Alias: Season 2: Episode 21/22: Second Double/The Telling

[Tannerman]

This thread is for discussion of everything related to Season 2: Episode 21: Second Double and Season 2: Episode 22: The Telling.

[Wally]

Finally the season finale. Hopefully it will be better than the rest of the season was. Maybe they will spend the summer actually trying to come up with soe good ideas for the show. This season seemed like the writers all took last summer off and then would go out and get drunk every night rather than thinking about the show. Then, 10 minutes before the shooting for the episode was to start, they would sober up enough to write something and try to make it sound good. I predict that tonight's episode ends with a big group hug with Syd, Vaughn, Jack, Irena, Sloan and Evil Francie.

[Egg]

Ok I thought this first half of the episode was pretty good.

[Egg]

I thought the second part was great until the last STUPID two minutes. I will have more opinions tomorrow after I sleep.

[Wally]

The combined two hours of this week were better than a lot of the rest of the season. Besides the opening scene and a couple others, not too many sentimental scenes. Sydney finally found where they had hid all of her wardrobe from the first season.

As for the ending. What are they going to do next? Will next season be completely focused on the last 2 years? Why didn't Sydney shoot Francie in the head rather than the chest? I am assuming Francie had a bulletproof vest on, but if so, Sydney should have realized that when they were fighting and Francie shouldn't have been able to put up such a good fight due to lack of mobility. It is really that realistic that a person who is highly trained as a spy can't hit someone from 10 feet away when they have their handgun trained on them. How many times did Francie shoot at Syd and miss? Do the writers have any clue what went on over the last two years, or did they just figure that gives them a lot more leaway in what they can write for next season whenever they get around to it?

[Egg]

Maybe they put the two yeat gab in so that they can reset the characters. They basically had tied out all the characters currently, so they need another direction to go.

Favorite line from the episode: "I killed 2 peopled, Maybe I shouldn't be yelling that".

[AmySly]

Anybody have any theories as to why Sydney has missed the last two years? Could it be that the Rambaldi machine Sloane was making is a time machine?

[Egg]

It could have been, or it could be that their is no time machine, and Sydney's mind has been wiped clean of the last two years.

[Tannerman]

"The woman here depicted will possess unseen marks. Signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works, bind them with fury; a burning anger. Unless prevented, at vulgar cost, this woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation. This woman, without pretense, will have had her effect, never having seen the beauty of my sky, behind Mount Subasio. Perhaps a single glance would have quelled her fire."

Did anyone ever watch The Pretender on NBC or John Doe on FOX? That is what I think season 3 of Alias will be like... SpyBarbie searching for her past... wondering what happened over the past 2 years. The writers took the easy way out here. They may do something like build the season as a flashback, building up to the moment we see at the end of season 2.

I'm assuming that the passage of time is true and it is two years later (though a time travel element might save this show.. nah).

Do you think it was in character for Vaughn to marry so quickly? Do you think he's still with the CIA? I don't think so, based on the "they brought me back in" line.

Supposed facts from this episode:

1. Irina escaped on the 19th floor
2. Will was stabbed and left for dead in the tub
3. EvilFrancie was shot in the left arm, right lung, left shoulder by Sydney and thus may still be alive
4. Jack has been rescued
5. Will is not dead
6. Vaughn is married or engaged to someone else (or undercover)
7. Sark is in custody
8. Sloane was being pursued by Vaughn but got away with the device

Could the CIA of Alias' world even transfer a roll of quarters across the town? I don't think so. That was so obviously a trap it was baffling that they would have the characters fall for it. I mean Sloane came and told Jack face to face we was assembling the Rambaldi artifacts. Yet, they still feel compelled to transfer the heart from a secure location (and in a regular Ford truck). No bulletproof windows? And you've armed all the agents with - pistols? Wow, you really must want to protect that artifact!

Dixon strangling Will. I guess that was the only minute the guards weren't looking at the cameras?

Transferring Will. They said that, and I quote, Will was "a threat to national security" so they transfer him on an old bus? We had better busses when I used to go to camp! And the main escort is the man who's wife was apparently killed by Will? (As the evidence showed at the time - the fingerprint).

How about that Ford Focus SVT?

EvilFrancie hides Will's body in the tub, but gets "tricked" into revealing herself as a fake. Note that after she got tricked, she had a sudden epiphany that she doesn't like that flavor ice cream, and had to react right away so Syd couldn't get weapons. So... she wasn't planning on being exposed or attacking SpyBarbie. Yet, she masterfully hides the body in the bathtub. What was she expecting, SpyBarbie to just stumble across it and think nothing of it? And if she wanted SpyBarbie to find the body, why not just hide in the house until she gets home? It makes no sense.

