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Alias: Ice

Vaughn: "So the mission was a bust."
Weiss: "So to speak."

Way too gross-out horror movie for me. Limbs breaking off, exploding frozen people, needles in the eyeballs? I think they just hit an all-time low. Although I'll admit it was also edge-of-your-seat, particularly that final fight scene with the needle... but maybe it was just the nausea kicking in. Were they going for black humor, perhaps? Did they not pull it off, perhaps?

There were things I liked. The whole Vaughn/forgiveness subplot was definitely okay; Vaughn went to a dark place last season, continuity is a good thing, and confession is good for the soul. It makes sense that Vaughn felt that he needed punishment; why else would he encourage Dixon to keep hitting him? I thought that telling Kiera that he'd actually killed Lauren was taking it too far, though. I sure wouldn't trust a stranger who told me something like that, no matter how desperate I was or how cute he looked in a turned-around collar.

The Jack/Nadia photograph thing was intriguing. It felt like either a lie – Jack knew who the baby really was and chose not to say for some reason of his own – and/or a possible set-up for a future plot twist. Maybe we're going to get a new Spy Family cousin. If the baby really belonged to Irina's sister, which sister was it? Katya or (pause to check an old review for her name) the as-yet unseen Yelena?



The final scene on the cargo plane was endearing. Most men getting an invitation like that from Jennifer Garner would probably wake up instantly and jump out of their seat.

Bits and pieces:

— Ice-5 may be a tribute to the very similarly behaving Ice-9 in Kurt Vonnegut's end-of-the-world novel, Cat's Cradle.

— People kept holding frozen people in their arms. I think I'd be worried about freezing up, too.

— I thought Keene would get the needle in that final fight scene. Although it worked better dramatically with Kiera.

— Sloane continues to make an effective leader. Sydney continues to needle him whenever she has the opportunity, this time with that remark about "evil geniuses."

— That photo didn't look much like Lena Olin. I wonder why. Oh my... do you think Irina is still alive, and they re-cast her???

— This episode was written and directed by Angel alum Jeffrey Bell, which might explain attempt at black humor.

Quotes:

Weiss: "Killed? He exploded like a frozen pinata."

Kiera: "From time to time, they send me a squeamish one. It never ends well."

This week's...

... itinerary: A nasty market in Algeria, and a nasty hospital in Montenegro.

... hot look: Vaughn as a sexy, drunken priest. He had that naughty, flirty vibe down pat. Vartan is such a cutie pie.

... bonus hot look: I've noticed that Sydney has started wearing glasses this season. They look terrific on her. And it's good to remind people that men do make passes at girls who wear glasses.



This one wasn't as unpleasant the second time I watched it, when I was ready for the exploding bodies, but still... two out of four spies,

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

1 comment:

  1. I had bad memories of this one, but liked it more this time. Kelly MacDonald was awesome, and I liked the Ice-9 reference as well as the jokes about frozen pinatas.

    Above all, I like that they just took one episode to deal with Vaughn's grief/guilt/remorse. Drawing that out would have gotten annoying, but it did need to be addressed.

    And he was a sexy priest. I give Vaughn more guff than he deserves.

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