{"id":6786,"date":"2018-03-29T13:00:55","date_gmt":"2018-03-29T20:00:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6786"},"modified":"2018-03-19T16:37:20","modified_gmt":"2018-03-19T23:37:20","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s03e13-after-six","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/03\/mark-watches-alias-s03e13-after-six\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S03E13 – After Six"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the thirteenth episode of the third season of Alias<\/i>, the mess gets messier. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n

Oh, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much to talk about, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S DO THIS.<\/p>\n

Unexpected<\/b><\/p>\n

You know, I told myself long ago that I wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t gonna get invested in tormented, angst-filled romances between white heterosexual people, especially when they rarely, if ever, are at risk for actually<\/i> having the kind of tumultuous, terrifying predicaments that fiction likes to think they have. And what I mean is that sometimes, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to watch characters like this tell one another that they wish they could be together, their love is so dangerous, if only they weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t kept apart, etc. Honey, I was in the closet until I was 18. I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even marry another man until a few years ago. Miscegenation laws, anyone? So yeah, I get that this isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t what they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re referring to at all, but I still have a part of me that cringes a bit from stories like this.<\/p>\n

But guess what? I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m trash. I am absolute TRASH for this relationship, and I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe how invested I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve become in the idea that Vaughn and Sydney should be together. How did I get to this point? How am I supposed to deal with all these emotions??? Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all, I felt like I was bursting at the SEAMS as I watched these two goofballs try to navigate the ramifications of their mutual confession in the last episode. They both know they love one another without a doubt, and they both cannot be together without\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, a whole lot of pain. Sydney refuses to be the other woman, despite that Vaughn seems willing to be with Sydney. (Sort of. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only hinted at and not directly stated, as far as I remember.)<\/p>\n

Of course, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s an angle to this that the audience knows that affects my perception of it all. Lauren has not<\/i> been faithful to Vaughn, nor is she who she says she is. So Vaughn and Sydney could<\/i> be together BUT THEY DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T EVEN KNOW IT!!! WHY MUST THIS SHOW TORMENT ME LIKE THIS!!!!<\/p>\n

I am such trash for this pairing, good god.<\/p>\n

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

Whew, this was an expertly designed heist. Though I gotta say that I wish there was more of Vivica Fox\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s character! We only got a glimpse of what her organization is like before she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s taken in by the CIA. Perhaps that means she can now make an appearance in a future episode?<\/p>\n

Anyway, this heist has all the components to make it exciting and tense. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a time limit, first of all, and five minutes is REAL short for what these characters need to do. The obstacles that they have to get past are believably deadly, meaning that even the slightest mistake could end in death. A combination of super cool tech and improvised ingenuity leads to the team\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s success. And on top of it all, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the layered emotional complexity of Vaughn and Sydney. These aren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t strangers who have just met and have no chemistry with one another. OH, NO, THIS IS VERY MUCH THE EXACT OPPOSITE AND I LOVED IT.<\/p>\n

The Double Cross<\/b><\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Lauren is off making herself even less likable BUT all the more interesting as a character. Exactly when<\/i> did she become part of the Covenant? Does the Covenant operate with the understanding that you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll never know who you\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re actually working for? Because it seems that nameless obedience is their modus operandi, and initially, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Sark tries<\/i> to appeal to in order to get Lauren to betray the Covenant and stage a coup. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s through this that we see Lauren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s skills as an assassin, and she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly terrifying when she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in this mode.<\/p>\n

But I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m left wondering the why<\/i> of it all. And that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a good thing! I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t expect the show to give me all the answers upfront, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s much more fun that these plots are seeded in earlier episodes and then come to fruition whenever I least expect it. Lauren is captivating enough as a character that, despite disliking what she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s done to these characters, I find myself wanting to know her full story. Is her allegiance to the Covenant foolproof? Or does she have an ulterior motive? Why would she choose to betray Sark in order to serve the Covenant? I feel like there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still something here that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m missing! Of course, it could just be that Lauren is a selfish, terrible person, but I suspect that Alias<\/i> has more complicated notions of her character.<\/p>\n

Arvin Sloane<\/b><\/p>\n

What the FUCK is going on with his storyline!!! What was that green shit he injected into his arm? What\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s this terrible secret that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s haunting him, and why couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t he tell it even to a CIA therapist??? WHAT THE HELL.<\/p>\n

I NEED TO KNOW, Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153After Six\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":"