TiVo Community Forums Archives - Alias 4/11 -- the thread about the actual episode (spoilers)

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Alias 4/11 -- the thread about the actual episode (spoilers)
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Posted by: cmontyburns

Now THAT's an episode. What a curiously up-and-down season the show is having. Started slow, really picked up steam, and then is up and down almost on a weekly basis. Fortunately we're up this week -- and hopefully we'll stay that way, now that Lauren has been outed. (Note to double-agent wanna-be's: leave your wigs at a friend's place.) I was almost afraid she would skate by again, but the close shaves she experienced this time were sooo close that it was obvious we were finally in the process of building to something there, so I would even have been OK is she weren't made until next week. Sure, there were the usual implausibilities -- for an outfit with the resources of the Covenant, they sure don't have many field agents -- but it was great to see Sydney in a knock-down, drag-out again, we got closer to the center of the Rambaldi plot (hopefully they'll convince Lena Olin to come back for at least an episode now), and did we just get the seeds of the post-Covenenat plotline with "The Trust"? (Note to spy-show-creator wanna-be's: mysterious organization names beginning with "the" sound stupid.) And it was a good thing Vaughn took some target practice this week -- he actually hit someone later in the show! Good stuff all the way around.

Posted by: brott

Ok, but what was up with the thugs showing up to delay Syd and Vaughn? I mean wasn't Lauren working on her own at the time? I guess that they were the Rambaldi dude's thugs, but it wasn't that clear.

I did enjoy the episode, but I'm suprised the Panic Room had a nice little escape hatch in the ceiling.

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

quote:
Originally posted by brott
Ok, but what was up with the thugs showing up to delay Syd and Vaughn? I mean wasn't Lauren working on her own at the time? I guess that they were the Rambaldi dude's thugs, but it wasn't that clear.

I assumed that they were Covenant people--remember that Lauren was a renegade at that point, and not representing the Covenant any more. So at that point there were three groups after the doctor--the CIA, the Covenant, and Lauren (who wanted the information to prove herself to the Covenant).

Posted by: cwoody222

Could be they were Covenant. While watching the episode I thought they were the Doctor's thugs. The Covenant wouldn't have known about him since Lauren was holding the info to herself, right?

And the Panic Room with an escape hatch was sorta silly.

But those are minor quibbles, this was a really great episode. This season has been up and down... I hope it stays up for the remainder.

I really liked how they tied "Peace" back to SpyMommy at the end. I'm glad this whole Rimbadli thing is coming back.

As for who the passenger is... what ever happened to Syd's mysterious scar early in the season. And, don't forget...

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)

... Sydney's going to get a sister any episode now. I wonder if she'll be the result of the affair with Sloane?

Posted by: Rob Helmerichs

The reason I didn't think they were the doctor's thugs is that they would have been in there when Lauren, Vaughn, and Sydney were going in; instead, they came in AFTER everybody was already there.

quote:
Originally posted by cwoody222
Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
... Sydney's going to get a sister any episode now. I wonder if she'll be the result of the affair with Sloane?

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
That's pretty unlikely, since they've already said the affair was while Jack & Irina were married, and that Sydney was born around that time. A second pregnancy probably would not have escaped Jack's attention...

But yes, the Passenger could be the sister. Or, I suppose, since Irina was floated as a possibility, it could be Auntie as well...

Posted by: boywaja

quote:
Originally posted by Medieval Guy
The reason I didn't think they were the doctor's thugs is that they would have been in there when Lauren, Vaughn, and Sydney were going in; instead, they came in AFTER everybody was already there.

I thought it was pretty clear that the doctor pressed the panic button that called the preservers of Rembali to show up. If I was building a panic room, I'd make sure I didn't have to run across the room to close the door.

When they were fighting, they highlighted a tattoo on one of the attackers wrists. Now unless that was a Ford Focus ad, my guess was it was the rembaldi symbol (which they had just reminded us about by pointing it out on a piece of artwork).

Posted by: LoadStar

quote:
Originally posted by Medieval Guy
The reason I didn't think they were the doctor's thugs is that they would have been in there when Lauren, Vaughn, and Sydney were going in; instead, they came in AFTER everybody was already there.

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
That's pretty unlikely, since they've already said the affair was while Jack & Irina were married, and that Sydney was born around that time. A second pregnancy probably would not have escaped Jack's attention...

