Alias 4.15: "Pandora"
Written by J. R. Orci and Jeff Pinkner
Directed by Kevin Hooks
In which Vaughn continues his search for his father, forcing him to choose between his loyalty to the CIA and his personal quest, while Sydney uncovers clues to Sloane’s possible agenda…
Status Report
Whatever doubt the writers might have fostered in the first half of the season, the recent return to a more serialized storytelling mode has helped to erase those doubts. This is actually a sign of a clever marketing ploy, and while the network still has many sins to atone for after shuffling the early episodes needlessly, it has worked well enough to keep the series afloat. The stand-alones served the purpose of getting the attention of new viewers coming out of “Lost”, who are now (theoretically) invested in the larger plot and character threads. (The “American Idol” effect notwithstanding!)
With the season now firmly entrenched in the season arc, the plot points are ripping out at a furious pace. As promised by the writers, Vaughn’s personal search for his father is the trigger for something very different, and the dynamic between Sydney and Nadia is becoming even more metaphorically powerful. Some of the previous theories regarding the plot arc have been more or less confirmed, while some major complications have emerged in an appropriately revelatory manner.
The major news, of course, is that someone has been impersonating Sloane, apparently for the purposes of gaining access to Rambaldi artifacts. Recovery of the Nightingale coil was a key part of that gambit, it seems, and that would fit the larger theory that the Magnific Order of Rambaldi (or someone with its information) is trying to resurrect the prophet. Sloane has, after all, dropped off the radar since taking control of APO, and his contacts and resources are still out there.
The false Sloane has enough information to use Vaughn’s father as a bargaining chip. It’s still not certain that Vaughn’s father is really dead, since Vaughn only has the word of a professional liar that the pictures and journals were faked. Vaughn’s father could easily be working for the false Sloane, and could be just as morally flexible as Jack or the real Sloane. Whatever the case, the question is: what is the real reason for manipulating Vaughn?
The false Sloane would have to know that Vaughn was still CIA, given the circumstances, but according to the APO cover, Vaughn has quit the agency. So the false Sloane has a source of information beyond most within the intelligence community. They knew Vaughn’s movements well enough to leave him the journal, knowing that it would lead him to Nightingale through his current APO sources. They knew that Vaughn had recent CIA codes and could deliver both the coil and the Rambaldi manual necessary to operate it properly.
This leads to two immediate areas of consideration. The first is the most obvious. Now that APO has the coil and the manual, they have what they need to heal Jack. Sydney’s reaction to Jack’s sacrifice is a card that the writers clearly intend to play, probably in opposition to her eventual discovery of his pact with Sloane. This also should take more than a few episodes to implement, allowing the other plot threads to take the lead in the meantime.
More important, however, is the question of why the false Sloane went to so much trouble to target Vaughn specifically for this operation. It must be assumed that the false Sloane doesn’t just know about Vaughn and his status/history; he must also know that he can use his activities to undermine the efforts of the real Sloane. Using Vaughn disrupts the trust within APO, and as indicated after the previous episode, could have been meant to have an effect on Sydney as well.
So why attempt to use the real Sloane’s resources, create more angst in Sydney’s life, disrupt the real Sloane’s operation, and take possession of Rambaldi artifacts? The questions all make sense from the point of view of the prevailing theory regarding the season arc: Elena (or is it Yelena?) Derevko is continuing Irina’s work with the Magnific Order of Rambaldi, and Jack and Sloane have come together (possibly with an undercover Irina) to isolate and protect Sydney and Nadia.
The false Sloane uses the resources of the real Sloane to take possession of the artifacts that Sloane had been trying to acquire at the end of the third season. (Assuming, of course, that the real Sloane only managed to far enough into the last leg of the Rambaldi journey to discover why he didn’t want to go any further and risk his daughter.) To prepare the Chosen One and the Passenger for the final conflict to come, they use Sydney’s lover as a stooge, forcing her to lie and deceive her allies and the real Sloane. This in turn complicates the efforts by the real Sloane and Jack to eliminate the threat against Sydney and Nadia, since they cannot keep the two women in relative isolation from that threat. And finally, the kind of Rambaldi artifacts in question fit perfectly, as already mentioned, into a plan to resurrect Rambaldi himself.
