Dixon (Carl Lumbly) is caught up in a plot with the baddies, Vaughn (Michael Vartan) is his backup, Sydney (Jennifer Garner) and Nadia have learned Elena (Sonia Braga) has been spying on them and Jack (Victor Garber) is grievously ill. This is the predicament everyone found themselves in at the end of last week’s disappointingly Rambaldi-free episode.

It comes as no shock that this episode continues on from where last week left off. But what’s more, the continuation was not totally unlike the classic days – plunge and move on, plunge and move on. Within a few minutes, the gang manage to save the day through a rather well choreographed fight sequence and all is well. Or is that just a “Mirage”?

This episode will undoubtedly be remembered as the heartfelt episode of the season (cause lets face it, in every season there has to be one). But that is not a bad thing. Some of Alias’ strongest scenes have been centred on the emotional baggage or the strong sense of friendship between the characters. Take for example Sydney’s first hug with her mother in “The Abduction” – that scene is perhaps the single finest piece of writing the series has ever dealt.

“Mirage” on the other hand is filled with so many different scenes where you can’t help but feel for the characters as you watch them. It has its “awww” moments, its “teeheehee” bits and to top it off, quite a few “ooooh” ones too.

In Steve Kane’s Alias debut, Victor Garber takes centre-stage as his state of health deteriorates and forces him to take drastic action to find a “cure”. Alas, if it worked out then Alias wouldn’t be much of a show now would it? Syd ends up having to take on her most personally distressing alias yet – Laure Bristow. Her mother. We’ve never really seen much of Jack and Irina’s (Lena Olin) relationship before she returned to the KGB aside from the occasional references, so this was a perfect opportunity to both explore that relationship (and the couple’s friendship with the Sloane’s) and also re-introduce the entire situation for new viewers to the show (nice timing too since we’re only two full episodes away from Irina’s glorious return to the series, and also not far off Amy Irvine’s reprisal of Emily Sloane). Suffice to say the entire ordeal shook up a few characters while also creating a couple of awkward questions for the future. Why Jack disclosed his spy-status to Irina for instance (that was a bit of an “oooh” moment).

Even the entire scheme was executed so much better than in season three’s “Façade,” yielding a more emotional performance from all involved. Both Garber and Garner done an astounding job, proving once again why the conflicted father/daughter relationship was such a hit when the series first launched.

Additionally, “Mirage” included the first ever Nadia/Weiss (Greg Grunberg) kiss (if you have read some of my other reviews for the season you might be aware that I have been rather impressed with the development of that particular romance) as well as some action packaged evil-doing at the hands of Elena Derevko (it’s about damn time too).

It looks like with all the fresh writing blood coming into Alias, we’re seeing lots of interesting takes on the whole story. Thus far each debut has been a thoroughly engaging experience, and “Mirage” needs to be marked as being up there with the rest of them. The series is still missing that elusive element, but at least now the grand story is starting to take shape. And I have no doubts that by the finale, we’ll be seeing the full effects of that shaping on an epic scale.