Alias (TV Series) Almost Thirty Years (2002) User Reviews

Full circle

[gridoon2024 · 8/10 · 10 October 2009]

Sark kidnaps Will and takes him to Taipei, where Will has an unwilling appointment with that same sadistic creep who was torturing Sydney with dental instruments in the pilot episode of the show. Sark phones Sydney and proposes an exchange: the missing Rambaldi blank page & the liquid that can make it readable for Will. Having no choice, Syd turns to her dad and they decide to break into both SD-6 (herself, for the page) and CIA (her father, for the liquid), fly to Taipei, free Will and destroy Khasinau's lab. Vaughn understands what those two are planning, and he tags along. Meanwhile, Dixon follows Sydney around and has his suspicions confirmed, while Sloane must decide if he values his wife's life more or less than his loyalty to the Alliance. A notch below the previous episode, "Rendezvous", in my opinion, but still a fine season finale that ends with multiple cliffhangers. It's probably the darkest and most violent episode so far, with some scenes that are designed to make the viewer feel uncomfortable. My favorite bit is actually the clever sequence where Sydney and Jack try to "steal" Sloane's voice and fingerprints so that Syd can later enter SD-6's lab where the Rambaldi page is kept. *** out of 4.

A gripping season finale

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 15 March 2012]

At the end of the previous episode it looked as if Sark has shot and killed Sydney's friend Will Tippin; as it turned out it was just a tranquiliser. That doesn't mean things are going to be good for him though as he is flown to Taipei and tortured in an attempt to get him to reveal what he knows about The Circumference. Khasinau still wants the Rambaldi document stolen from him in Paris and the Rambaldi vial so contacts Sydney offering to sway Will for them; to do that she and her father will have to steal the items from SD-6 and the CIA respectively! One would think that would be enough excitement for one episode but we also have Dixon confronting Sydney about why she used a different codeword when she called for a rescue chopper in episode nine and Jack has 'a word' with Haladki when he realises he knows things he isn't cleared to know. The end provided a double cliff hanger as one character appeared to be dead and Sydney was captured by 'The Man'... who is not Khasinau but somebody close to Sydney!

This was a great end to the first season; it was a nice surprise to learn that Will was alive but pretty gruelling watching him being tortured; Bradley Cooper once again did a fine job in the role. As always the action scenes were pretty exciting; Jennifer Garner looked great in a blue wig as she beat up numerous guards and Victor Garber was at his menacing best when talking to Haladki... definitely not an episode for the faint of heart as there are some genuinely gruelling scenes. The ending was pretty good and I'm glad I can start watching the next season straight away on DVD rather than having to endure a long gap on TV!

Not so well closure

[CursedChico · 7/10 · 13 February 2021]

Not so well closure

Sloane threatened the alliance lots of times to resign, etc. How could he accept their condition - to kill his wife? He is a disgusting person.

In the end while sydney was running, why did not vaughn stop? It was really nonsense. If he started running earliler, he could survive and i think probably survived. Those soldiers probably rescued him or he survived himself.

It was obvious, her mother was saying tips about jack to will. At last, we saw her. Not see but heard :)

She said she had waited for 30 years. To hug, to speak, to kill. we will see :)

Episode rating 7 / 10

SEASON REVIEW I enjoyed most of the episodes. She visited different countries, inside most of the times with different clothes, hair.

With great actings of actors such as sloane, jack, will; it was really enjoyable.

Now i have to go to another series because i watch series season by season. So, i will come for season 2 in future i hope. I wonder about her mother and vaughn.

Season rating : 8 / 10

"It's bigger than I thought" (dialog, Sydney)

[A_Different_Drummer · 10/10 · 4 March 2015]

You need to understand that the goal of every great series is to end each season on a high note.

Some succeed. Some don't. But this conclusion to the first season of Alias tries harder than any other finale in recent (or even long term) memory.

And nails it.

The story opens with the ongoing tale of the husband and wife, Rifkin and Irving. Now, here is the point, many shows would be content to simply offer this multi-layered treat to the viewer and consider THAT to be enough for the finale. Here is Rifkin, who was very restrained in the series so far, acting his heart out, literally, at the choices he must make, and Amy Irving, one of the great "faces" in film for over 50 years, matching him emotion for emotion. The scene where he reveals that he does not work for the CIA is itself forgettable.

Turns out that was just the warmup. For the rest of the show we have new insights into the relationships of the characters, a traitor is discovered, a partnership becomes shaky, a tortured man turns on his torturer, feelings are revealed -- I mean, the hits just keep on coming.

Spectacular.

very interesting but

[mkent-717-833598 · 9/10 · 19 February 2013]

This was a very interesting and exciting episode to watch, but like many aspects of the show has some problems with credulity. Syndey runs into this huge room and stops with a look of astonishment and fear. The camera show a huge red ball which we know from the flashbacks to the earlier episode when she destroyed the Mueller Device (prototype?) is filled with water. Now from the camera angle it appears huge, but from the panning around the room as Sydney escapes the bad guys, we come to see doesn't fill a tenth of the room. Yet Sydney (idiotically!!) says, I'm going to have to swim out of here. Within that room the water might come to her knees (certainly no more than the waist). Yet miraculously the water is sufficient to not only flood that whole room but all the hallways she runs down and submerge Vaughn so that we are led to wonder whether he survives or drowns. Sorry, but that is ridiculous. There might be an inch or two reach that door, but it is physically impossible for it to drown him.