![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
Alias 5.13
So, after three days in hotels with no wi fi, I finally hit the jackpot in Basel, and managed to watch the latest Alias ep as well. Thank you, guys, for not spoiling me for this one (beyond making ominous noises that major stuff with my guy Arvin happens).
Firstly, the fact Nadia did die itself didn't surprise me - ever since Sloane said "I could not save my daughter, but I hope I will save yours" to Sydney in, what was it, "Mockingbird", I thought we had that spelled out to us. Also, it fits with the Greek tragedy pattern of Sloane's life. He saves Emily by making it look like he killed her, he loses her in an accident (i.e. Dixon hits her instead of him), and yet it's his fault, because she wouldn't have been there if not for him, if not for the fact she loved him enough to follow him a second time. He shoots Nadia to save Sydney (and the world) in Before the FLood), but she's not dead, and he does manage to save her, only to cause her death again, as with Emily by accident and yet through his fault. Every time Sloane offers a sacrifice to the gods/faith/Rambaldi and tries to withdraw it, have his cake and eat it, he's punished by the fact the sacrifice is taken anyway at a later point when he thinks it won't be anymore. You even have to admire the visual tie-back to The Descent, the Siena flashback, the last time he denied Nadia in favour of Rambaldi, when he crashed through the centuries old class, with all the splinters in his body, and now it's Nadia's body, but he survived, and she's dead. I would be completely in love with the story, in that masochistic way of mine, were it not for the fact that the actual execution of that death scene left something to be desired. Firstly because despite the symmetry of the glass splinters, that table was just too damm convenient. The glass in The Descent was signalled and introduced ahead of time. Also, given that Sloane already picked Nadia over Rambaldi (albeit at the last minute) at two earlier crucial points and at any rate was not stupid, giving him a better line than "don't make me choose" would have done wonders.
This nitpicking aside, I loved the episode (in that masochistic way of mine). Because as opposed to say, Scorpius on Farscape, Arvin Sloane isn't the kind of villain/ambiguous character who gets a happy ending (and if Nadia survived, even if he died, it would have been happy for him). He's living in a tragedy, and like all good tragedies it's one of his own making. So, here are my current speculations as to where this is going. Two possibilities, the second one suggested not by yours truly but by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
rozk:
1) Sloane, while being completely serious about being chosen, neglected to tell the Prophet Five bunch what he's chosen for. He'll fulfill his destiny by playing Rambaldi's design out to the finish, but said finish will be the end of him and incidentally all the remaining Rambaldi believers. (Especially Prophet Five.) This guess is based on a) my conviction that Sloane really doesn't want to live anymore (also see his scornful freakout in Another Mr. Sloane when Cloane's goon suggests becoming immortality is the pay-off of Rambaldism - call me crazy, but methinks the Prophet Five bunch could believe that, too, and he knows they do, and has read that story of Medea and Pelias' daughters quite carefully; in terms less showing off my Greek mythology knowledge, I mean he's about to deliver immortality in a way to them that gives them a spectacularly unpleasant death instead.) (Him too.) This might or might not somehow save Isabel in the process (see above); possibly Anna-as-Sydney comes into play here. In any case, this plan of his does culminate in his own death. (Deliberately, I mean.)
2) And here's that other idea which Roz had: the last invention of Rambaldi's we'll ever see will be a time machine. Which will allow Sloane to go back in time, become Rambaldi, plant all those clues about the future and make those accurate predictions and inventions, and then die on the stake as a heretic (which of course he knows and also plans on).
Back to the episode. Loved Jack and Nadia having the vibe of bad wrongness one last time. Loved Jack being suspicious. Loved Sloane having figured that out and playing Jack instead even more. (Those two are truly each other's equals.) Loved that Nadia got to see her niece, and yes, her unease with her father made sense, with the supreme irony being that he did indeed put her ahead of Rambaldi in his efforts to save her. Only to lapse in the aftermath. Again, witness the parallel to Emily. He was brilliant and had to have nerves of steel during those three months when he played the Alliance, Jack and Sydney all at the same time and against each other and managed to escape with life, fortune and Emily. He had a genuine shot at a happy ending. And then he ruined it by going back to Rambaldi and Evil Overlorddom. And now, with Nadia saved and healthy again, when he went through all those double dealings and once more playing people and going through various humiliations and everything to get her a cure, he again had a shot at a happy ending. So of course he ruined it, though not for exactly the same reasons. (Like I said - I honestly don't think Sloane is interested in any of the stuff which the other players might want anymore. Immortality? Ruling-the-world power? Nah.)
