable<\/i>. I think most of us could probably name a neighborhood or a city where these operatives would fit in perfectly<\/i>. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that chilling? This is what we (and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m using the collective \u00e2\u20ac\u0153we\u00e2\u20ac\u009d as a reference to our general society) accept as \u00e2\u20ac\u0153American.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Of course, this is a ludicrous assumption for a lot of us who have no interest in this sort of bland assimilation, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s why this episode is so goddamn great. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a satire, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s terrifying, it made me laugh, and then\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n

It actually fulfilled me.<\/p>\n

See, in the midst of this all is the story of Vaughn and Sydney, who by all rights should<\/i> be together, yet have been torn apart time and time again by circumstance. And the very idea that they were going to have to pretend to be married was delightful to me, and then it fucking wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>. Because like the previous episode, Vaughn suddenly said something very, very true in order to sell a story to someone he needed to fool. And it was too much, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. Before, he opened up about Lauren, but now<\/i>? Oh my god, was he really<\/i> going to propose to Sydney during that planned weekend to Santa Barbara? The story is just too real, and I worried that instead of bringing them together, the pain of it would push them apart. It was a glimpse of what could<\/i> have been, and it SHATTERED ME.<\/p>\n

Instead, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to Liberty Village\u00e2\u20ac\u009d finds a believable reason for Vaughn and Sydney to finally<\/i> move closer. Even if they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re \u00e2\u20ac\u0153boring.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Even if they calculate every move together. Even if they are such a bizarre, complicated, and risky pairing. The chemistry between them is undeniable, sure, but I found this specific story to be heartwarming. Actually heartwarming! Maybe because things have gone south so many times before, I was cynical, but THIS DIDN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T END BADLY. Vaughn and Sydney had sex, they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being super affectionate with one another, THEY ARE POSSIBLY TAKING A ROMANTIC DETOUR???<\/p>\n

yes YES YES<\/b>.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Welcome to Liberty Village\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":"