Alias 02/23/03 - "Firebomb"
 

After a week's hiatus, Alias is back, and we see how Vaughn helps get Sydney free from Sloane's clutches.

Not only Vaughan, but

Great episode! Can anyone tell me what they showed for next episode's preview? My local station spent the whole commercial break talking about current weather conditions until Dragnet started. :mad:

Good to see . Marshall is hilarious as usual. All that build-up on the Rambaldi device, and a bit of a letdown, though I guess with a season and a helf of build-up, pretty much anything would be a letdown. Should be interesting to see where this new development with Rambaldi takes us.

Marshall rocks!

Syd seemed rather cold towards Marhsall when he was showing her the heat suit.

marshall (to jack): you could try saying please.
jack: stares ahead blankly.

will: i can get you that web address if you want.

both of these lines had me rotfl

all in all just an average episode IMO, but the best part was mentioned above in the spoilers.

I liked it when Marshall told Sidney that she was extremely hot!

It seemed really staged that Will wrote the one paper the Director wanted to know more about. I thought the Alias writers could have come up with a better reason to have Will in that room.

It was good seeing Dixon back in action, kicking some ass - screw his wife! She's just a waste of screen time.

The "android" that took Francie's place is completely retarded - boring as hell.

Why doesn't Sydney just shoot Sloan? I know that would kill the major storyline of the show, but the minute she found out the detonator didn't work anymore she should have just turned around and shot him and not let him have a chance to get out of the car. Then she can call Harvey Keitel to come clean up the mess. (that would make a cool cameo, imo)

Marshall adds that little extra somethin', somethin' to the show, doesn't he?

There are so many fustrating characters in this episode: Dixon's wife, FakeFrancie, and of course, Slone. FakeFrancie bothers me the most, since everybody is so clueless about her. I'm shouting at the screen for Syd to shoot her already, but I bet she won't catch on until the end of the season or something.

Again with the Ford Focus. Honestly, why not just rename the show "Ford Focus and Nokia present Alias"??? It's irritating.

With what though? Unless I'm mistaken, she had no gun at that point.

That's correct, Syd and Vaghun had to drop their guns on the floor.

BTW...that one scene with FakeFrancie and Syd...did anybody catch the "creepy lesbian" vibe from FakeFrancie? First she was all cold and evil, and now she sort of gives off a psycho stalker feeling.

I half expect a Ford Focus to pull up in front of the CIA building as all the kids from <I>American Idol</I> jump out drinking Coke and flaunting their stylish Nokia phones. I praised them for subtle product placement last season, but it's annoying this time around.

As for the episode, I enjoyed it, although I didn't like Dixon's rationalization for forgiving Sydney. I wish he had seen the hypocrisy of his own actings, condemning her for doing the same thing he did to his wife, but instead he just said he didn't know what he'd do given the circumstances. That's a fine reason too, I guess, but I would have liked the other more. Marshall's scenes are just priceless. Robo-Francie is annoying.

das

Marshall is one of the best characters on TV right now.
Great episode.

I thought it was good.

The scene with Marshall and Vaughn on the phone was hilarious.

I can't wait until they get rid of evil Francie. You'd think with all her spy training Syd would be able to figure it out.

It was good to see Dixon back. Hopefully that's the last we see of his wife.

so is greg from CSI.

great ep tonite. i wonder what was the little art that sloan obtain from smashing the statue. is that a remebody art?

Rambaldi? I don't think so. I think I read that it was a Buddha statue or something, but now that I think about, it might not be.

Marshall's line about Predator was hilarious. Good to see that Dixon's got his spurs back on. Android Francie is annoying. For variety's sake, i'd love it, if for an entire episode, we followed Sark around as he tries to implement Sloan's diabolical plans. Sark is such a great character and he's pretty much playing second fiddle to Sloan.

Sark was cooler when he was running his own operation.

I'm getting the feeling that Sark has his own agenda. He's only sticking with Sloan to find out what's going on with the Rambaldi artifact. He's going to be the wrench thrown in the cog of Sloan's well-oiled plan.

Also, you just know that if they're casting a good-looking guy as a recurring character, he's going to eventually be involved with Syd on a more...uh...personal level. That's been JJ Abrams' pattern before when he was writing Felicity.

BTW, nice camera angle of her doing stomach curls. :thumbsup:

The reason why Sydney doesn't quite suspect FakeFrancie is because Francie represents "normalcy" in her turbulent world as a spy. If she loses Francie, she'll lose a big tie to the normal world (and she has, just doesn't know it yet) where she gets to be "normal" and let her hair down.

Good episode IMHO. Nice to see Marshall, Will, and Dixon back in the mix. Nice to see Sark get some extra screen time as well. I bet he has something up his sleeve involving Syd's mom but we'll just have to wait on that one. FakeFrancie will get found out by the end of the season (I hope). The scene in the church was just creepy - I guess they earned that advisory notice at the beginning.