While Vaughn is dealing with his daddy issues, Sydney and Nadia deal with mommy. Nadia continues to work her forgiveness groove (in sexy leather boots, no less) by visiting Auntie Katya in jail. It’s good that this is a recent thing since Nadia has not shown a secret agenda thus far, and her intentions seem pure enough. She simply wants to understand her mother as much as she is trying to understand her father. She knows how both of her parents let their obsessions overrule their morality, but she refuses to see people in terms of what they’ve done opposed to who they truly are.
Sydney, however, has come to the point in her psychological journey where such distinctions have betrayed her sense of self-control. Perhaps Nadia is using forgiveness as a means of establishing control over her world; event may be out of her hands, but how she reacts to those events is her decision. Sydney refuses to let go of the admittedly justified anger and resentment that she harbors against Irina and Sloane, but ultimately, it is turning her into the kind of person she doesn’t want to be.
Sydney continues to betray the confidence of those around her, all in the name of doing what she thinks is right. Her tactics are, from a certain point of view, no different than those employed by Irina or Sloane. The difference is merely one of intention. How much more can Sydney take before she fully slips into the kind of challenged morality that she despises in her father? She’s almost at that point now.
Of course, without Sydney’s walk along the moral relativity tightrope, important plot elements wouldn’t come to light. Katya reveals that Irina never wanted Sydney dead in the first place, which is something that Jack and Sloane probably know, based on their previous comments. Irina was blamed because an imposter used her name to hire the assassin, thus triggering the events described in the season opener.
This has massive potential for resolving the plot holes in the third season. If both Sloane and Irina were being impersonated by someone attempting to co-opt their Rambaldi quests, the next question is obvious: how long has that been happening? In the third season, evidence pointed to either Sloane or Irina (or both) as the leader of the Covenant, an organization that was bent on bringing about the will of Rambaldi. A set of imposters would serve as a viable explanation for why this is the case, while also leaving the real Sloane (and real Irina) as distinct characters with no direct ties to the Covenant.
Irina might have uncovered evidence that “Sloane” was working against Sydney and Nadia, probably during the same time that she expressed remorse over the prophecy regarding her daughters. Katya’s original gambit to send Jack to kill Sloane would be consistent with a desire on Irina’s part to protect her daughters. Katya could have stopped Jack because the evidence was contradictory. Later, Irina could have sent Katya to retrieve Sydney and get her out of play; once Katya was in custody, she could have revealed enough to allow Jack and the real Sloane to make their pact, possibly with Irina.
So, tossing all that speculation together with what’s revealed in this episode, the remaining question is whether or not the truth about Irina has been fully communicated. All the evidence points to the fact that Irina is still alive, and Jack and Sloane know it. The false Sloane could be the man who used to run the Covenant (though there’s plenty of evidence still linking Irina to that position). The real question is where Elena (Yelena?) fits into the picture. Her name came up when Katya was first introduced, so it’s logical to assume that the same circumstances that drove Katya to get involved also involved Elena.
Unlike the beginning of the season, where the writers were focusing on quick and easy self-contained adventures, this episode continues to reinforce the complex shell game that has always been the hallmark of the series. Everyone has their own agenda, and not one character knows the full story. All the while, the writers continue to show Sydney as a young woman on a downward moral spiral. As a result, even as repetitious as it can sometimes seem, the picture is always fluid enough to remain intriguing. When the series shifts into its more ambitious serialized format, there’s always something for everyone in the audience to enjoy.
While there are still a lot of fans that have rejected this season out of disappointment over the early episodes, still perhaps jaded over the plotting errors of the third season, it’s hard not to recognize the massive upswing in quality. It’s also obvious that the writers had worked out the plot and character threads well ahead of time, and they have stayed the course. It’s interesting to note that the same pattern evident in the fifth season of “Angel” has, sure enough, been the pattern for this season of “Alias”: stand-alones to introduce all the plot elements in the first third of the season, slow but steady establishment of arc threads in the middle of the season, and then a rapid triggering of all the established plot threads. If anything, this tried and true structure has worked better for this season of “Alias”, and with the series already renewed, that is very good news indeed.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode continues the transition from the more episodic format at the beginning of the season to the traditional serialized format. The plot is moving along furiously, and the entire season is benefiting from the renewed focus on using dangling plot threads from the past as inspiration for the writing process. There’s a stronger feeling of an overall direction for the series and Sydney, and with the series renewed, there will be more opportunity to capitalize on those strengths in the future.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 8/10
Season Average (as of 4.15): 7.5
Directed by Kevin Hooks
In which Vaughn continues his search for his father, forcing him to choose between his loyalty to the CIA and his personal quest, while Sydney uncovers clues to Sloane’s possible agenda…
Status Report
Whatever doubt the writers might have fostered in the first half of the season, the recent return to a more serialized storytelling mode has helped to erase those doubts. This is actually a sign of a clever marketing ploy, and while the network still has many sins to atone for after shuffling the early episodes needlessly, it has worked well enough to keep the series afloat. The stand-alones served the purpose of getting the attention of new viewers coming out of “Lost”, who are now (theoretically) invested in the larger plot and character threads. (The “American Idol” effect notwithstanding!)