But yes, the Passenger could be the sister. Or, I suppose, since Irina was floated as a possibility, it could be Auntie as well...

Spoiler Alert! (highlight to read)
I've heard it IS the result of the affair.

I'm not sure how young Syd was when her mother was "killed" - anyone remember? They may have mentioned it at one point. If it was fairly young, then the affair could've happened shortly before Irina's "death" and she could've been pregnant at that point.

Anyway, back to non-spoilery thoughts... my word, are the people in the Alias universe depressingly stupid. However, they're all equally stupid, so it's fair game. :) It's like they all took the correspondence version of spy school. That, or Spying for Dummies. One of the two.

Hint for would-be spies - don't leave your spy kit at home, or at least get your optech guy (who can invent literally everything) to invent you a better hiding space.

That panic room WAS incredibly dumb. From the touchpad you could just rip off the wall and expose the trigger wires, to the fact that it had a back door, to the part where she managed to throw the door back open with her bare hands... *sigh* Evidently, the panic room designers were just as stupid as everyone else in this universe.

The Sooper-Dooper Super Sekret Cell Phone makes a return engagement for this episode. I don't remember - did she start the conversation while she was still in the CIA facilities again? Either way, at least the CIA grew a brain and decided to TAP THE PHONE this time. Yeesh.

I did like the dialogue they wrote for them in the goth industrial club... at least they got the terms mostly correct. The glasses were stupid though.

Sometimes, I wonder why I like this show... even with all it's faults, I still love it. It's one big block of cheese. :)

Posted by: dtle

quote:
Originally posted by LoadStar

I did like the dialogue they wrote for them in the goth industrial club... at least they got the terms mostly correct. The glasses were stupid though.

[/B]

I don't know about the dialog. Vaughn bragged doing a Denial of Service attack on some government. DoS is shunned by the hacker community. It requires almost no intelligence to execute it.

Also, if Cypher had a PDA, wouldn't he have a small CF and SecureDigital card instead of a USB drive. Even if he would carry a big USB drive like that (they have them smaller now), wouldn't it be 2.0 so it would only take seconds to transfer source code file to Vaughn's computer?

Sigh....I still love the show.

Posted by: grins

And Lauren dumps the expensive full-body fetish wear, but saves the $4 at Walgreens wig?

Posted by: TreborPugly

I think the plot twists are getting weaker and weaker.

The whole suicide thing for Lauren's father still bugs me. Shoot him from across the room, and it somehow looks like a suicide?

But the latest is this new super secret, super dangerous organization in the US government. They keep introducing new players with the weakest back stories. Jack's never heard of this organization, but he can find out about it by asking One source? Jack's been a spy for about 30 years, and he doesn't know every significant organization there is?
We had SD6, which was part of a bigger world-wide criminal intelligence organization. Then the Covenant, which has been around long enough for Sark's father and Lauren's mother to be in it . And now another US "good guy" organization? Come on.

It is good in a suspense movie with a "regular guy" character to keep learning about deeper and deeper levels, and more and more secret organizations, but a show about super-spies, where they keep learning about super-duper-spies??

Posted by: cpalma

When the doctor was running to the panic room, was the keypad supposed to flip down to expose the wires...or BLOOPER! LMAO.

Do you think Sark is in love with Blondie/Lauren? Why else would he shoot and kill the Convenant's Main Bad Guy? Did you know Sark (actor's name escapes me ATM) is from Oregon and not British in the least?

I really liked Jack and Vaughn's discussion. It was great of Jack to bring up the similarities in their marriage and Vaughn's marriage (Spy vs. Spy). And it was great that Vaughn threw it back in his face..."you've never thought much of me...". As much as Vaughn didn't want to believe it, he started questioning nonetheless.

Off topic, we watched on HD and throughout the entire show it flip between wide screen and not wide screen. Did this happen to anyone else in the Boston viewing area (or elsewhere)?

Posted by: KLB

quote:
Originally posted by brott
Ok, but what was up with the thugs showing up to delay Syd and Vaughn? I mean wasn't Lauren working on her own at the time? I guess that they were the Rambaldi dude's thugs, but it wasn't that clear.

My thought (since the one had the Rambaldi tattoo on his hand) was that they were followers of Rambaldi, as the doctor was.

The doctor was protecting 'The Passenger", keeping 'her' safe and away from the Covenent and other people who want to exploit Rambaldi's creations. These were people who were also engaged in the same task and dedicated to Rambaldi.

