Fast paced action with a darker purpose like a rain cloud on the horizon, the episode quickly becomes a nervy hunt the killer thriller with Sydney now determined to hunt down Curtis (David Marshall Grant) and take revenge for killing her child’s father. Michael Vartan will be missed, but the show will survive without him.

And what’s more, Renee Rienne, Vaughn’s red headed partner in crime shows she’s more than a match for anyone that gets in her way…including the DSR. You know, for a secret branch of America’s intelligence community they aren’t exactly the most secure. First the Rambaldi cube in “Full Disclosure”, then the entire collection in season four and now a massive box with a frozen body inside. Just where is the tax payer money going?

The new characters seem to being phased into the world of international espionage, with Thomas Grace receiving a cumulative two minutes of screen time, and Rachel Gibson (Gordon Dean’s very own Flinkman) getting about half that. And it’s great. Again, just like last week, the new guys are kept in the background to make room for those departing from the series.

This week, Houdini himself, Eric Weiss is getting a shot working for the President…a job he has very much earned. Greg Grunberg will be sorely missed on the show, but with a little luck he will be back. His attitude towards Nadia’s loss was perhaps the biggest letdown of the series, as the developing relationship was such a pleasure to watch last season and I know both Grunberg and Mia Maestro would have been able to carry the Alias torch. So why get rid of them both?

Regardless, what “…1…” does more than anything else is help set up the rest of the season and give some semblance to Sydney’s new quest – find Gordon Dean (you know, that ‘dead’ guy you just wanted to kick the crap out of last week) and make him pay. In several respects, it’s not unlike “Succession”, that done the very same thing for the third season. That episode was very much Sark’s episode: it was his story and it was a chance for David Anders to shine. This time, it is a chance to introduce Curtis, a man who I’m sure is set to become the new Sark. That is, should he survive his little skydive. Both episodes done a much better job than those preceding them, and actually give us a solid reason to watch each week. There is now a mission statement and some goal to work towards…something that seemed to be missing in the fourth season.

If you can remember all the way back to the first season, it was bringing down SD-6 and the man Syd hates, then catching Sloane and stopping his master plan. Following swiftly in season three was finding the truth for her two-year absence and a quest to find ‘The Passenger’ from the Rambaldi prophecies. Season four had nothing. She had Vaughn, she had a solid position within the CIA and everything was dandy. There was no drive, no determination and the stakes didn’t seem all that high until the final few episodes of the season.

Now don’t get me wrong, I liked season four. In fact, I was very vocal about the new direction the series took. After the second half of season three we needed some kind of treatment for the show, and it paid off big time. But it needed more than stunning office sets and stand-alone episodes. But it was a start. And now this season is taking that change to the next level, bringing the fun back into the Alias world. And in true Alias style, the questions never stop – just what game is The Raven playing?