With the season now firmly entrenched in the season arc, the plot points are ripping out at a furious pace. As promised by the writers, Vaughn’s personal search for his father is the trigger for something very different, and the dynamic between Sydney and Nadia is becoming even more metaphorically powerful. Some of the previous theories regarding the plot arc have been more or less confirmed, while some major complications have emerged in an appropriately revelatory manner.
The major news, of course, is that someone has been impersonating Sloane, apparently for the purposes of gaining access to Rambaldi artifacts. Recovery of the Nightingale coil was a key part of that gambit, it seems, and that would fit the larger theory that the Magnific Order of Rambaldi (or someone with its information) is trying to resurrect the prophet. Sloane has, after all, dropped off the radar since taking control of APO, and his contacts and resources are still out there.
The false Sloane has enough information to use Vaughn’s father as a bargaining chip. It’s still not certain that Vaughn’s father is really dead, since Vaughn only has the word of a professional liar that the pictures and journals were faked. Vaughn’s father could easily be working for the false Sloane, and could be just as morally flexible as Jack or the real Sloane. Whatever the case, the question is: what is the real reason for manipulating Vaughn?
The false Sloane would have to know that Vaughn was still CIA, given the circumstances, but according to the APO cover, Vaughn has quit the agency. So the false Sloane has a source of information beyond most within the intelligence community. They knew Vaughn’s movements well enough to leave him the journal, knowing that it would lead him to Nightingale through his current APO sources. They knew that Vaughn had recent CIA codes and could deliver both the coil and the Rambaldi manual necessary to operate it properly.
This leads to two immediate areas of consideration. The first is the most obvious. Now that APO has the coil and the manual, they have what they need to heal Jack. Sydney’s reaction to Jack’s sacrifice is a card that the writers clearly intend to play, probably in opposition to her eventual discovery of his pact with Sloane. This also should take more than a few episodes to implement, allowing the other plot threads to take the lead in the meantime.
More important, however, is the question of why the false Sloane went to so much trouble to target Vaughn specifically for this operation. It must be assumed that the false Sloane doesn’t just know about Vaughn and his status/history; he must also know that he can use his activities to undermine the efforts of the real Sloane. Using Vaughn disrupts the trust within APO, and as indicated after the previous episode, could have been meant to have an effect on Sydney as well.
So why attempt to use the real Sloane’s resources, create more angst in Sydney’s life, disrupt the real Sloane’s operation, and take possession of Rambaldi artifacts? The questions all make sense from the point of view of the prevailing theory regarding the season arc: Elena (or is it Yelena?) Derevko is continuing Irina’s work with the Magnific Order of Rambaldi, and Jack and Sloane have come together (possibly with an undercover Irina) to isolate and protect Sydney and Nadia.
The false Sloane uses the resources of the real Sloane to take possession of the artifacts that Sloane had been trying to acquire at the end of the third season. (Assuming, of course, that the real Sloane only managed to far enough into the last leg of the Rambaldi journey to discover why he didn’t want to go any further and risk his daughter.) To prepare the Chosen One and the Passenger for the final conflict to come, they use Sydney’s lover as a stooge, forcing her to lie and deceive her allies and the real Sloane. This in turn complicates the efforts by the real Sloane and Jack to eliminate the threat against Sydney and Nadia, since they cannot keep the two women in relative isolation from that threat. And finally, the kind of Rambaldi artifacts in question fit perfectly, as already mentioned, into a plan to resurrect Rambaldi himself.
