Alias Finale

[selenak]

As you've been all very good about not spoiling me, I shall follow your example for everyone else who hasn't watched the finale yet and be utterly discreet. But I do have a lot to say.



Okay. That was such a weird mixture of good and extremely bad that I'm still processing and utterly unsure how much of it I'll use in fanfic. I'm a canon girl at heart and usually don't take the "so and so has not happened" route, but there were huge chuncks of canon here that just did not make sense, and not in the usual Alias way. Not to mention the havoc played with continuity.

Extremely bad should come first, because I like to conclude on a positive note:

1) Backstory. Now in s1, Sloane mentions to Sydney that he has known her practically from birth, but this is news to her; she doesn't remember him and Emily from this time. Which isn't that difficult to believe - would you remember your parents' pals if you haven't seen them after you were five? Also, at Emily's "funeral", she mentions not knowing Emily at all when Sloane (re-) introduces her. So, up to the finale, it was canon that Sydney has no childhood memories of the Sloanes. And then we get told she stayed with them after Laura's "death". Ooookay. I think I can fanwank that with Sydney really having surpressed those memories until recent years, but still. On the bright side of things, this makes for a good story and may be of use in fanfic.

And then we get the Jack retcon. Which I'm already retconning. Jack should not have been surprised that Sydney can accomplish the puzzle, because Jack freakin' brainwashed her into being able to do that. (You know, JJ, I did watch season 2.) But okay, I can retcon/fanwank that, too. He's just pleasantly surprised she can do it because Sydney is the prototype, she is the first kid he tried Project Christmas out on. So he had no guarantee it would work. (Incidentally, I liked the flashbacks. You can tell it's a Drew Goddard episode when there are good flashbacks. But more about them once I got the complaints out of the way.)

2) Rambaldi's endgame. I'm sorry, JJ, but I watched s4 as well. In which we get a scene where Sloane (who is alone with a man he's in the process of killing, and thus has no possible reason to lie) explicitly excludes immortality as what Rambaldi is all about. Not that immortality could not be a part of it, I'm utterly fine with that, but ALL of it? (Watch my fanwank/retcon on that one in a few moments.) Boo. Hiss.

3) Stupid, stupid nuclear vessels plot. I mean, obviously that was meant so there is an external death threat to multitudes which our heroes can advert, but really, that was dumber than the dumber James Bond movies. They tried to bring up a flimsy justification by letting Jack state Sloane's not interested in devastation, just in the millions he can make by reconstruction, but you know, judging by all we've seen, Sloane already owns millions. So does Irina. Which brings me to the biggest complaint of them all.

4) Which, it may surprise you to learn, is not about Sloane. (Though I have something to say on that account as well, and not all critical, though see above, re: Rambaldi's endgame.) It's about Irina. Here's the irony: during the last two years, I was occasionally irritated by some fanon whitewashing Irina, making her into a "good bad girl", someone who never did anything really seriously bad. Little did I know. Hereby I apologize to all the whitewashers, because this other extreme, presented in the finale, is just the worst characterisation crime I ever saw on this show or in any fanfic whatever. Now if all Irina was after was power, money and immortality, then every action she undertook from walking in to the CIA onwards makes no sense at all. I mean, she was already the head of an international terrorist organization which was competing with the entire Alliance. She had her own Rambaldi research going on. There was no reason to bother with Jack and Sydney at all, and every reason not to. Moreover, what were all the "truth takes time" hints all about? And again, WHY ON EARTH WOULD IRINA WANT TO BOMB WASHINGTON AND LONDON? Leftover cold war issues? No. I officially declare Irina the most mistreated character of the entire show. In terms of mischaracterisation, I mean. There is competition otherwise, I admit.

5) And then there's my guy Arvin. Whose characterisation encapsulates the weird mixture of good and very bad this finale is. Like I said, immortality as the sole fulfillment of Rambaldism makes no sense. (Nor do nuclear vessels, but I already ranted about that on Irina's behalf.) Immortality as part of the game, however, does. As does Sloane shooting Jack in order to provoke Sydney to shoot him - that was the absolute sure guarantee she'd do it, and without hesitation, too - if you assume Sloane knew he needed to die in order to become immortal. (Otherwise, shooting Jack makes no more sense than Irina's actions, leaving entirely aside the emotional aspect. Though considering harming either Bristow directly is the one thing Sloane had not done in the course of five years, you might consider it emotional suicide as well, whether or not he knew death-by-Sydney would not be final.) Moreover, as I wrote before, I wanted either Sydney or Jack to kill Sloane, and the show gave me both and neither, which I'm fine with.