There was only one thing you couldn't see coming 10 minutes before hand...

Which brings us to the finale. That 10 minutes alone speaks light years about the brains behind the show. Pure, unfiltered, lazy, shock TV. That's it. It's just there so everyone's jaw hits the floor, don't worry about any type of grounding, or coherency - just be baffled!

I'm convinced they purposefully write everything as open-ended as possible on this show. Once that's been done over 20 episodes, everyone working on the show gets to write on a note card, saying how the open-ended points should be connected. The cards are then hung on a wall, and everyone is spun around and throws a dart at the wall - whichever index card gets hit the most wins!

Either that or they had no idea where to go with the show once SD-6 was gone and Sloane was inevitably captured/killed. Well, they don't want to wrap Sloane's story up yet, so they prolong it with some time traveling nonsense. And it is undoubtedly Sloane's work - it can be seen in a few difference places in this episode when Sloane talks.

Doesn't seem Alias will get back to its season 1 level (did we think it would?). It's so diluted and dumbed down that Season 1 and Season 2 seem like two different shows. How am I supposed to take anything seriously in this show when they can't even setup rules to play by? The show has no grounding, it just does what it wants, as it wants - without exception. That's worse than if the writing was just bad - at least then I'd know they were trying (and playing by some - ANY rules).

Oh, and that final SpyBarbie/EvilFrancie fight? Yeah, they'd all be fine after smashing into EVERY PIECE OF GLASS in the apartment. But that's OK, because Syd did that sideways/Matrix/I'm on wires trick to avoid getting shot. R - I - G - H - T.

They've already rebooted the show once this year, and the two-years-later-with-amnesia device is a bit much, in my opinion. This is another reboot. Ho hum.

[Mrs. Egg]

Tanner dude,
If you hate these shows so much -- stop watching.
It's obviously no fun for you and is darn depressing for people who do like it.

Chill out it's not the end of the world...or is it...what will Rambaldi do next...

One phrase for you, and if you can't do it-- stick to non-fiction:

"Willing suspension of disbelief"

It is what makes entertainment fun!

[Wally]

Originally posted by Tannerman

How about that Ford Focus SVT?

EvilFrancie hides Will's body in the tub, but gets "tricked" into revealing herself as a fake. Note that after she got tricked, she had a sudden epiphany that she doesn't like that flavor ice cream, and had to react right away so Syd couldn't get weapons. So... she wasn't planning on being exposed or attacking SpyBarbie. Yet, she masterfully hides the body in the bathtub. What was she expecting, SpyBarbie to just stumble across it and think nothing of it? And if she wanted SpyBarbie to find the body, why not just hide in the house until she gets home? It makes no sense.

How did Francie get the car that Sydney was driving in Switzerland? If Egg missed that shot of the SVT label, then you have to wonder if he saw any of the show at all.

Francie didn't get tricked into revealing herself to Syd. She knew that he had left a message on Syd's cell. She just had to wait for the right moment to try to shoot Syd in the back.

One thing that I find the most unbeleivable about the show is the "time travel" they already do. Almost every episode has the characters flying from LA to Europe in what seems like a matter of a few hours. Does the CIA have a couple Concordes or use military jets. The time spans between them showing up in different countries sounds unreal.

[Egg]

Originally posted by Wally
How did Francie get the car that Sydney was driving in Switzerland? If Egg missed that shot of the SVT label, then you have to wonder if he saw any of the show at all.

Francie didn't get tricked into revealing herself to Syd. She knew that he had left a message on Syd's cell. She just had to wait for the right moment to try to shoot Syd in the back.

One thing that I find the most unbeleivable about the show is the "time travel" they already do. Almost every episode has the characters flying from LA to Europe in what seems like a matter of a few hours. Does the CIA have a couple Concordes or use military jets. The time spans between them showing up in different countries sounds unreal.

Yes I did see the label.

I had mentioned the time to get to places to Jamie Sunday night. I was saying they must have some SEVERE jet lag.

[Tannerman]

Originally posted by Mrs. Egg
If you hate these shows so much -- stop watching.

I may just do that. I did my homework and caught up on Season 1 so I could keep up with you guys and my wife, but frankly, I don't think the payoff was worth it. Season 1 was good, but that's about it.

[Wally]

In my opinion, season 1 was far better than season 2 and I would assume that the writers will never make it back to that level. To bad you missed the best part of it while it was happening.

[Egg]

Originally posted by Wally
In my opinion, season 1 was far better than season 2 and I would assume that the writers will never make it back to that level. To bad you missed the best part of it while it was happening.

I do agree that Season 1 was much better, but I have still thought that season 2 was pretty good.