It could be that the final night is the 2-hour finale, so that would bring it back up to 8 hours of episodes (but I'm not sure).

yep, its confirmed in tv guide for next week that the finale is 2 hours (and starts at 9).
you gotta love the abc promo department, they hype that Micahel Vartan returns (and in tv guide they said "Irina and Vaughn return tonight, but thats not a spoiler, since its in the previews", and he's on screen for what, 2 seconds, and it turns out he's alive all along.
Jack Bristow is the fuckin man, shooting the mole without hesitation shows that he is prob the bigger bad ass then Bauer.

ditto. the other thing that struck me about this, other than the hotness of lena olin , was the missed opportunity when lena olin left for whatever reason. her, syd, and jack all play off each other so well, i think the show improves dramatically when they are all in the mix.

excellent episode tonight Loved the escape from the cia headquarters, great action scene with the guy tied to the top of the car, Amy Ackers character firing the rocket launcher at the helicopter looked amazing. anyone think that tongights episode looked and felt like a movie then other episodes. Seems like the production budget is higher, the helicopter stuff looked great. Plus the car crash at the beginning of the second half was great too. I am gonna miss this show. its been getting so good this year

Good episodes

Loved Jack at the CIA.

Yep, had to love the nonchalance of Peyton after taking down the helicopter with the rocket launcher and just walking away like it was a Sunday in the park.

I completely forgot that they added Balthazar Getty's character - it's a great character. Hopefully he's more of a good mole than a bad one.



I was annoyed by The Bristow's naivete w/ Derevko.

The entire two hours (check that - about an hour not including the commercials ) could have been nothing but static as long as we were able to see Jack expose Davenport in front of the rest of the Alpha-Blacks.

It was great seeing Marshall in the field again.

As much as this show has annoyed me the last few years - I'm going to miss it when it's gone. The good far outweighs the bad, imo.

How many of us guessed that The Bristow's hid Vaughn? Quite a few, iirc.

Great to see that they brought back Grunberg. Hope they give him one more cameo...

Those two eps flew bye.

As I watched this episode, I did so with a heavy heart. I realized that, five episodes from now, i'll never see these characters in new adventures. As much as i've criticized and hated some eps (since the first reboot), I was able to find things here or there that I liked. Hell, the bad ep to good ep ratio was a helluva lot better than, say, Smallville's or Enterprise's.

I'm mad at ABC for spoiling so much. Thanks to their wonderful promo department, we've seen every character that is coming back. I'm also upset with JJ for my perceived impression that he neglected the show and allowed the drop in quality.

That said, these were some pretty good episodes and i'd have to say this season was an improvement over the past two. Marshall's response to the alarm at Langley & Rachel running into the door . And while Jack might've been a badass during his interrogation of the Alpha Blacks (Dr. Anspaugh...a traitor?), he lost points by not pumping lead into Peyton after the extinguisher explosion.

As other have said, i'm going to miss this show when it's gone.

It was just like old times watching tonights episodes, even if they did seem a bit slow in some parts... But with only 6 episodes left to wrap everything up, the pace is probably going to pick up considerably! I can't wait for next week!

I enjoyed the episode. Great to see Father, Mother and daughter working together again even if Irina did some real disspicable things.
Loved the scene where Jackexplains to everyone that they could be committing treason if they were caught breaking into the FBI. Reminded me of the scene in Star Trek 3 when Kirk addrssed his crew before the stole the Enterprise.
I'm going to miss this show.
So was Vaughn being hidden or held by someone?

So my DVR cut out right as the monk walked in. I'm assuming it was Vaughn he was addressing? Did V. say anything?

Wow, that was good. I just wish ABC weren't idiots, with DVD, international markets and its core fan base here, there is no way a show like Alias shouldn't be able to run profitably for years to come. I think seasons 3 and 4 get a bad rap because 1 and 2 were so good. So far this season has been amazing and should get it even better.

You, sir, are a racist!

I doubt they had any real doubt she'd somehow double-cross them. Wanna bet there is some sort of tracker on "The Horizon"?

I have been skipping ALL commercials/promos thanks to Tivo - especially those right after this week's episodes!

You should real this week's article about the show with JJ Abrams in Entertainment Weekly. He is quite frank about how the network screwed up the show quite more than I'd suspected his neglect was responsible. This season better have a LOT of Abrams commentary on DVD!!!! He got some 'splainin to do!!!

Great return! I'm ready for the rollercoaster!

I enjoyed the 2hr episode last night. Can't wait for the last few episodes!

The promo department at ABC has released so many spoilers (like which characters are returning) for this show that even mainstream media has picked it up.

I had forgotten how much I love Marshall. For some reason Dixon's line "take it down a notch Hamlet" struck me as extremely funny. Not really surprised that Vaughn is still alive and that has nothing to do with all the spoilers ABC has put out there. I'm looking forard to the remaining episodes.

Seasons 3 and 4 get bad raps because the writers and producers had to completely switch gears and come up w/ new storylines because Lena Olin wanted too much $$ after Season 2.

Seasons 1 and 2 are just fantastic! The good shows now make me sad because THIS is what we should've had starting in Season 3!!!

~Jason

The whole Vaughn being alive just seems like a change of mind from the writers. When he died, why did Syd cry like that when noone else was around if they were just faking it? I'm thinking the writers killed him and then reconsidered after fan outcry.

You never know who's watching in the spy game.

I haven't watched since a few episodes into S4 but last night I was definitely bored. Granted, there was a lot of story that I wasn't up to date on but overall there was just so much blah blah lame spy "intrigue" and so many of the high-tech devices were ludicrous to the point of being distracting. The only parts that were really peppy were when pops shot the corrupt CIA director and when Amy Acker blasted the helicopter. Those made me sit up and pay attention.


(Although it was in the commercial for next week)

Maybe because she missed him and didn't know how long they'd be separated? Add into it the fact that she was pregnant with his child and that he probably wouldn't be there for the delivery and you have a pretty good reason. Even still, all along they gave enough hints that Vaughn wasn't dead. The biggest one was probably in the episode he was killed, where they never showed the body during the funeral. Additionally, Sydney did not seem all that upset; the look she shared with her father indicated that something else was up. If that's not enough, Sydney never specifically said that Vaughn was dead. She might have said it to her mother in last night's 'sode (I can't remember), but given that Irina wasn't trustworthy, Syd could have easily just told Irina that to keep Vaughn's cover.

Last night had some absolutely terrific character moments; it illustrated perfectly just how excellent Alias can be when focused on the right things.

I don't belive the Bristows know Vaughn is alive. I mean, Irina probably does, but why would Jack and Sydney know? Did I miss something in the episode?

Also, I seem to recall something from JJ saying that the Vaughn death thing was planned this way from the beginning (that he would come back), only they had a little trouble with ABC and Vartan's contract after they killed him off.

I think it was too. Vartan had left the show. How he survived all those bullet holes is anyone's guess.

So, as I said before, was he being held or hiding out? He didnt look too happy.

Didn't the monks call him brother? I think that means they're on good terms so he must be there of his own free will. Or it means that the monks are in league with Desmond which would just throw the whole thing for a loop.

I thought in the scene right before the final, Jack and Sydney have an exchange which was basically, "There's just one more thing to do" or "person to tell" or something vague like that which leads up to the person delivering the news to Vaughn. I think that pretty much showed that they do know he's alive IMO. Who knows?

I was pretty bored. I don't care much for the new characters that they were trying to make the new Sydney and the new Vaughn. Everything just feels tired and cliched. It's a shame because it was a great series at one point. Here's hoping they go out strong.