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[gwyn]

Spoilers for Alias of May 4, Second Double/ The Telling

There are days I feel like I’m even dumber than I actually am, which on average is pretty stupid. Watching the Alias season finale made me feel more intellectually challenged than just about anything I’ve experienced recently, and I’m wondering at this point whether my weekend jaunt to Vancouver sucked the few viable brain cells right out of my head. In some ways, this episode reminded me more of La Femme Nikita than the usual reasons it reminds me of LFN: not because of plot or character or similar storylines, but because I had that same WHATthefuck? feeling through most of it that Surnow and Cochran frequently left me with.

I realize that I was putzing around through most of it, unpacking and stuff. I’d only got home about ten minutes before it started, so I was still in a different headspace. But hell... I just had no idea what was happening, even rewatching this morning. Okay, so... first JackDaddy has usurped Terry O’Quinn’s position (I can never remember the character’s name) but then he relinquishes it in a way to help Syd. I’m not sure I’m following all that, but okay, I can roll with it. Then we’ve got Sloan appearing out of nowhere asking JackDaddy to work with him again... needy much? Obviously this means something to Sloane, but after that bizarre grasshopper moment with David Carradine last week, I still don’t know what. Somehow this Rimbaldi (sp?) stuff has left me behind a long time ago. I’m mostly going along with the flow here because I don’t get it — what Sloane’s attachment is, even after he said he’d give it up because of Emily, why SpyMom is interested in it, what the hell it all means anyways. But you know, I’m easy. If it’s fun, I won’t care generally. It’s just that now they’re expecting me to work, I think, to fill in the blanks and try to understand what all this is.

Then I didn’t understand SpyMom’s stuff. She keeps appearing out of nowhere to both protect Syd and... get the Rimbaldi stuff and... WHAT the hell, again? I loved her confrontations with Syd each time, the way they neither of them could get control over themselves, and SpyMom yelling “stop being as stubborn as me!”, but I just don’t fully understand what it’s all about. Not that I wanted Irina gone in any way; I totally think the show is much better with her in it and I love SpyParents together. I’ve been convinced for a while that this was leading to a triple cross, only now that Irina seems to be working alone towards her own ends, I’m not sure anymore how a triple cross could fit in, and judging from her statements to Sark and Syd, it doesn’t sound like that’s where it could be leading.

Then there’s Vaughn — now that Syd and Vaughn are together, the necessary thwarting has to happen that keeps viewers coming back for more. Only, that ending... I mean, thwarting good, but that ending... bad. I think. I’m too confused to know for sure. Is it two years in the future? Is it two years in the past? Who is he married to? If it’s two years in the past, why would he look so guilty over her comment on the ring? How would he know that Francie is a double and be able to say he knew that, if it was two years in the past, when Real Francie was around? Would those other characters make sense to be at the CIA and have contact with Syd if it’s the past? So then it’s got to be the future, but would Vaughn have so willingly forgotten about her to marry someone two years down the line? You can bet Syd would NEVER have just forgot him that quickly and given him up for dead so easily. But it doesn’t makes sense either way for them...And then there would be no SD6 breakup... and what happened to JackDaddy? Where’d he go?

And poor Will! I loved him telling Syd that his life was ruined by meeting her. Everyone always calls him stupid, and I know he keeps getting into absurd things, but I really do feel like it’s because he loves her that his life has gone to hell in a handbasket. All he really wanted was to help her, got embroiled in something he didn’t understand, and now his life truly is ruined. I loved that he told her that, and even though he retracted it later, it still rang true for me. You can love someone and be friends with them even while knowing they’ve fucked up your life. The chick fight at the end rocked, though! It was wonderfully staged, and I thought it hilarious they still ended up in the kitchen. Isn’t it funny how far we’ve come in a few years — on Dynasty or whatever, the chick fight meant hairpulling and slapping. Now we have Nikita, Buffy, Syd, and the rest kicking ass with other chicks all over the place. I did think that Syd was foolish to think she could let her guard down even long enough to load her gun, but it led to a great fight.

