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monanotlisa.
Oh, and in other news, dear. Having now watched the second half of Alias’ season 3, I think I get the problem, or at least some of them, though there was still a lot I enjoyed and thought well-done.
Let's start with the bad things.
Firstly: Lauren. As I mentioned before, the one thing I got spoiled for in season 3 was that she was a double agent. Which per se wouldn’t have been a problem – this show has plenty of morally ambiguous folk being double agents around. The problem is that from the last scene of Disclosure onwards, there was barely an attempt to characterise Lauren as anything but evil. (Her hesitation over killing her father, and her sympathy for Dixon as expressed to Sark on the phone, but that’s it.) Compare that to the skillful way Irina, who had much less screentime, was portrayed last season, and you weep for lost opportunity. Moreover, it made it painfully obvious that Lauren’s function on the show was mainly to reinsert angst into the Syd/Vaughn relationship (as I said when talking about season 2’s A Darker Turn, the writers must have been bored with S/V as a happy couple pretty quickly), to be conveniently removed by end of season, which wouldn’t have been possible if she had remained a “good” or morally ambiguous character.
Now I’ve been left completley cold by the S/V as early as season 1 when romance was fresh, finding every other relationship Sydney has more interesting. (Among other things, this meant that since the second half of the third season, having wrapped up the Julia Thorne storyline, gave Sydney little else to do than to angst about Vaughn, I could only feel for her in her scenes with Jack, Sloane and Dixon, but more about that later.) However, I’ll concede that from a storytelling pov, it fulfilled its purposes in those early days. By the time season 3 wraps up, I think it’s really overdue for retirement. The dreaded words “soulemate” have been spoken. This term should be kept for fanfic. You know, despite all the ‘shipper wars in the Jossverse, it has never, ever, been used there. Not for Buffy/Angel, not for Buffy/Anyone else, or Anyone else/Anyone else. The closest we got to the dreaded term was kye-rumption in AtS season 3, and that was about Angel/Cordelia (another ‘ship I strongly dislike – as romance, I loved them as friends on season 1 and 2). Plus the Jossverse scribes always had a healthy sense of irony to go along with the melodrama – witness them parodying all elements of the show, including the B/A romance, in season 2’s “The Zeppo” (Xander walks in on dramatic overwrought B/A declarations, romantic music stops, they talk with him normally, he walks away and the romantic music swells again) or in AtS “Fredless”. This is totally lacking in the way the Alias writers handle Syd/Vaughn. We’re supposed to be touched by Vaughn declaring his undying love when faced with execution in North Korea, but I was left thinking he’s a spineless relationship coward who used Alice in season 2 and Lauren in season 3; and no, that she’s EVIL ™ doesn’t excuse it.
There were elements that could have made Lauren a fascinating character; it was pretty obvious the writers went for a shadow double of the heroine thing, with Lauren being in Sydney’s dream, turning into her there, then donning Sydney’s patented red hair spy guise for her solo mission with Sark, having somewhat similar dialogue that Sydney had with Sark and Vaughn in season 2 (for example the “let’s get away” line), to them finally litarary wearing each other’s faces, and it being revealed that they were both children of Project Christmas (and each had a parent presumably responsible for this and not above setting the other parent up to die to protect them). In short, she could have been Alias’ Faith. However, that would have required to allow her some ambiguity, including and especially in her relationship with Sydney, and to allow Sydney to feel some ambiguity about her. And it’s not that the writers are incapable of writing Syd being confused by ambiguous feelings about people – witness Jack in season 1, Irina in season 2, and hey, Sloane throughout (not that she doesn’t really truly hate him, but there is something else there as well, see my elaborate father figures thesis). Instead, the writers hardly gave them any scenes together. Buffy finally being pushed enough to go after Faith to kill her is is a huge emotional point in Graduation Day, and triggers a near-death/rebirth scenario, among other things; Sydney deciding that Lauren Must Die is emotionally empty.
Speaking of Lauren’s death: a brief browsing through old reviews tells me there was much indignation about Vaughn and Sydney because of this. Curiously enough, and speaking as someone who wishes devoutly that Vaughn gets written out of Alias as quickly as possible, I thought Vaughn’s “get Lauren” behaviour was actually understandable – getting brutally tortured by Sark and her will do that to you. Actually, Obsessed!Vaughn in the last three episodes was arguably the best acting Michael Vartan did during the show. However, the show tried to construct a parallel to Irina and Jack as well (instead of just letting Vaughn act out of vengefulness for getting brutalized and almost killed), and that’s unfortunate because it doesn’t work. Precisely because the show made it more than clear Vaughn didn’t really love Lauren and emotionally betrayed her and rejected her long before he had any reason to assume she was anything but a loving wife. Which pretty much annuls his right to feel betrayed.
Onwards to more enjoyable stuff. In a somewhat masochistic way, because I truly suffered (but not through boredom and irritation) with the characters in question. In my season 2 review, I mentioned that Jack/Irina and Sloane/Emily completely outshone Sydney/Vaughn in terms of complexity and my emotional investment in them. The relationship of season 3 which I was invested in most and which consequently caused much heartache due to the (well written) twists and turns was the one between Sloane and Jack.
So you can imagine how I went from basking in the afterglow of Old Spies Togetherness from Breaking Point to making distressed noises when Katya told Jack that she’d only save Sydney if he killed Sloane.
I dimly recall some annoying stuff in North Korea with Vaughn confessing his True Love to Sydney from that episode, but the Jack, Katya and Sloane scenes were masterful in their emotional clarity and cruelty. That scene where Katya called Sloane to tell him as a power demonstration, then called Jack to call it off, and then the ensuing Et tu, Jack? scene between Jack and Sloane with Sloane just looking at him while making it clear that he knew what Jack had been about to do…. Ron Rifkin is a genius. And there is fallout for the rest of the season, which is one of the better constructed season 3 things.
