Alias 01/12/03: The Getaway (1 Viewer)

[Michael Martin]

I agree wholeheartedly with Jason Seaver in his observations about Syd & Vaughn vs Ed & Carol. Abrams has done great, tight writing, and has even allowed the two to willingly, honestly reveal their feelings. Ed and Carol....well, after 2 and a half seasons, it's getting old.

And Patrick, I would politely disagree with you about Ed and Carol. I think there would be tons of comedy, character growth and drama to be mined if Ed and Carol became a "real" couple.

Why do people think Sloane is leaving the show?

Because the Alliance will kill him if they find him. He killed one of their one, without orders, stole $100M from them, and killed a security operative of theirs.

I still think we'll see him again, but not as the day to day head of SD-6.

Seems like this would be a GREAT time for the CIA to take down SD-6 - use the confusion of Sloane's disappearance to blow them wide open.

 

[Brett Jason]

My impression was that he was gone. I think if he left for the Phillpines or some other location every once in a while they could just follow him and they'd be caught. This way he's set for life, with the 100 million. He'll probably resurface sometime in the future

 

[Joel C]

The new ring that Sloane has is just like the pen that Jack has in that it allows Sloane to talk freely when it's activated, but he can't keep it on all the time or the Alliance would be wondering why he's driving around the 405 all the time listening to the radio.

This is a good point. Why in the world would his device need to broadcast fake noise if he was simply planning on vanishing for good? It would buy him, at most, a day, since they'd wonder why he never spoke. Going silent would've been easier, since they'd probably assume he'd been killed (if they can fake life signs, they can fake a death).

I'm positive he'll be back to his old Sloaney self by next episode.

 

[Jason Quillen]

Fuck that.

That wasn't really necessary, was it?
Analogies are often the weakest form of argument - and in this case its true. Justifying Alias's second season crappyness through Buffy's seventh season crappyness simply doesn't work. You want a fair comparison? If you wanna fairly compare Alias to season seven Buffy, Alias is gonna have to last 5 more years first. Until then, maybe comparisons shouldnt be made between shows that are drastically different and are at two completely different stages of their life cycles.
JQ

 

[Joel C]

Jason Q-

I'm not really into the whole "I'll pull one teensy line out of context and respond to it" form of argument, so I will simply say that I never really compared Buffy and Alias, I simply said that Buffy had lazy writing. Ok, well, and I said that I think it suffers from some problems that Alias doesn't. I'm certainly not trying to justify Alias' second season crappiness since I don't think it's crappy. It's a bit much at times, and requires more than its share of suspension of disbelief from time to time, but it's certainly one of the most compelling character dramas on TV right now (which by the way, is the show's connection to real life--the dysfunctional spy family).

I never meant to imply that Buffy has no continuity. You never answered my comment about the Ubervamp discontunity, so I'll assume you can't (I sure can't; it's next to impossible to fanwank Buffy these days). Buffy does have Lazy continuity, which happens to be what I take issue with. Lip service like mentioned the Xander "Kick his ass" thing in Selfless is nice and all, but the show needs to be consistent with the little details as well. Like how hard it is to kill a Turok-Han.

Him and Help are annoying because they are thematic retreads that offer no new ideas to the series, which is why I don't like them (not to mention the horrid pacing of Help). Who cares if they tackle an anvilicious metaphor episode when they've already done it, and better? The macrostory this year has no real-world connections, and the characters are total unsympthatetic autotomatauns. They no longer interact with each other as friends, they simply glumly respond to the First's attacks.

Oh, and the argument that a Slayer wasn't in London. Because Buffy can't, like, NOT die in an explosion? Or get shot? I can buy that most supernatural enemies won't use real world weapons on the Slayer, but the First already used them on the council. And it obviously wants Buffy dead. So why not simply have a Bringer run into the house with a bomb strapped to his chest?

Maybe he could at least take out of few of those screechy SiT. Which was what we needed on the show, a whole gang of Dawns.

Since this should certainly be posted in the Buffy thread, feel free to respond there or by e-mail.

 

[Jason Quillen]

Oh, and the argument that a Slayer wasn't in London. Because Buffy can't, like, NOT die in an explosion? Or get shot? I can buy that most supernatural enemies won't use real world weapons on the Slayer, but the First already used them on the council. And it obviously wants Buffy dead. So why not simply have a Bringer run into the house with a bomb strapped to his chest?

As far as we know the First has never used suicide bombers. The First apparently put the bomb in the watchers building when they ransacked the place - every time they've gone to Buffys home they've been beaten.

JQ

 

[Patrick Sun]

Just my last note about "Ed" in this thread: The "forced" keeping Ed and Carol apart bit sort of keeps the fires of unrequited love lit albeit lowly. You have 2 characters who are afraid to hurt one another by giving a relationship a go. The appeal of "Ed" has always been Ed's phenomenal capacity to go out on a limb for the girl of his dreams.

It's the classic "Boy wants girl, but girl is afraid that she's not good enough to be the girl of the boy's dream and afraid of disappointing boy, who puts girl on too high a pedestal." Ed may have moved back to Stuckeyville for a shot at Carol, but it'll be tricky to migrate the show from being about the chase to a show about domesticity. The price for a relationship between Ed and Carol is that they risk losing one another's friendship.

The primal difference with Sydney and Michael is that the price for them becoming entangled is their lives in the spy game. Currently that price is too high (plus Sydney has to think about her father in all of this). The spy game easily puts the kibosh and many obstacles in "getting together" for Sydney and Michael (perhaps even more contrived than 2 people paralyzed by the thought of becoming the other person's ex).

