Alias: A Free Agent!

A Salute To Vaughn, SD-6 And Old School Alias!

An original review of "Horizon".

Since the fall of SD-6 and the dismantling of Sloane’s terrorist network, Alias has taken on a life of its own. The series very much left the world as we know it and set foot into a darker future where super-villains exist and just about everyone seems to have plans for world domination.

Terrorists, weapons dealers, rogue scientists and sixteenth century Prophets were always common place in the world of Alias, but they have only become more frequent since the series left it’s double agent roots looking for greener, less ambiguous pastures.

Well, this season the show has returned to it’s international espionage roots with a promising premise – a global network which has infiltrated every level of Government and the worlds leading intelligence operations. Not unlike the Alliance of 12 to be honest. I for one am glad to see the series return to its origins, especially now that this will be Alias’ final season.

Sure, the series has spent a lot of time introducing and fleshing out the latest spy Rachel Gibson (literally…through a fling with Mr Sark!), her counterpart Thomas Grace and wanted criminal Renee Rienne. Some might argue that Alias has sacrificed it’s core cast in order to focus on the latest additions…but “Horizon” show that simply is not the case.

“Horizon” is nothing less than a salute to Michael Vaughn, SD-6 and everything old school about the show. Bringing back Michael Vartan for dream sequences seems like a slap in the face to all us hardcore Alias fans, but very quickly we discovered that could not be farther from the truth. Having both Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan re-play several of the show key scenes from all five seasons acted less like a trip down memory lane and more like a subtle nod to the genius of the show. The mile-high proposal, pager in the Pacific, we always find each other, loosing hope of crumling the Alliance and the bloodbank map of the enemy...all of these moments have a strong resonance in the Alias we see today, and it was nice to see them recognised. Having the purpose of it all as a means to access the now famous map of SD-6 was like the icing on the cake and shows that the series truly is returning to it’s roots.

Kelly Peyton’s shenanigans in San Fransisco hit a personal chord – her alias for the deadly mission can only be described as Winifred Burkle. Yes, Amy Acker, the wonderfully talented actress who brought Fred to life on the vampire series Angel used her experience to turn Kelly Peyton into the unexpected assassin lurking in the shadows. Within seconds, the Fred facade was gone leaving behind a foe worthy of Alias. Unlike previous baddies, Peyton is hardcore evil. Far more evil than Sloane, Francinator, Sark, Lauren, Bomani or Elena…she is the villain of the story and I love her for it!!

Renee Rienne finally got a chance to prove why she was number eight on the CIA’s most wanted – she is sexy, deadly but doesn’t have a license to kill…yet she does it anyway. She’s bad to the bone, but she’s got a heart of gold. Will we ever see a face off between Peyton and Rienne?

All throughout the episode I found myself predicting who was behind the mirror shield giving the orders to drug Sydney. Sloane was removed from suspicion early on as he attempted to negotiate for her freedom and failed leading to a wonderful moral dilemma for Arvin: does he try to save Sydney or Nadia?.

My instincts were on either Jack or Vaughn – both have a personal stake in Syd’s child but both are willing to do what they need to achieve the results they require. But as the episode unfolded, my options were quickly removed as it became clear that Jack would never so obviously endanger Sydney or his grandchild. Vaughn remained a possibility, after all this is Alias. Since when did anyone who died stay dead?

But after all of my ponderings, I was no closer to uncover the identity of Sydney’s abductor. Which is why I think when her identity was revealed that I lept from my seat and became utterly transfixed to the television…surely I would have heard that the one and only Irina Derevko was making a come back?! Surely I would have heard rumblings that Lena Olin was returning to the series?! Apparently not! The twist was enough to keep me on the edge of my seat until the very last second. Irina is working with Peyton…Irina was Gordon Deans boss…Irina is a member of Prophet Five…is Irina now the series big bad?

It’s not until second viewing that you will notice that Lena Olin was not actually present on the set. Her scene’s were very cleverly (and even ingeniously) edited together from existing footage (from season two’s “Trust Me”) with a brief voice over from the actress. No matter, Olin is back and working for Alias for it’s final season and seems sure to retake her status as the baddie you love to hate. In the final moments as Jack uncovers Irina’s secret nursery and Syd finds herself completely alone on a ship I simply had to applaud the talents of Josh Applebaum and Andre Nemec. In one swift stroke they delivered what I think might be the shows all time greatest cliff-hanger and have brought the series back in line with its core mission statement of season one: bring down the beast with as many surprises as possible.

It may the final season, but Alias has not lost its touch. Not by a long shot!

This review was written by the webmaster of A Free Agent, Alan Stanley Blair. In addition to running this site, he is also a writer for SyFy Portal.com where he regularly reviews other genre-based shows. Please submit any feedback on these reviews to cia_handler@yahoo.co.uk. For other reviews from the fifth season, please visit Season 5 Deciphered.

Alias: A Free Agent has not been approved or authorised by Touchstone.