It has to be said: even with all of the revisions, improvements and alterations, this season of Alias is still lacking a few things. Sydney has no drive, something which has always been a primary part of the series. In season one she was on a quest to avenge Danny’s death and then find her mother. In season two, it was to bring down SD-6 and capture Sloane. Season three saw her try to uncover her missing time, followed by a small war with The Covenant, and now in season four… In season four she gets to know her sister.

Alias is Jennifer Garner’s series. It has always been her constant internal battles with good and evil, her struggle in accepting the inevitable and her courage when facing threats of an impossible scale which kept us on the edge of our seat and entertained. Now while Garner still has the ability to do this, there is still something missing.

The slow build-up that Jack and Sloane have some mysterious plan has been a welcome addition – the ambiguously evil side has returned to the series and has adopted an X-Files presence to it: what is going on, who can we trust? Even the recent revelation that Vaughn’s father might still be alive is reminiscent of the later half of season one when Sydney was searching for her mother. But again, the same level of intrigue is missing. What is the elusive x-factor this season is missing?

It’s not the acting talents of the cast as all of them are very abled – they would have to be to entertain us for four years. With the Bill Vaughn development, you would think Vartan would be getting a stronger on-screen presence. Now while that is sometimes the case, it often lacks the sheer emotional resonance that we’ve come to expect from Alias. His role in “Ice” at the beginning of the season was far more compelling as he wrestled his inner demons over killing his wife, Lauren Reed (Melissa George).

“Nightingale” had a lot in it for Vartan’s character, but most of it was very superficial and forced. That's not to say his acting was force or false in anyway, Vartan done a very good job all things considered. But the plot seemed far to artificial - his father is alive, he’s being fed information and there are people out there who want to use him. The bottom line is, it has been done before, and it was done better. There is no natural sense of intregue, no natural progression - it all gets moved along a little to fast by outside factors. A much more productive approach to the Bill Vaughn idea would have been to stretch the investigation out a little instead of rushing through it. Perhaps not unlike Will Tippin’s (Bradley Cooper) investigation of Daniel Hecht’s murder in season one.

The double agent status between Syd and Vaughn was an interesting addition to the episode, and chances are had it continued a little further, would have made the show an hour of unmissable drama. But alas, it was not meant to be. No sooner had the idea of double agents within APO been devised, it was brutally taken away.

And the mission in Munich was perhaps the funniest to be devised – you cannot help but admire the tongue-in-cheek humour at setting the operation in a beer hall in the country. Even the setbacks faced by Sydney on the mission were hysterical.

However, Robin Saches appearance was a bitter disappoint (although his tweed suit looked remarkably Giles-esque), as was the limited roles adopted by Marshall (Kevin Weissman), Dixon (Carl Lumbly), Weiss (Greg Grunberg)and Nadia (Mia Maestro). Whatever happened to those shippy moments we saw so much of at the start of the season?

Overall though, the episode was entertaining enough, and will no doubt prove to be a vital piece of this seasons puzzle, but the problem is the sense of urgency is missing. There is no reason for Vaughn to find out about his father so soon, nor is there any clear villain to combat. At least with The Covenant we knew who the baddies were. With active discussions on Yelena Derevko, and the imminent return of Katya Derevko just around the corner, I’m sure we’ll be seeing a more physical villain.