 

[Joel C]

The spy game easily puts the kibosh and many obstacles in "getting together" for Sydney and Michael (perhaps even more contrived than 2 people paralyzed by the thought of becoming the other person's ex).

They also have the small responsability of saving the world from the evil SD-6 (no pressure, though!).

I don't know if I'd call it contrived (at least, not in the context of the show, which is itself fairly contrived, and proud of it), and I don't watch Ed, but comparisons can be made to Fraiser or Friends or even Caroline in the City, where characters are *almost* together, then something happens. Like on Friends when Ross kept almost telling Rachel he loved her, but then the phone would ring or something.

Syd and Vaugn together could only end badly. Since he got in trouble for giving her a christmas present and now almost got them both killed. I like how it doesn't end their flirtation, but it does put it on the back burner somewhat, so people aren't constantly wondering why they don't just get together.

 

[ChadM]

Can someone give me a synopsis (I fell asleep)?

 

[OliverT]

Because the Alliance will kill him if they find him. He killed one of their one, without orders, stole $100M from them, and killed a security operative of theirs.

Nah...that was the entire reason he framed Kane. As far as the Alliance is concerned Sloane is still a solid member. Within the context of the show I don't think Sloane will have to explain his absences...Sydney and dad seem to get away with it with impunity and they operate right under Sloane's nose.

IMO Sloane's role hasn't changed...but it could lead to interesting future developments if the CIA finds out.

OT

 

[Joel C]

Can someone give me a synopsis (I fell asleep)?

Check www.televisionwithoutpity.com/alias in a few days, the site posts comprehensive recaps.

 

[Allen W]

I loved this episode. Sydney pulling up in the car and telling her dad to get in. (you do have to watch the show regularly to get that one).

Sydney yelling a long list of complaints to Vaughn and then adding, "you didn't even tell me you got back together with Emily!" Oops - I don't think she meant to let that one slip out. Up until now I haven't seen her show him that she was interested. It's out in the open now.
They go to dinner and at the end a hotel room key is placed on the table courtesy of the maitre 'd (not sure if I know how to spell that word). Lots of questions about how that got there and they both have to think about it. Oops guys bursting in with guns and the drama is left to unfold next week.

Sloane planned the whole time to steal the Alliance's $100 million and get away with his wife. Apparently he's not that loyal to the alliance!

I haven't figured out if he will be back to SD6 or not. If he's gone there will have to be some new bad guys quick.

Sometime toward the end of season 3 or maybe in season 4 I am sure the show will start to drag for me but until then this is in my top 2 shows - I don't watch Buffy - Alias and the West Wing.

 

[Jason Seaver]

Sloane planned the whole time to steal the Alliance's $100 million and get away with his wife. Apparently he's not that loyal to the alliance!

That's the problem with having an evil organization built on deception and megalomania - the people you hire are just not trustworthy.

 

[Michael Martin]

That's the problem with having an evil organization built on deception and megalomania - the people you hire are just not trustworthy

Tell me about it. I've had to liquidate 4 disloyal henchmen already this year.
Dependable minions are so hard to find!

 

[Jeff Kohn]

I do think that the Alias writing is lazy, but not because they rehash plot points. Rather, I think the laziness comes from them having a general idea of where they want to go with the story but not putting enough effort into the writing to get there without straining credibility or seeming too predictable. For instance, in this last episode they wanted to have some interaction between Jack and SpyMommy. That's fine, and there was some interesting interaction there. But the way they did it with regard to the plot ("I need some help brainstorming over these credit records") was contrived and kinda lame.

That's just one example; I think the Alias writers are guilty of this far too often, and the show would be much better if the writing were more solid in this regard.

As for the pilot "homage", it wasn't very subtle and it didn't make a lot of sense (I guess you could say it was lazy, too). Jack was going to a clandestine meeting with another operative who Sydney apparently knew nothing about, so how the heck did she know where he was and just when to swoop in to the rescue?

 

[Matt Goddard]

The new ring that Sloane has is just like the pen that Jack has in that it allows Sloane to talk freely when it's activated, but he can't keep it on all the time or the Alliance would be wondering why he's driving around the 405 all the time listening to the radio.

The thing I don't get from this episode is that by now the Alliance has to know there's something wrong with Sloane's implant. He can't be driving down the 405 listening to Miles Davis for an entire week. If he returns to SD-6, which I assume he does, the Alliance will have to know something's wrong and then demand it be corrected. I guess he could always take the ring off when he gets back to LA, but if I were an Alliance member I'd want Sloane's implant checked out after a week of going haywire.
Remember that Sloane can't fake his own death now because his implant is giving off vital signs and he killed the guy that could have sent out fake dead vital signs.
Maybe we'll just have to happily file this under "Suspension of disbelief," along with all the Bristow family's daily trips to the CIA Ops Center.

 

[Brad Porter]

Here's my response to the closing scenes...
"Hey look! It's Courtney Gains! I wonder if he'll become a recurring character now."
(Bang!) (Bang!)
"No I guess he won't."

Brad

 

[Jason Seaver]

He can't be driving down the 405 listening to Miles Davis for an entire week.

Well, that's only one of several ambient sounds the guy said it was capable of reproducing.

 

[Joel C]

If the thing recorded my ambient noise, it would be mostly me watching TV and talking to myself. Since he's also Home A-Sloane, it'd probably be fairly easy to fake his as well.

 

[Randy Tennison]

Sloan will definately be back. He left Jack in charge for 2 weeks. And, he is on vacation, so the ambient noise thing should only come into play when he is talking with his wife, and then the bio-info only when he is stupping with his wife.

This episode was my favorite for a long time. This could have easily been the show finale, due to how many loose ends they tied up.

And as far as lazy writing, I hope they keep it up. I really enjoy each and every show.