Alias 4.11: "The Road Home"
Written by Josh Appelbaum and Andre Nemec
Directed by Maryann Brandon
In which Sydney is forced to look after a civilian who is endangered by her actions during an op in Austria, while Jack deals with an old associate and Vaughn tracks down more on his father…
Status Report
After making a great deal of progress over the span of the last three episodes, the writers return to the stand-alone episode structure that plagued the early part of the season. In this case, there are three plot threads in question. The man plot is the most disposable, suffering from an overall lack of chemistry between Garner and the guest star. The first subplot, involving a seek and destroy mission for Jack, is a great piece of character exploration. The second subplot actually resonates well with the first, as Vaughn follows up on his father’s trail from the previous episode.
It’s rather clear that the episodes are being aired in the correct order now, which is an improvement. This was necessitated by Vaughn’s subplot; otherwise, this episode could have taken place anywhere in the current continuity. Despite being important to the season arc, this subplot consists of perhaps three or four short scenes. Of course, those scenes are very revealing.
For one thing, Vaughn has only confided in Weiss regarding his father’s possible emergence from a supposed death. This is very interesting in terms of the trust between Sydney and Vaughn. After all, Sydney has already been in this position with her mother in the first season, and as eventually revealed, Irina’s return had massive effects on everyone around Sydney. Irina was at the center of almost everything that happened with Jack, Sloane, and Sydney over the past 30+ years. For Vaughn to discover the possibility of something so similar in his own life, knowing that his father was involved with the Magnific Order of Rambaldi, is a huge development. Keeping that from Sydney is hard to reconcile.
Equally as important is the parallel between Vaughn’s father and Jack. If the re-emergence of Vaughn’s father is an echo of Irina’s past history, then the casual violence of Vaughn’s father is an echo of Jack’s compartmentalized personality. Jack’s past has never been hidden away, and he has always been willing to kill when necessary. It’s simply that his actions have typically been portrayed in a more flattering light.
There’s little doubt that Jack needs to do the job correctly, if only for Sydney’s sake, and he does display an internal regret (something played with enormous subtlety by Victor Garber). But he also doesn’t hesitate, despite that regret, because he believes in the rationale of his mission. No doubt, Vaughn’s father felt exactly the same way in the Falklands. For that matter, Sloane shares this same motivational fervor. All three men are cut from the same cloth, and if past continuity means anything, it all revolves around Rambaldi.
Jack’s assassination technique in this episode is so personal, almost clinical, that it makes it very hard to accept. It’s an indirect means of reminding the audience that Jack is more than capable of planning and executing plans that are morally debatable, thus connecting with the idea that he has made a deal with his own personal devil, Sloane.
It’s interesting, in light of the emerging plot arc this season, that the original ending of the third season involved Sydney’s discovery of evidence that Jack had been implicated in Irina’s endgame all along. JJ Abrams made a very quick decision to pull back that reveal, perhaps aware of the fact that the third season hadn’t earned that moment; nothing to that point had suggested such a character turn for Jack. The resolution of the final scene was disappointing, but thus far, the writers are putting together a consistent and strong case for a side to Jack that has been hinted but never fully revealed. Even if Jack doesn’t betray Sydney when all is said and done, the writers are doing a much better job of establishing Jack’s dark side.
Unfortunately, these two subplots were far better than the “A” story, which felt like a joke gone horribly, horribly wrong. Had “Alias” ever been the kind of series where the occasional light-hearted approach was possible (the tone requires a rather portentous consistency), this would have been a good candidate for a humorous approach. After all, the guest star looked like a poor man’s David Arquette, and he pretty much attempted the same kind of performance.
It wasn’t nearly so convincing. The idea was that Sydney was dealing with a complete rube, and that plays on certain archetypical portrayals of each side of the relationship. Sam’s role is meant to be semi-tragic, but the portrayal is never convincing enough to make the audience give a damn whether he lives or dies. That’s not the reaction the writers were trying to elicit.
On the other side of the equation, Sydney’s archetypical role would be the sympathetic but tough seasoned agent. Granted, the “Alias” take on this is that she’s an incredibly hot sympathetic but tough seasoned agent, which goes a long way towards making the cliché less boring than it could have been. But her dialogue throughout is just a bit off, or so it seems from the final product. One gets the feeling that if the chemistry between the two had existed, the lines would have sounded better coming out of her mouth.
