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Alias: Crossings

Dixon: "Their official position on Sydney and Vaughn is to disavow. Unofficially, I say screw them."

This was a Sydney/Vaughn relationship tease episode. I usually don't like tease episodes. Except this one actually started out with their pre-death smooch, instead of making us wait for it, which was different. And the two of them looking into each other's eyes as they're about to die in front of that creepy bloodstained wall was pretty darned romantic.

Is Vaughn's marriage over, or at least on its way out? He's now admitted to Sydney that he's very unhappy with the current situation. Leaving aside Lauren's double agent status, Vaughn is too much of a boy scout to stay with one woman if he loves another. On the other hand, though, he did commit to Lauren, and he's the kind of guy who takes commitment seriously.

The "enemy spy marrying an agent to get inside info" plot is getting a tad overused on Alias. At least this enemy agent is a total bitch; Lauren barely hesitated to send Vaughn to his death. Well, okay, she was looking at his photo with what could be construed as regret, but still.

I felt cheated out of a Lena Olin appearance, since she certainly would have been in this episode if she had signed for this season. But we did get another new and really interesting member of Spy Family... and she's hot for Jack, which is just sooooo much fun. Plus, she has some kind of agenda having to do with Irina and Sloane. That's just what we need on this show: another mystery. (I love Isabella Rossellini's voice; close your eyes, and she sounds just like her mother. And if you don't know who her mother is, you're probably not into old movies. Okay, I'll tell you – it's Ingrid Bergman.)



In the "how improbable is that" department, (1) they crash landed, and all that happened was that Vaughn got a boo-boo on his arm; (2) a busted jeep was just sitting there, and Sydney and Vaughn were able to fix it without tools or parts; and (3) Vaughn got gas on his hands, lit a flare, and his hands didn't burst into flames. And, hey, I'm not what you'd call a nitpicker. The writers must have been on a deadline or something.

Bits and pieces:

— Lauren reports to The Mummy. I wonder if he's going to be a continuing character.

— Tuesday is Vaughn's hockey night? Is that like poker night?

— Sending Sark on a mission that was beneath his talents was a transparent way to use a member of the cast instead of a guest star. But I did like the scene with Sydney and the knife. Nothing seems to faze our evil sweetheart, Mr. Sark.

— Vaughn: "Bad enough to be a fugitive in North Korea. Now I have to find out you slept with Will?"

— Katya referred to herself as the Black Sparrow.



— Leonid said that the Covenant had made him stay in North Korea for four years. I was under the impression that the Covenant was a new-ish organization. I guess four years isn't that long a time.

— Irina has another sister, Yelena. I wonder if she'll turn up eventually.

— Would Jack have killed Sloane? In a minute. Did this episode ruin Jack's relationship with Sloane? Nah. Sloane would be a fool to trust Jack.

This week's...

... itinerary: North Korea, Koreatown in Los Angeles, and Zurich.

... language skill: Sark did a convincing American accent as "Agent Hollier." (Note from later: David Anders is American. I didn't know that when I wrote this review.)

Despite the tease and the boo-boos, this one was fun. Two out of four spies,

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

4 comments:

  1. Isabella Rossellini!

    The man in Koreatown was Francois Chau, who played Dr. Pierre Chang in Lost. Seeing him here was just weird, but in a fun way.

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  2. Vaughn: "Bad enough to be a fugitive in North Korea. Now I have to find out you slept with Will?"

    That line clanged for me in a big way. Really? Vaughn is going to act like Sydney having a one night stand with Will is hard for him to take when he married Lauren 9 months after Sydney died?

    Lines like this remind me that so few writers in tv/movies are female.

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  3. To add to what Josie Kafka said, this episode also had Byron Chung who was Woo-Jung Paik in Lost (as well as many roles on M*A*S*H.


    Until now I never noticed that the song Delicate is played during this episode as well as the Lost episode '...In Translation'. JJ Abrams must really like Damian Rice.

    ReplyDelete
  4. I really liked this episode. However, the ‘how improbable‘ moment for me - was Lauren asking Sydney to dinner and no one thought that was suspicious behaviour? Why would Lauren want to spend time with her husband’s ex girlfriend, who her husband was madly in love with. Of course, we know
    ( audience) that Lauren doesn’t really want to spend time with Sydney, rather she was ordered by the covenant to keep a close eye on her - hence the dinner invitation. Nonetheless, I would have expected Jack to have been a bit suspicious of Lauren’ motives here - especially as Jack is very protective of Sydney.

    ReplyDelete

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