Alias: Another Mr. Sloane

Roberts: "You ask me, both of them give me the creeps."

I'm not sure what just happened, but I'm fascinated.

Has Sloane just been biding his time all along? When has he lied? Or has he been telling the truth? Is he actually blameless? Did proximity to the big red golf ball battery make him nuts, like he was in Siena with Nadia? It was like he was possessed when he was bludgeoning Carter to death; I was completely creeped out when he talked so softly to Nadia with blood running down his face. Oooooh.

What Sloane said to Carter (mid-bludgeon) confused me. I always thought immortality was the big Rambaldi thing that made people so obsessed, but Sloane said that it was just a lure to keep the underlings occupied. What is it, really? Is this the season when we'll finally find out what the big Rambaldi secret is? If it isn't immortality, then it has to be power. World domination? A time travel machine? Warp drive?

Who the hell is Arvin Clone? (And was that laugh out loud funny, or what?) I thought that Sloane would recognize him, but if he did, he isn't telling. Arvin Clone told Dr. Sinclair about his past, how he discovered Rambaldi, and it was the same as Sloane's past: the Army Corps of Engineers, and so on. Was he also married to a woman named Emily? Does the Clone think he's really Sloane, like Sydney said? Maybe he actually is a clone. Wouldn't that be interesting?

Jack felt subtly fragile somehow in this episode, as if he were ill, which he is. That emotional Jack/Sloane conversation in the men's room sure made it sound like Jack killed Irina, but (I know, I'm grasping) that might be exactly how Jack wanted it to sound. I'm holding on to my constant belief that Jack would know Irina was incapable of having Sydney killed, and that he hid her away somehow and faked her death.

Questions, questions, questions.

Bits and pieces:

— I'm such a Trek girl: I saw Dr. Sinclair and immediately thought, "Ro Laren." What happened with her was a lot like the Christian Slater plot awhile back, except they tortured her instead of kidnapping her family to "motivate" her.

— Paul Ben-Victor (Carter, the grim-faced torturer) was a lot funnier in the Invisible Man series.

— Scarface Roberts was right. He would have been safer in prison. "Someplace safe? What, like Mars?"

— Did the blood on Sloane's forehead spell out a word, and if so, what was it? "Kill! Kill!"

— Who is Jacquelyn?

— The elevators in the exchange scene looked familiar. Were they in a movie? If you know, drop me a line.

— Last week, I attended the Destination L.A. Lost party and talked with Greg Grunberg. He told me about an Eric/Nadia scene that was cut earlier in the season. Read all about it!

Quotes:

Sydney: (to Nadia) "Forty-seven, forty-five... " They're playing with us, aren't they?

Sloane: "You're asking me to go back to Rambaldi."
Sydney: "God help us, yes."

Sloane: (to Nadia) "Having me for a father is an arduous undertaking."
Gee, you think?

This week's...

... itinerary: Krakow, Sicily, Santiago. And aren't the Rambaldi artifacts in Nevada?

... gross-out moment: Whatever Paul Ben-Victor was doing to Michelle Forbes with that thing, and please don't write and tell me what it was. Bleah. Okay, more implied than gross, which is good, but there was a lot of screaming.

... hot look: That pin-striped suit on Vaughn. And Sydney's pig-tailed flight attendant outfit was cute.

It's hard to rate an episode that is one big question mark, but I have to say that this is Alias at its best. We're deeply into the arc, I'm totally mystified by what's going on, but I know it will all make sense later on. Love it. Three spies,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

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