What I think he thought, watching Nadia and Sydney and the baby: having saved Nadia, he had no place in her life anymore. I think he said the truth when telling her he believed she wouldn't want anything to do with him now. I don't think he would have pressed, either. So what remains? Rambaldi. (And of course he still had page 47. That page. It must have provided some amusement in all the bleakness in the previous episode that Prophet Five believed they had it.) Back he goes, and thus dooms himself and her.
Renee was likeable in this episode, and her death came as a genuine surprise. I was a bit lukewarm on her early on - she seemed to me a bit too obviously the cool new chick - but definitely enjoyed her here. Again, being killed by Sydney-not-Sydney made an awful thematic sense because Renee starts out distrusting everyone and Sydney becomes the one person she does trust.
Speaking of Sydney, she was hilarious in pink, but so far JG didn't have the chance to play Anna-as-Syd in any character scenes, so please bring that on.
Oh, and lastly: Nadia and Emily were the people Arvin Sloane loved and whom he both saved and doomed at different points; the two other people he loves are Sydney and Jack, and I think he thinks they're safe in a way Nadia and Emily were not because their feelings for him always contained a good portion of hate. (And oh, Sydney defending Sloane to Nadia in this episode was beautifully tragic, too, because yes, she finally does trust him again - the thing she declared to be impossible years ago - and then he falls, and yet the reason why she came to trust him isn't false, either. He did what she said he did.) So, guess number 3 of how this will play out or at least how he intends it to, if 1) and 2) aren't correct or only partially so:
3) He wants either Jack or Sydney to kill him, which is another reason why he goes to Prophet Five instead of just vanishing into the wilderness/Tibet/whereever. So that when the big endgame happens, and he somehow gets rid of Prophet Five, either Jack or Sydney will then kill him. Which one? My guess is Sydney, because it would fit with the Merlin and Nimue pattern and because she is the Chosen One.
Firstly, the fact Nadia did die itself didn't surprise me - ever since Sloane said "I could not save my daughter, but I hope I will save yours" to Sydney in, what was it, "Mockingbird", I thought we had that spelled out to us. Also, it fits with the Greek tragedy pattern of Sloane's life. He saves Emily by making it look like he killed her, he loses her in an accident (i.e. Dixon hits her instead of him), and yet it's his fault, because she wouldn't have been there if not for him, if not for the fact she loved him enough to follow him a second time. He shoots Nadia to save Sydney (and the world) in Before the FLood), but she's not dead, and he does manage to save her, only to cause her death again, as with Emily by accident and yet through his fault. Every time Sloane offers a sacrifice to the gods/faith/Rambaldi and tries to withdraw it, have his cake and eat it, he's punished by the fact the sacrifice is taken anyway at a later point when he thinks it won't be anymore. You even have to admire the visual tie-back to The Descent, the Siena flashback, the last time he denied Nadia in favour of Rambaldi, when he crashed through the centuries old class, with all the splinters in his body, and now it's Nadia's body, but he survived, and she's dead. I would be completely in love with the story, in that masochistic way of mine, were it not for the fact that the actual execution of that death scene left something to be desired. Firstly because despite the symmetry of the glass splinters, that table was just too damm convenient. The glass in The Descent was signalled and introduced ahead of time. Also, given that Sloane already picked Nadia over Rambaldi (albeit at the last minute) at two earlier crucial points and at any rate was not stupid, giving him a better line than "don't make me choose" would have done wonders.
