This is the best "Alias" episode since "Conscious", mostly thanks to an outstanding script full of twists, shocks, surprising connections to the past, and punchy lines ("A bomb maker sets up a meeting on a plane and then doesn't show up. I don't know about you, but that worries me"). The title is perfectly chosen, as nearly all the parties involved have to maintain a facade at one point or another: the CIA (posing as the Covenant), the bomb maker (hiding his true intent), Vaughn & Sark (they must work as a team or their plane will be blown up), the Covenant defector (pretending that he never left), etc. The comedian Ricky Gervais is surprisingly good in a straight role, taking his place among the best guest stars that have ever appeared on the show, and Griffin Dunne, who was kind of wasted in "Crossings", gets to play a much more significant part here. Watch for the then-unknown Stana Katic as a stewardess and Patricia Wettig's uncredited appearance - you can't miss either of them. ***1/2 out of 4.
3 Reviews
Ricky Gervais plays a bomb maker!
Tweekums10 July 2010
Warning: Spoilers
This episode which guest stars comedian Ricky Gervais as Daniel Ryan, an ex Royal Navy bomb disposal expert who has turned his skills round to make bombs, was gripping from start to finish. After blowing up a building in Belfast to prove his bombs can't be defused he offers his services to the Covenant. Sydney and a team from the CIA extract him from Belfast in a way that makes him think they are really Covenant, they even go so far as to create a mock up of a Moscow hotel room to convince him. It doesn't look as though he is going to go through with the deal till Leonid Lisenker, who has only recently defected from the Covenent shows up. He arranges for Ryan to meet up with Sark; hoping that the two have never met, luckily they haven't and Vaughn successfully passes himself off as Sark. He arranges to meet one of Ryan's contacts aboard an aircraft to make the deal; there are two problems with this, the contact mentioned has met Sark and Ryan has an ulterior motive for wanting Sark on the plane. It turns out Ryan's brother was killed by the Covenant and he wants revenge. Will Vaughn be able to defuse the bomb before it detonates killing everybody on board including himself and Sark.
This was a superior episode in which Ricky Gervais put in a fine performance in a straight role. The plot had many nice twists some of which I spotted but others which took me by surprise. Once again Jack Bristow got to show how he will break the rules to get the job done, something that makes him a fun character; Victor Garber is great in the role.
This was a superior episode in which Ricky Gervais put in a fine performance in a straight role. The plot had many nice twists some of which I spotted but others which took me by surprise. Once again Jack Bristow got to show how he will break the rules to get the job done, something that makes him a fun character; Victor Garber is great in the role.
One Unforgettable Episode in One Forgettable Season !
elshikh427 October 2007
Warning: Spoilers
This is a great episode for sure, which proves that (Alias) was one of the best. But the main problem is that this episode was in the wrong place!
Well, everybody knows that the first 2 seasons were top-notch not as action, but as a TV show altogether. However, after that, almost everything went down. Mainly because the withdrawal of the power to convince, by any dramatic logic, even in a fictional work like this. So you'll see things about (Sydney) and her amnesia for 2 years, and then her coming back to the intelligence so fast with that condition!, (Sloane) and his story as someone who works FOR the American government, being that international humanitarian world peace kind of guy!!, and further than that; the too long, too far, too silly enigma of (Rambaldi). So any solid ground that you would ever build your relationship with that show on was blown away and gone with the wind of depreciation, maybe by that awful desire to put the show on air by any possible or impossible way, and whatever the costs were.
But here, it was a good surprise to watch that exceptional work, thanks to the script of (R.P. Gaborno) and (Christopher Hollier) as a nice thriller movie in 45 minutes episode. You'll find every thing that can glue you on your chair, not even having the ability to blink; just like the old times in the first (Alias). There are that compact deception to make the terrorist talk about the bomb which he invented, then the plane situation which had (Vaughn) and (Sark) on a flight with a ticker bomb, and for the very first time ever they work together to breakdown the explosion, then the fest of twists at the end: the terrorist's lie about the bomb, his must fulfill revenge for the murder of his own brother who was killed by (Sydney), the big finish with the surprise of another bomb in the intelligence's building itself, and the code to break the two bombs now is in the head of that angry suicidal terrorist!
Yes, everything ended happily, and the bombs stopped before one second like all the James Bond's holly constitution, and you'll find yourself yelling: "Hey, it's the golden age of Alias again"!.. But sorry, till the end of that season, maybe there is just the next episode (Taken) as another yet last exceptional one. Because after that, the anarchy is in business again, as the ultimate ruler of those bad days of such a show.
Well, everybody knows that the first 2 seasons were top-notch not as action, but as a TV show altogether. However, after that, almost everything went down. Mainly because the withdrawal of the power to convince, by any dramatic logic, even in a fictional work like this. So you'll see things about (Sydney) and her amnesia for 2 years, and then her coming back to the intelligence so fast with that condition!, (Sloane) and his story as someone who works FOR the American government, being that international humanitarian world peace kind of guy!!, and further than that; the too long, too far, too silly enigma of (Rambaldi). So any solid ground that you would ever build your relationship with that show on was blown away and gone with the wind of depreciation, maybe by that awful desire to put the show on air by any possible or impossible way, and whatever the costs were.
But here, it was a good surprise to watch that exceptional work, thanks to the script of (R.P. Gaborno) and (Christopher Hollier) as a nice thriller movie in 45 minutes episode. You'll find every thing that can glue you on your chair, not even having the ability to blink; just like the old times in the first (Alias). There are that compact deception to make the terrorist talk about the bomb which he invented, then the plane situation which had (Vaughn) and (Sark) on a flight with a ticker bomb, and for the very first time ever they work together to breakdown the explosion, then the fest of twists at the end: the terrorist's lie about the bomb, his must fulfill revenge for the murder of his own brother who was killed by (Sydney), the big finish with the surprise of another bomb in the intelligence's building itself, and the code to break the two bombs now is in the head of that angry suicidal terrorist!
Yes, everything ended happily, and the bombs stopped before one second like all the James Bond's holly constitution, and you'll find yourself yelling: "Hey, it's the golden age of Alias again"!.. But sorry, till the end of that season, maybe there is just the next episode (Taken) as another yet last exceptional one. Because after that, the anarchy is in business again, as the ultimate ruler of those bad days of such a show.
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