Once again Alias has gone down easy street, telling a tale that has been done hundreds of times - terrorists have a bomb and they are trying to blow things up. It’s hardly an original story worthy of the series. However, unlike the previous blah episodes, “Façade” swiftly turns the formula for international terrorism on its head and provides a chilling and highly entertaining performance from everyone involved.

And it’s all thanks to one man: Ricky Gervais.

Initially when I heard Gervais would be making an appearance on Alias as a villain I was sceptical. Sure, the man is a comedy genius, and sure his David Brent character from The Office is evil, but can he be an Alias baddie?

The answer is he can. And he can do it with style.

Unfortunately, the whole “lets convince him he’s actually in Russia” was a little ludicrous. I mean, I know the CIA is considered to be the worlds best intelligence agency (and this particular division is supposed to be their finest) but having a sound stage constructed as a means of interrogation just seemed a far-fetched. Sydney once again in red hair served as a reminder for the old spy days where interrogations were done with injections and teeth removal in the back room of a club.

Vaughn posing as The Insidious Mr Sark was an interesting diversion, but it all comes down to a gimmicky episode trying to tie up some loose threads. The recovered next-gen bomb, the man Julia Thorne killed and a Covenant defector…it seems like all these aspects were introduced for no reason at all and it was left to “Façade” to make some sense of them all.

The episode did give Weiss some much needed screen time once again let Jack Bristow loose on a prisoner who threatens his daughter. Why haven’t we had more of this? It’s as if after the missing time story was solved Alias stopped being Alias. Why bother with real character development and shocking stories when you’ve finished with the missing time arc? Come on J.J! The series hasn’t ended, so put a bit of life into it!

Had it not been for Gervais, the series would have again suck to the levels of mediocre terrorism and blah plot twists. Where was Sloane with his mind-blowing revelations of the Rambaldi device? Where is the spy-goodness from Alias' old days?

Long term shippers will have a smile on their faces though, as Sydney and Vaughn embrace in the final moments of the episode, casting doubt on the future of his marriage to NSC operative Lauren Reed.

Of course, we didn’t see this coming, did we? Not even when we learned she worked for the Covenant.