Alias

Prophet Five

Season 5, Episode 1, Aired 9/29/05

Episode Summary

After learning that the man she has known as Michael Vaughn is under investigation and suspected of being a double agent, Sydney begins to question whether their business and personal relationship over the years had all been a lie. When she discovers that she's pregnant with Vaughn's baby, she becomes determined to uncover the truth about him. Meanwhile, because of Jack's past betrayal by Irina, he begins to worry that his daughter may suffer the same fate that he did.moreless

8.6

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Cast & Crew

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Carl Lumbly

Marcus R. Dixon
Victor Garber

Jonathan 'Jack' Donahue Bristow
Ron Rifkin

Arvin Sloane

Fan Episode Reviews (48)

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Not much emotion from Sydney!

7.6

"Good"

By therockstop, Sep 19, 2007 Report Abuse

For the first episode of a season in which a main character is killed off there should have been more to it. I have always been an Alias fan but Syd did not show much emotion when the father of her child is gunned down and later dies in the hospital. I guess I expected more in an episode that has something major like this develop. I still love this show and will keep watching it but Im gonna miss Vaughn or whoever he is. It looks like there will be a new character revealed so that will be interesting. I just thought it would be more emotional than it was.moreless

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obviously not what I expected

7.0

"Good"

By diecaro, Sep 18, 2007 Report Abuse

After the season 4 finale, I expected there to be a huge fallout in season 5, a long story with a lot of explanations about Vaughn. I thought they'd have time to talk, explore their past and their future.
But what do those writers come up with? A storyline for probably most of this final season that evolves all around Vaughn and they just kill him off... I can't believe it. And then it was a rather weak exit. When he was shot, I expected Sydney to run towards him screaming. That would have been a suitable ending. But not like this. Having him die in the hospital with those clichee last words. I don't know, it was just not what I expected of the show and these writers.
It's not that it wasn't sad anyway. I did cry. At least a bit. But it could have been more. And I especially hated the quick forwarding to four months later. I always hate when they do that.
How's this show supposed to work with Vaughn gone and Sydney unable to go at her usual strength considering that she's pregnant? I've been waiting a while for this season to come to my country and now that I've started watching it on the internet, it turns out to be rather disappointing... :-(moreless

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A great, if somewhat inconsistent season five premiere.

8.9

"Great"

By PabloExobar, Sep 08, 2007 Report Abuse

Unfortunately, personal issues/matters do occur quite often, even with the actors and actresses.

Alias is no exception. Jennifer Garner's pregnency - obviously - had to be written into the plot.

Why? Why not just do "clever" camera angles(like in this episode, for the most part). Well, it's easy to explain: you can't cover her stomach while she's fighting! And Alias without action is just not Alias.

The writers backed themselves out from this corner by rushing the plot a bit, leaving almost everyone confused.

Another "big" and powerful organization(of course, evil) is introduced in this season - prophet 5. The cliffhanger is resolved. Of course, both Vaughn and Sydney survives. Vaughn is revealed to be a double agent - Andr Michaux. He was working with a wanted criminal Rene Rienne to gather information of prophet 5.

Let's not waste space by detailing the plot of the episode. Let's just straight get to the point.

Vaughn dies.

A very brave choice by the writers. This of course gives an ultimate goal for Sydney(bring down P5) but also, makes the show feel less.

The problem is, Alias is mainly about characters, and the lack of Vaughn means that Sydney's character can hardly be developed, because Vaughn was the only person Sydney talked to.

There were many issues with the episode, which are mostly because of the rushed writing.

For example, Vaughn's death was cruel. First: he gets shot 6 times at least. A few seconds later he gets shot AGAIN. Cut to hospital. He's alive. He SEEMS to be stable. He's gonna survive... and then he collapses. Dies.

Basically, in my opinion, it was a huge mistake to let him survive the attack. Or, simply make him take fewer bullets. It was really weird.

Another thing is Gordon Dean. Sure, it was a good twist to make him a "bad guy", but why is the CIA so weak when it comes to the security? Almost as bad as "CTU" in 24.

Another issue, but this was because of the pregnancy, the ending. Advancing time is mostly a mistake, just like in this case. It just felt like a cop out, not showing everyone's reaction to Vaughn's death.

On the upside, it was really dramatic, and the episode was full of twists and turns. Overall, a very sad, and frustrating episode, but technically, it was very good too.moreless

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Review

9.4

"Superb"

By cavanagh15, Aug 19, 2007 Report Abuse

Strong episode which worked off of the only decent part of "Before The Flood" - the cliffhanger. We got the answers we were looking for in this episode and it seems that we also got the main storyarch of the shortened season with Dean / Helicopter Pilot / Some sort of hidden underground facility that they use to sponser all of this.