For starters, as a bitter Jack points out to Katya afterwards, this pretty much destroys the trust that had been (re)building between him and Sloane in recent months. True, in the next episode we get the only example of Jack (almost) apologizing to someone other than Sydney, and the fact he feels guilty at all for having been ready to kill Sloane and wants to make it up to him in his repressed Jackian fashion underlines that for all the opening of season “I’ll bury you” protestations, he never managed to completely emotionally disconnect from his old friend Arvin. Sloane says he understands – “what wouldn’t a father do to save his daughter?” – a line that of course gets more deeply ironic as the series progresses – and then (imo) puts on the emotional thumbscrews, which leads to Jack recommending Dr. Barnett, which leads to the big Adultery Revelation. Now I’m into speculative territory, as this isn’t something the show states directly, but I think the reason why Sloane told Dr. Barnett about having had an affair with Irina 25 years ago, and about it being possible that he’s Sydney’s biological father, is that he wanted her to tell Jack. Because whether or not Katya acted on Irina’s instructions, Sloane has to assume she did. Meaning that Irina demonstrated to him she can make Jack, arguably one of the few people left he has genuine feelings for, kill him, and that hurt as it was supposed to. So he makes one of his few mistakes and arranges for an emotional bitchslap back – for both Irina and Jack - by telling Judy Barnett, who is supposed to tell Jack. (Hence all the “don’t tell him” insistations.) You hurt me, I hurt you.
However, it’s just Sloane’s bad luck that he has a rare case of bad timing. Because simultanously, Lauren and Sark frame him, and Barnett keeps the secret just a little bit longer than he expected her to, resulting in the definitely not planned situation that by the time Jack does hear it, he has the power to let Sloane die. And here I was whimpering again. Mind you, it’s all great character continuity. I did notice, after all, that when near the end of season 2 Sloane asks Jack when their friendship ended, Jack said “when you recruited Sydney into SD-6”. Meaning that what he found unforgivable wasn’t Arvin Sloane becoming an international crime lord/terrorist/whatever you want to call being boss of SD-6, it wasn’t arranging murders, or betraying one’s country, or dealing with weapons, drugs etc – it was what Jack saw as a personal betrayal, the recruitment of his daughter. So who is surprised when Jack is totally willing to save Sloane and works to prove his (for that particular charge) innocence, finds that proof, and is about to deliver it right until the moment he hears Sloane and Irina had sex more than two decades ago. Resulting in Jack deciding to let him die for that. No wonder Sydney’s just plain horrified. The last time Jack was ready to let the US government execute someone as an act of personal vendetta, it was Irina (after he had framed her in season 2). In both cases, we don’t know whether he would have gone through with it had Sydney not point-blank blackmailed, but it sure looks that way.
Some observations here:
1) When setting up Irina to die, Jack could use his grand “all morally questionable stuff I’m doing, I’m doing for my daughter” excuse to himself. He definitely can’t in the case of Arvin Sloane. If he had actually let Sloane die, it wouldn’t have been because of the (many, many) crimes Sloane had committed – as evidenced by his efforts to save Sloane before the bombshell dropped – but because of vengeance for another personal betrayal. Which brings me to:
2) Somehow I don’t think that if, say, the CIA had had one of Irina’s former KGB collegues in custody, and Jack had heard that Irina had slept with said collegue during their marriage, Jack would have pushed for said guy’s execution. He’s still in burning hate/love with Irina, sure, but his reaction isn’t just about her, it’s about Sloane and the feeling of friendship betrayed. Which, considering that Jack was betraying Sloane years before he felt himself betrayed via Sydney’s recruitment, is somewhat rich. And underlines the layers of these relationships.
Naturally, I was very, very relieved when Jack showed up to the almost post-mortem rescue, as I had an inkling he might, and not just because the end of the season was still several episodes away. Because of the thing with the wine. Never mind Saigon, this was how we saw Sloane and Emily in the season 2 finale when we assumed he killed her but when it actually turned out he faked her death. (On the other hand, I do mind Saigon. I.e. I want the fanfic about Jack and Arvin getting drunk there together on the occasion of Sydney’s birth – and btw, was Irina angry or relieved that Jack wasn’t there?) Though Jack’s “what you did to my daughter is nothing compared to what I’m going to do to yours” threw me a bit. Aside from Jack wanting to torment Sloane for having betrayed him with Irina, I wonder whether he actually does have plans in this regard. Stay tuned.
About Irina: during my quick browsing of old reviews and some fanfic, I noticed a tendency to try and explain her having an affair with Arvin Sloane by wondering whether Sloane blackmailed her/lied to her/raped her/otherwise coerced her. Whereas my own moment of “But…” wasn’t on her account, it was that I found it surprising Sloane cheated on Emily. (Whom I assume he meant with “the one person who didn’t deserve to be betrayed” when talking to Dr. Barnett.) My take on Irina is that if Sloane had in any way coerced her into sex, she would have killed him a long time ago. No, whatever her reasons for the affair, they were her own. It’s interesting that in season 2 when we do see the two of them together, she both delivers a verbal smackdown on Sloane for his I-love-Sydney-like-a-daughter spiel, telling him that he might kid himself about what he is but she knows exactly and that was why they were allies to begin with, and later allows for the possibility that “I might have underestimated your love for your wife”. And she saves him by dragging him to the helicopter when he’s frozen by Emily’s death, when it would be more convenient for her to just let him be caught by the Feds (which would have left her in sole possession of the Rambaldi devices).
Back to Sloane: after a season where he almost always was painted in a sympathetic light, it was time we got a reminder of his ruthless and dastardly side as well. (No, killing Lindsey doesn’t count. Especially since he saved Sydney’s life (again) by doing so.) Which was done very efficiently by the Nadia storyline. (Again, this made the difference to the way Lauren was handled far more glaring. Her evil actions were comic book unreal and unmotivated in comparison.) Sloane being willing to use Nadia as his conduit to Rambaldi, even though this caused her pain and was dangerous to her, was made all the more horrible because we knew that he also wasn’t lying when claiming to love her. And it was completely consistent and in character. Yes, he would have never done something like this to Emily, but Freudian undertones or not, he does love Sydney and yet never was above causing her pain for the higher cause, so to do this to his “real” daughter? Is in character. It’s also in character that Nadia’s attempt to break free and kill him should earn his admiration (just as he admires Sydney), and that he’s positively beaming with paternal pride when in their final scene together she admits to having double-crossed him in the transcriptions. (Aside from the “that’s my girl!” effect, I have this theory that Sloane subconsciously needs the people he cares about to punish him by hating him as well as loving him.)
