It’s no secret that the series has been heavily criticised
by fans over the last couple of years, and I personally don’t
think its fair. Yes, fans have a right to say what they want
to see and Alias has made some mistakes in its lifetime.
Fans from all over the world have sent out their S.O.S for the
series, and it has steadily improved. J.J. Abrams and his creative
team have done what they can to rejuvenate the series. At the
end of season 3, fans demanded better story-telling, and with
the addition of Drew Goddard and Jeffery Bell to the Alias staff
we got it.
Fans wanted a personal life for Sydney, and
with the presence of Mia Maestro we got it. A year later,
we wanted a driving force
in Sydney’s life…we got it. But Vaughn was ‘killed’ in
the process. Prophet Five brought a breath of new life to the
series, taking it into new directions whilst allowing the cast
to revisit some old wounds. The S.O.S sent out by the Alias fans
was answered!
The choice to send APO further underground was a masterful stroke,
dealing out the ultimate irony card. The division is now closer
to becoming SD-6 than ever before, taking on not only whatever
villain crosses their paths, but also the Central Intelligence
Agency itself.
Jack’s unsanctioned mission into the
Langley building was one of the shows greatest missions.
Every character played
their part superbly but one man deserves a special nod: Kevin
Weisman. Due to the nature of the Marshall character, Weisman
finds himself so often separated from the rest of the cast
and is relegated to phone calls, satellite feeds and comm Link-ups.
This episode offered him a rare chance to join the team in
the
field and he done it wonderfully, bringing his usual comic
delight to the scene of the crime. His over-the-top performance
in decoding
the hidden message in the memorial statue was a joy to watch.
Greg Grunberg’s suave return was a pleasant surprise,
but was far to brief for anything other than a welcome reminder
that his character is still out there and that the CIA is bigger
than the one office we see every week. And it was nice to see
James Handy and John Aylward back as the agency directors who
brought so much to the first season. Handy in particular was
always a likeable character, so with a bit of luck we’ll
see some more of him in the future.
Nicely pulling on some existing threads to
create new stories, “S.O.S” is
a turning point in the season, and the final 7 episodes are sure
to be unmissable!
