Alias 4.17, 4.18
I ended up spoiled that Sonia Braga was Elena. But even if I hadn’t known that and noticed her name in the opening credits of “A Clean Conscience”, I still would have figured she had to be the third Derevko sister once she showed up again. I think they did a great job casting all the sisters. There’s a strange similarity to how their mouths move when they speak. Maybe due to English not being the actresses’ first language??? And all three women are extremely intense in all possible definitions of the word. But her little helper I had trouble accepting as being as evil as she is. Sure, he had the blank sociopath stare down pat but he was Elle Wood’s buddy in Legally Blonde! (Ooh, also staring Victor Garber, nice.)
I got tricked by the cliff hanger for the first time since season 1 and watched “Mirage” right away, even though I knew it would make me stay up too late. I just had to find out what happened to Dixon undercover with the bad guys! And then it was resolved right away. Silly me. I hope they deal with this rather dark fork in the road that Marcus has gone down. First shooting his old training buddy (so if he was originally trained by the CIA how did he end up with SD-6? Maybe I shouldn’t look too closely…) to maintain cover and then the bad guy instead of negotiating for the whatever poison. Very intense mini-arc for him.
I’m torn about the apparent resolution of Jack’s illness. First I was glad to see the writers hadn’t forgotten he was a Dead Man Walking. And I’m always glad to see Michael McKean in anything. But I had speculated that his sickness would be a much slower decline, resulting in him sacrificing his own life for his daughter’s in the series finale, since he doesn’t have any time left anyway. And maybe that’s how it happens after all (ack! I hate knowing even that much!) but it seemed like somewhat of a missed opportunity to me. I changed my opinion about the whole hallucination deal several times. First I thought it was very cool he was so far gone he had cooked up that entire sequence in his head. (Eep! What had he *actually* dug out of his hand and leg?!??) But then I was creeped out that they had Sydney impersonating her mother for her father. The scene was blocked very carefully so that there was no hint of inappropriate incestiness, with only a very chaste touch at the end. So I swung back around to loving the headtrip, especially after Jack’s reveal to “Laura” that missing his daughter’s upcoming birthday was impetus for him to quit. So much pain and anguish in Sydney’s face, despite her attempts to stay in character. Really spectacular acting on both of their parts. And the old man make-up on Michael McKean was probably the best aging I’ve seen any show do.
I got tricked by the cliff hanger for the first time since season 1 and watched “Mirage” right away, even though I knew it would make me stay up too late. I just had to find out what happened to Dixon undercover with the bad guys! And then it was resolved right away. Silly me. I hope they deal with this rather dark fork in the road that Marcus has gone down. First shooting his old training buddy (so if he was originally trained by the CIA how did he end up with SD-6? Maybe I shouldn’t look too closely…) to maintain cover and then the bad guy instead of negotiating for the whatever poison. Very intense mini-arc for him.
I’m torn about the apparent resolution of Jack’s illness. First I was glad to see the writers hadn’t forgotten he was a Dead Man Walking. And I’m always glad to see Michael McKean in anything. But I had speculated that his sickness would be a much slower decline, resulting in him sacrificing his own life for his daughter’s in the series finale, since he doesn’t have any time left anyway. And maybe that’s how it happens after all (ack! I hate knowing even that much!) but it seemed like somewhat of a missed opportunity to me. I changed my opinion about the whole hallucination deal several times. First I thought it was very cool he was so far gone he had cooked up that entire sequence in his head. (Eep! What had he *actually* dug out of his hand and leg?!??) But then I was creeped out that they had Sydney impersonating her mother for her father. The scene was blocked very carefully so that there was no hint of inappropriate incestiness, with only a very chaste touch at the end. So I swung back around to loving the headtrip, especially after Jack’s reveal to “Laura” that missing his daughter’s upcoming birthday was impetus for him to quit. So much pain and anguish in Sydney’s face, despite her attempts to stay in character. Really spectacular acting on both of their parts. And the old man make-up on Michael McKean was probably the best aging I’ve seen any show do.