Sark, though, really isn’t the best of observers when it comes to Sloane, and neither is Lauren. Otherwise they’d have known that the one thing they shouldn’t have done was to actually press him to kill Nadia for the sake of Rambaldi. He’s apallingly ruthless, is Sloane, but he does have some lines still he hasn’t crossed, and one those buttons one shouldn’t press is telling him he should kill someone he cares about. That didn’t go too well for the Alliance when they did it with Emily, and it didn’t go too well for Lindsey, either, when he tried it with Sydney. So, again – perfectly in character when Sloane picks Nadia over more Rambaldi revelations at the cost of her life at the very last minute.
Mind you, it probably still wasn’t a good idea of Nadia’s to go with him in the end… but I don’t blame her for not wanting to stick around with the CIA, plus you can’t say she’s viewing her newly discovered father through rosy glasses. She got a shock but thorough intro into the twisted conundrum that is Arvin Sloane and just what he’s capable of, after all. I look forward to seeing the two of them again next season.
Meanwhile, about that other father and daughter: as mentioned before Sydney is horrified when realizing her father is about to let Sloane executed for adultery. Also, imo, because her ability to compartmentalize and see Jack only in a good light post season 1, never mind shocks like the Project Christmas discovery that only last for an episode, to love him unconditionally, is dependent on having Sloane around as her Bad Father whom she can hate and blame for all the darkness, morally questionable stuff and perhaps even surpressed Freudian feelings (see: dream). If the Good Father kills the Bad while clearly not being on the moral high ground, not in a duel but in a murderous way, this gets stopped, and she has to face just what Jack is capable of and has already done. (Which I don’t think she truly has so far.) Her face when seeing Sloane alive is a rare wonderful acting moment from Jennifer Garner who otherwise spends much of the later season one-note. (Not that I blame her – the sad fact is that the writing doesn’t give Syd much do. You could almost remove her from the show and still have the same storylines going on after Full Disclosure, which is Not Good.) She has wished Sloane dead so many times; when he actually appears to be, it’s horrible for her, and when she sees he’s still alive, there is clearly relief, and methinks not just because of the chance to find her sister, protestations to the contrary. (Sloane doesn’t miss that expression in the face, either.) The season cliffhanger confronts Sydney with that being programmed as a child by her father thing she has pushed aside earlier, and apparently it went far deeper than the season 2 revelation. Can we focus on this and not on the dreary romance with Vaughn next season, please? Pretty please?
A few more tidbits:
- the character of Katya was clearly invented because J.J. Abrams couldn’t get Lena Olin back as Irina, but I like her anyway; Isabella Rosellini has enough presence to make her few scenes very memorable. If Olin continues to be elusive, let’s keep her.
- Otoh, Vaughn’s father being revealed as a Rambaldi follower? Sigh. Doesn’t work for me. And how on earth does him getting killed by Irina square with him spiriting little Nadia away, date-wise, since Nadia has been born after Irina faked “Laura”’s death and returned to Mother Russia?
- Sark’s existence in the show finally got justified beyond “the fans like him” by making him co-chief of the North American Covenant branch; he also got his very first shades of unselfish emotions in the form of actually caring somewhat for Lauren, which makes me wonder whether he’s moving away from one note sociopath, but he still doesn’t interest me very much
- The Sydney/Dixon team-up to rescue his children made me nostalgic once more about them in the first two seasons; they had an equality and great co-workers relationship which she doesn’t have with anyone else, which is utterly unromantic and hence refreshing, and when he’s her boss, it’s not the same, damm it! (Also, Syd helping Dixon was a chance to highlight how good she can be when she’s not obliged to angst about Vaughn.)
- Did I mention I want the “Jack and Arvin get drunk together at Saigon” fanfic?
In conclusion, wishes for the next season, with an eye to Mr. Goddard and Mr. Bell:
- a storyarc for Sydney that does not, in any way, involve Vaughn
- more on her Julia Thorne days, please
- a flashback episode centring on Jack and Sloane and ye olde days on the one hand, and on their present day existence on the other; come on, Drew, think Destiny, think Selfless, you can do it!
- no more love triangles; go for father(s) & daughter(s) instead
- SpyMommy! And if we really can't get her back, more SpyAunt
- as little Vaughn as possible
- some logical justification why Sark never gets as much as threatened with the death sentence when he's in custody, whereas both Irina and Sloane would have gotten the Patriot Act justified speedy execution if not for Spoilery Spoiler.
monanotlisa.Oh, and in other news, dear. Having now watched the second half of Alias’ season 3, I think I get the problem, or at least some of them, though there was still a lot I enjoyed and thought well-done.
Let's start with the bad things.
Firstly: Lauren. As I mentioned before, the one thing I got spoiled for in season 3 was that she was a double agent. Which per se wouldn’t have been a problem – this show has plenty of morally ambiguous folk being double agents around. The problem is that from the last scene of Disclosure onwards, there was barely an attempt to characterise Lauren as anything but evil. (Her hesitation over killing her father, and her sympathy for Dixon as expressed to Sark on the phone, but that’s it.) Compare that to the skillful way Irina, who had much less screentime, was portrayed last season, and you weep for lost opportunity. Moreover, it made it painfully obvious that Lauren’s function on the show was mainly to reinsert angst into the Syd/Vaughn relationship (as I said when talking about season 2’s A Darker Turn, the writers must have been bored with S/V as a happy couple pretty quickly), to be conveniently removed by end of season, which wouldn’t have been possible if she had remained a “good” or morally ambiguous character.
