Alias

It's a visit down memory lane with ''The Nemesis,'' an episode that actually had me intrigued about what the Covenant are up to. There's plenty on offer for long-term fans, as Allison makes her season 3 debut, with Merrin looking as good as ever!



Everything just seems to click with this one. Scribe, Crystal Nix, does a terrific job of making the series feel like Alias again. There's plenty of juicy references to lap up, even visual gags such as the episode opening up with Syd enjoying a run through the park brought back memories. It may seem like an odd thing to miss, but I do.



The script is filled with a lot of fun elements. I think this is the first real episode of the 3rd season where Syd dawns an Alias and hits up a club - minor, but crucial, excursions where the writer has the opportunity to take a break from the high tension and let loose with hilarious lines like ''check out the guy with no rhythm'' or Vaughn jokingly considering a nose job, add that little somethin' somethin' extra to the show.



The highlight for me had to be watching Syd act as Arvin's handler. His jab about Syd letting Vaughn control her was a low-blow, and it's times like these that Sloane is at his best. He really knows how to crawl under the skin of anyone, and even though Syd managed to stay calm and collected, you could see she was just about to break. Ah, but revenge is sweet, cos Syd forced Sloane to inquire about her missing two years, threatening to compromise his cover (''sucks being a double agent, doesn't it?'').



It was always going to be hard to top the fight scene from The Telling, but the showdown we get here is curiously lit and poorly directed. Still, that flashback to Francie dying was surprisingly powerful - I miss her. And as if that weren't enough, Rambaldi is brought into the equation and it turns out he knew how to accelerate the healing process (a step towards his efforts in gaining immortality).



Overall, this is the Alias I've been wanting from season 3. Dixon finally lets down his barrier (''I want the B*** dead''), Marshal reaches an all time funny, Lauren has an AMAZING body, and these are simply obscure observations in an otherwise jam-packed, mythology driven episode. The ending seemed a little tacked on, though. It seemed to be overly dramatic for the sake of whipping up a cliffhanger. OK, we get it, Allison managed to break free after being shot. Are we forgetting Syd's super heroic antics in Taipei, after her mother shot her? Hrmm.

I didnt like the big twist in this episode that much that Allison was alive after all this time. But just getting used to the fact that The Covenent went in and extracted her and Sydney - she goes and escapes from custody. That, to me, was the only part of the episode I didnt like. Sydney leaves her withou much of a pulse and instead of the CIA handeling it they let her go to a normal hospital with subpar supervision? That to me is the only thing that didn't make sense.



I did very much enjoy the flashback scenes from Phase One and The Telling. I also enjoyed that Allison happened to get the better of Sydney and Vaughn when they were trying to keep the man alive. Its refreshing every now and again to see a mission fail at the hands of the bad guys and not always lets the CIA pull through.



Overall, this episode has a mixed reaction from me. I still hesitate with the decision to leave Allison alive, it seemed like she got pretty banged up in the finale last year.

OMG...will there BE a bad episode in this season? It doesn't look like it so far, but it's still to early to tell.



This was an awesome episode. Francie's doppelganger, Allison, returns, and through a flashback we get a reminder of how great the real Francie was, which made me want to demolish the doppelganger right then and there. Yes, I know this is fiction. But still. It's AWESOME.



I also feel that I have to reserve a paragraph for Marshall. Once more, he's really great and brings loads of laughs. In his big scene here he forces an impatient Vaughn to listen to a "rock" song he has written to propose to Carrie, the woman he got pregnant while Sydney was gone. He's not a bad singer, actually, but the scene was really funny.



In this episode, Jennifer Garner's acting gets a bit forced, which takes away from the show in those scenes. I think the director tries to make her act TOO determined and hard-headed. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, and only a few times in this episode did it not make me frustrated with that particular bit.



Overall, a good episode. Lauren wasn't in it much, which I like because I needed a break from her and Sydney. It seems as though she's getting very close to revealing Sydney as the murderer, which should get very juicy.