Wednesday January 19, 2005
405
Sydney and Vaughn are sent on a mission by APO to obtain a sample of a new bio-weapon, known as Ice 5, which can literally freeze a person to death. When the agents learn the substance is going to be sold to a buyer in Damascus, together Sydney and Vaughn have to turn each of the family members against each other while remaining undercover. But when they are found out, there are devastating consequences. Meanwhile Nadia asks Jack for the truth about her mother, and Sydney begins to wonder if Vaughn has really come to terms with Lauren's death.
Write a Recap »A stunning episode from an underrated season. Great character development, stellar guest stars (see Kelly MacDonald), and moving parallels. hide show
"Ice" is one of my favorite episodes of the later chapters of Alias, simply because of the incredible performances given by Michael Vartan and guest star Kelly MacDonald. The episode started off rather nicely, with a man "explod[ing] like a frozen piñata." Soon, Sydney, Vaughn, and Dixon are off on a mission, and the story begins.
I cannot say enough about the brilliant Kelly MacDonald, introduced as nurse Kiera MacLaine. She plays her role with wit and stern control, touched with a heart-wrenching vulnerability. The introduction of the character's relationship with baddie-of-the-week Fintan Keene (a reveal that he is her older brother) shows one of tension, and conflicted loyalty. As she says, "Love the sinner, hate the sin." The team soon discovers that her real name is Meghan Keene, former IRA. Her actions led to the death of a father and two boys. With a heartbreaking and touching realism she conveys her shame and regret, her conflict, her struggle to break away from her brother.
This episode is a fine example of the range of Michael Vartan's skills. As he taunts Dixon to hit him, just the beginnings of Vaughn's emotional wounds are introduced. His connection with MacDonald's character is beautiful. The 'flirty priest' gets under MacLaine's skin, and she gets under his. A tavern confessional between the two is incredibly touching – in order to get Kiera to open up, Vaughn tells her about Lauren, about his overwhelming hate for her, and about how he murdered her. He tells her the toll it has taken on him, how he can't close him eyes, can't sleep. Kiera tells him that forgiveness is a tricky thing, and then opens up about her relationship with Fintan. She is, however incredibly resistant to the thought of breaking away from him. The entire scene is incredibly well-written and well-acted, focusing on forgiveness and shame, and redemption.
As they return to the hospital, Fintan arrives, boasting that his sister would never betray him. Kelly MacDonald is simply amazing throughout this entire scene, as her character watches her brother prepare to inject the substance (Ice-5) that froze the man in the opening sequence directly into the brain of the man who was trying to get her away from the life she hated. And when Fintan turns to her and says, "You do it," the look on her face is painful to see, as she feels both compelled to do what her brother demands and sickened by hurting someone that was trying to help her. Of course, Sydney bursts in, in the nick of time, and a fight ensues. As Fintan spins and stabs who he thinks is Vaughn with the syringe of Ice-5, it is Kiera who gasps.
Vaughn holds her as she dies; before she passes, she struggles to tell him that she forgives him. She then draws her final breath, and Vaughn can do nothing but look up at Sydney, helpless. On the plane ride home, Vaughn finally closes his eyes, and sleeps.
Again, this is one of my personal favorites from season 4. Kelly MacDonald's performance plays a big hand in that, but the main reason is that it's nice to see emotional character development in someone other than Sydney. So, it is highly recommended. A fine piece of television from a fine series.
I dont feel like I am watching Alias this season. There really is no overlying plan, no huge terrorist cell that is being establsihed here. Individual missions have been done before in this show by the old SD-6, but the works of Rambaldi were always the topics of the random missions. This season, the missions are random and none of the episodes seem to flow together. In previous seasons, you could never take any two episodes and flip them because the timeline of the show would be incorrect. Season 4 seems to be quite the opposite. Flipping "Ice" and "The Awful Turth" would have little to no effect on anything. I expect that on shows like Numbers, Criminal Minds, and The Sheild...not Alias. Things need to flow in a pattern and Alias is all messed up at the moment. The writing is easy to predict and its bad at that. The "I forgive you..." line said by the woman as Vaughn is holding her was terrible.
The Alias crew is working too hard to move people into the show. This season they got a new timeslot and they took away what makes the show good. They have given every episode an ending, no cliffhangers like the golden days. This is the worst episode of the series so far and I enjoy that tv.com viewers have also thought so.