Now I’ve been left completley cold by the S/V as early as season 1 when romance was fresh, finding every other relationship Sydney has more interesting. (Among other things, this meant that since the second half of the third season, having wrapped up the Julia Thorne storyline, gave Sydney little else to do than to angst about Vaughn, I could only feel for her in her scenes with Jack, Sloane and Dixon, but more about that later.) However, I’ll concede that from a storytelling pov, it fulfilled its purposes in those early days. By the time season 3 wraps up, I think it’s really overdue for retirement. The dreaded words “soulemate” have been spoken. This term should be kept for fanfic. You know, despite all the ‘shipper wars in the Jossverse, it has never, ever, been used there. Not for Buffy/Angel, not for Buffy/Anyone else, or Anyone else/Anyone else. The closest we got to the dreaded term was kye-rumption in AtS season 3, and that was about Angel/Cordelia (another ‘ship I strongly dislike – as romance, I loved them as friends on season 1 and 2). Plus the Jossverse scribes always had a healthy sense of irony to go along with the melodrama – witness them parodying all elements of the show, including the B/A romance, in season 2’s “The Zeppo” (Xander walks in on dramatic overwrought B/A declarations, romantic music stops, they talk with him normally, he walks away and the romantic music swells again) or in AtS “Fredless”. This is totally lacking in the way the Alias writers handle Syd/Vaughn. We’re supposed to be touched by Vaughn declaring his undying love when faced with execution in North Korea, but I was left thinking he’s a spineless relationship coward who used Alice in season 2 and Lauren in season 3; and no, that she’s EVIL ™ doesn’t excuse it.
There were elements that could have made Lauren a fascinating character; it was pretty obvious the writers went for a shadow double of the heroine thing, with Lauren being in Sydney’s dream, turning into her there, then donning Sydney’s patented red hair spy guise for her solo mission with Sark, having somewhat similar dialogue that Sydney had with Sark and Vaughn in season 2 (for example the “let’s get away” line), to them finally litarary wearing each other’s faces, and it being revealed that they were both children of Project Christmas (and each had a parent presumably responsible for this and not above setting the other parent up to die to protect them). In short, she could have been Alias’ Faith. However, that would have required to allow her some ambiguity, including and especially in her relationship with Sydney, and to allow Sydney to feel some ambiguity about her. And it’s not that the writers are incapable of writing Syd being confused by ambiguous feelings about people – witness Jack in season 1, Irina in season 2, and hey, Sloane throughout (not that she doesn’t really truly hate him, but there is something else there as well, see my elaborate father figures thesis). Instead, the writers hardly gave them any scenes together. Buffy finally being pushed enough to go after Faith to kill her is is a huge emotional point in Graduation Day, and triggers a near-death/rebirth scenario, among other things; Sydney deciding that Lauren Must Die is emotionally empty.
Speaking of Lauren’s death: a brief browsing through old reviews tells me there was much indignation about Vaughn and Sydney because of this. Curiously enough, and speaking as someone who wishes devoutly that Vaughn gets written out of Alias as quickly as possible, I thought Vaughn’s “get Lauren” behaviour was actually understandable – getting brutally tortured by Sark and her will do that to you. Actually, Obsessed!Vaughn in the last three episodes was arguably the best acting Michael Vartan did during the show. However, the show tried to construct a parallel to Irina and Jack as well (instead of just letting Vaughn act out of vengefulness for getting brutalized and almost killed), and that’s unfortunate because it doesn’t work. Precisely because the show made it more than clear Vaughn didn’t really love Lauren and emotionally betrayed her and rejected her long before he had any reason to assume she was anything but a loving wife. Which pretty much annuls his right to feel betrayed.
Onwards to more enjoyable stuff. In a somewhat masochistic way, because I truly suffered (but not through boredom and irritation) with the characters in question. In my season 2 review, I mentioned that Jack/Irina and Sloane/Emily completely outshone Sydney/Vaughn in terms of complexity and my emotional investment in them. The relationship of season 3 which I was invested in most and which consequently caused much heartache due to the (well written) twists and turns was the one between Sloane and Jack.
So you can imagine how I went from basking in the afterglow of Old Spies Togetherness from Breaking Point to making distressed noises when Katya told Jack that she’d only save Sydney if he killed Sloane.
I dimly recall some annoying stuff in North Korea with Vaughn confessing his True Love to Sydney from that episode, but the Jack, Katya and Sloane scenes were masterful in their emotional clarity and cruelty. That scene where Katya called Sloane to tell him as a power demonstration, then called Jack to call it off, and then the ensuing Et tu, Jack? scene between Jack and Sloane with Sloane just looking at him while making it clear that he knew what Jack had been about to do…. Ron Rifkin is a genius. And there is fallout for the rest of the season, which is one of the better constructed season 3 things.
For starters, as a bitter Jack points out to Katya afterwards, this pretty much destroys the trust that had been (re)building between him and Sloane in recent months. True, in the next episode we get the only example of Jack (almost) apologizing to someone other than Sydney, and the fact he feels guilty at all for having been ready to kill Sloane and wants to make it up to him in his repressed Jackian fashion underlines that for all the opening of season “I’ll bury you” protestations, he never managed to completely emotionally disconnect from his old friend Arvin. Sloane says he understands – “what wouldn’t a father do to save his daughter?” – a line that of course gets more deeply ironic as the series progresses – and then (imo) puts on the emotional thumbscrews, which leads to Jack recommending Dr. Barnett, which leads to the big Adultery Revelation. Now I’m into speculative territory, as this isn’t something the show states directly, but I think the reason why Sloane told Dr. Barnett about having had an affair with Irina 25 years ago, and about it being possible that he’s Sydney’s biological father, is that he wanted her to tell Jack. Because whether or not Katya acted on Irina’s instructions, Sloane has to assume she did. Meaning that Irina demonstrated to him she can make Jack, arguably one of the few people left he has genuine feelings for, kill him, and that hurt as it was supposed to. So he makes one of his few mistakes and arranges for an emotional bitchslap back – for both Irina and Jack - by telling Judy Barnett, who is supposed to tell Jack. (Hence all the “don’t tell him” insistations.) You hurt me, I hurt you.
