{"id":6781,"date":"2018-03-23T13:00:01","date_gmt":"2018-03-23T20:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6781"},"modified":"2018-03-12T17:55:45","modified_gmt":"2018-03-13T00:55:45","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s03e09-conscious","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/03\/mark-watches-alias-s03e09-conscious\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S03E09 – Conscious"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the ninth episode of the third season of Alias<\/i>, the team takes a radical approach to recover Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s memory. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Holy shit. HOLY SHIT.<\/p>\n

Lindsey<\/b><\/p>\n

You know, as fun as it has been to shout at Arvin Sloan to shut up every time he says something terrible, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s been a true delight to get a villain as purely evil and self-serving as Robert Lindsey has been. As the main characters get deeper and deeper into a disaster, Lindsey stops pretending to be moral or principled. In fact, he represents a quintessential older white dude position: he is absolutely<\/i> certain that he is going to get away with all of the evil that he does. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, he GLEEFULLY plans to assassinate Sydney in this episode. Just straight-up kill her! At this point, though, he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s gotten so much institutional support for his actions, so it makes sense that he pursue such a dangerous plot. In the end, he is sure he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll be able to justify it. To fold it into the NSC\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s objectives. To paint Sydney as a dangerous radical who had to be stopped, because look what she did to Lazarey!<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna make a prediction. Lindsey has made a critical error here. He misjudged Arvin, no matter what that letter says. (I still want to know!!! How does it prove any sort of endgame???) Arvin, as horrible as he is, is still creepily obsessed with Sydney, convinced he can redeem himself in her eyes, and that means: He would NEVER plot to kill her.<\/p>\n

LINDSEY IS GONNA REGRET THIS.<\/p>\n

The Hand<\/b><\/p>\n

I love a plot twist that still works even if there is no foreshadowing for it. Thinking back on this season, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t think of a single bit of evidence that the assassination of Lazarey was fake, and YET HERE WE ARE. He definitely did not die on the day Sydney was filmed slitting his throat. In fact, the team now has evidence that he was alive four months prior to the present day. HE MIGHT STILL BE ALIVE. So why would he fake his own death? Why would Sydney agree to it? WHY DID SHE CHOP OFF HIS HAND AND HIDE IT IN A BOX IN THE GROUND?<\/p>\n

Conscious<\/b><\/p>\n

This episode\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s greatest achievement is the brilliant use of dream logic, both as a storytelling device and within a visual medium. I do like well-done dream logic, and as wacky as the science for this episode probably is, I still wanted to believe that it was all real because it was presented to me in such a fascinating way. And I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not just referring to David Cronenberg. (WHAT THE FUCK, THAT IS ONE OF THE STRANGEST CAMEOS I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122VE EVER SEEN, I WAS 100% INTO IT.) Despite how surreal and strange this is, the writers give a logic that allows the audience to understand what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s unfolding. It might be scientific bullshit, but it works<\/i>.<\/p>\n

Thus, we get a visceral and creepy look inside Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind, and from that, we are finally<\/i> able to get confirmation of a few basic facts of Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s abduction. Covenant agents took her from her home, along with Allison, and she was taken to a facility afterwards. Behind door 47\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 something happened? UGH, WHY DID THIS EPISODE END THERE, YOU\u00e2\u20ac\u2122RE SO EVIL.<\/p>\n

Yet even without that answer, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Conscious\u00e2\u20ac\u009d is still a visual and emotional spectacle. I love how this episode looked<\/i>, and the intense choreography\u00e2\u20ac\u201dof images, sounds, colors, violence\u00e2\u20ac\u201devery bit of it meant something. (I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s stuff I missed, too.) With the production schedule this show had, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m even more<\/i> impressed with how gorgeous and haunting this was. And really, that was refreshing, too. The show didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t shy away from being downright weird. Dr. Brezzel and Kaya were both a lot of fun, and Alias<\/i> didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t avoid portraying dream logic as something that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s inherently hard to understand.<\/p>\n

I JUST NEED TO KNOW WHAT\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S IN THAT ROOM, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Why does this show torment me so???<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Conscious\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":"