Being immortal but trapped, with Nadia's ghost - and I suppose we're to assume it actually is her ghost, as opposed to Sloane's hallucination, which is what I had previously thought it was supposed to be - leaving also works for me as a punishment by fate. I'm masochistic that way about characters I love who doom themselves by their choices, as I believe I mentioned before. Which still leaves me with the huge, huge problem of immortality as the sole endgame on Sloane's part. However, as opposed to poor Irina and the butchery committed on her, canon gives me enough room to manouevre, and declare the following personal fanon: after becoming immortal himself, Sloane wanted to move on to step two. Which he only could have done as an immortal in order for Rambaldi device X to work, and which was as unnatural as immortality itself, and if you think about it as crazy (I never claimed Sloane was the most stable of characters, especially after Nadia's death): bring back the (selected) dead. (A bad thing, as we know from other shows.) He probably would have started with Jack, and gone on to the very limited circle of people he cared about. (However, as these had been dead longer, it would have backfired terribly anyway.) And speaking of Jack -

6) Jack definitely gets the awared for most mistreated character in terms of actual fate, not characterisation (which was fine). Aside from Sydney (and Isabelle), Irina and Sloane were the people he cared about most, and to have them both go Irredeemable Evil Overlord on him at the same time was just horrible. Now his actual death, and the way he went about it, that was a classic Jack Bristow exit, but if you think about what a tragedy the man's life was - just grrr, arrrgh. However, again as opposed to Irina, canon gives me an obvious out here for Jack. To wit: the explosion threw Dying!Jack in the Rambaldi pool of immortality (tm). Which means that he's stuck there with Sloane. There will be much bitter sarcasm and utter refusal to do anything about this situation as he figures Arvin deserves it. Years pass. (In conversation and stubbornness.) And I really mean years. At some point, through, either or both will dig themselves out.

Now, on to the things in the finale that did not make me want to tear my hair out or come up with fanwanking and retconning:

1) Sydney's characterisation throughout. The scenes with Sloane and Jack were the highlights, but I also loved, loved, loved that the tag scene shows us she actually manages to be an agent and a mother at the same time (I was secretly afraid they'd have Sydney give up on work entirely), I loved Ruthless!Syd with Peyton (so Jack's daughter), and young agent Bristow in the flashbacks, again both with her father and with Sloane. Mind you, Syd's characterisation in the scene with Irina was good, too, but as Irina's was so horribly bad, I couldn't enjoy it.

2) Some continuity, to wit, Mount S., and Sloane not allowing Sydney to watch the sun rise. (Nobody told him she had done that already, after all.) Though this reminds me again of the stupidity of the Rambaldi's endgame-as-immortality-only thing, because Sydney actually does not do anything either to foil or fulfill the immortality thing.)

3) Rachel, and a pay-off to the past friendship with Peyton which I thought was a plot thread they dropped.

4) The Godfather homage, i.e. Sloane taking out Prophet Five and APO at the same time, complete with intercutting. Which I sort of had expected - we needed to get rid of the P5 guys to clear the stage for a Sloane vs Bristows showdown, they just would have distracted, and it was pay off for him having been blackmailed by them most of the year - but it was still good to see it play out.

And now, if you'lle excuse me, I'll go back to ranting on Irina's behalf, and fanwanking on Jack's and Sloane's. And wondering what the hell I should do at fandom_muses, aside from going on with the AU I had already started there with the Jack and Irina muses, but I had expected to do that in addition to writing canon based stuff with a dead Arvin, not an immortal-and-trapped Arvin. All in all: I'm not quite in the mood I was in at the end of Carnivale's second season when I decided I really would have preferred it if the show had ended a year earlier, but close. Because, you know, in the fourth season finale, everyone's characterisation and aims made sense.

