Alias: A Free Agent!

Report For Double Agent Duty!

An original review of "No Hard Feelings".

When Sydney ran off with Kelly Peyton at the end of “I See Dead People”, I expected another salute to old-school Alias. Vaughn would once again take on the role of handler and we’d get plenty of brush-pasts, dead drops and counter missions before the series’ end.

As it turns out, I was half right. Had the show not been cut short by several episode, had we all been given the gift of a full 22 episode season, I’m sure the idea of double agent duty would very much have been the case.

But due to unforeseen circumstances that not even Rambaldi could predict, we only have three episodes left so time is of the essence. “No Hard Feelings” (could this be a jab at the ABC network for the cancellation decision?) follows swiftly on from last weeks episode and does remind me of the episodic cliff-hangers we got in the first and second seasons. Rambaldi is back again and there is some very tough dialogue between Syd and Sloane. Or should I say Anna and Sloane?

The Rachel and Thomas scenes were rather well conceived and for the first time we’ve actually seen what Balthazar Getty is capable of. Similarly, Rachel Nicols is getting the chance to shine.

In her early days on the show, her character was so annoying and whiney that I was a little doubtful that she would ever be able to carve out a home on the show. But with a lot of training from Syd and a tremendous amount of effort from Nicols herself, she succeeded. Their off the books mission was reminiscent of a few of Syd and Vaughn’s in the old days, and had these two characters been given time to develop, I’m sure a will-they-won’t-they relationship would also begin to develop.

Sark’s partnership with Sydney was interesting, and I found myself wondering whether or not “the beautiful man” would be see through her stolen identity. The mysterious ‘Rose’ served as another cryptic piece of the fifteenth century puzzle and in true Alias style, raises more questions than answers.

So with a two-part adventure to follow, lets hope we get some answers!

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.