It certainly doesn’t help that in some of her scenes, that upper New York accent completely disappears. Not that it was vital to the plot or anything, but when she goes from generic American accent to Rochester in a matter of three or four words, Sam acts like there was never a difference. And in the real world, accents are far more obvious to people, especially when they get more or less distinct and thick with every passing phrase. Usually Garner does a consistent job with accents and languages, so that was an odd lapse.
The plot structure for this part of the episode was alarmingly predictable. It was obvious, as soon as Sydney called for extraction, that the CIA operative in the region would be working for the bad guys. As delightfully brutal as Sydney’s solution to the problem might have been (the wide shot is particularly effective here), Sam’s reaction is simply not strong enough, and Sydney isn’t nearly as convincing as she needs to be. It’s like the scene was written ten minutes before it was filmed, and there was no time to polish the dialogue and pacing.
The worst part of the episode, however, was the final act. While a self-correcting assassination drone with biometric targeting sensors is a great idea, it’s rather inconvenient for the writers. So while the sensors are apparently very well designed, the targeting system leaves much to be desired. In several scenes, the chopper had a direct line of fire on Sydney and missed wide to both sides!
The resolution to the problem, where Sydney uses the villain as a shield so the sensors will assume that she was the one, in fact, drilled into mince meat, makes no sense at all. For one thing, if the targeting sensors are locked on her vital signs, why would the presence of blood suddenly convince the computer program that Sydney was dead? It should have still been locked on her vitals! And the type of weapon should have been sufficient to rip through the dead guy right into Sydney, especially given the number of rounds slicing through the same part of his gut.
With a complete lack of chemistry and the inability of the series to take a more humorous angle on the subject, the entire episode falls flat. Since it occasionally skips over to a more interesting or unnerving subplot, it’s not as dreadfully dull and pointless as “Nocturne”. It strays closer to the overdone themes of “Welcome to Liberty Village”, which at least managed to use the cliché at the heart of its plot to explore character issues. Sydney’s little trek through Austria with Sam doesn’t really say much about her that hasn’t been said before.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was a letdown after a strong run of continuity-laden episodes. While the subplots worked well in terms of the season arc and character development, the main story was a bad cliché with little relevance to anything substantial. The resolution of the main plot was poorly conceived, and there was no chemistry where chemistry was essential. Definitely one of the more bland and average episodes of the series.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 1/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 5/10
Season Average (as of 4.10): 7.3
Directed by Maryann Brandon
In which Sydney is forced to look after a civilian who is endangered by her actions during an op in Austria, while Jack deals with an old associate and Vaughn tracks down more on his father…
Status Report
After making a great deal of progress over the span of the last three episodes, the writers return to the stand-alone episode structure that plagued the early part of the season. In this case, there are three plot threads in question. The man plot is the most disposable, suffering from an overall lack of chemistry between Garner and the guest star. The first subplot, involving a seek and destroy mission for Jack, is a great piece of character exploration. The second subplot actually resonates well with the first, as Vaughn follows up on his father’s trail from the previous episode.
It’s rather clear that the episodes are being aired in the correct order now, which is an improvement. This was necessitated by Vaughn’s subplot; otherwise, this episode could have taken place anywhere in the current continuity. Despite being important to the season arc, this subplot consists of perhaps three or four short scenes. Of course, those scenes are very revealing.
For one thing, Vaughn has only confided in Weiss regarding his father’s possible emergence from a supposed death. This is very interesting in terms of the trust between Sydney and Vaughn. After all, Sydney has already been in this position with her mother in the first season, and as eventually revealed, Irina’s return had massive effects on everyone around Sydney. Irina was at the center of almost everything that happened with Jack, Sloane, and Sydney over the past 30+ years. For Vaughn to discover the possibility of something so similar in his own life, knowing that his father was involved with the Magnific Order of Rambaldi, is a huge development. Keeping that from Sydney is hard to reconcile.
Equally as important is the parallel between Vaughn’s father and Jack. If the re-emergence of Vaughn’s father is an echo of Irina’s past history, then the casual violence of Vaughn’s father is an echo of Jack’s compartmentalized personality. Jack’s past has never been hidden away, and he has always been willing to kill when necessary. It’s simply that his actions have typically been portrayed in a more flattering light.
There’s little doubt that Jack needs to do the job correctly, if only for Sydney’s sake, and he does display an internal regret (something played with enormous subtlety by Victor Garber). But he also doesn’t hesitate, despite that regret, because he believes in the rationale of his mission. No doubt, Vaughn’s father felt exactly the same way in the Falklands. For that matter, Sloane shares this same motivational fervor. All three men are cut from the same cloth, and if past continuity means anything, it all revolves around Rambaldi.