Comments

[k-julia.livejournal.com]

I've been reading reactions to the finale, and I'd been very curious about yours. I thought about getting myself the ep, because I'd like to see what happens to Sydney, whom I've always liked, and figured that my Sloane problem might not be a problem should he at last get what he's had coming. But I'm not sure I want to see Irina butchered like this. And I'm sorry the show ended on such a disappointing note for you. :-/

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Irina really fared worst in the finale. And err, just out of curiosity - so if the show had ended in s4, we'd have the following situation, excluding the tag scene which set up Vaughn's absence for most of s5:

Sydney and Vaugh: together. He had just proposed:

Irina and Jack and Sydney: reconciled. Irina makes graceful exit, Jack lets her go.

Dixon, Marshall, all other characters: quite happy, with significant others.

Sloane: had just saved the world (and Sydney) by shooting his daughter and had to live with that bitter irony. (In prison.) Was, however, reconciled with Sydney and Jack.

...and the Sloane part of that would have been a problem for you?

[k-julia.livejournal.com]

...and the Sloane part of that would have been a problem for you?

God, no, I wasn't even referring to that season 4 ending proposition. It sounds a bit like I stepped on your toes, and I'm sorry if that's the case. I just meant that I could be interested in the conclusion of his story when you can't get me interested in five years of how he doesn't get arrested/killed/whatever. I wouldn't come here and talk at length about my Sloane problem to a Sloane fan, that's pretty rude, but after our conversation I figured I could say that much.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

My toes are unstepped on.*g* No, I just misunderstood and thought you meant you would have had a problem with the s4 ending because it would have seen Sloane off on an ambiguous note (i.e. in bad circumstances but also some good ones) rather than condemm him entirely.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

Yeah. There really were some points in the finale (the nukes, the immortality, Syd staying with Arvin and Emily) that made so little sense to me that I thought I had gone stupid/canon-forgetful and not understood things properly. And there were some points (Irina characterization) that just went completely off the rails because they apparently couldn't figure out how else to handle it.

But I still really loved most of S5, and I'm okay with the outcome (the old guard dead or in limbo, the lovely dynamic amongst the survivors). It just seems that the good parts of S5 should have provided a different way of getting there.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Oh, I loved most of s5, too. (As opposed to most of s2 of Carnivale.) And I can see the meta necessity to clear the stage of all the old guard, plus I loved how it worked out among the surivors, yes, but oh, the bad points take away my enjoyment.

Here's food for thought: I wonder whether we'd have gotten similar (good) results without the badness if they had known at the start of the season it would be the last one?

Because a theory is slowly developing for me - until cancellation was confirmed, they had planned on Prophet Five as the Big Bad of the season. Now, P5 were perfectly servicable season villains, but not villains suited for the end of Alias as an entire series. Arvin and Irina, otoh, were, because of their enormous importance to Sydney (and Jack) and to the overall story. As soon as they got told 5 really would be the last season, they had to scramble. As in, turning Arvin back to full evil in the space of a few episodes instead of at leisure in an entire season. (Why otoh Irina couldn't remain ambiguous I can't see a meta necessity for, other than to justify killing her off instead of letting her make another mysterious exit.) And thus we get the jump from "Sydney deserved better" to "I'm an evil overlord again, hear me roar" in the finale.

[popfantastic.livejournal.com]

I have the sense that you are correct -- I think there was supposed to be far more of a "there" there with S5 developments, not just in terms of P5 and the Irina-Sloane reveal (if indeed that was what they originally intended in the way that it played out, which I have a very hard time believing), but Tom, the Renee-Vaughn backstory, a more cohesive Grand Unified Theory of Rambaldi, etc.

I think part of the problem may have been that they didn't have time to either build up P5 or another villain -- possibly Rambaldi himself -- as something which would have presented Irina and/or Sloane with a final choice between Rambaldi and, uh, the Bristow Way rather than an obstacle to Rambaldi. There were nods in those directions, but that should have been the emotional center of the finale, and it wasn't. It makes sense in terms of Arvin and Irina's importance in the Alias-verse and their dedication to make them the ultimate string-pullers, but it ends up not working out so much in terms of recognizable characterization. You can always choose to stop being a string-puller, of course, but if you're the string-pullers left standing, it becomes infinitely less likely, less important (because significant damage is already done), and perhaps harder to dramatize in a Big JJ Finale Scenes way.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I see the meta-explanation here, and I'll raise you another one, which is that there was a fundamental flaw in the series planning from the get-go -- and I don't just mean that the nature of Rambaldi's endgame (I actually got the impression from the end of season 4 that that was supposed to be the endgame and that they didn't expect a new season, so everything in this season was kind of tacked on -- though that's not an excuse, as Joss & Co. managed to come up with brilliant finales for Buffy & Angel, even with similar short-notice issues -- then, Joss seems to be a genius of improvisation, and everybody probably shouldn't try the same approach).

