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Nov. 2nd, 2003 10:20 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
vaznettiI'm going to have to start taking notes on this show, aren't I?
Maybe Allison is a werewolf. Stranger things have happened on Alias.
First, an irritating plot hole. The B.H. pointed this out, and it was bothering me as well. In the time it took Sydney and Vaughn to get from Vienna (or Milan, wherever Sloane met with Sark and Allison) to LA and then back to Sofia, Sark and Allison could have driven to Sofia. And had plenty of time to spare. What were they doing for those three days?
I think I know the answer to that.
I've liked Sark/Allison from the beginning. I'm not usually into pairings, and I'm not deeply attached to this one, but I liked the comfort-level I saw between them. It did strike me that Sark seemed more attached than Allison did, but then, he had no idea that she was still alive--that discovery was bound to make his emotions stronger. I liked the "Bristow should pay for these scars" line. And wait until he learns who killed his father!
But where was Sark in Sofia? Was he AWOL because he knew Sloane was leaking info to the CIA, and decided not to tell Allison? It would explain how deliberately he told Sloane where they were going. Sark, one feels, is not deeply attached to the Covenant--and it's hardly surprising. They seem to be holding something over him, to keep him working for them. Again, I find the Covenant oddly disorganized, for a super criminal organization. If I were in charge, I would not be sending a man I'd stolen 800 million from out on secret missions to handle sensitive information. (I'd find something much more interesting to do with him.) The left hand never seems to know what the right hand is doing. Or indeed, who the right hand is. Proper protocol for certain kinds of undercover work, but that's not what the Covenant seems to be doing.
I also liked Lauren in this episode. Basically, when she does stuff, I like her. When she emotes, I lose interest. Looks like next week she'll find out that "Julia Thorne" and Sydney Bristow are one and the same. I can't wait.
And Arvin, Arvin, Arvin. How I love him. The B.H. asked if I thought it possible that the Covenant doesn't really exist--that it's just a smokescreen set up by Sloane to give him room to do whatever it is that he's doing. I certainly do. I'm not positive that that's the best or only explanation, but it's not impossible. In any case, he's still having a very good time. I thought his rejection of Sydney's authority was very nice indeed. And did anyone else find his questioning of Allison awkward? Again, between Sark and Sloane one rather wonders if anything in that scene was what it appeared to be.
Dixon wants Allison dead but is willing to work with Sloane? Does anyone else see the disconnect here? If I were killed, I'd want my husband to go after the people who gave the order, not the foot soldiers. Just saying.
As for Allison, when she knocked Sydney out the B.H. turned to me and commented that Sydney is not exactly the most effective agent ever. She does have a tendency to lose things. I think it's because it's hard to sneak around in thigh-high boots with three-inch heels. Allison, though, was amazing--and the scene with Allison and Francie? Doubly amazing.
The B.H. now says "Here come the dancing babies" whenever Sydney and Vaughn are alone together.
Weiss is still the best friend ever. Even if he isn't as astute as Marshall is. And need we even mention Vaughn?
That all felt rather disorganized. I might do something more detailed on Sark and the Covenant tomorrow, now that we're getting more pieces of that picture.
Maybe Allison is a werewolf. Stranger things have happened on Alias.
First, an irritating plot hole. The B.H. pointed this out, and it was bothering me as well. In the time it took Sydney and Vaughn to get from Vienna (or Milan, wherever Sloane met with Sark and Allison) to LA and then back to Sofia, Sark and Allison could have driven to Sofia. And had plenty of time to spare. What were they doing for those three days?
I think I know the answer to that.
I've liked Sark/Allison from the beginning. I'm not usually into pairings, and I'm not deeply attached to this one, but I liked the comfort-level I saw between them. It did strike me that Sark seemed more attached than Allison did, but then, he had no idea that she was still alive--that discovery was bound to make his emotions stronger. I liked the "Bristow should pay for these scars" line. And wait until he learns who killed his father!
But where was Sark in Sofia? Was he AWOL because he knew Sloane was leaking info to the CIA, and decided not to tell Allison? It would explain how deliberately he told Sloane where they were going. Sark, one feels, is not deeply attached to the Covenant--and it's hardly surprising. They seem to be holding something over him, to keep him working for them. Again, I find the Covenant oddly disorganized, for a super criminal organization. If I were in charge, I would not be sending a man I'd stolen 800 million from out on secret missions to handle sensitive information. (I'd find something much more interesting to do with him.) The left hand never seems to know what the right hand is doing. Or indeed, who the right hand is. Proper protocol for certain kinds of undercover work, but that's not what the Covenant seems to be doing.
I also liked Lauren in this episode. Basically, when she does stuff, I like her. When she emotes, I lose interest. Looks like next week she'll find out that "Julia Thorne" and Sydney Bristow are one and the same. I can't wait.
And Arvin, Arvin, Arvin. How I love him. The B.H. asked if I thought it possible that the Covenant doesn't really exist--that it's just a smokescreen set up by Sloane to give him room to do whatever it is that he's doing. I certainly do. I'm not positive that that's the best or only explanation, but it's not impossible. In any case, he's still having a very good time. I thought his rejection of Sydney's authority was very nice indeed. And did anyone else find his questioning of Allison awkward? Again, between Sark and Sloane one rather wonders if anything in that scene was what it appeared to be.
