From
AICN:
Herc's Seen ALIAS 3.2!
Alias 3.2 FAQ
What are they called?
Succession.
Who's responsible?
Teleplay is credited to Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman-Counter (Double Agent, Free Agent).
What does TV Guide say?
Syd's search for her past leads to a jailed Sark (David Anders), but their Q&A is cut short when he becomes the ransom for a pair of abducted CIA scientists, whose kidnappers may be tied to the murder of his father. Meanwhile, Jack contacts an old friend of sorts for info on Sloane's new world-peace project; and Vaughn makes a decision about his future as an operative. Lauren: Melissa George. Lindsey: Kurt Fuller.
The big news?
Jack's not only out of stir after a year, he's already back working for the CIA!
The bigger news?
It turns out Syd is not the only CIA operative who has experienced lost time. There are so many, in fact, that they've started their own support group!
Who's the old friend Jack contacts about Sloane's new world-peace project?
I think the old friend TV Guide is talking about is Sloane. (Jack doesn't believe Sloane's peace story any more than we do, and believes Sloane is somehow behind Syd's missing two years. TV Guide might also mean Irina Derevko, though Jack contacts her about the Russian diplomat Syd killed, not Sloane's project.
So Lena Olin is back?
No. Jack talks to Irina Laura Derevko Bristow only via Internet chat. Jack wasn't certain she was even alive; it's been more than a year since they communicated. Irina learns from Jack that Syd is alive.
Does Dixon really trust Sloane now, just two years after Sloane murdered Dixon's wife?
For the record, I don't [trust Sloane], admits Dixon. I never will. But I can't deny that despite my feelings for Sloane, he has provided us with accurate intelligence for over a year now.
What else is TV Guide not telling us?
TV Guide continues to lie to you! The magazine's report a month ago that Syd and Weiss would be roomies this season is erroneous. Syd gets new digs (two blocks from the beach, we're told), but Weiss is merely her next-door neighbor.
Sark is back, eh?
Tonight's episode is almost Sark-centric. The Covenant arranges for Sark's release from U.S. custody. It turns out that the guy we saw Syd murder at the end of last week's episode was Sark's father, a Russian diplomat and a descendant of the Romanov royal family. Turns out the murdered diplomat had $800 million in Romanov gold -- which is now Sark's!
Do we finally meet the Melissa George character?
In the final scene.
Is Vaughn's decision to rejoin the CIA?
Yes.
Do we learn what Vaughn teaches?
French! (Michael Vartan is a bona fide Frenchman, born in France and raised by both an American mother and a French father in France and the United States)
Do we learn what happened to Will Tippen?
We do. Now that will is in witness protection, I can't even contact him, Syd tells Weiss early in the episode.
Does Carrie Bowman, preggers with a little Flinkman, return this week?
She does not.
Isn't it ironic that a piece of the Rambaldi device, the one that supposedly spit out the word peace, had to be removed from some poor guy's chest late last season?
Ironic!
Do we finally learn the unspoken thing Sloane learned from the David Carradine character?
No.
Do we finally learn what sin Sloane committed 30 years ago that led to his wife's death?
No.
What were Irina's last words to Syd last season?
It's you in the prophecy, Sydney, not me. Only you can stop him. Good luck, sweetheart. I love you.
Is that why the woman depicted in Rambaldi's utter desolation warning looks so much more like Syd than Irina?
Maybe?
What was that prophecy again?
This woman here depicted will possess unseen marks, signs that she will be the one to bring forth my works. Bind them with fury, a burning anger, unless prevented at vulgar cost. This woman will render the greatest power unto utter desolation.
What's good?
The answers we get (regarding Will, Irina, etc.) and the answers we don't get. The episode leaves us wondering about that char-broiled doppleganger they found two years ago. Was it Syd's clone? Or is the current Syd the clone, and the dead girl the real Syd? Did Sloane, as Syd suspects, abduct her? And what does The Telling really do? As Jack tells Sloane: Personally, I would have found it anticlimactic that after expecting to assemble a weapon of ultimate power, you ended up with a revelation you could have acquired from a fortune cookie.
What's not so good?
The two big action sequences this week come off as obligatory and a little confusing. Sark's story is really convoluted; hopefully it's setting up a worthwhile payoff.
How does it end, spoiler-boy?
Hi! gasps Syd.
Herc's rating for Alias 3.2?
***
The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:
***** better than we deserve
**** better than most motion pictures
*** actually worth your valuable time
** as horrible as most stuff on TV
* makes you quietly pray for bulletins
9 p.m. Sunday. ABC.