However, it’s just Sloane’s bad luck that he has a rare case of bad timing. Because simultanously, Lauren and Sark frame him, and Barnett keeps the secret just a little bit longer than he expected her to, resulting in the definitely not planned situation that by the time Jack does hear it, he has the power to let Sloane die. And here I was whimpering again. Mind you, it’s all great character continuity. I did notice, after all, that when near the end of season 2 Sloane asks Jack when their friendship ended, Jack said “when you recruited Sydney into SD-6”. Meaning that what he found unforgivable wasn’t Arvin Sloane becoming an international crime lord/terrorist/whatever you want to call being boss of SD-6, it wasn’t arranging murders, or betraying one’s country, or dealing with weapons, drugs etc – it was what Jack saw as a personal betrayal, the recruitment of his daughter. So who is surprised when Jack is totally willing to save Sloane and works to prove his (for that particular charge) innocence, finds that proof, and is about to deliver it right until the moment he hears Sloane and Irina had sex more than two decades ago. Resulting in Jack deciding to let him die for that. No wonder Sydney’s just plain horrified. The last time Jack was ready to let the US government execute someone as an act of personal vendetta, it was Irina (after he had framed her in season 2). In both cases, we don’t know whether he would have gone through with it had Sydney not point-blank blackmailed, but it sure looks that way.
Some observations here:
1) When setting up Irina to die, Jack could use his grand “all morally questionable stuff I’m doing, I’m doing for my daughter” excuse to himself. He definitely can’t in the case of Arvin Sloane. If he had actually let Sloane die, it wouldn’t have been because of the (many, many) crimes Sloane had committed – as evidenced by his efforts to save Sloane before the bombshell dropped – but because of vengeance for another personal betrayal. Which brings me to:
2) Somehow I don’t think that if, say, the CIA had had one of Irina’s former KGB collegues in custody, and Jack had heard that Irina had slept with said collegue during their marriage, Jack would have pushed for said guy’s execution. He’s still in burning hate/love with Irina, sure, but his reaction isn’t just about her, it’s about Sloane and the feeling of friendship betrayed. Which, considering that Jack was betraying Sloane years before he felt himself betrayed via Sydney’s recruitment, is somewhat rich. And underlines the layers of these relationships.
Naturally, I was very, very relieved when Jack showed up to the almost post-mortem rescue, as I had an inkling he might, and not just because the end of the season was still several episodes away. Because of the thing with the wine. Never mind Saigon, this was how we saw Sloane and Emily in the season 2 finale when we assumed he killed her but when it actually turned out he faked her death. (On the other hand, I do mind Saigon. I.e. I want the fanfic about Jack and Arvin getting drunk there together on the occasion of Sydney’s birth – and btw, was Irina angry or relieved that Jack wasn’t there?) Though Jack’s “what you did to my daughter is nothing compared to what I’m going to do to yours” threw me a bit. Aside from Jack wanting to torment Sloane for having betrayed him with Irina, I wonder whether he actually does have plans in this regard. Stay tuned.
About Irina: during my quick browsing of old reviews and some fanfic, I noticed a tendency to try and explain her having an affair with Arvin Sloane by wondering whether Sloane blackmailed her/lied to her/raped her/otherwise coerced her. Whereas my own moment of “But…” wasn’t on her account, it was that I found it surprising Sloane cheated on Emily. (Whom I assume he meant with “the one person who didn’t deserve to be betrayed” when talking to Dr. Barnett.) My take on Irina is that if Sloane had in any way coerced her into sex, she would have killed him a long time ago. No, whatever her reasons for the affair, they were her own. It’s interesting that in season 2 when we do see the two of them together, she both delivers a verbal smackdown on Sloane for his I-love-Sydney-like-a-daughter spiel, telling him that he might kid himself about what he is but she knows exactly and that was why they were allies to begin with, and later allows for the possibility that “I might have underestimated your love for your wife”. And she saves him by dragging him to the helicopter when he’s frozen by Emily’s death, when it would be more convenient for her to just let him be caught by the Feds (which would have left her in sole possession of the Rambaldi devices).
Back to Sloane: after a season where he almost always was painted in a sympathetic light, it was time we got a reminder of his ruthless and dastardly side as well. (No, killing Lindsey doesn’t count. Especially since he saved Sydney’s life (again) by doing so.) Which was done very efficiently by the Nadia storyline. (Again, this made the difference to the way Lauren was handled far more glaring. Her evil actions were comic book unreal and unmotivated in comparison.) Sloane being willing to use Nadia as his conduit to Rambaldi, even though this caused her pain and was dangerous to her, was made all the more horrible because we knew that he also wasn’t lying when claiming to love her. And it was completely consistent and in character. Yes, he would have never done something like this to Emily, but Freudian undertones or not, he does love Sydney and yet never was above causing her pain for the higher cause, so to do this to his “real” daughter? Is in character. It’s also in character that Nadia’s attempt to break free and kill him should earn his admiration (just as he admires Sydney), and that he’s positively beaming with paternal pride when in their final scene together she admits to having double-crossed him in the transcriptions. (Aside from the “that’s my girl!” effect, I have this theory that Sloane subconsciously needs the people he cares about to punish him by hating him as well as loving him.)
Sark, though, really isn’t the best of observers when it comes to Sloane, and neither is Lauren. Otherwise they’d have known that the one thing they shouldn’t have done was to actually press him to kill Nadia for the sake of Rambaldi. He’s apallingly ruthless, is Sloane, but he does have some lines still he hasn’t crossed, and one those buttons one shouldn’t press is telling him he should kill someone he cares about. That didn’t go too well for the Alliance when they did it with Emily, and it didn’t go too well for Lindsey, either, when he tried it with Sydney. So, again – perfectly in character when Sloane picks Nadia over more Rambaldi revelations at the cost of her life at the very last minute.
