Alias: A Free Agent!

And Another One Bites The Dust!

An original review of "I See Dead People".

Anything can happen before the end. As if killing off the lovely Nadia Santos and the sassy Renee Rienne wasn’t enough, now its time to pop off yet another character! Its a good job Alias is finishing up in a few episodes, because if the show was to continue with this mortality rate, then it wouldn't be long before Sydney is the only one left.

During the funeral sequence, I felt a pang of regret that it’s the last we’ll be seeing of Mia Maestro. She’s such a wonderful actress and her time on Alias was cut a little bit short. As the sequence jumps from the Santos funeral to Rienne’s autopsy, I did feel a little sorry for Renee – she lived alone, she died alone and no one was around to mourn her loss.

But both Mia Maestro and Elodie Bouchez served their purpose on the series…the stakes have been upped and now anything can happen in the countdown to the series finale. It actually covers up the second rate resurrection of Michael Vaughn nicely. So much time and effort was spent killing off the character, convincing us that he was dead and also letting the characters move on with their lives. Why would they bring him back after all of that? I’m not anti-Vartan…I loved the chemistry he brought to the show and he has been a vital cog in the Alias machine for over four years. But he was dead, and the series could once again be taken seriously. After all, Alias now has a reputation for killing people off and bringing them back.

None of it matters now anyway…Vaughn is back. That should be joy enough for long-time fans. There were some good scenes between Vartan and Garner, and I watched with baited breath to find out when he would figure out that the woman he was with wasn’t really Sydney. His fight with Anna, the camera pan around Vaughn inside the German bunker and Anna’s final moments are examples of the fantastic direction in the episode which just made the final scenes so damn enjoyable!

You would think though that Vaughn’s “proper” return would be the highlight of the episode, and for many people I’m sure it is, but I found Sloane wrestling with his own conscience was far more compelling. I’ve said it before – Arvin Sloane is one of the greatest villains ever to have graced the small screen. When he was good he was also bad. And now that he is bad he’s got an aura of good surrounding him. It’s the moral ambiguity Rifkin brings to the role that makes him so amazing to watch.

His ghostly encounter did seem to be downplayed a little, and instead more attention was paid to his banter with the sinister Kelly Peyton. Nadia always brought out the good in his character, so I guess it is Peyton who brings out his dark side. The revelation of Sloane’s contact the end would have actually been a shocker had David Anders not been credited at the beginning of the episode.

But ending on a high, as Sydney once again takes on double agent status within the ranks of Prophet Five, the series yet again takes a step closer to its roots with Vaughn set up for the role as handler. Can we expect to see Syd once again taking orders from Sloane, or will she just kill him on the spot? Whatever it is, I’m sure the next episode will bring some classic Alias moments that no one will be able to forget. And with Anna gone, I predict we'll see Prophet Five crumbling from within SD-6 style!

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 alias@alanistic.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.