Critical Myth

Television has become the medium of today's modern mythology, delivering the exploits of icons and archetypes to the masses. Names like Mulder, Scully, Kirk, Spock, and Buffy have become legend. This blog is a compilation of the reviews written about the tales of our modern day heroes.

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Location: NJ

Thursday, April 21, 2005

Alias 4.18: "Another Mister Sloane"

Written by Luke McMullen
Directed by Greg Yaitanes

In which the team discovers that Sloane’s imposter is trying to assemble a Rambaldi device, and Sloane is forced to face his obsession as the only one who can track his imposter down…


Status Report

After the previous episode, there were hints and indications that the writing staff had been carefully building up several plot and character arcs, setting up the game board while letting the network have their early stand-alone episodes to woo new viewers to the series. JJ Abrams always told the fans that they should be patient, because once the season arc finally kicked into high gear, it would not disappoint. The previous episode seemed to confirm that assessment.

This episode far exceeds it.

There’s a moment, as a fan of an arc-driven series, when all the worries over a season’s fortunes come to a head. Sometimes, all the nagging weaknesses begin to pile up, until it’s clear that the writers are fighting a losing battle against themselves (the fourth season of “Buffy”; the current season of “24”, as examples). Other times, it’s a question of having faith that, eventually, it will all come together. That’s where this season of “Alias” comes in.

Now fully in serial mode, the series has begun mining the earlier episodes in the season and its previous continuity to tell a compelling story. At the center of this story is one of the most complex and disturbing characters ever created: Arvin Sloane. If the creators of “Alias” learned anything from “X-Files”, it was this: make sure that the motivations of the main villain, obscure or not, have a discernable psychological basis.

Sloane’s apparent motivations have changed over the course of the series, if only because JJ initially wanted to get people hooked on the central dynamic before introducing Sloane’s obsession with Rambaldi. If the whole Rambaldi mythology is now about as muddled and confusing as the mythology of “X-Files”, one thing is very clear: Sloane’s actions have always been about his belief in Rambaldi and his prophecies. And as fortunes change and alliances shift, he has to struggle with the personal desire to follow that belief and the effect it has on others.

Before the third season, the person keeping Sloane relatively sane, if not moral, was Emily. There were indications that Sloane was mostly interested in Rambaldi’s search for immortality for Emily’s sake. When Emily died, however, Sloane’s existence became consumed within the search for Rambaldi’s true endgame, something far beyond a formula for eternal life. He was even willing to sacrifice his own daughter to that goal.

The journeys of Arvin and Nadia, after the third season finale, have never been explained, despite having been referenced more than once. But even Sloane admitted that his actions drove a wedge between him and Nadia, and he has claimed that it was spending time with his daughter and discovering how his obsession was driving her away that led to his latest reformation. Nadia certainly has reason to want to believe, given her past history, but when it comes to Sloane, who can be certain of motives?

As it turns out, one aspect of the theory developed over the course of the season has been confirmed: Sloane and Jack have been using APO to keep Sydney and Nadia safe. There’s still a specific threat that remains concealed, but Sloane recognized that his search for Rambaldi was a threat to Nadia, and she has become the anchor to his sanity, serving the same function that Emily once fulfilled.

What’s amazing is the apparent lack of guile; Sloane seems to be genuinely concerned about the thought of losing himself to Rambaldi again. He’s all too aware of what happened during his time with Nadia, even if the audience doesn’t know the details; the closer he got to the final piece of the puzzle, it seems, the more violently obsessed he became. And so he knows that this imposter Sloane, if he is mirroring Sloane’s own choices and psychology, must also be consumed by the same madness.

If the essential rationale for the pact between Sloane and Jack has been confirmed, it’s offset by the revelation that both men apparently believe Irina to be dead. In fact, unless Jack is one hell of an actor, Irina was killed by a gunshot to the temple, right in front of Jack’s eyes. That eliminates the possibility that Irina is working with Sloane and Jack (with their knowledge) to hunt down the threat to Sydney and Nadia. So, all too aware that Irina is alive out there, the question becomes: how did she survive, and is she working with her sister Yelena to achieve the Rambaldi endgame?

These questions are on the table before the end of the second segment, and things get even better from there. Arvin Clone demonstrates the same single-minded obsession as the real Sloane, even to the point of abducting the necessary scientific talent to get the job done. Michelle Forbes (still sexy as hell) does a great job as the guest torture victim, providing bits and pieces of exposition between moments of terror and agony.

Meanwhile, the writers construct a powerful conflict of interest by forcing nearly everyone into the most unwanted direction possible: giving Sloane access to Rambaldi artifacts again, so he can play Hannibal Lector to Arvin Clone. The character dilemma is of keen interest: will Sloane remain focused on the life he’s tried to build for the sake of his daughter, or will he let his obsession with Rambaldi overwhelm his honest search for redemption?

After spending several episodes building up Sydney as the unyielding, hate-filled sister and Nadia as the compassionate and forgiving one, the writers blur the lines a bit more. Nadia, so very convinced that Sydney is unfairly judging her father and denying him the chance to prove himself, slowly but surely begins to have her doubts. In essence, she’s in the position that Sydney usually claims as her own: knowing the depths of Sloane’s potential for evil and madness better than anyone. If Sloane has been protecting Nadia for some outside evil, then Nadia has joined APO in the hopes of protecting Sloane from himself.

