Some thoughts on Alias Season III

(It took me while to finish this. Sorry, I’ve been kinda busy.)

Last month my wife and I finished Season III of Alias, otherwise known as the “Lauren Year”, or the “Covenant Year”. It’s quite unlike Seasons I and II, as well as the first 5 episodes of IV. The first half of the season is consumed with Syd’s trying to find out what happened during her two “lost years”, during which her boyfriend got married to the British daughter of a US Senator who happens to work at the CIA for another government agency, and her dad kept in touch with her mom through a secure chat room, and megalomaniac Sloane cut a deal with the government and became this huge humanitarian, and a shadowy organization called “The Covenant” became more powerful than all the members of the Axis of Evil combined. Then, midway through, Vaughn’s wife turns out to be evil and she and Sark like, take over the Covenant for unknown reasons. So the last half of the season is about everyone finding out that Lauren is a total skank double agent and dealing with it and some other Rambaldi crapola that predictably turns out to be nothing.

In some senses, it was very much the same as what had come before it. It still had the stylistic touches, and the Rambaldi madness, and the plots that seem life-or-death but are forgotten about 2 weeks later. But it was just different, with Dixon being the boss, and Will and Francie (even Evil Francie) gone from Syd’s life except for in the one loose end episode. It was Bizarro-Alias. It was like one of those old Marvel “What If…” comic books. “What if Sloane was good?” “What if Dixon were the boss?” “What if Marshall procreated?” “What if Irina Derevko had a sister played by Isabella Rossellini,” and so on.

Off the top of my head, the characters in Season Three who have past involvement in David Lynch movies: Katya Derevko (Blue Velvet), Lauren’s Mom (Twin Peaks), The first Covenant leader Sark and Lauren kill (Twin Peaks). That is all. I guess that’s not very many, but I fully expect to see Joan Chen and Chris Isaak make appearances this year. There were also 3 Kill Bill-ites involved: Q. Tarrantino himself (in a head-scratching appearance that looks like it should recur, but never does), Vivica A. Fox (in a role that doesn’t seem like a recurring one, but is), and of course David Carradine, who drops one of the big plot twists on Sydney as he dies.

At this point in my Alias watching I realize that half the time the show is throwing up classic red herrings in order to fool me into thinking something – that Jack is evil, that Sloane is evil, that that one Senator’s wife played by the (curiously young-looking) lady from Twin Peaks is not evil. That’s where the plot twists come in – each show has a few little ones built in, and then the big ones come out of the blue at the end of episodes. This is Alias’ way of operating. When you see 80 episodes in a month and a half’s time you come to understand this. You also understand that characters (like the Senator’s wife or Irina Derevko) come and go like the wind, appearing only if they serve to advance the plot. This gives the writers a lot of flexibility, but makes the viewer a bit cynical, like when Lazarey’s contact at the CIA just happened to be Will from Seasons I and II, which enabled massive loose end tie-ups to occur. They think we don’t notice that, but we do.

Very quickly, now, my favorite parts of Season 3, because as we all know I like to see the good in things…

1) The Sloane/Jack love/hate relationship. I especially liked when Sloane took the bullet for Jack, and when Jack helped Sloane fake his own death. These are two hard-butt cold characters, man. I like that the show makes Jack evil sometimes, and that Sloane got a little redemption. A lot of season 4 so far has been Sloane-hate from Syd and Dixon, which is understandable but sometimes it’s like season 3 never happened. Maybe the show is trying to distance from it. Anyway, I liked Jack and Sloane

2) Anything with Isabella Rosellini. She might be the ugliest woman on network TV, but she is sure mesmerizing. I especially liked when she mocked Syd for using a tranq gun and then shot her men with it. Hee hee.

3) That one episode where Kendall shows up and explains everything. Any show with Kendall is a good show. I guess I should also put Mr. Tarantino’s appearance in the same category, but I can’t since he sucks so bad as an actor.

4) Will “Loose End” Tippin killing Evil Francie. She is dead, isn’t she? Man, I hope so. Also good was Will’s reaction to seeing Sydney – he thought she was an evil doppelganger. Greatness.

5) Nadya pretending to be catatonic, then helping Sydney fight. No explanation necessary, it was just cool.

6) Sloane having that one big NSC guy killed, even though they telegraphed it more than Vinnie Testaverde does a pass.

I’m still not sure how I feel about the whole Lauren character. On the one hand, she was British, and way better than evil Francie. On the other hand, she turned evil overnight with very little explanation, and that whole Vaughn/Lauren drama just didn’t do it for me. I guess it was a wash. Sark, as always, was hard to figure out. Why was he working for the Covenant? The money. But then he becomes a big playa in the Covenant. Why does he do all this spy stuff anyway? Why is he ruthless one minute but sensitive the next? Nobody knows. Tune in next week to find out.