Mind you, it probably still wasn’t a good idea of Nadia’s to go with him in the end… but I don’t blame her for not wanting to stick around with the CIA, plus you can’t say she’s viewing her newly discovered father through rosy glasses. She got a shock but thorough intro into the twisted conundrum that is Arvin Sloane and just what he’s capable of, after all. I look forward to seeing the two of them again next season.
Meanwhile, about that other father and daughter: as mentioned before Sydney is horrified when realizing her father is about to let Sloane executed for adultery. Also, imo, because her ability to compartmentalize and see Jack only in a good light post season 1, never mind shocks like the Project Christmas discovery that only last for an episode, to love him unconditionally, is dependent on having Sloane around as her Bad Father whom she can hate and blame for all the darkness, morally questionable stuff and perhaps even surpressed Freudian feelings (see: dream). If the Good Father kills the Bad while clearly not being on the moral high ground, not in a duel but in a murderous way, this gets stopped, and she has to face just what Jack is capable of and has already done. (Which I don’t think she truly has so far.) Her face when seeing Sloane alive is a rare wonderful acting moment from Jennifer Garner who otherwise spends much of the later season one-note. (Not that I blame her – the sad fact is that the writing doesn’t give Syd much do. You could almost remove her from the show and still have the same storylines going on after Full Disclosure, which is Not Good.) She has wished Sloane dead so many times; when he actually appears to be, it’s horrible for her, and when she sees he’s still alive, there is clearly relief, and methinks not just because of the chance to find her sister, protestations to the contrary. (Sloane doesn’t miss that expression in the face, either.) The season cliffhanger confronts Sydney with that being programmed as a child by her father thing she has pushed aside earlier, and apparently it went far deeper than the season 2 revelation. Can we focus on this and not on the dreary romance with Vaughn next season, please? Pretty please?
A few more tidbits:
- the character of Katya was clearly invented because J.J. Abrams couldn’t get Lena Olin back as Irina, but I like her anyway; Isabella Rosellini has enough presence to make her few scenes very memorable. If Olin continues to be elusive, let’s keep her.
- Otoh, Vaughn’s father being revealed as a Rambaldi follower? Sigh. Doesn’t work for me. And how on earth does him getting killed by Irina square with him spiriting little Nadia away, date-wise, since Nadia has been born after Irina faked “Laura”’s death and returned to Mother Russia?
- Sark’s existence in the show finally got justified beyond “the fans like him” by making him co-chief of the North American Covenant branch; he also got his very first shades of unselfish emotions in the form of actually caring somewhat for Lauren, which makes me wonder whether he’s moving away from one note sociopath, but he still doesn’t interest me very much
- The Sydney/Dixon team-up to rescue his children made me nostalgic once more about them in the first two seasons; they had an equality and great co-workers relationship which she doesn’t have with anyone else, which is utterly unromantic and hence refreshing, and when he’s her boss, it’s not the same, damm it! (Also, Syd helping Dixon was a chance to highlight how good she can be when she’s not obliged to angst about Vaughn.)
- Did I mention I want the “Jack and Arvin get drunk together at Saigon” fanfic?
In conclusion, wishes for the next season, with an eye to Mr. Goddard and Mr. Bell:
- a storyarc for Sydney that does not, in any way, involve Vaughn
- more on her Julia Thorne days, please
- a flashback episode centring on Jack and Sloane and ye olde days on the one hand, and on their present day existence on the other; come on, Drew, think Destiny, think Selfless, you can do it!
- no more love triangles; go for father(s) & daughter(s) instead
- SpyMommy! And if we really can't get her back, more SpyAunt
- as little Vaughn as possible
- some logical justification why Sark never gets as much as threatened with the death sentence when he's in custody, whereas both Irina and Sloane would have gotten the Patriot Act justified speedy execution if not for Spoilery Spoiler.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
First off, I need an Alias icon already! Secondly...
Date: 2004-12-24 04:29 pm (UTC)Agreed. This was my major dissatisfaction with the season, actually, which I made a post about a while back, under a cut tag about a huge continuity flaw that I actually didn't notice the first time I saw the season but hit me when I watched the DVDs, almost immediately. The timing does not make any sense!!!! If Irina didn't kill Bill Vaughan until after she was back in Russia, the C.I.A. wouldn't know that she was the killer, because she was already "dead"! And even if they did really know all along, we'd always been led to believe that she killed him before disappearing, so Syd, being an ultra-intelligent person, would notice certain date inaccuracies when checking files on her mother. And even if they changed dates in the files wouldn't Vaughan himself ever have mentioned the year his father died in conversation, even? Nope, doesn't make sense. I'm really hoping that J.J. noticed this flaw and explains it next season, because with all the weaknesses in the third season, this is the only really unexplainable continuity flaw, and it's driving me crazy! Maybe Katya was lying. Fingers crossed!
Re: First off, I need an Alias icon already! Secondly...
Date: 2004-12-24 09:19 pm (UTC)Re: First off, I need an Alias icon already! Secondly...
Date: 2004-12-24 09:37 pm (UTC)Project Manager Jack Bristow? Hmmm...
awesome!
Date: 2004-12-24 05:26 pm (UTC)painfully obvious that Lauren’s function on the show was mainly to reinsert angst into the Syd/Vaughn relationship
That was what bothered me most about Lauren -- both that she just seemed to be an artificial obstacle to the S/V relationship, and could be easily removed because she didn't really mean anything to the people around her or the audience.
it was pretty obvious the writers went for a shadow double of the heroine thing
Yes, yes yes (keeping my finger off the capslock key here!). I love the idea that Lauren's Project Xmas also -- it ties up a lot of loose ends about how she got involved with the spy game in the first place, and if the fight in last season's ender was spectacular, with Sydney taking on another Project Christmas child who had usurped her friends' identity, this conflict had even higher stakes with someone who had stepped even further into Sydney's life in a lot of ways.