Long Live Julian Sark!
What the hell was that? Was I watching some low cost horror flick? hide show
What... the... hell.
Alias is definitely NOT based on reality. But this episode... Ice-5, a lethal weapon which freezes you from the inside. How cool.
The episode opens with the founder of this weapon dying - first he loses his leg, then he falls into a million pieces. Surely. It wasn't horrifying or anything, but it was definitely disturbing and sick. Something that shouldn't be on Alias in my opinion.
What's worse, is that, the rest of the episode is even worse. Sydney goes undercover as a nurse, Vaughn goes undercover as a priest... how exciting.
The characters' are dumbed down, too. Especially Sloane. He's all good and effective now. What happened to Rambaldi? Why it isn't even MENTIONED?
Why the hell is Weiss and Marshall credited as series regulars when they hardly get 2 minutes screentime? And why does Nadia get more than them? With her photos... oh gosh.
The ending was so soap opera, too. No cliffhanger. No, of course not. Season 4 is all about standalone episodes... yeah, ok. I want my Alias back. This isn't Alias. This is a show with the same cast, but much crappier writers.
Overally, there was NOT even ONE redeeming quality of this episode, except maybe for Jennifer Garner's hot looks.
The hiring of various Buffy/Angel writers seems to have had an immediate effect on Alias, as this episode almost completely abandons reality and features people literally smashing to pieces.
Ice sees Sydney and Vaughn going undercover to track down a deadly new weapon called Ice-5, which when injected into a human body, rapidly turns their body to ice. Meanwhile, Vaughn faces up to the past.
The Ice-5 device is extremely cool (just noticed the pun) and the special effects as Modell shattered to pieces were amazing. Thankfully, the rest of the storyline never felt like a let down after the explosive teaser sequence.
The episode is owned, however, by both Michael Vartan and guest star Kelly Macdonald. Vaughn's remorse for killing Lauren is the subplot of the episode and Vartan really nails it. The scene between him and Keira is heartbreaking to watch and excellently played out by both parties.
There was a lot of action throughout Ice. The big fight scene at the end featured some excellent use of various operating equipment and the close-up of Keira's eye as it frosted over was awesome.
The photograph subplot was intriguing but I can't actually remember if it was followed up on. My memory of Alias year four is pretty vague, so I'm probably just being forgetful.
All in all, Ice was an impressive episode, going for more than just visual greatness and culminating in the best hour of the season so far.
Director: Jeffrey Bell
Writer: Jeffrey Bell
Rating: A
Just for the record i write this review in Finnish, because I'm sick and tired to write in English at the moment. So, anybody who doeasn't understund Finnish can't get anything of this! hide show
Alussa olin aivan varma että tämä jonkinlainen luultavasti Sydneyn painaijainen. Mutta olisihan minun ahkrrana Aliaksen katsojana pitänyt tietää että tässä sarjassa ei paljoa painajaisia näytetä vaan ne ovat todellisuutta.
Hieman kyllä järkytyin kun tajusin että sen miehen pää räjähti miljoonaan osaan oikeasti (tai niin oikeasti kun tv-sarjassa voi)
Tästä lähtee taas kerran jännittävä tapahtuma sarja kun Sydney pukeutuu tällä kertaa lääkäriksi ja lähtee vakoilemaan sairaalaa jossa valmistetaan ainetta joka saa ihmisen jäätymään.
Sairaalassa Sydney huomaa tarvitsevansa apua ja Vaughn tuleekin auttamaan häntä papin puvussa ja haavan kanssa joka tarvitsee paikkausta. Vaughn saa naislääkärin hoitjakseen ja yrittää iskeä häntä ja lääkäri arasti vastaa.
Tämän naislääkärin veli on koko Ice-ohjelman takana ja he tarvitsevat lääkärin puolelleen jotta saisivat aineen. Sydney nappaakin sen mutta lääkäri ja Vaughn jäävät kiinni kun he yrittävät karata. Veli uhkailee Vaughnia pistävänsä tätä ainetta joka pakastaisi hänet. Vaughn pistää vastaan ja annos osuukin lääkärin joka jäätyy ja kuolee.
Matkalla pois Sydney sanoo Vaughnille että hän voi puhua hänelle myös ja käpertyy hänen syliin.
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