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ALIAS season 4 ongoing thread (merged) - Page 26

post #751 of 788
Well, they certainly pulled that Vaughn plot device out of their backsides. They're into diminishing returns, X-Files territory. I won't be tuning in to Alias next season.

Later, gators!
post #752 of 788
Does anyone have episodes 20 ("The Descent") and 21 ("Search And Rescue") on tape or dvd? For some reason my tivo doesn't have these episodes.

(Admin note - if you can help, please do so offline via email or PM)
post #753 of 788
The story for this movie could fit very well into Alias's storyline:

http://www.apple.com/trailers/newlin...oryofviolence/

After all, Vaughn had a desk job, and suddenly he's in the field? And he's not who he says he is?
post #754 of 788
Quote:
Nah, that's just silly. Almost as silly as having zombie killers take over a town in Russia, where the streets are strewn with American cars.


Yeah, how could Saturn not be making a profit with such a large international presence?
post #755 of 788
Quote:
Well, they certainly pulled that Vaughn plot device out of their backsides.
That's the J.J. Abrams signature style. Our household just instituted a ban on everything Abrams. Seriously.

M.
post #756 of 788
Overall I thought the season was kinda lame. Way too much "completely inconceivably ridiculous BS" storylines to suite me....but I still watched. I, for one, hope that Rimbaldi goes away for good. But I know better....

And if Vaughn isn't Vaughn, then is he also NOT Bill Vaughn's son? Or is he the son of the man who CALLED himself Bill Vaughn? Becuase if he's not Bill Vaughn's son, why was he so hell-bent on finding his father a few ep's back? There HAS to be some closure on this story line, or I'm going to be REALLY pissed.

I watched the ep in my basement while enjoying a cigar, while my wife was upstairs watching TIVO'ed episodes of Oprah, The View and Dr. Phil (now you know why I go to the basement!!). She actually came downstairs to see why I had yelled, "FUCK!" at approximately 10:58PM on Wednesday night. So I went back upstairs with her and - after a minute to explain what had happened during the first 55 minutes of the ep - showed her the last five minutes of the ep on the TIVO. Her reaction was just as loud (although not quite as vulgar) as mine.

Great job on the closing scene!
post #757 of 788
Just had an interesting thought. Perhaps Michael Vaughn really IS Bill Vaughn, who was obviously never killed by Irena, and went on his mad search for his father to insure that any lingering evidence stayed covered up. Hmmmmm...

But that doesn't make him Milo Rimbaldi. But perhaps Rimbaldi's ultimate end-game was not the pacification of the masses, but the fountain of youth. And Bill Vaughn figured it out.

Remember when Bill Vaughn's former cohort (the black actor who played Shaft, damned if I can remember his name right now) told Vaughn that he was the spitting image of his father? Well, maybe that's because Vaughn and his father are the same person. Hmmmm.....

It's almost as interesting and unbelievable a story line as the mad scientist bent on world domination hiding out in his super-techno lair under the volcano while perfecting his death-ray-cold-fusion-Rimbaldi-inspired-missle-from-hell.

Damn, can't wait for next season. But they better not screw it up....
post #758 of 788
Well, that would turn the meaning of "alias" on its side if Michael was really Bill Vaughn. Of course, Michael's had a complicated history these past 3 seasons, and would Bill get himself into all those situations (especially the Lauren one)?
post #759 of 788
Quote:
That's the J.J. Abrams signature style. Our household just instituted a ban on everything Abrams. Seriously.

Even Felicity reruns?

I do know what you mean. I think this guy is getting a bit of a swelled head and he IS known for creating shows that are great and then leaving them with other people to oversee.
post #760 of 788
First of all, great finale!

Secondly, I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this, but this new twist might actually facilitate writing in Garner's pregnancy rather than covering it up. This new revelation might be just the type of thing that could drive a wedge between Syd and Vaughn, which would be interestingly complicated by a pregnancy. They could buy time to devise a reasonable plan for Nadia to recover, and voila! New direction!