This is where Arvin Clone comes into play. Arvin Clone is ultimately the embodiment of everything that Sloane has rejected, in a metaphorical sense. It’s a reminder to everyone, but especially Nadia and Sloane himself, of what Sloane is capable of, under the right (or wrong) circumstances. To defeat Arvin Clone, Sloane must not simply understand his enemy; he must commit to the task of defeating the darkness within himself. Sloane understands (if the expression on his face is any indication) that he might very well defeat the imposter, only to become that man again.

How hard would it be, after all, for Sloane to eliminate the enemy, and then step into the role already created for him, resources intact and technology in hand? The temptation is not simply to resume his obsession with Rambaldi, but to take command of the efforts that have been amassed in his name. In a logical but completely unexpected move, both Jack and Sydney support the notion of sending Sloane into this ultimate moral trial. For Sydney, it’s a question of expediency and trusting her sister’s instincts, but for Jack, the reasons are far more subtle.

Jack knows that he’s a dead man, as things stand. (One must set aside, for the moment, the obvious solution of Rambaldi’s healing formula, used for Alison Doran.) If all his efforts have been devoted to protecting Sydney, and if he believes that the threat is powerful enough to require an alliance with his worst enemy, then he must be terribly concerned about how to ensure Sydney is protected once he is gone. Right now, his only choice is Sloane, sad as it seems. As a result, Jack wants to see Sloane face this temptation and prove himself, because that is the only way Jack can ever trust Sloane to protect Sydney.

Sloane has all the information necessary to know how close Arvin Clone is to achieving his goals, and as such, Sloane understands perfectly the devotion required to get to that point. So does Nadia, and now she has plenty of reason to wonder if her father is going to return to the madness. In fact, it’s clear that he has; at the very least, it’s still below the surface, waiting to come out. The zealot is waiting for the chance to emerge, and it’s not at all certain that Sloane will be able to pull it back under control.

This episode also pulled the purpose of the Nightingale experiment closer to clarity, and it’s damned interesting. “Nightingale” revealed that the coil can make vast changes to the molecular structure of organic cellular structure, which ties in nicely with the Rambaldi desire to heal and immortalize the human body. But Arvin Clone was working on the coil and its mechanism in relation to the Circumference, the “red ball” containment field that was never placed into a particular Rambaldi context.

What was revealed in “The Passage” in the second season was the reality of Rambaldi’s ability to preserve life. He succeeded in keeping a person alive for centuries, as revealed in the first season. If the coil is also part of the power source for a large version of the Circumference, then it might be possible that whatever is within the Circumference containment field is meant to be transformed by the effect of the coil. The Circumference, therefore, is vital to the whole Rambaldi endgame, which makes perfect sense, as it was the first item revealed on the series.

According to the Rambaldi mythos, Sydney and Nadia are represented by the two outer symbol of the “Eye of Rambaldi” (). Now that the Circumference is back in play, one has to wonder: are the sisters meant to battle over control of something inside that center symbol? Wouldn’t it therefore represent the Circumference? Clearly there’s a lot left to explain, but there’s a sense that the writers are actually taking all the pieces of the puzzle and trying to make them fit in a semi-logical fashion. It’s a long way from the confusion offered at the end of the third season!

The performances were strong throughout the entire episode, but Ron Rifkin especially gave Sloane and his complex psychology an amazing degree of expression. Through much of the third season, Rifkin wasn’t given much to do as Sloane, if only because his character wasn’t in the right place for true character development. This episode alone gives the kind of depth to Sloane that nine seasons of development didn’t provide for Cancer Man on “X-Files”. Sloane is shown as a man in deep conflict. He believes in Rambaldi, he wants Rambaldi’s works to be brought forth…and yet, he loves his daughter more.

In that, Sloane and Jack may have far more in common than the audience might have imagined. Of course, Jack doesn’t have the same obsession with Rambaldi that Sloane has savored (as far as revealed to date), and Sloane has not spent a lifetime trying to keep Nadia safe from harm. But both men have been moving closer to a middle ground, and at times, it’s hard to tell them apart. This never ceases to be fascinating, given the morally grey territory that the characters reside within, where only very slight differences can mean everything.

This is the kind of compelling drama that the audience has been expecting of “Alias” since the beginning of the season, but until recently, it hasn’t been seen with any consistency. Ever since “Echoes”, however, the consistency of the writing has improved and the plot threads have been gathering momentum. With six episodes of the season still remaining, there’s a lot of ground left to cover. Jack’s psychology seems to be the next fertile ground to undergo exploration, and by all indications, a more satisfying answer to the cliffhanger at the end of the third season might finally be in the cards. If the writing is of the same caliber as this episode, then there’s little doubt that the answers will be satisfying.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode continues the recent trend of excellent episodes, easily matching the best episodes of the season. The exploration of Sloane’s complicated psychology is welcome indeed, and it’s interesting to see Ron Rifkin portray the subtle changes in his demeanor over the course of the episode. The Rambaldi mythology gets a few tantalizing additions, and the hints regarding the rest of the season are very promising.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 3/4

Final Rating: 9/10

Season Average (as of 4.16): 7.6

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