This _S_H_O_U_L_D_ _H_A_V_E_ _B_E_E_N_ the Series Finale -- they could have cut this episode about 2 minutes shorter and had the good sense to go out on top!

Instead they gave us season five -- with 17 pitiful episodes hardly worth watching, as they tried to pull together a convulted plot (even more convulted than usual for this series) in a hopeless attempt to set things up for a spin off version of the series.

Alias wasn't the first series to make this mistake - and probably won't be the last - but it was certainly a classic example of a show that died a lingering and painful death by trying to go back to the money trough once too often.