In short, she could have been Alias’ Faith.
That's it, in a nutshell. Absolutely. (And that would have been fantastic.) And word, absolutement, that for shadow sisters they hardly spent any time together or seemed to spend much time thinking about each other (Faith and Buffy weren't exactly joined at the hip for a lot of that S3, but you got the feeling they were never far from each others' thoughts).
Precisely because the show made it more than clear Vaughn didn’t really love Lauren and emotionally betrayed her and rejected her long before he had any reason to assume she was anything but a loving wife. Which pretty much annuls his right to feel betrayed.
Yes -- and that was just one more way in which Lauren was v two-dimensional, in that not even the man she married felt much for her (as opposed to the Emily/Sloan Jack/Irina tangled relationships). It jsut didn't seem like she had been thought of as an actual character, with needs, motivations, hates and longings like all the rest of them -- more like they wanted to do certain things with the plot, so there she was.
the Jack, Katya and Sloane scenes were masterful in their emotional clarity and cruelty. That scene where Katya called Sloane to tell him as a power demonstration, then called Jack to call it off, and then the ensuing Et tu, Jack? scene between Jack and Sloane with Sloane just looking at him while making it clear that he knew what Jack had been about to do
Yes, that was GOOD. Evilly good. And I also hope we keep going with the sort of parallels between Nadia/Sloane and Jack/Sydney -- that she doesn't see him as GoodDaddy anymore, but does begin to face what he's done and what he's capable of (and yes I would prefer five minutes of that to five hours of any more S/V noodlings). My hope for S4 is that Jack sort of is the big bad -- not that he becomes a cartoon villain, of course, but that we have more of the deep reversal of GoodDaddy BadMother that seemed to be set up by the revelation at the end of S3. And I'd hope we also have nice parallels for this with Sloane/Nadia too. S3 in large part was about standing the series on its head -- it would be great if we got a Sydney who wanted things to go back to the way they were -- not just wrt Vaughn! -- and who couldn't, because of what she knows now.
I like Katya too despite her sort of not-Lena origins -- it plays nicely into the season's theme of falseness and doubling and where true loyalties really are, and Rosselini's a marvelous actress. Plus she could have all kinds of dynamics with Sydney, standing in for Irina and yet not actually being her mother!
I think Alias is at its twisted best when it's deep into the whacked-out nuclear family at its heart -- if Buffy was all about moving on with chosen family, Alias is about when you're stuck with your blood family and can't really get away from them. So for me the S/V/L love triangle struck a deeply false note, because I think Alias is about the family romance.
Re: awesome! (I)
Date: 2004-12-24 09:46 pm (UTC)Yes. We had Buffy talking about Faith when she wasn't there (in The Wish, for example), and the differences and similarities between them were quintessential to the season's arc. Moreover, Faith was given motivations and reasons for her walk on the dark side (not the same as excuses, and they weren't prettifying what Faith ultimately became capable of - by the end of the season we see her kill humans without even bothering to find out why the Mayor wants them dead), we had statements from Buffy like "a few different choices, and it could have been me" (in Doppelgangerland) and the great shared dream and kiss on the head as the end of the season's arc. (If not to Faith, thankfully.) Writing like that would have made all the difference for Lauren, and would have brought out interesting stuff in Sydney. Again, I hope that Jeff Bell and Drew Goddard bring in their Jossverse experiences for all the characters in season 4 and give them all motivations and comprehensible agendas!
Yes -- and that was just one more way in which Lauren was v two-dimensional, in that not even the man she married felt much for her (as opposed to the Emily/Sloan Jack/Irina tangled relationships). It jsut didn't seem like she had been thought of as an actual character, with needs, motivations, hates and longings like all the rest of them -- more like they wanted to do certain things with the plot, so there she was.
Yes. Nothing is ever easy or simple or black and white with Spies: The First Generation and their relationships with each other, which is one of the things I treasure about the show. (And a great contrast to the Jossverse, where, the Fanged Four excepted, and perhaps Ethan & Giles, the older characters just didn't get complicated relationships and the same attention to their lives as the younger ones.) Something like that for the younger crowd, please.
My hope for S4 is that Jack sort of is the big bad -- not that he becomes a cartoon villain, of course, but that we have more of the deep reversal of GoodDaddy BadMother that seemed to be set up by the revelation at the end of S3. And I'd hope we also have nice parallels for this with Sloane/Nadia too. S3 in large part was about standing the series on its head -- it would be great if we got a Sydney who wanted things to go back to the way they were -- not just wrt Vaughn! -- and who couldn't, because of what she knows now.
Yes. Sydney has a double set of parents: GoodDaddy and BadMother biologically, BadDaddy and GoodMother emotionally (the later ones being Sloane and Emily, of course). This started to break apart in season 2 when Irina was back and slowly won her around, and she permitted herself to love her right until Irina got out again, and no sooner did she have Irina confined to the BadMother image once more did Emily show up, returned from the dead, like Irina, demanding to talk only with Sydney, like Irina... and still in love with Sloane. Emily having been the one of her four parents whom she had never distrusted, you could see how that threw Sydney.
Here's another thing I hope might be relevant in season 4: Emily told Sydney back then that Sloane claims to do what he did for her, and maybe really believes that, but that she didn't want to be the excuse for his crimes. Well, Jack claims that whatever he did he did for Sydney. That, as he told both Irina and Sloane at various points of the show, is his grand claim of moral superiority to them. Now I do love Jack, but I want someone, preferably Sydney, to take that excuse away from Jack as well.
Re: awesome! (I)
Date: 2004-12-25 01:55 am (UTC)Oh, yes -- it would've been wonderful if somehow that could be brought in after the fact, and made even more poignant by Lauren's being dead (or is she? ha). Hell, I'd be happy even just with some dream sequences.