And Francie leads to Sark, which I don’t understand. Now, I love the fact that as he said, his “loyalties are flexible”, but these days, I can’t keep track of who he’s working for and to what purpose. I think he’s mostly working for Irina, but then... well, who the hell knows. I did love the little tiff with him and Vaughn, but I always love scenes like that. What I don’t get most of all is the kissing with FranciePod. That was just dropped in from left field, that they even knew each other beyond simple phone call assignments, and had some kind of lover thing going on. Huh? And that he’s wondering if she’s hot for Will after all, which maybe she is, since she was so upset by stabbing him? Does not compute, however.

But most of all, the ending. Boy howdy, am I mixed up. I love a good twist, I love a good cliffhanger (well, actually I hate cliffhangers, but neither here nor there), I love a good storyline jab of adrenaline to the heart (likePhase Two completely redirecting the show in the way I thought for sure they were going to do at some point). But I don’t like things like Bobby Ewing shower scenes or Normal Again it’s all in your crazy head eps, and I especially don’t like things that fuck with timeline continuities haphazardly. I love movies that screw with time, most especially Steven Soderbergh’s films like The Limey and Out of Sight, etc. I like books that bounce around in timelines. But if they don’t have continuity to their own structure, it’s frustrating. And this felt like some kind of weird grab-bag of continuity and timeline messiness that I can’t quite wrap my head around. It felt too haphazard. And? I just don’t get it. But then, I’m stupid that way.

I just can’t figure out where Abrams must be going with this. I totally could see the structure and changes necessary when he moved everyone into the CIA. But to do this now, and if it’s in the past, move everyone back two steps... I hope it is simply the future because that will provide the necessary thwartedness for Syd and Vaughn, maybe Sark and Irina will be up to some interesting no good or heck, maybe Irina and JackDaddy will be doing something interesting together (what the hell happened to him?!), and then Syd can spend the next season trying to figure out if this is all because of the Rimbaldi thingamabobby, and how to get back her missing two years and turn back time... blah blah. Plus maybe Marshall and whatshername will have gotten together. They’re so cute.

Or maybe we’re the ones being triple-crossed. My head hurts.

Comments

[elz.livejournal.com]

So then it’s got to be the future, but would Vaughn have so willingly forgotten about her to marry someone two years down the line?

Granted, I've seen more of the first season than I have of this one, but I thought it was (or could be) a clever way to turn Syd's issues inside out - hasn't she done the same thing, by moving on from her dead fiance during the last two years? How much can she blame Vaughn for doing the same thing? (But then, of course, there's the difference between knowing that and feeling it...)

I don't know how this will work out as a story, but it's certainly gutsy.

[gwyn-r.livejournal.com]

I was kind of thinking about this, too, the notion of her having moved on from her fiance, but then I was kind of back to being "well, that's not right" because to me, there feels like (or should be!) a difference between moving on when you know someone is really gone, and sort of giving up on someone when you don't know for certain they're dead. That end scene was the one I didn't have time to rewatch this morning, so maybe I missed it, but I thought he said "we thought you were dead" rather than, you know, you were declared dead -- that they'd looked for her but she'd gone missing two years ago? So I sort of wanted to point my finger all j'accuse! and say, you gave up on her! She'd have kept looking for you, you dolt!

I could have a totally different take on Syd, though -- she seems like she wouldn't have moved on to Vaughn if her fiance hadn't been definitely dead. So I feel like Vaughn somehow... left her. Which is silly, I know. But I'm often silly, especially when it comes to romance. Though I should be happy because it means lots of future angst, either way.

[sweet-ali.livejournal.com]

My head hurts.


My sentiments exactly. It's gonna be a looong summer of speculation. Either way, this little time change in the end felt kinda...off. And really, maybe that's what is was supposed to feel like. Maybe something is...off *g*

Like i said, looong summer, lots o' advil.