(Hey, I like to wildly speculate!)
post #761 of 788
Quote:
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this, but this new twist might actually facilitate writing in Garner's pregnancy rather than covering it up.
It's been mentioned twice already.
post #762 of 788
As ridiculous as the Resident Evil: Rambaldi Apocalypse finale was, I have to commend the writers/producers of Alias for their love of Dylan. Calling the episode "Before the Flood" *and* playing "Lay Lady Lay" during the last sequence? Kudos.
post #763 of 788
Hmmm... Vaughn is too young to be Bill Vaughn...or D.B. Cooper for that matter, so that blows two theories right there.

One thing they never explained away (or maybe I missed) in their fits of exposition this season was the conversation between Vaughn and Elena about Vaughn's father bringing Nadia to the orphanage. This struck me as odd because:

1) I don't remember them explicitly saying that Elena was aligned with Arvin Cloane, but I suppose it's possible given their Rambaldi works (and again, maybe I just missed it).

2) Vaughn seemed very unsuspicious when Elena showed up and started living with his girlfriend and her sister considering they had met face to face before and she had verified first hand information that was proved to be part of Cloane's hoax about Bill Vaughn. In the timeline of the series, I was pretty sure that Irina killed Bill Vaughn before giving birth to Nadia.

Regards,
post #764 of 788
Quote:
And if Vaughn isn't Vaughn, then is he also NOT Bill Vaughn's son? Or is he the son of the man who CALLED himself Bill Vaughn? Becuase if he's not Bill Vaughn's son, why was he so hell-bent on finding his father a few ep's back? There HAS to be some closure on this story line, or I'm going to be REALLY pissed.


This is what really doesn't make sense and I hope either they have a good explanation or the first thing we see in the new season is Vaughn waking up from the bad dream that wasthe final scene of this seaon.

Neil
post #765 of 788
Please. No dreams.
post #766 of 788
Quote:
I don't remember them explicitly saying that Elena was aligned with Arvin Cloane, but I suppose it's possible given their Rambaldi works (and again, maybe I just missed it).

Elena made McCullough create the Sloane Clone to keep APO off balance. She created the Covenant... She was the show's Super Big Bad.
post #767 of 788
Quote:
Elena made McCullough create the Sloane Clone to keep APO off balance. She created the Covenant... She was the show's Super Big Bad.
Makes sense (by Alias-verse standards, at least. ). There still seems to be something fishy as outlined by my second point, though. Didn't Elena tell Vaughn face to face that Bill Vaughn delivered Nadia to the orphanage?

Regards,
post #768 of 788
I saw the season finale over the weekend. What the???
Where did they come up with that lame plot twist??
Otherwise I enjoyed the finale. Great how everyone teamed up to get the big bad. A lot like Mission Impossible of late.
post #769 of 788
Quote:
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned this, but this new twist might actually facilitate writing in Garner's pregnancy rather than covering it up.
Quote:
It's been mentioned twice already.

No, it hasn't - not after the twist I mentioned. Namely, that Vaughn is not who he said he was. People had previously mentioned that writing the pregnancy into the next season was a possibility, but that's not what I was referring to. This new twist might be just the catalyst they need to include Garner's pregnancy in a story arc for the next season.

Now, I wonder whether the finale was written before or after learning of Garner's condition. Does anyone know when they wrote/filmed the last scene versus when Garner might have been able to announce her pregnancy to her producers?
post #770 of 788
Quote:
Does anyone know when they wrote/filmed the last scene versus when Garner might have been able to announce her pregnancy to her producers?


I don't know for sure (obviously) but it was almost certainly written after she would have told them about her pregnancy.
post #771 of 788
Quote:
One thing they never explained away (or maybe I missed) in their fits of exposition this season was the conversation between Vaughn and Elena about Vaughn's father bringing Nadia to the orphanage.


Since she was manipulating the whole thing as she was ultimately the Sloane/clone's boss, we can't trust anything she said.

