Alias 4.21: "Search and Rescue"

Written by Monica Breen and Alison Schapker
Directed by Lawrence Trilling

In which Jack, Sydney, and Nadia struggle to locate and rescue Irina Derevko while Yelena triggers the beginning of the Rambaldi endgame…


Status Report

The wisdom of airing episodes 20 and 21 on the same night is confirmed early in the second hour. “The Descent” is heavy on the massive alignment changes and the question of Sloane’s motives, but the ending demands that the following episode focus entirely on the revelation that Irina is alive and relatively well. How much fun is it, then, to start the episode with a flashback to Jack’s supposed assassination of Irina?

A great deal of the episode is spent on the emotional fallout of Irina’s return, because it changes things in a massive way. For one thing, when Nadia learns the truth about Irina’s supposed death, the fact that she might really be alive takes something out of her righteous anger. Had Irina still been considered dead, Nadia would not have been so willing to let it go. Sure, the fact that Jack is openly remorseful for his error, but if there’s anything Jack and Nadia can find common ground about, it’s how well Yelena can manipulate the facts.

The solution to Irina’s survival was easy enough to guess, but it does create something of a minor plot inconsistency in terms of the rest of the season. Clearly, the writers originally killed off Irina with the understanding that Lena Olin was probably never coming back and thus the character needed some sense of closure. Whether or not they were keeping Project: Helix in their back pocket is impossible to know, but they definitely moved on once Irina was off the table.

The writers have mentioned Project: Helix several times since the second season, but it didn’t come into play with Arvin Clone. Why use Project: Helix to toss out a fake Irina, and yet only use a memory-replicated stand-in for Sloane? Having Joel Grey in a few episodes was fun, especially his near-perfect emulation of Ron Rifkin’s version of Sloane, but wouldn’t it be more logical for Yelena to imprint a victim with Sloane’s memories and also have him undergo the Project: Helix treatment? (Perhaps Yelena always expected Arvin Clone to be captured, and thus didn’t want to tip her hand in terms of Irina?)

That said, as mentioned already, the episode was dominated by the characters’ reactions to Irina’s return from apparent death. In a way, this distracted from the writers’ ability to move forward with the plot elements in a satisfying way, but there was very little alternative. Lena Olin was only available (affordable!) for a couple of episodes, and so everything related to Irina had to be crammed into a very short period of time.

The writers did what they could with what they were given. Jack’s response is perfectly in character, and one can see what the writers were hoping to accomplish with “Mirage”. Jack seems torn between the firm belief that he made the right call with the information he had and the realization that he’s utterly shaken by the thought that Irina is alive. More than that, the reason for his bitterness over the past 20 years has been given a context that paints Irina in a far more positive light; she was reacting to a threat to her loved ones, one she couldn’t explain to the man she loved. It’s no wonder that Jack doesn’t look like he’s ready to spontaneously combust.

Sydney is caught up in the same mess that Jack finds himself in, so far as Nadia is concerned. Part of the problem is that all of them are being challenged to rethink critical assumptions, assumptions that ruled their lives for years. Also, the news about Irina and Sydney’s role in protecting her father comes on the heels of betrayals by Sophia/Yelena and (apparently) Sloane. Sydney has discovered, quite by accident, that she really was at the forefront of her mother’s thoughts. Watching the second season again is suddenly going to be that much more interesting.

If there’s a trigger for a meltdown from Nadia, however, this is going to be it. She was on the verge of coming apart at the seams just from trying to contain herself around Irina. Watching the scene where Irina finally realizing who Nadia must be is especially heart-breaking; at least Irina and Sydney had a chance to bond, once upon a time, even if it was under less than ideal circumstances. Nadia reverts to a hurt little girl in that scene, and it reveals just how deeply each successive betrayal has wounded her.

Even Vaughn is affected by the odd reality of the situation. Vaughn is used as a “reality check” more than once, and he helps to remind the audience that this reunited family is about as dysfunctional as it comes. (Think the family on “Six Feet Under” is bad? They’ve got nothing on the Bristow/Derevko clan!) But Vaughn has also been forced to recognize the fact that his father’s death was not what it seemed; indeed, his father was a fanatic, apparently working for Yelena, and Irina was trying to protect Nadia. Vaughn can’t really hate Irina for that, given what he’s been through.