Posted by: Mike20878

quote:
Originally posted by cpalma
Off topic, we watched on HD and throughout the entire show it flip between wide screen and not wide screen. Did this happen to anyone else in the Boston viewing area (or elsewhere)?

No problems this week in the DC area. You might want to call your local affiliate and ask if something was wrong.

Posted by: T-Wolves

I figured that Vaughn was going to "catch" Lauren just by rewinding some of the video from all the security cameras in the panic room. But I guess that would've been too easy.

Posted by: cmontyburns

quote:
Originally posted by LoadStar
Anyway, back to non-spoilery thoughts... my word, are the people in the Alias universe depressingly stupid. However, they're all equally stupid, so it's fair game. :) It's like they all took the correspondence version of spy school. That, or Spying for Dummies. One of the two.

Hint for would-be spies - don't leave your spy kit at home, or at least get your optech guy (who can invent literally everything) to invent you a better hiding space.

That panic room WAS incredibly dumb. From the touchpad you could just rip off the wall and expose the trigger wires, to the fact that it had a back door, to the part where she managed to throw the door back open with her bare hands... *sigh* Evidently, the panic room designers were just as stupid as everyone else in this universe.

The Sooper-Dooper Super Sekret Cell Phone makes a return engagement for this episode. I don't remember - did she start the conversation while she was still in the CIA facilities again? Either way, at least the CIA grew a brain and decided to TAP THE PHONE this time. Yeesh.

I did like the dialogue they wrote for them in the goth industrial club... at least they got the terms mostly correct. The glasses were stupid though.

Sometimes, I wonder why I like this show... even with all it's faults, I still love it. It's one big block of cheese. :)

Y'know, back in the day it seemed that most of the complaining about the show (from me, anyway; don't want to impugn anyone else) centered on its Rambaldi obsession. Continuing plot points about an ancient genius capable of understanding -- and developing -- nuclear technology and bioweapons and eternal life and whatever else -- felt totally absurd for a spy show. Now those same elements seem like the most plausible things we see every week!

Posted by: aadam101

quote:
Originally posted by brott

I did enjoy the episode, but I'm suprised the Panic Room had a nice little escape hatch in the ceiling.

If only Jodie Foster had one, I could have saved two hours of my life.

I thought the keypad was hilarious. I work for a retail chain and we use the same ones on our stock room doors. lol

Posted by: ronsch

And who doesn't think that Lauren will be standing right behind Vaughn with a gun pointed at him when we pick up tomorrow night?

The only decision now is do I use the vcr for Alias or 24????

Edit: Decisions made. Alias gets TiVo and 24 gets the vcr. Of course I'm going to have to watch the first 10 minutes of Alias live!

Posted by: Mike20878

quote:
Originally posted by ronsch
And who doesn't think that Lauren will be standing right behind Vaughn with a gun pointed at him when we pick up tomorrow night?

The only decision now is do I use the vcr for Alias or 24????

Edit: Decisions made. Alias gets TiVo and 24 gets the vcr. Of course I'm going to have to watch the first 10 minutes of Alias live!

You can TiVo 24 on FX Monday at 11pm or Tuesday at 6pm.

Posted by: ronsch

I saw that. Still going to vcr it first and go for the 6:00pm showing on Tuesday with TiVo.

Posted by: Ladd Morse

quote:
Originally posted by Mike20878
You can TiVo 24 on FX Monday at 11pm or Tuesday at 6pm.

Well Dang!! I wish I had known that earlier!

The downfall of having a Season Pass instead of a Wishlist -- I didn't know there were alternate days to record current episodes. 24 has been a source of programming conlict for me forever. :(

Posted by: Mike20878

quote:
Originally posted by Ladd Morse
Well Dang!! I wish I had known that earlier!

The downfall of having a Season Pass instead of a Wishlist -- I didn't know there were alternate days to record current episodes. 24 has been a source of programming conlict for me forever. :(

This was only a special circumstance due to the President's news conference this past Tuesday. FX does not normally air 24 this season. So, you haven't missed any opportunities prior to this.

Posted by: jasoncarr

quote:
Originally posted by cpalma
When the doctor was running to the panic room, was the keypad supposed to flip down to expose the wires...or BLOOPER! LMAO.

A few weeks back when someone was reading email, one of the Email Subject: lines was something like "Sydney's costume in upcoming episode". I thought that was pretty funny.