In the seventh episode of the fifth season of Alias<\/i>, the team goes after Gordon Dean. It truly does not go as expected. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.<\/p>\n
This surprised me, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, and once again, an episode that seemed<\/i> predictable is anything but. The writers toy with certain expectations that I had for both Gordon Dean and<\/i> the Prophet Five, all while inching us ever closer to understanding what it is that the Prophet Five want.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Oh, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also a lot of heartbreak. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DISCUSS.<\/p>\n Tom Grace<\/b><\/p>\n I feel like I might have a harsh view of Grace, but we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re seven episodes into this season (which isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t very like, and this is the sixth episode with Grace in it), and I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know a thing about this character. Nothing! Well, I find out that he can do an okay Australian accent, but\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that? is? it? What is he doing<\/i> on this show, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all??? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen some bad character introductions on shows before. (Abrams\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s own LOST<\/i> had a particularly terrible set of them in the third season. WHO REMEMBERS THAT.) But there still has not been an introduction. <\/i>Where does Grace live? What does he do outside of work? Does he have any<\/i> friends or family or does anyone else even know<\/i> him? WHO IS THIS PERSON.<\/p>\n Rachel<\/b><\/p>\n And look, Rachel, the other new character in this season, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a whole lot to do in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fait Accompli.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d But she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not useless, and there is still<\/i> a huge character moment in this episode. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Rachel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s appearance that literally allows the team to capture Gordon Dean, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an important scene because, as I mentioned on video, it seemed obvious<\/i> that Gordon would win. He couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t be captured because he was the main villain, you know? We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re too early into the season for this kind of setback for the antagonist, right? RIGHT?<\/p>\n Oh, I forgot that I was watching Alias<\/i>, which escalates stories WHENEVER THE FUCK THAT THEY WANT. They have done this to me multiple times! I keep falling for it! I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M SO GLAD RACHEL KNOCKED OUT GORDON, THAT WAS DEEPLY SATISFYING.<\/p>\n Alternate Timeline<\/b><\/p>\n The most satisfying character arc in this episode, as sad as it was, belonged to Sydney. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I am maintaining a part of my brain for the sheer denial of Michael Vaughn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death, but each new episode pushes me further and further from this. Shit, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s dead<\/i>, and like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve written in other reviews, his absence continues to play an important part in the story of season five. Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s sadness manifests far less these days, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve noticed that it returns whenever she reaches an important milestone in her motherhood. Note that this is happening while she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mothering other<\/i> characters, too! I felt like she had mothered Rachel through her first solo mission, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an eerie, unnerving dynamic to her scenes comforting Gordon Dean.<\/p>\n Anyway, the point being: this is not the timeline that Sydney imagined. This is not what she thought she would be doing as she got closer to giving birth. It hurts, obviously, and in these moments, Sydney wants Vaughn so badly that it is written on her face. (Seriously, Jennifer Garner is so talented, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all.) Instead, she must craft her alternate timeline as each moment comes to her. Instead of assembling her child\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s furniture with Vaughn, she initially denies the opportunity to put it together with Rachel. It isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t until the end of the episode that she relents, though she invites Jack to take part in the ritual instead of Rachel. It provides us a touching moment\u00e2\u20ac\u201done that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s deeply needed, I might add\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut it still stings.<\/p>\n Vaughn should be here.<\/p>\n Arvin Sloane<\/b><\/p>\n Can his catchphrase just be, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Oh, Arvin<\/i>, what have you done<\/i>?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Because WHAT HAVE YOU DONE. I went into this episode expecting a certain behavior from him: he would argue with Gordon over what was to be done, then he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d do it anyone so that he could stay out of prison and remain with Nadia. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s certainly what happens here, right up until it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fait Accompli\u00e2\u20ac\u009d goes through a conversion right as Arvin does, too. With news that Nadia has exhausted every<\/i> potential treatment for her condition, Gordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leverage over Arvin evaporates. Indeed, what can he hold over Arvin? He has no reason to stay out of prison. Arvin still shocked me, though, when he walked into Jack\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s office and told him the truth. I DID NOT EXPECT IT, OKAY. And with one move, the dynamic of the episode shifts. This isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t about Gordon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s control anymore; this is about APO\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s chance to control the situation.<\/p>\n Alas, things don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t go as planned. (THE ETERNAL MOOD FOR THIS SHOW.) Oh, they capture Gordon (thanks, Rachel!), but none of them expected that the Prophet Five wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t run by Gordon, or that he was stuck in a mysterious hierarchy. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL, THAT KEY CARD WAS GORDON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S LEVERAGE THAT HE WANTED TO USE TO EXPOSE PROPHET FIVE. Like, I can barely believe how much more interesting Gordon became as a character because of this one episode. Was he<\/i> being blackmailed, too? Had he gotten in over his head, and his whole tough-guy routine was nothing more than a ruse? AHHHHH, WHAT THE FUCK, WHY DID HE DIE RIGHT WHEN HE BECAME SO LAYERED??? I guess that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tragedy of his character. (Well, he is also yet another<\/i> person of color who is no longer around. WAY TO GO, ALIAS<\/i>.) Arvin killed him for Nadia\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s well-being, despite that Gordon could have genuinely helped APO take down Prophet Five.<\/p>\n It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s weird to say that he did this for<\/i> Nadia. Whomever Prophet Five are (actual world governments??? What the fuck<\/i>???), they have the means to cure Nadia. Thus, Arvin resorts right back to his most basic motivation, even if it means he has to betray everyone around him. UGH, ARVIN, WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? You made everything worse. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what you did. GODDAMN IT, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Prophet Five still has the upper hand, Nadia still isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t cured, and we still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what the fuck<\/i> is going on this season.<\/p>\n Help me.<\/p>\n The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fait Accompli\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":" In the seventh episode of the fifth season of Alias, the team goes after Gordon Dean. It truly does not go as expected. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[681],"tags":[682],"class_list":["post-6843","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-alias","tag-mark-watches-alias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6843","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6843"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6843\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6843"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6843"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6843"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}