Meanwhile...

[selenak]

Hattingen, which is in our former coal mining area, the Ruhrgebiet, is today's town, and the Jossverse muses are talking to me again, which is fortunate, since it gives me the chance to write my between-the-seasons-ficathon story. I'm continuing to rewatch s4 of Alias as well, which makes me happy and sad at the same time, because despite there being a lot in season 5 which I did like, I more and more think it should have been the final season. It was that good, not just for my beloved First Gen Spies but also for the younger crowd, Sydney, Nadia, Vaughn, Weiss, Dixon and Marshall, and baring the tag scene which led into s5, it gave everyone a good (not always in the sense of happy, of course, but in the sense of "complete/ new phase of life starting") ending. Most of all, it excelled at shades of grey. . Something like Jack garotting Sasha the warlord? Would not have happened in s5, because it falls decidedly not under the "protect Sydney" mandate but is Jack doing something dark for his own sake, not because Sasha is warlording about but because Sasha betrayed him, personally. And call me prejudiced, but I think as depictions of Sloane's conflicting feelings for Nadia and Rambaldi, or as confrontations with both past crimes and the enormity of what he's still capable of, episodes like Another Mr. Sloane, In Dreams or earlier Detente are simply better written than the crucial "Don't make me choose" scene in 30 Seconds. As for Irina... Alas, Irina. I knew her well, Horatio. Back when she was allowed to have three dimensions. Or, to quote Arvin Sloane and his daughter from Pandora:

Nadia: I thought Katya might be able to fill in the blanks about my mother. Tell me who she was.

Sloane: I see. Well. . .thank you for telling me. Nadia? What did she tell you?

Nadia: Nothing I didn’t already know. That she was a criminal. A murderer.

Sloane: (gets up) Sweetheart, no one is a single thing. Look, I understood Irina. We were both cut from the same cloth. Both committed to our work. And I suppose because of that, we both did some things that are unforgivable. But, Nadia, Irina is also capable of having a great capacity for love. I saw the way she looked at Sydney. The way she held that child in her arms. And I am absolutely sure she felt the same way about you. She searched for you, Nadia. She may not be here to answer your questions, but the one thing I know to be true- your mother loved you.

Nadia: I’d like to believe that.

Sloane: Then do.




***

Some Dr. Who links, regarding blondes who I gather aren't that popular in the fandom: here is a spirited defense of Jo Grant, companion to the Third Doctor. And bimo wrote a lovely character vignette, The Fabric That God Weaves, about Reinette, aka Madame de Pompadour, with a real sense of period. Read and enjoy.

Comments

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Strictly speaking, Jack kills Sasha because the CIA is sending somebody to kill Sasha. Had Jack not done it, the task would have fallen to the virtuous Dixon, and there's no suggestion that Dixon would not have completed the task. Jack's emotional response to Sasha is a lot more complicated than that, of course; he was clearly loved by this guy, and must have cared for him in turn, and you get the sense that Jack simultaneously loathes killing him and takes very real satisfaction in it, neither reaction eclipsing the other. But Sasha would've died by the CIA's hand even if Jack hadn't actually heard about it, which he very nearly didn't. Is it a clean-cut case of following orders (assuming that can be clean-cut)? No. But it's not Jack on a pure vengeance quest either; if it were, Sasha would've died a long time before.

S4 was far better at the shades of grey, and yes, I preferred that ending too. It was too easy an out for Irina, but not THAT easy, and certainly fanwankable into shape; if they'd finished with Syd and Vaughn's wedding instead of the car wreck, I'd have preferred that to what we got. (In order for it not to be candy-apple happy, Nadia probably would've had to die at Sevogda, which would've killed me, but it's not as though she fared any better in S5.) And it left it so much more open for us to play with.

