{"id":6818,"date":"2018-04-27T13:00:22","date_gmt":"2018-04-27T20:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6818"},"modified":"2018-04-16T16:53:06","modified_gmt":"2018-04-16T23:53:06","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s04e11-the-road-home","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/04\/mark-watches-alias-s04e11-the-road-home\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S04E11 – The Road Home"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eleventh episode of the fourth season of Alias<\/i>, this was\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 an actual<\/i> break??? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m genuinely shocked, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. If you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re intrigued, then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Trigger Warning: For mention of suicide.<\/b><\/p>\n

Seriously, this is probably<\/i> about as close as I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m going to get to a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153break\u00e2\u20ac\u009d from this show, especially since Vaughn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subplot is introducing some seriously fucked up revelations into the show. I enjoyed it! It was nice to get to laugh at a plot instead of feeling like my insides were going to evaporate.<\/p>\n

I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not expecting this again, for the record.<\/p>\n

Vaughn<\/b><\/p>\n

Across Alias<\/i>, multiple characters have had to cope with their pasts being re-contextualized. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in the fabric of the show, right from the very first episode. Sydney learns she doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t work for the CIA. She later learns her mother isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t dead. Dixon is heartbroken by his own ignorant complicity. Vaughn discovers his wife is a double agent. And so on and so forth, this is a common motif mostly because it has<\/i> to be. Alias<\/i> is about fake identities! It stands to reason that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be a lot of deception, and oh lord, does this show EVER deliver on that promise. But I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t yet predict where Vaughn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story is going, even knowing how often the show has upended commonly accepted facts and realities. The previous episode introduced the idea that Vaughn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s father might be alive, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still hard to believe.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Yet \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Road Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d gives us yet another experience that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fit in with what everyone knows about the man. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve always heard that Bill Vaughn was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0153good man.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Time and time again! So how the hell<\/i> is it possible that Bill shot someone in the back intentionally and watched on in disinterest??? Murdoch\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s story seems incompatible with what we know of Bill Vaughn, but that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kinda the point, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? We don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually know all that much about him<\/i>. Everything we know is secondhand or from third parties. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s no real reliable portrait of this person at all, and these stories are the closest any of us can come to knowing him\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 yet. Vaughn is stubborn in this regard, and we know from past behavior that he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll keep pursuing this until he gets closure. But I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what that closure looks like! I genuinely don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know if Bill Vaughn is alive or not, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all!!! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M WORRIED.<\/p>\n

Korjev<\/b><\/p>\n

At first, I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure what Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s subplot was intended as beyond a really<\/i> disturbing assassination scenario. It seemed so out-of-place with everything else, at least until I began to think of Korjev\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death as a reckoning<\/i>. Jack and Sloane both knew what Korjev was capable of, but Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interactions with the arms dealer revealed to us that in many ways, Jack was responsible<\/i> for Korjev. Whether he intended it or not, he trained<\/i> Korjev, and since the CIA (and Jack) cut off ties with him, he became ruthless. Pragmatic. Willing to do terrible things to get what he wants. SOUND A LITTLE FAMILIAR???<\/p>\n

So, this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t immediately obvious to me. I was confused by Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s desire to be the one to take out this man. Why<\/i>? In his own brutal way, I suspect Jack wanted to take care of a loose end, to eliminate Korjev because he had been complicit in Korjev\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s growth as a monster. Hell, Jack even says he should have taken out Korjev years earlier. And this is his chance! It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t matter to him that Korjev has since married or that he has a kid on the way. The man has created such an unbearable air of terror that one of his men killed himself rather than face the consequences of failure. In Korjev, I imagine that Jack saw his own self, and this was his way of excising a small part of the monster within.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sam<\/b><\/p>\n

Well, Jason Segel was an odd surprise, but looking back on \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Road Home,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d he was kind of perfect as the mostly-useless character who needed to be saved again and again by a trained operative. On a superficial level, it was nice that this was a man<\/i> that had to be saved by a woman, and Segel played the part well. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so unlike most of the missions on the show, especially because the targets are so rarely folded into the action like this. Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plot reminded me of a less horrifying version of Will\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s, a character who is suddenly thrust into a world of espionage with no real training. I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m biased in favor of this because I do<\/i> love that trope of people being told there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a secret world existing within their own. Yet this was actually a lot of fun! The show changes things up for most of the episode by poking fun at some of the absurdities of this life, and as I mentioned, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a welcome change of tone and pace.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Part of the tension, though, comes from a problem we haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen in a while. Once you know<\/i>, the world becomes more dangerous. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s how knowledge works within Alias<\/i>. The ignorant generally are<\/i> happier, and thus, there are times when the threat of collision (between Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life and Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life) fuels the dramatic tension. Has Sam\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life been irrevocably changed? Can he ever go back home, or will he be dumped into a traumatic system that will remove him from what he knows?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe it, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ACTUALLY a happy ending here. I kept waiting for something tragic or terrible, but it never came. And it made me appreciate \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Road Home\u00e2\u20ac\u009d more! The wacky tone was intentional and<\/i> long-lasting, rather than a trick to make us like Sam until the show was done with him. He actually gets to go home! He got excitement and adventure! NONE OF THE HEROES OR GOOD PEOPLE DIED. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a magical day on Alias<\/i> when that actually happens, so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna take it for what it is.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Road Home\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":"