Rambaldi's middle name should be "convoluted." Milo Convoluted Rambaldi. A synthetic polymer five hundred year old disk in Spain that only becomes a star chart of a precise place on earth if you put it on a five hundred year old clock found in Tunisia?
Interesting stuff about the clockmaker, though. Rambaldi promised Donato an impossibly long life? The clockmaker knew when he would die? And he also knew Rambaldi? So he was probably the original Donato, not a descendant.
Does this mean Rambaldi himself is still alive?
The second big plot piece was the functional imaging test, which seemed to have identified Sydney as the mole in spite of all the practicing she did with Vaughn. (He was actually flirting with her, wasn't he, asking her while she was wired if she was romantically interested in someone? Very cute.)
The third big plot piece was Eloise Kurtz, who is dead, but whose story just won't die. We finally found out Jack was behind her little game, although it was Sloane who had her killed. But wait! There was a listening device in her car, and now Will has it. Will is going to get himself killed. Would Spy Daddy kill Will? It's hard to tell with Jack.
And fourth – Jack gave Sydney's mother Laura, who was a teacher, first editions from Prague. They had KGB codes in them, conveniently revealed by the lemonade that Francie spilled. This made Sydney once again certain that Daddy Bristow was KGB. And just when they were getting along, with the Thanksgiving leftovers and all; she even went to him for help at the beginning of the episode. Too bad.
This week's cliffhanger: If the fall doesn't kill Sydney, Sloane will take her out because she's the mole. Things don't look good for our heroine. Did Anna get away with Rambaldi's journal? And what happened to Dixon?
Bits and pieces:
— It was great to have Anna Espinosa back.
— The jump off the balcony was very cool.
— Sydney was still wearing Danny's ring, squelching any ideas Will had about more awkward kisses. Interesting that Sydney pointed out the ring to Will, almost as if she were trying to forestall him.
— Sydney's schooling is still suffering. ("If you want to be a banker, be a banker.") Why is this woman in grad school, anyway? She has a career already. She has enough career angst going on for ten average people. If she survives her job, she ought to retire at thirty-five and spend the rest of her life on a beach drinking margaritas.
— Sydney had another perfect opportunity to tell Dixon the truth, and she didn't.
This week's...
... itinerary: England, Italy, and Argentina.
... hot look: Sydney and Anna both looked excellent in gorgeous black dresses.
... language skills: Sydney spoke a lot of Italian.
This episode had enough exciting plot in it for several episodes. Three out of four spies,
Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.
Marathon resumes!
ReplyDeleteI've always remembered the clock-maker scene quite well, and it didn't disappoint on second viewing. Something about the symmetry of a clock-maker living for an impossibly long time really appeals to me. (As does the old clock. If anyone else has a bizarre interest in old clocks, check out David Landes's Revolution in Time, the go-to text for wacky timepiece knowledge.)
I'm loving the Rambaldi stuff, because it gives our spies some fun quest objects (a term I've stolen from one of your SPN reviews, Billie) and means that Sydney doesn't have to spend each episode trying to prevent spy-criminals from getting nukes, or something.
Jack a double agent for the KGB? Right now, I'm thoroughly "meh" on the topic. I'm still a little burned out on the recent TV trope of parent-drama, so even though Alias pretty much got that trend started, it still feels tired.
Sydney's Italian is very good. She speaks it with a very obvious American accent, but what she says is accurate.
ReplyDeleteWhile I like the Rambaldi treasure hunt, I watch this show for the relationships between the characters. Loved the flirting this time out.
Well her Italian may have been good, but her Russian was terrible, and every time they used Russian text in the show it was either English words spelled out with Russian letters that LOOK like English letters, such as the ш which looks like a w but actually sounds like a "sh"; or they used letters that phonetically sounded correct, but they were for english words that don't exiat in Russuan, like "disarm/дисарм"; but my personal favorite was the google translation they had painted on the side of a barrel that literally said "this side up", but they used the word that means like your hip (your side), not the side of an object, and had an extra letter added on at the end for no reason, so it looked something like "this side upx". As a linguist and translator this stuff bugs the hell out of me, but what is fascinating is the great lengths hollywood went to to do everything possible to not spend a dime on russian speaking actors, language coaches for the parts where the main character speaks russian, or to even simply consult with a russian to see if the russian text shown on props looks legitimate, which isn't hard to do because there are 3 million russians in the us.
DeleteI drove by Castle Green today. Every time I drive by (which is rather often), I think, 'Oh look, Italy.' Later drove by Pasadena Civic Center and was all 'Oh look, Taipei.' Most people think you Italy and Taiwan are quite far away from each other. In Alias reality, they're only three blocks apart. :)
ReplyDeleteI love the clockmaker. He's just adorable! And, apparently VERY old!!
ReplyDeleteFunny, I thought Syd looked best when she was visiting the clockmaker. Maybe it's because she's running and jumping over the balcony in heels. She rocks!
I noticed something interesting this time around, but it's probably my imagination. When Anna shot Sydney, she almost had a look of terror on her face. Of course, the look could just be one of strain from the fight. But, I've decided to believe that Anna has too much respect for Sydney to just kill her. Otherwise, she would have shot her when she first confronted her. Or maybe I'm overthinking it...