Alias (TV Series) The Abduction (2002) User Reviews

Marshall on the field

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 31 October 2009]

Sloane wants to access the files that can lead him into the Echelon Satellite System, a surveillance program that filters words from exchanged phone calls, e-mails, etc. But the only person who can hack into the system without an electronic device is Marshall, and since the London facility where the files are stored is secured against such devices, Marshall is ordered to go out on the field himself (along with Sydney, of course) to do the job. Meanwhile, Sloane brings in a female counter-intelligence expert (Faye Dunaway!) to try and find out who is behind his wife's kidnapping and his own blackmailing, and the first person she decides to question is Jack Bristow. Perhaps the most humorous episode of the series so far, thanks to Marshall's extended involvement, and yet it has a very dark - and very unexpected - ending. Faye Dunaway is awesome and certainly adds prestige to the show; her interactions with Jack are sharply written and acted. *** out of 4.

Marshall goes on a mission

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 26 March 2012]

After the failure in Kashmir Sloane suspects that Sark may not be keeping up his end of the bargain; in order to avoid torture Sark tells Sloane that Gerard Cuvee, the head of the Kashmir facility is in possession, has access to the ECHELON communications interception system. Obviously Sloane wants it for SD-6 so sends Sydney and Sark to Paris to retrieve his laptop. They are successful but when the machine is switched on protection software deletes all the data. As Cuvee has a back up server in London a second mission takes place to retrieve it; this presents two problems... firstly the only person with the skills to access it is Marshall and he will have to be on site to do it and secondly his photographic memory means if the CIA are to prevent SD-6 from getting the data they will have to extract Marshall. Back at SD-6 Sloane has called in a specialist to try to find out if anybody there could be involved in his wife's disappearance and she is convinced Jack is hiding something.

This was a fun episode; any time when Kevin Weisman's character Marshall appears is bound to be fun and here he had an extended role; Marshall's terrible attempt at an English accent was hilarious! While this wasn't as action packed as the previous episodes there were still some fairly dramatic scenes and the ending, which is hinted at in the episode's title, comes as quite a shock; nice to see Ric Young return as Dr. Zhang Lee, a delightfully nasty character! One of the most notable things about this episode was the appearance of Faye Dunaway as the Alliance's inquisitor; the scenes between her and Victor Garber were great. With its cliff hanger ending I'm looking forward to seeing how things are resolved.