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Alias: Snowman

Kishell: "Killing is his job. He likes his job."

This episode started with a post-sex chase, and ended with a fight to the death. And all with the same guy.

Noah was quirky, smart, interesting and reasonably good looking, but I didn't see the attraction; Vaughn and Will are twice as attractive, in my opinion. Vaughn was obviously jealous. I didn't think Vaughn has anything to be jealous about, even before Noah turned out to be a ruthless assassin. I don't usually guess stuff ahead of time, but I was fairly sure early on that Noah would turn out to be the Snowman. Plus there's the Bonanza syndrome; if he weren't the Snowman, he probably would have ended up dead.

That was some fight in the kitchen, one of the best I've seen on this show. Did Noah hold back because it was Sydney? I think he might have. He truly cared about her, after all.

We learned a lot more about Mom, a.k.a. Irina Derevko. We saw her on that (conveniently fuzzy) videotape; we learned that she posed as an American lit student to get the details of Project Christmas; and Sydney recognized a man on the tape who had supposedly died in the accident with Mom. Why the accent? Wasn't Laura/Irina posing as an American student? Was that supposed to signify that she was speaking in Russian?

Poor Jack. That tape was devastating for him, seeing his wife's treachery, hearing himself referred to as a fool. Devastating enough for him to actually seek out Dr. Barnett. I do adore Jack. What a fascinating character he is, and what depth he has.

Bits and pieces:

— The helicopter/motorcycle rescue was very cool, but just a bit too improbably James Bondy.

— Why aren't Sydney and Vaughn throwing themselves into each other's arms? They clearly want to.



— Interesting that Dixon didn't trust Noah. Good instincts.

— Sloane's dying wife and his tenderness toward her gives Sloane dimension, makes him slightly more sympathetic. The bandage on his formerly severed finger makes him seem more vulnerable, too.

— Now that Will has no exciting, dangerous subplot, he and Francie seem more like a couple every week.

— Jack's full name is Jonathan Donahue Bristow.

— Much like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Sydney isn't tremendously lucky with guys, is she?

This week's...

... itinerary: Ark wherever they were last week, Bogota, Cape Town, and Mackay, Australia.

... cool gadget: that sound dampener. I'm sure we've all had neighbors we would have liked to use it on.

Three out of four spies,

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

5 comments:

  1. Yes to everything you said, Billie, from not seeing the attraction to Dixon being a good judge of character and Noah obviously being the Snowman, because who else would it be? We even got clues: in "Masquerade," he wielded that knife like a...guy who likes knives.

    I'd actually say this two-parter is the first time Alias made a miscalculation. There were four (4!) scenes without dialogue set to music. Sure, one of those songs was Jeff Buckley, which is awesome. But four (4!) scenes that rely on music to convey emotion seems like cheating. And like the script came in a few minutes too short.

    For that reason, I'd give it two out of four spies. Luckily, even a clunker on Alias is still incredible watchable and fun.

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  2. You read my mind Josie :) The weakest episodes of the season!

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  3. There are a couple of things that bother me about this episode. Like Billie, the first is the fact that Laura/Irina has such a strong Russian accent. It's difficult to imagine her "posing as an American" while speaking like that.

    The second is Sloan concerning himself with the men Sydney sleeps with. That conversation he has with Jack always creeps me out.

    I'm not as negative on the Noah story line as Josie and Nadim. Yes, it was obvious that he would be the Snowman, but I thought it was time that we saw Sydney move beyond Danny and it's too early in the series for that to be Vaughn.

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  4. I'm so glad I'm not alone in wondering why on earth Laura/Irina has an accent. Or why they're speaking English...

    Vaughn's too much of a lovesick puppy. I'd have gone for Will in a heartbeat (over Danny, too). But then, I spend the entire time wishing I was watching 'Will Tippen: Investigative Journalist' anyway!

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  5. Jack is certainly trying to make his daughter happy. They are starting to make steps forward in their emotional connection.

    Vaughn was definitely jealous of Noah, which is cute. I'm not sure Syd was really attracted to Noah himself, but the offer to leave the spy life behind was very tempting. Especially having to lie, once again, to her friends. After Vaughn and Syd's argument, I half-expected them to start kissing - lots of sexual tension there!

    I'm not a big fan of this episode (or the last one), but I agree that even a mediocre Alias episode is better than most other shows on TV!

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