But anyway -- the flaw prior to that, I think, is that Sloane and Irina are both so mercurial and so duplicitous, and their motives are kept as mysteries so that the writers can pull out -- "Ooh, she's really alive! Ahh, he double-crossed them again." But as to what they were really up to for their own goals -- as opposed to reacting to somebody else's -- well, I was going to say "Your guess is as good as mine," though yours is obviously going to be better.

So on that note, I honestly wasn't that disturbed by Sloane and Irina's characterization, maybe because I was too busy trying to keep track of what was happening (moving too fast for me to think, etc). I'll have to download and watch it again -- obviously, I thought the storyline could have made more sense, but I couldn't definitively say "that's not what they were in it for," because I never had a great sense of what they were in it for. And in an odd way, I appreciated that neither of them had a Vader-esque "join us" speech, because they knew Sydney well enough to know she wouldn't.

Meanwhile, as for continuing the series -- oddly enough, I generally resist continuations from Not Fade Away (and scroll past Wesley-resurrection stories as quickly as possible). But as for this one, I feel like there's a lot of space to work with -- we have no idea what happened in that gap before the ending scene. Nobody's ever really dead on this show (except Nadia, apparently), and now we have immortality-potion in the mix (and yes, Jack & Sloane snarking at each other forever is perfection). As for Sloane, I have a hard time believing that with all the crazy shit they do on this show, somebody's not going to be able to dig him out of there (vaznetti is already on me to write "5 People who never dug up Arvin Sloane" -- I think I'm going with Sydney, Sark & Peyton, Lilah Morgan, Shadow (from "American Gods"), and Six + Invading Cylon Forces. Sloane/Six/Baltar=OT3

Re: FM, I thought eirena's idea about playing an AU is a good one (it's essentially what most of the Angel players are doing). Though for that matter, any and all of the persons involved might have had a perpetuity clause at some point.

[buffyannotater.livejournal.com]

I personally didn't have a problem with Irina's characterization, because they've been setting us up for this sort of situation all season, with clues from her being the one to have captured Sydney at the midpoint this year to her conversation with her about her birth, and how she knew she could only be a spy or a mother, and that she made her decision. As she told Syd in her scene with her, she also had hoped that she'd be off with Vaughn, happily ever after, and out of her way, and that she regretted that it came to this. And I believe her, because she's Irina, and even in the end, she does have conflicting emotions. I found this "Big Bad revealed" type scene much more in characer and satisfying than, say, Beaver's.

That is not to say that everything made sense. It does kind of suck that we'll never really know why she turned herself into the CIA, unless it really was the desire to get to know her daughter.

Lastly, thinking back on it, I actually liked that they never revealed whether Syd was the woman of prophecy or not. She herself rejected the concept throughout the series, and this way, the show can be true to the character's philosophy, as well as keep open the possibility that she's wrong.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Hmmm, so maybe Irina saved the baby and gave her that whole speech in the hope that she would stay home and tend her garden?

And maybe Sydney fulfilled the prophecy by shooting Sloane and bringing about the immortality? Or maybe she was just there and did what Sloane could have predicted she would do?

So here's a question -- are we supposed to assume that Sloane and Irina were planning to become immortal and rule the world together? Or to double cross each other?

I kind of like the idea that Sloane was eventually planning to use the Rambaldi formula to raise the dead, but in that case shouldn't he have been carrying around Nadia's dead body, not just talking to her ghost? And while I'm on Nadia's ghost -- whether she was real or in his head, should she really have been appearing to her father in a tight and almost see-through slipdress?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

I think I'm going with Sydney, Sark & Peyton, Lilah Morgan, Shadow (from "American Gods"), and Six + Invading Cylon Forces. Sloane/Six/Baltar=OT3

Oh, you must! And yes, they would be! That sounds perfect.