I find the "whitewashing" comments re: Jack in S5 a bit off-target. The fact is that Jack got virtually nothing to do, period, in S5; he only appears in grandfather mode b/c that was his only interaction with Sydney, and if he wasn't interacting with Sydney, he pretty much wasn't onscreen. He flirted with an ex in a storyline that could just as easily have been given to Dixon, but that was unsatisfyingly brief, and that was it for non-Sydney stuff. Given that Sydney was in less of S5 than any other year -- nearly none right around baby time -- Jack got pushed way over to the margin. It seems like the criticism of the writing is aimed at the wrong point; it's not that they told the wrong story for Jack (there's nothing he does in S5 that strikes me as out of character for him, even remotely) as that they told almost no story for him.

I liked the first half of S5, weaker though it was; it seemed like an entertaining epilogue. "And after the big drama ended, here are some things that happened and some new people our characters met." The second half, although it had some good episodes, was a letdown. They had the ingredients for a really good conclusion, but nobody's hands were on the wheel. I always felt like Alias sometimes wobbled in the average stuff but hit the big emotional scenes out of the ballpark; late S5 was a series of bunts. Even things like Vaughn reuniting with Sydney didn't have anything like the oomph they should've.

That said -- yes, Jack blew up his explosives in a cave FILLED with immortality stuff, and doubles are everywhere, and Sloane's definitely alive under that rock. This is Alias. Nobody's dead unless you see them autopsied on-screen, and that only takes the chances of them staying dead up to 50/50. So I see no reason to lose heart. :)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Had Jack not done it, the task would have fallen to the virtuous Dixon, and there's no suggestion that Dixon would not have completed the task.

Oh, no question about it, and I loved that as well, because it made me believe in the reality of the Aliasverse more.

Is it a clean-cut case of following orders (assuming that can be clean-cut)? No. But it's not Jack on a pure vengeance quest either; if it were, Sasha would've died a long time before.

Agreed on that as well, and I didn't mean to imply Jack is presented as someone who waited all these years to kill Sasha, either. However, his last words to Sasha seem to imply that between the two motives - following orders, because Sasha is a warlord and a risk to general security (and the episode makes no bones about Sasha's utter ruthlessness, either, starting with the teaser and his minion killing himself for fear of Sasha), and avening a personal betrayal, the personal reason was the stronger for Jack.

it's not that they told the wrong story for Jack (there's nothing he does in S5 that strikes me as out of character for him, even remotely) as that they told almost no story for him.

Again, I agree, and would rephrase my original comment to: "In other seasons - not just 4, of course - we saw more of Jack and Jack's various dimensions because Jack got more screentime."

So I see no reason to lose heart.

I know, and most of the time I don't but am busy writing, because one thing the later half of s5 certainly has inspired in me are ficlets and roleplay (both AU and post-finale canon), but now and then I am petty and sulk. Forgive me?

Re: s 4 finale as final scenario:
Nadia probably would've had to die at Sevogda, which would've killed me, but it's not as though she fared any better in S5

True, and shot by her father in Sevogda intentionally because at that point there was no other way to save both Sydney and the world is way better than being pushed aside by him and dying because a glass sofa table stands in the way. (Also, in both cases Sloane is guilty, because in the first case she wouldn't have been in the zombie situation to begin with if he hadn't messed around with the water, but in the first he makes a deliberate choice.)

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Oh, somehow I will forgive you for wonderful meta and fic in the Aliasverse, somehow I will manage it, somehow. :D

[bimo.livejournal.com]

You know your rec made my day, don't you :-)

Some Dr. Who links, regarding blondes who I gather aren't that popular in the fandom

Who fandom at the moment seems to act quite a bit bi-polar as far as Reinette is concerned. Some really strange "love Rose/hate Reinette vs. love Reinette/hate Rose" dynamics at work there...

I've already started to feel a bit odd because I actually happen to enjoy both of them.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Call me odd as well, as I enjoy both of them, too.

Morever, I do hope you write more Who, because I really loved that ficlet!

[bimo.livejournal.com]

Morever, I do hope you write more Who

Well, while it's still too early to tell, I've got a certain feeling that Who might turn into one of my more productive fandoms...

So yes, there probably will be more ;-)