Sydney has a double set of parents: GoodDaddy and BadMother biologically, BadDaddy and GoodMother emotionally (the later ones being Sloane and Emily, of course). This started to break apart in season 2 when Irina was back and slowly won her around, and she permitted herself to love her right until Irina got out again, and no sooner did she have Irina confined to the BadMother image once more did Emily show up, returned from the dead, like Irina, demanding to talk only with Sydney, like Irina... and still in love with Sloane. Emily having been the one of her four parents whom she had never distrusted, you could see how that threw Sydney
Oh, yes. And in S4 I really would love to see some switching around with Sloane/Jack Good/Bad Daddy as well -- especially as you say with Jack's excuse that whatever he did, he did for Sydney being taken away, or at least mightily questioned. (And I'd love to see some kind of Xmas Project reunion with maybe those kids starting to question their parents...)
Re: awesome! (I)
Date: 2004-12-25 06:56 am (UTC)Asking that question from Paradise Lost which Mary Shelley quotes as a motto for Frankenstein and which I unfortunately can't quote by heart, but which runs to the effect of "what have you done to me when you created me?".
I'd also like the unquestioning assumption that the US government/the CIA had the right to order this stuff because they are "the good guys" to stop, but maybe that's the European in me...
Re: awesome! (II)
Date: 2004-12-24 09:47 pm (UTC)Yes. And because it is, the introduction of Nadia and the revelation that there was an affair between Irina and Arvin Sloane makes perfect sense. There is a blood connection between him and the Bristows now in more than one sense, and he always did claim they were his family.
(BTW, if Jack is Agamemnon, Sydney Elektra and Irina Clytaimnestra as Rahael's icon has it, does that make Sloane Aigisthos? And bear in mind Agamemnon did sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia, which is why Clytaimnestra betrayed him to begin with.)
Re: awesome! (II)
Date: 2004-12-25 01:51 am (UTC)Yes, yes -- the blood knots just get tighter and tighter. It's like the ultimate family romance....
does that make Sloane Aigisthos? And bear in mind Agamemnon did sacrifice his daughter Iphigenia, which is why Clytaimnestra betrayed him to begin with
Ooooh, that's beautiful! I like that.
Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Date: 2004-12-24 05:37 pm (UTC)O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree!
How are thy leaves so verdant!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!
Not only in the summertime,
But even in winter is thy prime.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
How are thy leaves so verdant!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
For every year the Christmas tree,
Brings to us all both joy and glee.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Much pleasure doth thou bring me!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Each bough doth hold its tiny light,
That makes each toy to sparkle bright.
O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree,
Thy candles shine out brightly!
Re: Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Date: 2004-12-24 10:07 pm (UTC)Re: Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Date: 2004-12-26 02:47 pm (UTC)Re: Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Date: 2004-12-26 03:00 pm (UTC)wie grün sind deine Blätter!
Du grünst nicht nur zur Sommerzeit,
nein auch im Winter, wenn es schneit,
oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum,
wie grün sind deine Blätter!
*g*
Re: Happy Holidays to you and yours!
Date: 2004-12-26 03:59 pm (UTC); )
see my icon? i'm a hopeless, hopeless romantic
Date: 2004-12-24 08:20 pm (UTC)There are so many good thoughts, and so much to chew on mentally, but I'm going to take the stab at the subject near and dear to my heart, which is Lauren. ITA to all you said about wasted opportunities and the lack of characterization (which is something I desperately wanted to see and even did a ficathon for that purpose) and the hamfisted way the writers went about creating Lauren - the 'twist' seemed more tacked on and forced as way to speedily get the Supercouple together more than anything else, at the expense of Lauren and some hinted at intriguing backstory (in my fanwanking, I theorized that Lauren was in fact Sydney's cousin, simply on the basis that Peggy Lipton looks startingly like a blonde Lena Olin, and was in fact the third Derevko sister - and judging by the way the mother dispatched the father, clearly didn't fall for her 'target' the way Irina did for Jack. The parallel lives line, again).
All those glimpses of something besides black eyeliner and leather - and then just ...nothing but mayhem and murder with Sark (don't get me wrong, I *love* them together. They're so much more fun and engaging to watch than the "A" couple, but then again, I'm biased. And I could argue watching paint dry is more entertaining than Syd and Vaughn.), and then trying to figure out *that* emotional minefield - was there affection and caring, through camraderie and shared goals (like a nod to his relationship with Allison Doren - who also was a wasted one-shot), or was it purely business with a bit of sex. They both have vulnerabilities, but Sark's more of a sociopath than Lauren is, or maybe they're different kinds of the same coin...er, to completely mishandle that metaphor.
But back to Lauren as Syd's shadow double - her bewildering characterization coupled with my endless theorization (and okay, the Prettiness with Sark) ultimately shot her up to one of the more intriguing characters of the season for me. I'm in the minority, but I don't find Sydney particularly compelling or likable (after season 1, that is), and I always need a Spyparent or a non romantic foil (god bless Weiss and Dixon) to really bring out Syd's potential for me, and I feel that she's often too easily 'let off the hook' despite the Jossian proportion of angst and woe leveled at her - she bounces back or JJ lets her slide off the pedestal only to have someone put her back on it - this mostly irks me in the romance department (and again, I have to admit it also stems for irrational paying attention to fanon), but just at the utter lack of similar female foils that aren't either *directly* related to Sydney or are, "the bad girls." I wanted more Anna Espinosa, a more well rounded Allison Doren, and yes, I so want Lauren back. Of course, I'd give them all up for Spymommy - but SpyAunt and SpySis may do in a pinch as well (I pin some hope on Nadia to bring a dimension to Sydney that isn't all invested in her epic love story with Vaughn.)
In other words, a big fat word to your post.
Re: see my icon? i'm a hopeless, hopeless romantic
Date: 2004-12-24 10:03 pm (UTC)Ah well. It's not like Abrams can't do complicated and interesting relationships per se (see all the Older Spies), so maybe he'll have the sense to recognise that he has squeezed S/V for all it's worth and should move on to other stuff, plus play out the twisted family relationships that are his true strengths. And again, I'm hoping Drew Goddard and Jeff Bell will bring some needed Jossverse finesse to the overall writing.