Perpetuity clause: you know, and suddenly it amuses me to think if Lilah told them, Rambaldi, nothing. You are all still around and walking because of the Senior Partners. *g*

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

Man, I'll write "5 people who never dug up Sloane" if you write "Holland Manners welcomes the SpyParents to the Underworld" *g*

[nolivingman.livejournal.com]

Irina's story was the one sour note for me. I can hand-wave away the immortality thing, because I am pleased with the end result (Sloane's "punishment"), but there was just no making sense of Irina's story. The only thing I can think is that maybe they just didn't have much of Lena Olin's time, and so they couldn't do a really good job with setting up her involvement in the endgame, and so they threw their hands up and wrote that crap. It's weak, and really no excuse, but seems probable.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Irina really fared worst of everyone. And you know, lack of screen time isn't an excuse - it's interesting that in s2, Irina isn't half as present as one would believe in terms of sheer screentime, but even in the very first episode of s2, where she shoots Sydney in the shoulder and is responsible for Vaughn torture, she's more dimensional than here.

See my reply to popfantastic for my theory about the meta reasons for both the Sloane and the Irina use in the finale.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

I liked this episode in spite the flaws, mostly because I thought the Syd/Jack/Sloane character dynamics worked so well (my Goddard reference after I first watched the ep was to the standoff scene -- where Syd, like Wesley in "Lineage" is holding something the 'father' wants, the 'father' threatens a loved one, and Syd/Wesley empties a clip into him; what I thought was interesting here was that Sloane chose Jack rather than Vaughn to shoot; a sign he knows what Syd's real OTP is, though also perhaps also there's a theme going on about having to destroy the things you love to make your way to the goal. When I first watched it, I thought that Sloane misjudged her and thought she would be so concerned with Jack that she would let him go -- but he knows her better than that. So he must want her to shoot him, either because it's necessary to achieve immortality or as a test or an act of faith.

Anyway, in the light of seeing it as an ep about Jack & Sydney, the only retcon that actually bugged me was the whitewashing of the project Christmas stuff, which seemed intended to make Jack out as more of a victim-of-events than he was. Still, I just love love love the scene where she comes in and tells him about getting the job with the bank (though this also makes the part 1 retcon weird, because wouldn't she say "I have a job with your old friend Mr. Sloane?" It might be fun to figure out the reasons she didn't.)

Finally, question -- which episode is it where Sloane says that Rambaldi isn't just about immortality? I think I must have interpreted that differently than most people did, but I'd like to go back and read or watch it before I say anything.

another attempt to post replies at my lj which won't accept them today

[selenak.livejournal.com]

When I first watched it, I thought that Sloane misjudged her and thought she would be so concerned with Jack that she would let him go -- but he knows her better than that. So he must want her to shoot him, either because it's necessary to achieve immortality or as a test or an act of faith.

Yes. There is no way she would not shoot at once, and he knows that. Regarding the subject of sacrifices, there is the double one - his best friend, and his own life - on the altar of Rambaldi.

Re: Rambaldi and immortality, I quoted this to you on chat before, but I'll try to post it here for the benefit of other readers.

Fourth season, Another Mr. Sloane. Sloane is in the process of beating the only other person in the room to death after the goon said Cloane told him Rambaldi promised immortality.

Sloane: No! Is that what you think this is all about?! Immortality?! You bought the rumor, you simple-minded dilettante! A mystery. The true secrets of these creations will always be held back from you, the unworthy!!

[gelliaclodiana]

You know, it's strange. I see all the points you make, and agree with them. And yet as I was watching it, the whole thing worked for me somehow (with the exception of irina's evil-all-along reveal). And I'm just not thinking about the missiles because it makes no sense at all.

OK, I do disagree about Jack (although I agree that he was thrown into the Rambaldi juice and that he and Arvin will now be trapped together for a very long time), because I think that he got the thing he really did want -- to destroy Sloane. They've always been rivals, and I think it mattered a great deal to Jack to come out on top, even if it meant sacrificing his own life.

I don't know -- I feel like I should have more to say in response to this post, but I don't quite know what that would be.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

During watching, I was somewhat caught up in the spell as well, except whenever missiles were mentioned, and during Irina's scenes. But about a minute afterwards, I started to think....

Re: Jack - okay, ong-time-wanted-triumph, absolutely, but don't you think he'd rather have been around as a grandfather to Isabell, with Sydney, and preferably occasional visits from Irina and/or Arvin in not-Evil-Overlord mode?

[gelliaclodiana]

Re: Jack - okay, ong-time-wanted-triumph, absolutely, but don't you think he'd rather have been around as a grandfather to Isabell, with Sydney, and preferably occasional visits from Irina and/or Arvin in not-Evil-Overlord mode?

