Alias 1.7 FAQ
What’s it called?
“Color Blind.”
Who’s responsible?
Teleplay credited to Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman (“Hercules: The Legendary Journeys,” “Jack of All Trades”).
What does TV Guide say?
“Syd uncovers a shocking truth about Danny's murder while trying to break Shepard (John Hannah) out of the K-Directorate's asylum; Sloane comes to the realization that not all of his agents are on the up-and-up; Charlie gives Francie a Thanksgiving she'll never forget; and Will (Bradley Cooper) hits the deadest end of all in his search for Kate Jones. ”
What is TV Guide not telling us?
TV Guide lies to you again. Syd uncovers that shocking truth about her fiance’s murder after she breaks Shepard out of K-Directorate’s asylum.
The big surprise?
This installment is loaded with surprises. The first is that there’s a revamp of the weekly recap – it now employs black & white mugshots of Syd (the comely double-agent protagonist), Jack (Syd’s double-agent dad), Sloane (the evil head of the evil SD-6 agency that employs Syd), and Vaughn (Syd’s liaison at the real CIA).
So Sydney does escape the K-Directorate asylum?
Yes, but not before K-Directorate can recapture her, strip her, stick her in a vat of dirty water and run an enormous amount of electrical current through her brain.`
Ew! Syd gets tortured again this week?
She does. K-directorate wants the information locked away in Shepard’s Manchurian Candidate-like brain - and they think Syd’s already got it.
Does Syd have Shepard’s info?
She does not.
What does Shepard know that’s so important?
Shepard, in Manchurian Zombie mode, assassinated a guy named Gareth Perkashov before Shepard checked himself into that grungy Romanian mental instituion. Syd’s mission is to find out where Perkashov’s body is.
Why is the location of Perkashov’s body so important?
Perkashov’s DNA sequence is the key to decrypting an all-important FTL communique.
What’s so important about the FTL communique?
We – and SD-6 - learn this week that the message provides the location of another Milo Rambaldi artifact in Tunisia.
Ah. Um, I came in late. Who’s Milo Rambaldi again?
Milo Rambaldi is one of the coolest things about “Alias.” A long-dead 15th century seer described as half-DaVinci, half-Nostradamus, Rambaldi was dismissed by his contemporaries as a lunatic. Though he died before the discovery of the New World, Rambaldi left behind schematics for cellular phones, as well as a lot of impressive-looking devices that haven’t been invented yet. That creepy-looking device Syd stole in the pilot was based on Rambaldi’s prophecies.
How long till Syd finally escapes the asylum?
Second act.
What’s up with Vaughn?
There’s a great scene early on tonight in which Jack meets Vaughn for the first time. (That’s right: they’ve never met before.) Vaughn (correctly) believes Syd has run into asylum trouble, and wants to coordinate an extraction with Jack that would likely expose Syd’s mission to bring down SD-6. Jack rejects this; he believes Syd’s revenge against SD-6 is the only thing that “gets her up in the morning.” Jack is also pretty pissed about Vaughn giving his file to Syd.
Is Syd still pissed at Jack?
They make up this week, resolving one of the lamest storylines this almost completely non-lame series has proffered to date. (This shortcoming will be belabored in a bit.)
What’s going on with SD-6 and Sloane?
Vaughn mentions the 3-percent chunk the CIA virus was able to grab from SD-6’s files is turning out to be a goldmine. Sloane lies to Marshall (the twitchy SD-6 tech guy who discovered the virus last week) about the CIA virus being “a security section drill.”
What’s up with Will?
Before the opening credits stop, Will discovers Eloise Kurtz (a.k.a. Kate Jones), who lied about having an affair with Syd’s fiance, was just found shot to death in Echo Park. Also? Will gets the go-ahead to do his first piece on the mystery surrounding Danny and Eloise. Also also? Will brings a date to Syd’s Thanksgiving dinner.
Is it Will’s underage hottie intern Jenny?
It’s Will’s underage hottie intern Jenny. But Will isn’t the only member of Syd’s inner circle to take a big step on the personal front.
Something big happens with Francie?
Something big happens with Francie.
What’s good?
They way they keep reminding us that inside supergirl Syd there’s a vulnerable kid. The way we’re given no advance clue as to when Syd might escape. The way everything seems to be tying into Rambaldi after all. The cool Pretenders song that accompanies Syd’s escape.
What’s not so good?
Jack reveals to Syd this week that he was cleared of any collaboration with the KGB decades ago. Syd and Jack make up. So why couldn’t Jack reveal this earlier? What was all that about Syd “not having clearance”? Why was Syd so quick to not to trust Jack last week? Estrangement aside, hasn’t Jack proven himself a good guy time and time again already?
How does it end, spoiler boy?
Oddly, without Syd in immediate and dire jeopardy! We learn Syd’s about to race her deadly and evil K-Directorate counterpart, Anna Espinosa, to recover the new Rambaldi artifact. Vaughn reveals an important new wrinkle in his personal life. And Sloane reveals he’ll be employing McCullough (the neural-tech guy played by Angus Scrimm) to find the mole or moles within SD-6).
Herc’s rating for “Alias” 1.7?
***1/2
The Hercules T. Strong Rating System:
I warn you not to defy me!!