Vaughn (I will still call him that, for simplicitys sake) being a "double agent" was an odd choice to take season five, but the writers did a good job in writing this critical episode. If this episode was bad, so would the rest of the season. This episode was written very well by the writers and the only reason it is rated so low on tv.com is because we have more people voting then ever, most of which likely only saw the ending to season 4. This episode starts an entire new, fresh story arch that one would have to see the whole series to understand how emotional this episode was.

Vaughns death is huge for the series. I dont know what the deal is here - if he was meant to die in the writers overall gameplan or if they simply couldnt get him to come back for another season. Sydney showing no emotion during the funeral was good because that is what she is trained to do. Compartimentalize her emotions.

I thought the ending was good as well - I think that point four months from now is for sometime in the future, maybe closer to the end (maybe even the finale?) If they do pick up from right there, be interesting to see how they write it. Either way - season 5 started off with a bang, hate to see Micheal Varten leave the show - he has been with us since "Truth Be Told".moreless

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Micheal Vaughn is a double agent, I didn't see that coming.

9.7

"Superb"

By AloveMtvY, Jun 24, 2007 Report Abuse

When Vaughn died I was in shock, it broke my heart to Sydney's face when she saw Micheal get shot at the rail way lines. I thought for sure that Vaughn was dead. However when he was at the hosptal I thought that he was going to live. But then when his heart stopped so did mine, I didn't want Vaughn to die I liked him. When they declared him dead tears came streaming form my eyes it wasn't fair, he had a baby coming. I couldn't stop crying at the funeral scene, the music and the tears from the characters were heart renching. I couldn't believe that they had killed Vaughns character off the show, I thought that they have made a mistake by doing that, but it has the final season even better. This episode is exactly why I watch the show because it's full of drama, action and even suspence. I hope that they catch Gordan Dean for Sydneys sake, she deserves closure, and she won't get it while Gordan is still out there. An great episode!moreless

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Trivia, Notes, Quotes and Allusions

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Trivia
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- It is inconceivable that airbags would not have deployed when the car Sydney and Vaughn were in was hit. Given that the car looked relatively new, it would have been equipped with airbags, yet they did not appear at any point. Edit
- Signs appearing in the episode should be in Italian (they are in Rome), however they are wrong. When they meet Lehman, a sign over a door says "Esito" instead of "Uscita" (Exit). At the railway, a sign says "Alto" instead of "Stop". Edit
- This is the last time Director Chase, who was played by Angela Basset throughout season 4, is directly mentioned in Alias. The last time she actually appeared on the show was season 4. Edit
Notes
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- Greg Grunberg was billed as Special Guest Star in this episode. Edit
- The opening scenes of this episode, including Sydney's venture through the corn-field, were clearly shot well-before the other scenes used - there are a few shots where Jennifer Garner is evidently not pregnant (for instance there's a shot of her belly when she raises the shotgun she acquires to shoot one of Vaughn's captors). However, from these scenes on, Jennifer is clearly pregnant, even though Sydney is not supposed to be (noticeably, at least) until the final scene of the episode (see in particular the party scene later on in the episode where Syd is holding a sort of hand-scarf that conveniently hides her belly from a side-view). *NOTE* Per the episode commentary with Ken Olin and Jeff Pinckner, Jennifer Garner was about 4 months pregnant when the cornfield scenes were shot. Edit
- Original International Air Dates: Australia: June 17, 2007 on Channel 7 Slovakia: February 3, 2010 on Markiza Edit
Quotes
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- Vaughn: …Yeah!, you're going to be an amazing mum… And I'm going to be a disaster, I've never changed a diaper. Sydney: Neither have I, we're going to have to call Marshall for help. Edit
- Renee: How did you find me? Sydney: I know everything. Renee: Then you should have walked away. Sydney: You don't know me very well. Edit
- Sydney: I just need to know how you feel. Is it something you want? Vaughn: The truth? Sydney: Off course. Vaughn: What we do, the things we see every day . . . honestly, no. I . . . I didn't think this was what I wanted. I mean, bringing a baby into this world that's so messed up. I just ... I just assumed that I'd wait, that we'd wait. Sydney: For ...? Vaughn: For things to ... be safe, or at least safer. But looking at you, all I can think about is what our kid is gonna be like. And I ... I'm not worried about the world. I just, I can't wait to meet this new little person. Edit
Allusions
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