And, of course, this is the family that he’s trying to join, which just says everything about how far he’s willing to embrace the insanity. The proposal scene is good as shown, but it could have been a little better. Jack gets to give Vaughn a rare shot of positive reinforcement, but why not give the audience a wide shot of Jack and Irina looking on in pride? Damn, even Nadia should have been looking on, perhaps in a mixture of happiness and envy. Maybe the shots were there and cut for time, but it’s a missed opportunity to drive home the fact that Irina and Jack have more in common now.

Because of the compressed timeline, there are a couple of plot contrivances. For one thing, the writers wanted to make it clear that the CIA wasn’t pleased with the idea of Jack running around with a free Irina Derevko, especially since they don’t really understand the scope of the Rambaldi threat. The fact that there’s a huge red ball filled with a deadly toxin (apparently ala “Almost Thirty Years”) floating above a Russian city doesn’t bother people as much as it should. This is surprising, but they also didn’t understand what they were really doing when they let Sloane run APO, so why should they react to something as terrifyingly alien as a big Floating Red Ball of Death?

More surprising is how easily Chase gives in to Sydney and her demand that Irina be allowed on the mission, and the fact that Irina and Jack don’t flinch at the idea of Nadia coming along. Both Jack and Irina have spent an enormous amount of time protecting either or both Sydney and Nadia, and yet when the time comes when the prophecy is most likely to come to pass, neither one objects to the two women being together. At the very least, Jack could have used Nadia’s fragile emotional state as a basis for keeping her behind!

On the other hand, perhaps the writers did address it, and it was cut. “Alias”, like all JJ Abrams shows, is usually filmed with close to twice as much material as time will allow. This gives them a little more freedom to work out which scenes are critical in post-production, while later episodes are in the draft stage. So one can imagine that the writers conceived of this logical problem and somehow justified it; perhaps Jack and Irina figured that the best time to prevent the prophecy would be at the time of its culmination.

The other problem is that Irina’s position is rather lightly guarded, given her importance to Yelena’s plans. This is an interesting problem because it could very well be a plot point. But consider: if Yelena was holding Irina simply to get Irina to copy a page from a Rambaldi manuscript and then help with its implementation, and that goal has been reached, why is Irina still alive? Why not kill Irina once the plan was initiated? Or was keeping Irina alive and lightly protected all part of Yelena’s plan to get Sydney and Nadia to the right place at the right time?

For all that the plot has too move way too quickly, the final images are quite memorable. It’s amazing to think that the early episodes of the season seemed to be so divorced from Rambaldi and his schemes to ever turn back. Now, the season is delivering the Rambaldi picture more clearly than it’s ever been drawn. That shot of the Circumference suspended over the town was nothing short of thrilling.

It should also be noted that this episode has some of the sexist Sydney scenes in recent memory. Those remembering fondly the days of Sydney in a latex corset and goth PVC, or even the open sexuality of Julia Thorne, might have been missing that side of “Alias”. This season was a return to form (remember “APO”?), but Jen really amps up the heat in this episode. When she straddles Vaughn and then gives that come-hither-NOW stare, it’s enough to make half the audience drop to the floor. (And then there’s that little conversation about how Sydney and Vaughn like it rough…do they play in costume at home, too?)

Originally, the idea was to make the final episode 90 minutes long. With the extension of the “Lost” finale, the episode had to be recut to an hour. That a good 20 minutes or more of lost material from this episode. It’s going to be a challenge for the producers to make everything fit into that time, given how many plot threads are coming together in one episode. The action and consequences could spill over into the beginning of the fifth season, but since Lena Olin is unlikely to be around again, that could prove impossible. At this point, it may not matter; just the fact that the Rambaldi arc might actually be resolved before the series is over is a cause for celebration.


Final Analysis

Overall, though this episode was not as strong as the previous installment, it had definite strengths. Any episode with Irina front and center is likely to succeed, and the varied reactions to her presence are worth it. The Rambaldi endgame actually yielded something more than talk this time around, and it is requisitely chilling. Events are speeding towards a terrible battle to prevent the end of humanity, and in the process, the audience is finally treated to the story they have been waiting for since the first season.

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

Final Rating: 8/10

Season Average (as of 4.21): 7.7