{"id":6845,"date":"2018-05-25T13:00:52","date_gmt":"2018-05-25T20:00:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6845"},"modified":"2018-05-09T18:02:30","modified_gmt":"2018-05-10T01:02:30","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s05e08-bob","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/05\/mark-watches-alias-s05e08-bob\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S05E08 – Bob"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the eighth episode of the fifth season of Alias<\/i>, Rachel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s next solo mission puts her in a brutally awkward position. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Oh, this episode was a LOT. Which is the case with most of this show??? Okay, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m five seasons in, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m a broken record at this point. Like \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Fait Accompli,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d I began to anticipate certain outcomes from the plot, and the script cackled at me for even trying to do so. And once again, Rachel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character does a lot of the heavy lifting for the episode, given that Sydney can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t do as much, and IT IS STILL COMPELLING.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

(Seven episodes without any sort of information on Thomas Grace, for the record. I swear, I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being punked, as if this character is only in my copy of the show so that I can be tormented by his mediocrity.)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna start with Jack and Elizabeth, the only real crack in the armor of this episode. (If you ignore Grace, which is SHOCKINGLY easy to do.) I love parallel storylines, and I feel like the writers intended to have Jack and Elizabeth play a parallel or a foil to Rachel\/Sark. She\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a face from the past, someone Jack hasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t seen in a long time, and the pulse bomb brings them together. We start to get a sense for the chemistry that they have with one another, but I never felt like the show went as far as they should have. These glimpses were not enough, especially since we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen Jack interact with other past characters more meaningfully. What does Elizabeth bring out in Jack? Why is he nearly willing to give up his employer for her when we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve seen him resist torture many times in the past? Simply put, this wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t bad, but we could have gotten more from it all.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help that Rachel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s interaction with a past character differs in more substantial ways. Firstly, we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d never seen Elizabeth prior to \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bob.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Sark is an iconic character from the show, and Elizabeth was very new and most likely won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t appear again. In addition to that, the writers drown us in the unbearable tension of coincidence: both Rachel and Sark are after the same target, and neither knows who the other is or who they work for.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Even worse, of course, is their growing attraction to one another. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a fascinating bit early in \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bob\u00e2\u20ac\u009d in which Sydney gives Rachel advice about responsibility and leisure. The show has allowed Sydney to guide Rachel, rather than compete with her, and it allows for SO MANY fantastic scenes. Sydney knows exactly what it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like to be without a social life, to devote her everything to the job. Given how new Rachel is to this, Sydney just wanted to help nudge her away from the kind of obsessive schedule she kept in her early years. (Hell, she still keeps it, doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she?)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s because of that advice that she sleeps with Sark and actually enjoys herself. And I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t fault her for that because she LITERALLY had no idea who he was. Why shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t she enjoy herself??? Yes, this also meant that I was on the edge of my seat the SECOND he appeared, so bravo for keeping me engaged. But it was nice that even in the end, Rachel wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shamed by the narrative for making this choice. She certainly regretted having sex with Sark, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll probably think twice before ever having fun while on a job.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

BUT THEN SARK GETS HIRED BY APO TO TAKE DOWN BENJAMIN MASARI. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I expected Rachel and Sark to figure out what was happening BEFORE they left Brazil, but NOPE. I had to completely adjust my expectations, and \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bob\u00e2\u20ac\u009d ended up going to a much more interesting place. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all know I love the trope of enemies being forced to work together for a common goal, so HERE WE ARE, right in the midst of that exact trope. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so satisfying??? Why do I love this trope as much as I do??? <\/i>I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m predictable, I know it, but the way this trope appeared here was not<\/i> predictable. Despite working on the same side, though, Rachel doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have to let Sark off the hook. I appreciated that<\/i>, too, because she still had a pretty reasonable reason to dislike him. AND I LOVE THAT SHE GOT THE LAST WORD, TOO.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Basically: this a solid episode with one misstep. Do I know where this season is going? HELL NO.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Bob\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":"