Dixon wants Allison dead but is willing to work with Sloane? Does anyone else see the disconnect here? If I were killed, I'd want my husband to go after the people who gave the order, not the foot soldiers. Just saying.
As for Allison, when she knocked Sydney out the B.H. turned to me and commented that Sydney is not exactly the most effective agent ever. She does have a tendency to lose things. I think it's because it's hard to sneak around in thigh-high boots with three-inch heels. Allison, though, was amazing--and the scene with Allison and Francie? Doubly amazing.
The B.H. now says "Here come the dancing babies" whenever Sydney and Vaughn are alone together.
Weiss is still the best friend ever. Even if he isn't as astute as Marshall is. And need we even mention Vaughn?
That all felt rather disorganized. I might do something more detailed on Sark and the Covenant tomorrow, now that we're getting more pieces of that picture.
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no subject
Date: 2003-11-02 11:24 pm (UTC)Had to comment on this, because it is a disconnect, but I can also see the scenario that fits it. Allison is a target of opportunity. Dixon surely wants Sloane, but at present Sloane is untouchable. This episode showed that the rage Dixon felt last season is still there, just battened down tight---which explains his apparent near emotionlessness---while he bides his time. Dixon is going to be there the instant Sloane slips up. Meanwhile, he has Sydney going up against Allison, who pushed the button on the bomb, so why not get a little lesser satisfaction on that front, since he can? Plus, and here I'm being quite cynical, he can tell Sydney to kill Allison, not only because he knows she wants her dead too, but because he has the goods on Sydney right now. He knows she's killed, he knows the NSC is hunting for 'Julia Thorne'; he can hold that over Syd's head if she suddenly has a attack of moral qualms (not that she seemed to have any of those). As far as Dixon must see it, using Syd to off Allison is a win/win situation.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-03 11:13 am (UTC)To my mind, it raises a larger question about the cycle of violence and revenge. Dixon killed Emily by accident, and Sloane had Diane killed in revenge. At the end of S2, Dixon seemed to be regaining his equilibrium--he wasn't in fact suicidal or ready to give way to murderous anger. Now, though, Dixon appears to be ready to have Allison killed (and perhaps Sloane as well), in cold blood: he's gone from being the victim of Sloane's pathological grief to being the moral equivalent of Sloane.
I think this feeds into some larger themes about the destructive power of love in this universe. Love is what Jack blames for "every morally questionable thing he's ever done" (and by now he's done a lot), and I don't think he's alone in that.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-03 01:04 pm (UTC)Jack isn't alone.
Consider Sloane. Towards the end of S2, much of what's pushing his Rambaldi quest is the desire to save Emily from a reoccurrence of her cancer. He betrayed and engineered the destruction of the Alliance/SD-6 because he loved Emily and couldn't kill her. BTW - the cure for Emily must be this Rambaldi formula that was used for Allison, yes?
Then there's Sydney herself. She was willing to sacrifice Sloane's life to Sark in a set-up in order to save Vaughn in The Counteragent. Indeed, she thought she had. Pretty morally questionable, well before her stint as 'Julia'.
Irina claimed that everything she did, she did for some twisted version of mother love and protecting Sydney because of the Rambaldi prophecy (and from the KGB).
Even Sark fits in the love is destructive scenario, if you squint just right. His concern for Allison in Second Double leads to his ordering Will's death and crossing Irina and for that Irina betrays him to the CIA later.
And now we have Dixon, one of the most decent characters on the show, abandoning his ethics in favor of revenge. He has sunk to Sloane's level. Interesting to note this has happened now that he's in a position of some power - a nod toward 'power corrupts'.
Sorry for the long, long comment, but once I started thinking on it, the love corrupts thing really fits with every example I can think up in JJ's universe.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-03 01:41 pm (UTC)Sydney indirectly caused Danny's death because she loved him too much to lie to him. And of course, the Vaughn/Sydney/Lauren triangle is just an accident waiting to happen.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-03 11:53 am (UTC)I liked Sark/Allison as well. I like getting to see the lives of the baddies in a more human light - that mercenaries have job security issues and relationships and lives ;) However, their discussion of where she'd been and her finding out that he, too, was working for the Covenant made the Covenant sound like a worldwide consulting firm. "Really? I had no idea you were working for the London office!" Struck me as odd. I do hope a familiar face is behind the Covenant. Human and evil is a wonderful combination, so I hope Allison and Sark are treated as deftly as Sloane and Emily were.
I have my fingers crossed about that dinner scene and Sark agreeing to let Sloane help them...please let there be a secret alliance somewhere in there!
Beautiful icon, btw.
no subject
Date: 2003-11-03 01:37 pm (UTC)have my fingers crossed about that dinner scene and Sark agreeing to let Sloane help them...please let there be a secret alliance somewhere in there!
Let me ask you this... Do you think it's possible that Sark, like Sloane, was wearing a wire and was instructed to leak the information? Because he seemed to do a complete 180 on that issue, first saying that Allison was right not to trust Sloane and then telling him where they were going. The whole conversation seemed staged to me.
I guess the only question would be who was on the other end.
Damn. I've just given myself a plot bunny.