This nitpicking aside, I loved the episode (in that masochistic way of mine). Because as opposed to say, Scorpius on Farscape, Arvin Sloane isn't the kind of villain/ambiguous character who gets a happy ending (and if Nadia survived, even if he died, it would have been happy for him). He's living in a tragedy, and like all good tragedies it's one of his own making. So, here are my current speculations as to where this is going. Two possibilities, the second one suggested not by yours truly but by
rozk:1) Sloane, while being completely serious about being chosen, neglected to tell the Prophet Five bunch what he's chosen for. He'll fulfill his destiny by playing Rambaldi's design out to the finish, but said finish will be the end of him and incidentally all the remaining Rambaldi believers. (Especially Prophet Five.) This guess is based on a) my conviction that Sloane really doesn't want to live anymore (also see his scornful freakout in Another Mr. Sloane when Cloane's goon suggests becoming immortality is the pay-off of Rambaldism - call me crazy, but methinks the Prophet Five bunch could believe that, too, and he knows they do, and has read that story of Medea and Pelias' daughters quite carefully; in terms less showing off my Greek mythology knowledge, I mean he's about to deliver immortality in a way to them that gives them a spectacularly unpleasant death instead.) (Him too.) This might or might not somehow save Isabel in the process (see above); possibly Anna-as-Sydney comes into play here. In any case, this plan of his does culminate in his own death. (Deliberately, I mean.)
2) And here's that other idea which Roz had: the last invention of Rambaldi's we'll ever see will be a time machine. Which will allow Sloane to go back in time, become Rambaldi, plant all those clues about the future and make those accurate predictions and inventions, and then die on the stake as a heretic (which of course he knows and also plans on).
Back to the episode. Loved Jack and Nadia having the vibe of bad wrongness one last time. Loved Jack being suspicious. Loved Sloane having figured that out and playing Jack instead even more. (Those two are truly each other's equals.) Loved that Nadia got to see her niece, and yes, her unease with her father made sense, with the supreme irony being that he did indeed put her ahead of Rambaldi in his efforts to save her. Only to lapse in the aftermath. Again, witness the parallel to Emily. He was brilliant and had to have nerves of steel during those three months when he played the Alliance, Jack and Sydney all at the same time and against each other and managed to escape with life, fortune and Emily. He had a genuine shot at a happy ending. And then he ruined it by going back to Rambaldi and Evil Overlorddom. And now, with Nadia saved and healthy again, when he went through all those double dealings and once more playing people and going through various humiliations and everything to get her a cure, he again had a shot at a happy ending. So of course he ruined it, though not for exactly the same reasons. (Like I said - I honestly don't think Sloane is interested in any of the stuff which the other players might want anymore. Immortality? Ruling-the-world power? Nah.)
What I think he thought, watching Nadia and Sydney and the baby: having saved Nadia, he had no place in her life anymore. I think he said the truth when telling her he believed she wouldn't want anything to do with him now. I don't think he would have pressed, either. So what remains? Rambaldi. (And of course he still had page 47. That page. It must have provided some amusement in all the bleakness in the previous episode that Prophet Five believed they had it.) Back he goes, and thus dooms himself and her.
Renee was likeable in this episode, and her death came as a genuine surprise. I was a bit lukewarm on her early on - she seemed to me a bit too obviously the cool new chick - but definitely enjoyed her here. Again, being killed by Sydney-not-Sydney made an awful thematic sense because Renee starts out distrusting everyone and Sydney becomes the one person she does trust.
Speaking of Sydney, she was hilarious in pink, but so far JG didn't have the chance to play Anna-as-Syd in any character scenes, so please bring that on.
Oh, and lastly: Nadia and Emily were the people Arvin Sloane loved and whom he both saved and doomed at different points; the two other people he loves are Sydney and Jack, and I think he thinks they're safe in a way Nadia and Emily were not because their feelings for him always contained a good portion of hate. (And oh, Sydney defending Sloane to Nadia in this episode was beautifully tragic, too, because yes, she finally does trust him again - the thing she declared to be impossible years ago - and then he falls, and yet the reason why she came to trust him isn't false, either. He did what she said he did.) So, guess number 3 of how this will play out or at least how he intends it to, if 1) and 2) aren't correct or only partially so:
3) He wants either Jack or Sydney to kill him, which is another reason why he goes to Prophet Five instead of just vanishing into the wilderness/Tibet/whereever. So that when the big endgame happens, and he somehow gets rid of Prophet Five, either Jack or Sydney will then kill him. Which one? My guess is Sydney, because it would fit with the Merlin and Nimue pattern and because she is the Chosen One.
no subject