It is a good point, though, that Vaughn wasn't suspicious about her information after he knew that the news about his father was a hoax. Until told otherwise, I think the writers must have made a mistake there by not having him suspicious.

Neil
post #772 of 788
Well I didn't think the ending was a surprise at all, as soon as you saw them happily driving down a country road talking about marriage, you knew there was going to be a wreck. And the first thing I thought was "they ripped that off from the movie Forgotten", except in that movie I did not see it coming (rest of the movie was so-so at best but that was a very well executed scene).

As for Vaughn's idendity, I think that he has far too much backstory/history at this point for them to make this work, I just don't have any faith in the lazy-ass writers that they can come up with something that isn't full of gaping holes and inconsistencies.

The rest of the episode was laughably bad, I can't believe they stooped to a lame Resident Evil rippoff.
post #773 of 788
Such an exciting and shocking season ending!

This season gave me some great moments, including the return of Irina, Vaughn proposing to Syd, Jack's always-interesting character progressions, Sydney playing her mother in a recreation of Jack's marriage, and confirmation of my belief that Sloane had truly reformed. (That was an underutilized plot device: The emotional tension of a reformed Sloane doubted by everyone else could have been delicious. Particularly if Syd and Jack realized that he was reformed just as Sloane, beaten down by their doubts, returned to his evil ways.)

The downside this year was a weaker season on the whole. The beginning concerned me, where last year's season finale was essentially discarded and a new story crudely pressed into service. The first half of the season was lackluster, but the excitement returned. But, this was tempered by a cheap plot device of reinterpreting past stories in light of a new villain, in order to quickly move the Elena story forward. But it felt forced, and left me with an emotionally unsatisfying bad guy and an end-of-the-world scenario less interesting than the fall of SD6 in S1.

Finally, the finale. It was exciting, but generally Alias' plot twists are rooted in existing story. This one, Vaughn not being Vaughn, felt totally random and threatens to (poorly) apply a reinterpretation of past episodes in order to make new stories work.

So, next year: Since its likely the last season, I hope J.J. Abrams gives Alias due attention and crafts a masterpiece of intrigue, spycraft, excitement, and stunning resolution!
post #774 of 788
From eonline.com:

Quote:
I'm told ABC suits didn't know of Jennifer Garner's pregnancy when they decided to renew the show (given the surprising early pickup, she probably didn't even know herself), and now the higher-ups are in something of a pickle trying to figure out when the show can return.


I smell a cancellation.

If she didn't tell the producers about her pregnancy to make sure they'll renew the show (which they might not have done if they had known about it) it might kill the show before her actual pregnancy has a chance to kill the show next season.

If she is due in November (at least that's what I've read) then they can't start filming before January without either adressing or hiding the pregnancy.

So there are four chioces:

1. Start filming in January and show the season in the summer or in the 2006/2007 season.

2. Start filming in July, try to hide the pregnancy and turn the show into a complete joke.

3. Start filming in July, adress the pregnancy and have Sydney lie down or sit around for half a season.

4. Cancel it now.

I vote 1 or 4.
post #775 of 788
They're not gonna cancel Alias when it just had one of its highest rated years. Yes, I know it's because of its lead-in but the ratings (and not the reason) are all that matters.

Look on the bright side, everyone will have more to complain about when they hide her pregnancy.
post #776 of 788
I only watched the first few episodes of season 4...but kept forgetting to set the recorder. So, I'm awaiting the dvd release. Any news? I think we got season 3 in September of last year?
post #777 of 788
TV Shows on DVD just confirmed a October 25th release date.

Neil
post #778 of 788
Thanks.
post #779 of 788
Quote:
Look on the bright side, everyone will have more to complain about when they hide her pregnancy.

they'll probably actually use it instead of hiding it.
post #780 of 788
Season 5, episode 1: Sydney wakes up, and finds herself 6 months pregnant, but Vaughn is nowhere to be found. She has no idea what happened in the past 6-8 months, but does remember the impact of the horrific car crash as her last memory before waking up...
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