{"id":6853,"date":"2018-06-05T13:00:39","date_gmt":"2018-06-05T20:00:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/?p=6853"},"modified":"2018-05-12T07:17:07","modified_gmt":"2018-05-12T14:17:07","slug":"mark-watches-alias-s05e15-no-hard-feelings","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markwatches.net\/reviews\/2018\/06\/mark-watches-alias-s05e15-no-hard-feelings\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Watches ‘Alias’: S05E15 – No Hard Feelings"},"content":{"rendered":"

In the fifteenth episode of the fifth season of Alias<\/i>, I continued to be stressed out by this show. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to watch Alias<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This was a ride<\/i>, friends, and I am so glad that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m on it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Tom Grace<\/b><\/p>\n

I do want to spend most of this review talking about how much I enjoyed \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No Hard Feelings,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d so let me get this out of the way first: wow, this plot STINKS. I know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m being harsh on Tom Grace, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so hard to care about his character and his big secret. The show spent a long, long time hiding it from us, and then we learn about his past not<\/i> by experiencing it, but by having his character just tell<\/i> us what happened. I criticize this as someone who LITERALLY USED THIS SAME TECHNIQUE TWICE IN TWO DIFFERENT BOOKS. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not even a flashback because we never see Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wife\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s death on screen; it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s only related to the audience through dialogue. The same goes for Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153past\u00e2\u20ac\u009d working a job with Korman. What exactly<\/i> did he do before he was CIA? Was he even CIA then? See, I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t actually tell, and so I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m left feeling confused by Tom\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s motivation. Which makes Rachel\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s treatment of Tom so confusing! How the fuck<\/i> does she know that Tom is a good person!!!!! She barely knows him!!!! Does she know something the audience doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t? Could she share it with us?\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

And because none of this happens on screen, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s hard to connect with any<\/i> of it. As we head into the finale, I still feel like I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know anything significant about this character. Tom misses his wife, who was mistakenly killed when he<\/i> was the target. But that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not an actual characterization, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a story, and it feels lifeless<\/i>. Like, when Tom blew up Korman for killing his wife, I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t flinch. I didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t feel anything except for a vague concern that maybe Tom shouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t commit murder? Otherwise, I couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t muster up anything stronger than, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Well\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 that happened.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Hopefully, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not much of him in this finale.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

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

I AM TRASH FOR MYSTERIES AND CONSPIRACIES AND I AM SURE NONE OF YOU ARE SURPRISED THAT I LOVED LOST<\/i> AS MUCH AS I DID WHEN IT WAS AIRING. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually really fascinating to get LOST<\/i> vibes from Alias<\/i> because I can see these quiet similarities between the two, sometimes in the story or in the production of Alias<\/i>. Throw me a vague mystery\u00e2\u20ac\u201dparticularly one with fantasy or sci-fi implications\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand I will watch your show or read your book until I find out what the fuck it is. I can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t help it, y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all. It does me in every<\/i> time. I have watched some terrible<\/i> television because a mystery grabbed me. That being said, I kinda can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t believe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m so invested in Rambaldi all over again. I figured that thread had been resolved last season, and I was a bit wary when it was revived in season five. But there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a key element here that makes it so compelling: it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a story about fate, destiny, and free will. (Hello, major theme of LOST<\/i>, how are you?)\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sydney\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s presence here, alongside Sark, is entertaining because she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s playing such a cool alias. (She is Sydney pretending to be Anna who is pretending to be Sydney.) The same tension exists, too: Will Sark figure out that she is not who she says she is? Or will he buy the production? HE DOES, COMPLETELY, AND IT IS DEEPLY SATISFYING TO WATCH. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s also stressful? Because this is Alias<\/i>? And it doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t care about me? Once Sark revealed what Sydney was going to have to do, I knew this episode was truly going to take me on journey. The Rose, this mystical Rambaldi item, was hidden in an old-as-hell prison? And we had no idea what it was or what Sydney would have to do to get it? SWEET, HERE WE GO.<\/p>\n

I love the twist that The Rose was a person<\/i>, not a thing, and I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m also going to fully believe that somehow, The Rose actually<\/i> met Rambaldi. Right? Look, we know Rambaldi did some wild shit (you can quote me on that, totally accurate depiction of his character and legacy btw), and I wouldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t put it past him that he helped someone stay alive that long. I mean, the Rose said<\/i> that Rambaldi told him \u00e2\u20ac\u0153himself,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d sooooooooooooo\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m gonna just believe it.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

So what is that amulet? What the hell is it to be used for? All we know is that Arvin nearly killed Sydney for it, and now he has it, and Prophet Five has nothing. NOTHING. Do they even know that Arvin escaped with the final Rambaldi item? Oh, this finale is going to be pure chaos, isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t it? LET\u00e2\u20ac\u2122S TO, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122M READY. (Not actually.) And before I go: I just want to say that seeing Vaughn and Sydney in bed with Isabelle was A Lot. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all: one of those characters is supposed to be dead. The other is supposed to be a double. And yet, they both managed to find one another, and they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re home<\/i>. THEY DID IT.<\/p>\n

The video for \u00e2\u20ac\u0153No Hard Feelings\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":"