Alias 5.7: "Fait Accompli"

Written by Andi Bushell
Directed by Unavailable

In which Sloane’s betrayal of Gordon Dean leads to a plan to capture the criminal, but when an apparent cure for Nadia surfaces, Sloane’s choices force a race against time…


Status Report

This episode highlights what could be the reason for such general dissatisfaction with the fifth season. It’s not simply that Garner’s pregnancy threw off the plot progression, or that the killing of Michael Vaughn disrupted the cast chemistry. It’s not just the introduction of so many new characters. It’s the enforced lack of continuity depth.

Several scenes in this episode were directly related to the past history of the series, and that gave the episode a bit more gravitas. The teaser was a nice blend of the “new order” and Sydney’s past life, reminding the audience of how much Sydney’s world has changed. It really is impossible for Sydney to look back at the past few years and consider the full breadth of changes to her life. Her pregnancy is just a small part of that.

This is the end of the introductory phase of the season, and so it makes sense that the writers would try to blend past history into the arc again. At this point, the network support is incredibly lacking, so why not try to give the fans more of what they need? Prophet Five needs to be connected to something more than this season’s premiere, and in a sense, this episode accomplishes that goal.

Connections to the past are most important in terms of Sloane and his shifting alliances. As usual, his plot thread is hampered by the inability to delve into his Rambaldi obsession and how that relates to Sydney and Jack. Sloane does think of them as family, and family is the one thing most important to him now. Hence his decisions: his choices are directly related to whether or not he believes that Nadia can be cured.

The fact that Prophet Five had a temporary cure for Nadia, and possibly something more, lends credence to the running theory that Prophet Five is an evolution of the previous Rambaldi mythology. The fact that connections to governments were uncovered supports this theory. Since the beginning, there was interest in government circles regarding the Rambaldi legacy, and it would make sense that those dedicated to combating Sloane’s endgame over the years would eventually, at least in part, become obsessed themselves.

Of course, there are drawbacks. Those who have considered “Alias” to be a knock-off of “X-Files” will certainly jump on this as another retread, especially with the implication that Sydney and her child are tied to the goals of Prophet Five. This probably ties back to the events of “Full Disclosure” in the third season and the whole Rambaldi “second coming” concept. Perhaps in the wake of the fourth season, those interested in controlling the Rambaldi endgame within government decided to step up their efforts.

But the question is: does the series really need a global intelligence conspiracy? Isn’t it enough to have endless iterations of Irina’s organization? The odd thing is, those former elements of Irina’s organization, then passed on to Yelena’s organization, now seem to be aligned with Prophet Five’s efforts. So is it that the foreign intelligence agencies are actually involved in this conspiracy, or is this more of the “coming full circle” concept? After all, the Alliance of 12 was largely comprised of organizations posing as black-ops divisions of actual intelligence agencies; this would simply be a logical extension of the same logic, with moles in the intelligence agencies themselves.

Another question would be: does Prophet Five have to be related to Rambaldi? No, it doesn’t, but would it make sense otherwise? Nadia was exposed to something Rambaldi created (perverted by Yelena into a weapon), and it was related to genetic alteration. Prophet Five is promoting the work of someone from Rambaldi’s time, who worked on genetic alteration. Who else but Rambaldi would have developed a cure for a condition that his own work could potentially cause?

While the nature and goals of Prophet Five are beginning to get interesting (finally!), it wouldn’t matter if the new characters weren’t coming together. Rachel continues to develop on a realistic learning curve, and this episode gives Rene and Tom more screen time. More importantly, this episode corrected one of the major issues with the season thus far: the horrible character of Gordon Dean. Replacing him with Amy Acker’s Peyton is a great idea. Acker knows how to toss off those menacing yet captivating glares, and she can communicate menace without much dialogue, which would certainly help to keep the cheesy language to a minimum.

Even if some elements are overly familiar at this point, this episode feels more like the better episodes of the fourth season than an attempt to keep the series alive at all costs. More connections to past history would be helpful, and there’s reason to believe that this will continue into the future as the series nears its extended winter hiatus.


Final Analysis

Overall, this episode is one of the better episodes of the season. Rather than relying entirely on retroactive continuity changes, this episode blends past history with the current changes to the status quo. Some events improve on areas that were lacking in previous episodes, and while Sloane’s history is still kept far too vague, his plot thread finally gains momentum. Hopefully this represents a turn for the better.

Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 1/4

Final Rating: 7/10

(Season 5 Average: 6.4)