B.A.

"Blood Ties"



Cast: Jennifer Garner, Victor Garber, Ron Rifkin, Michael Vartan, Carl Lumbly, Kevin Weisman, Melissa George, Greg Grunberg, David Anders, Mia Maestro, Richard Roundtree, Glen Morshower, Yun Choi, Erik Jensen, Donna M. Perkins.
Director(s): Jack Bender.
Producer(s): JJ Abrams, John Eisendrath, Ken Olin.
Writer(s): Alison Schapker, Monica Breen.

Original Airdate: April 25, 2004.

Patman

Pretty good episode.

Jack and Sydney are related biologically based on DNA tests.

Sloan's still got some tricks up that crusty ol' sleeve of his as he leaves both Sark and company, as well as Jack and Sydney, in the dust once the Passenger (Nadia) has been rescued from a Chechnya prison.

Vaughn gets the crap shocked out of him as Sark used all sorts of torture techniques to find where the Passenger is. Lauren's been totally exposed as the mole, so the point of no return has been reached for her.

Superman07

I'm gonna say this was more of a "setup" episode. Perhaps it was just me, but I felt things were off balance or unsettling. I am glad Lauren didn't really love Vaughn, and instead was just playing him. Pretty sweet he picked up on the truck driver bit. I hope she gets it by him at the end of the season.

Sloan is creapy as usual. Meanwhile, I'm wondering if the kryptonite syrum is what triggers her sister to become "the passenger" - aside from simply being her sister and born into it.

B.A.

I still liked the ep, even though not a single twist and turn was very surprising - as the show went along I pretty much called what would happen before it did (Lauren "freeing" Vaughn, Sark's phone call in regards to the whereabouts of the Passenger, Sloane escaping w/ the Passenger and dosing her towards the end).

Did her sister really say she was Argentinian Intelligence? Or is my hearing f'ked up?

mverleg1

You heard correctly.

MrX

good episode

I'm glad they didn't go ahead with Lauren still loving Vaughn. Now we get to look forward to Syd or Vaughn finally killing her

Rogue588

Not enough torture.

Jeremy517

I can't believe there are only two more episodes this season. They wasted too much time before they got back into the Rambaldi storyline.

PapaWheelie

Couldn't agree more. Here's hoping for a two hour season finale. (Which I doubt will happen.)

Great episode btw. Vaughn's comment on Sark's puberty (as he was holding that abnormally large shocking device) was hilarious.

Ranger

It was okay. I didn't understand what and why Sloane was doing at the end. I'll still admit I didn't see every second of this episode.

But you guys are all wrong. The best part was when Lauren said to Vaughn something like "You're smarter than we thought." and kicks Vaughn's head.

Static Cling

We're finally getting to see Sloane's endgame, I think.

When Sloane assembled The Telling at the end of last season, he learned of The Passenger. He realized that The Passenger could get him much closer to Rambaldi than just collecting his musty old artifacts. He created his non-profit-organization so that he could match The Passenger's DNA that The Telling gave him to someone... going "good" gave him the legitimacy he needed so that he could operate in public. Now that he has The Passenger... the reason for his squealing to the CIA and creating OmniFam... he can drop all of this "good guy" bullcrap and go back to getting the Rambaldi fix he's been jonesing for. The juice he was shooting her up with is going to help her tap into some sort of mystical Rambaldi mojo. Like the Force, or something.

kantonburg

I believe Static Cling hit it on the head.

I do like however they never really got around to trusting Sloan again. They straight up told him they needed him but would better seem him off dead.

Things should pick up real soon.

lisadoris

Interesting episode, I agree it was basically set-up for the last two eps. Vaughn's puberty comment was pretty funny. Sark is getting back to the slimy character we've all grown to love.

One question though: Sloane obviously blew off both the Britow's and the Covenant so obviously Sark knew Sloane was still breathing. When exactly did Sloane contact the Covenant? Lauren didn't seem too concerned that Sloane was killed in the first place. This is pure speculation on my part but maybe SpyDaddy wasn't the only person slipping mickey's into Sloane's body prior to the execution.

mookiemeister

Lauren finally showed her true color and is pretty evil in this episode. I wonder if she will survive past the season finale.

Sloan back to his usual manipulation self. Not sure what he's up to with Syd's sister, but interesting to watch. I knew Jack should've kept Sloan dead and not revive him.

Meatpants

This reminded me of one of the later X-Files episodes, where I know the things they're saying don't make sense, but I'm too tired/confused to sort it out.

I am really not digging the whole Sydney has a sister idea.

I'm still disappointed they copped out and just make Lauren straight-up evil - they had an opportunity to make a really interesting character out of her and blew it.

It still seems like no one is really reacting to Lauren being the mole - shouldn't there be more shock/anger? Shouldn't Vaughn be interrogated by the CIA, since he did marry a Covenant spy?

Why did they bother to fake Sloane's death if he was going to show up at The Trust's meeting 2 days later?

I thought The Passenger was going to be a biological weapon - now she's a conduit to Rambaldi? Whatever.

I can't wait til next season so Syd can ditch those bangs of hers.

Patman

If Nadia is so special that people die to protect her, why is she working in Argentinian Intelligence?

djbrown

Not sure if it means anything, but Nadia spelled backwards?

Aidan.

B.A.

I've been wondering that ever since she uttered the two words that I thought I would never hear on a tv show about spies - Argentinian Intelligence.

Why was she is Chechnya? There must be a major national security interest of Argentina's in the Chechen homeland. Where were her protector's when she was thrown in prison? wtf?

B.A.

I don't have my Rambaldi dictionary handy - what's the significance of that particular Gaelic name?

tofu

Great episode. It seems like everything is finally coming together for the season finale. I was actually believing that Sloane was actualy kind of a nice guy and actually cared for his daughter. I guess not.

As an aside, I saw Jennifer Garner's "Driven" on VH-1 last night after Alias and Victor Garber was on it talking about her but it seemed like he was talking about her as if he were Jack Bristow (with the same wardrobe and same mad, monotone voice that he uses). I just thought that was amusing.

guywall

Well, this episode caused another crack in the "This is the best show on TV" hype I had given to Alias in Season 1. I still think it is great, but monitoring people's brain waves from space? glowing green slime squriming around to form something? I like Sci-Fi, but not on Alias.

Other than those things, the episode was pretty good. I agree with Static - Nadia becomes Hulk/Alien/X-Man and hates Syd, which causes her to cry, drink alone in her house, listening to some hip music. Vaughn consoles her, but says it won't work, which causes her to cry, drink alone in her house, listening to some hip music. And so on, and so on...

dvduser6

Good episode, and I also agree it's just a setup for the last two shows of the season. I guess Lauren isn't coming in to work on Monday...

PapaWheelie

It was sometime during Vaughn's second round of torture (where he was strapped to the bed). Sloane tipped off someone in the Covenant who subsequently contacted Sark about The Passenger's whereabouts, which is why he decided to just kill off Vaughn instead torturing him more.

Meatpants

Didn't Sark just answer his cell phone and someone told him the info? It could've been Sloane himself.....

B.A.

That's what I assumed.