Jack’s assassination technique in this episode is so personal, almost clinical, that it makes it very hard to accept. It’s an indirect means of reminding the audience that Jack is more than capable of planning and executing plans that are morally debatable, thus connecting with the idea that he has made a deal with his own personal devil, Sloane.
It’s interesting, in light of the emerging plot arc this season, that the original ending of the third season involved Sydney’s discovery of evidence that Jack had been implicated in Irina’s endgame all along. JJ Abrams made a very quick decision to pull back that reveal, perhaps aware of the fact that the third season hadn’t earned that moment; nothing to that point had suggested such a character turn for Jack. The resolution of the final scene was disappointing, but thus far, the writers are putting together a consistent and strong case for a side to Jack that has been hinted but never fully revealed. Even if Jack doesn’t betray Sydney when all is said and done, the writers are doing a much better job of establishing Jack’s dark side.
Unfortunately, these two subplots were far better than the “A” story, which felt like a joke gone horribly, horribly wrong. Had “Alias” ever been the kind of series where the occasional light-hearted approach was possible (the tone requires a rather portentous consistency), this would have been a good candidate for a humorous approach. After all, the guest star looked like a poor man’s David Arquette, and he pretty much attempted the same kind of performance.
It wasn’t nearly so convincing. The idea was that Sydney was dealing with a complete rube, and that plays on certain archetypical portrayals of each side of the relationship. Sam’s role is meant to be semi-tragic, but the portrayal is never convincing enough to make the audience give a damn whether he lives or dies. That’s not the reaction the writers were trying to elicit.
On the other side of the equation, Sydney’s archetypical role would be the sympathetic but tough seasoned agent. Granted, the “Alias” take on this is that she’s an incredibly hot sympathetic but tough seasoned agent, which goes a long way towards making the cliché less boring than it could have been. But her dialogue throughout is just a bit off, or so it seems from the final product. One gets the feeling that if the chemistry between the two had existed, the lines would have sounded better coming out of her mouth.
It certainly doesn’t help that in some of her scenes, that upper New York accent completely disappears. Not that it was vital to the plot or anything, but when she goes from generic American accent to Rochester in a matter of three or four words, Sam acts like there was never a difference. And in the real world, accents are far more obvious to people, especially when they get more or less distinct and thick with every passing phrase. Usually Garner does a consistent job with accents and languages, so that was an odd lapse.
The plot structure for this part of the episode was alarmingly predictable. It was obvious, as soon as Sydney called for extraction, that the CIA operative in the region would be working for the bad guys. As delightfully brutal as Sydney’s solution to the problem might have been (the wide shot is particularly effective here), Sam’s reaction is simply not strong enough, and Sydney isn’t nearly as convincing as she needs to be. It’s like the scene was written ten minutes before it was filmed, and there was no time to polish the dialogue and pacing.
The worst part of the episode, however, was the final act. While a self-correcting assassination drone with biometric targeting sensors is a great idea, it’s rather inconvenient for the writers. So while the sensors are apparently very well designed, the targeting system leaves much to be desired. In several scenes, the chopper had a direct line of fire on Sydney and missed wide to both sides!
The resolution to the problem, where Sydney uses the villain as a shield so the sensors will assume that she was the one, in fact, drilled into mince meat, makes no sense at all. For one thing, if the targeting sensors are locked on her vital signs, why would the presence of blood suddenly convince the computer program that Sydney was dead? It should have still been locked on her vitals! And the type of weapon should have been sufficient to rip through the dead guy right into Sydney, especially given the number of rounds slicing through the same part of his gut.
With a complete lack of chemistry and the inability of the series to take a more humorous angle on the subject, the entire episode falls flat. Since it occasionally skips over to a more interesting or unnerving subplot, it’s not as dreadfully dull and pointless as “Nocturne”. It strays closer to the overdone themes of “Welcome to Liberty Village”, which at least managed to use the cliché at the heart of its plot to explore character issues. Sydney’s little trek through Austria with Sam doesn’t really say much about her that hasn’t been said before.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode was a letdown after a strong run of continuity-laden episodes. While the subplots worked well in terms of the season arc and character development, the main story was a bad cliché with little relevance to anything substantial. The resolution of the main plot was poorly conceived, and there was no chemistry where chemistry was essential. Definitely one of the more bland and average episodes of the series.
Writing: 1/2
Acting: 1/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4
Final Rating: 5/10
Season Average (as of 4.10): 7.3
posted by John Keegan | 17:41
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