Sure. Jack isn't suicidal (and I'm not sure that Tom was actively suicidal, either). But he didn't get the no-evil-overlords option, and granted that Arvin had just won the immortality sweepstakes and (presumably) had some kind of long-term plan, Jack needed to take him out right away. I agree that there was clearly a hodgepodge, and ultimately a lack of decisiveness by the writers, in the Rambaldi plot, but in the Jack-and-Arvin scenes I saw something rather larger than the immortality-and-nukes plotline, and it seemed to me that ultimately Jack had to gamble on trapping (if not destroying) Arvin at that moment. And I thought that was satisfying.

And would Jakc prefer to be around to be Isabelle's grandfather (with Sloane and Irina dropping by), if by doing so he guaranteed that Isabelle's life would be in danger? No. He'd rather that she were safe.

[likeadeuce.livejournal.com]

And would Jakc prefer to be around to be Isabelle's grandfather (with Sloane and Irina dropping by), if by doing so he guaranteed that Isabelle's life would be in danger? No. He'd rather that she were safe.

So, wait, are we suggesting that our hero might deliberately choose the dramatic and possibly-unnecessary self-sacrifice above his own happiness? Where would we get the idea that characters think like that? *looks at icon* Oh yeah.

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

I liked the finale more than you, though I am of course in Deep Jack Mourning.

However, I think Jack's surprise at the puzzle was meant to antedate Project Christmas, or at least Jack running it on Sydney. What I took from it was that Jack had not yet put Sydney through Project Christmas (though IMHO he'd probably considered it) when she found the puzzle and solved it. At that point, he saw PC as a reward -- a sign that his daughter was that good, that smart. That's sort of a twisted way to look at it, but OTOH, I can believe in that as being Jack's brand of twisted.

I also can entirely believe Sydney not remembering the Sloanes -- yes, even if she lived with them for six months. When you're that small and that traumatized, honestly, it's the kind of thing that can be forgotten. (And sometimes, not even when you're that small or that traumatized. I once introduced myself to somebody at a wedding who was deeply offended, b/c she'd sublet from my roommate five years before -- in other words, I roomed with this person for four months -- WHILE IN MY TWENTIES -- and within five years I had to be reminded who she was. Besides the enormous faux pas factor I will never live down, it goes to show you that not everything sticks. And I have a better than average memory -- usually.)

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

On other fronts:

1) I remain certain that immortality alone wasn't the only point of Rambaldi's endgame, just the beginning. I also knew from the moment the standoff began that Arvin would shoot Jack first because he loved him and now believed he could save him, and the entire greatness of Jack's death scene is that he was offered immortality and all that lay beyond it and cared for it not one whit. Simply growing old as a grandfather -- undoubtedly what he would've preferred -- was not an option. He could become like Arvin, or he could die protecting Sydney, Isabelle and by extension everyone else, and he made his choice.

2) I recognize that Jack's death was a beautifully written scene and utterly true to his character, complete with an ultimate fate for Arvin straight out of Greek mythology, and yet would I trade it for utterly sentimental slop that left him alive and happy, building sandcastles with his namesake? Yes. This is proof that I am fan first, writer second, I suppose.

3) The one part of the finale that made me unhappy in the aesthetic sense (as opposed to the purely emotional, said the person who has actually wept real tears for Jack) was Irina's characterization. I actually felt that they'd whitewashed her a bit in the S4 finale, but I was okay with it because it took us to a happy J/I place, and see above re: fan/writer dichotomy. If you look at everything in canon about Irina EXCEPT the S4 finale, her behavior here is understandable. It could easily have been made more so -- mention that she just lost Nadia and could reasonably have realized that Jack was dead or dying, and the anger and futility would probably outweigh all her better instincts -- but I could buy it save for that finale, when she actively worked to STOP Rambaldi's endgame, or some version of it.

I am, of course, sponsoring a Dearly Departed ficathon in which we get them all back. I usually stick to canon too, but hell, since when does Alias NOT have resurrections? I say we're being true to the spirit of the show. Never say die. :D

[violaswamp.livejournal.com]

Haven't seen the finale yet, but based on spoilers I think we need to hold a competition for who can come up with the best fanwanking of Irina's character in the finale. Maybe the fanwanking should be done in fic form--we can have an Irina Fanwank-athon.