Maybe I was just too tired or something (since other people seemed to like this one), but I thought it was boring.

tasha

i still say vaughn has been replaced and is evil, maybe next week? will was great on show, they have to get him more involved. I don't know why but vaughn annoys the crap out of me. too much of a boyscout i am still rooting for will to get the girl but i also used to root for noel on felicity, scott speedman by the way not good actor. marshall as usual priceless but a little of him goes a long ways. typical but for a tech head but he is so underappreciated by his fellow agents.

Freedexter, thanks for the info on the next episode. :)

I really enjoyed the episode. Fake Francie is good and creepy. Sloane remains one of the best villains on television.

The burning in the church was hard to watch, especially after the Rhode Island tragedy (I guess that's why they had the disclaimer up front). Though it's unclear why, if you're being microwaved, your clothes would catch on fire before your skin did.

Sloane extracted a piece of a Rambaldi manuscript from the statue-- that's why he wanted it.

And what the heck happened to Christian Slater/Kaplan? I assume he was offed, but did they mention it?

No mention of Marshall's desire to purchace a Ford Focas with rims and big tires...."gold rims"

I just started watching with the Superbowl episode, but after four so far, I'm having a good time with the show... I guess I'll catch the entire SD-6 era on DVD...

Question: was that the only Zamboni artifact, or just one of many possible Zamboni artifacts? And what is the manuscript again? Also part of the great Zamboni mysteries?

<small> Ok, ok, I know it's Rambaldi. So sue me. Just answer the question.</small>

The Zamboni mysteries (not to be confused with <I>The Cosby Mysteries</I>) have been an ongoing story for the whole show. Over time, SD-6 (and K-Directorate, CIA, etc) have obtained numerous Rambaldi artifacts/documents/whatever, including a nice one with I hope this latest piece isn't related to ... duh duh DUH!! ... Page 47.

das

I also thought it was odd that they ignored his fate in the 2nd episode, only mentioning that he'd completed the artifact...

Anyone have a casting spoiler as to whether it was a single-ep visit or a recurring one like his recent stint on WW? If the latter, perhaps his thread will be picked up again soon...

I'm positive I read somewhere he was signed up for

that had me rotfl

great episode. neat idea for the rambaldi device and what it does.

Dear God, this lost in the ratings last night to the 2nd hour of X-Men.

Are you telling me that nowhere in the super-duper Ford Focus, in its new reaccuring role, is a hidden pistol? This is supposed to be a spy show! She had to have a freakin' weapon on hand to shoot him!

Will needs to hang out with Marshall. great scenes to be had from that combo I bet

I didn't get how, when asked to provide a list of ppl who had been in and out of Sydney's apartment, she didn't mention Francine? Her dad came back and said they checked everyone on her list (i.e. pizza boys, plumbers, etc.) so it was a little confusing when at the end he says, oh by the way, we found these neat little SD-6 listening devices in this plumber's locker. He's the mole.
????????
Seeing how great the rest of this show has been, that one left me scratching my head a little. Oh well.

-BT

They probably made a bad assumption. You would probably assume that a) the person you are living with goes in and out of your apartment, and b) that your best friend isn't an evil clone. I can accept that they didn't investigate Francie, esp after they found the stuff in the plumber's locker. You find a good suspect, you stop searching.

I'm getting tired of FrancieBot.

"*click... whirr*... we never talk any more... *beep*... you need to quit... *bzz*... need to quit... *bzz*... need to quit that job."

I understand that FrancieBot is a different person than DeadFrancie, but FrancieBot has got some tradecraft skillz and is hooked in with Sloane & Sark... so why can't she act more like the old Francie, at least in front of Sydney? You'd think that before they switched Francies, they would've done some sort of surveillance to see her personality and how she interacts with people so that the new Francie could at least be something like the old one.
To be fair, SpyDaddy actually said, "Either he planted the devices, or he was set up." SpyDaddy didn't just fall off the SpyTurnip truck.

Great episode, yeah i dont like the FrancieBot, i hope they just like kill her or something, that would be great, Marshal is the funniest part of the show, it just wouldn't be the same without him, he makes me laugh so hard. I would laugh in the end if hes like some bad ass undercover spy.

What I don't get is that (obviously) robo Francie and real Francie are the same actress, so it's not like she can't get the character right. I'm thinking it must be to make it obvious to the audience that she's evil... they have been trying to make the show simpler, and one of the reasons they dropped the SD-6 plot was because it was confusing to have a good guy act like a bad guy.

I didn't notice, but do they even show in the opening that Francie is an evil duplicate? Otherwise, people watching for the first time would be a bit confused, I would think.