While Vaughn is dealing with his daddy issues, Sydney and Nadia deal with mommy. Nadia continues to work her forgiveness groove (in sexy leather boots, no less) by visiting Auntie Katya in jail. It’s good that this is a recent thing since Nadia has not shown a secret agenda thus far, and her intentions seem pure enough. She simply wants to understand her mother as much as she is trying to understand her father. She knows how both of her parents let their obsessions overrule their morality, but she refuses to see people in terms of what they’ve done opposed to who they truly are.
Sydney, however, has come to the point in her psychological journey where such distinctions have betrayed her sense of self-control. Perhaps Nadia is using forgiveness as a means of establishing control over her world; event may be out of her hands, but how she reacts to those events is her decision. Sydney refuses to let go of the admittedly justified anger and resentment that she harbors against Irina and Sloane, but ultimately, it is turning her into the kind of person she doesn’t want to be.
Sydney continues to betray the confidence of those around her, all in the name of doing what she thinks is right. Her tactics are, from a certain point of view, no different than those employed by Irina or Sloane. The difference is merely one of intention. How much more can Sydney take before she fully slips into the kind of challenged morality that she despises in her father? She’s almost at that point now.
Of course, without Sydney’s walk along the moral relativity tightrope, important plot elements wouldn’t come to light. Katya reveals that Irina never wanted Sydney dead in the first place, which is something that Jack and Sloane probably know, based on their previous comments. Irina was blamed because an imposter used her name to hire the assassin, thus triggering the events described in the season opener.
This has massive potential for resolving the plot holes in the third season. If both Sloane and Irina were being impersonated by someone attempting to co-opt their Rambaldi quests, the next question is obvious: how long has that been happening? In the third season, evidence pointed to either Sloane or Irina (or both) as the leader of the Covenant, an organization that was bent on bringing about the will of Rambaldi. A set of imposters would serve as a viable explanation for why this is the case, while also leaving the real Sloane (and real Irina) as distinct characters with no direct ties to the Covenant.
Irina might have uncovered evidence that “Sloane” was working against Sydney and Nadia, probably during the same time that she expressed remorse over the prophecy regarding her daughters. Katya’s original gambit to send Jack to kill Sloane would be consistent with a desire on Irina’s part to protect her daughters. Katya could have stopped Jack because the evidence was contradictory. Later, Irina could have sent Katya to retrieve Sydney and get her out of play; once Katya was in custody, she could have revealed enough to allow Jack and the real Sloane to make their pact, possibly with Irina.
So, tossing all that speculation together with what’s revealed in this episode, the remaining question is whether or not the truth about Irina has been fully communicated. All the evidence points to the fact that Irina is still alive, and Jack and Sloane know it. The false Sloane could be the man who used to run the Covenant (though there’s plenty of evidence still linking Irina to that position). The real question is where Elena (Yelena?) fits into the picture. Her name came up when Katya was first introduced, so it’s logical to assume that the same circumstances that drove Katya to get involved also involved Elena.
Unlike the beginning of the season, where the writers were focusing on quick and easy self-contained adventures, this episode continues to reinforce the complex shell game that has always been the hallmark of the series. Everyone has their own agenda, and not one character knows the full story. All the while, the writers continue to show Sydney as a young woman on a downward moral spiral. As a result, even as repetitious as it can sometimes seem, the picture is always fluid enough to remain intriguing. When the series shifts into its more ambitious serialized format, there’s always something for everyone in the audience to enjoy.
While there are still a lot of fans that have rejected this season out of disappointment over the early episodes, still perhaps jaded over the plotting errors of the third season, it’s hard not to recognize the massive upswing in quality. It’s also obvious that the writers had worked out the plot and character threads well ahead of time, and they have stayed the course. It’s interesting to note that the same pattern evident in the fifth season of “Angel” has, sure enough, been the pattern for this season of “Alias”: stand-alones to introduce all the plot elements in the first third of the season, slow but steady establishment of arc threads in the middle of the season, and then a rapid triggering of all the established plot threads. If anything, this tried and true structure has worked better for this season of “Alias”, and with the series already renewed, that is very good news indeed.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode continues the transition from the more episodic format at the beginning of the season to the traditional serialized format. The plot is moving along furiously, and the entire season is benefiting from the renewed focus on using dangling plot threads from the past as inspiration for the writing process. There’s a stronger feeling of an overall direction for the series and Sydney, and with the series renewed, there will be more opportunity to capitalize on those strengths in the future.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 8/10
Season Average (as of 4.15): 7.5
posted by John Keegan | 17:08
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