Alias

[kathy1977]

What got me is how Syd just hauled off and shot Sloane. Hello....she could have done that a long time ago. And as evil as Sloane is I do not buy him shooting Jack the way he did. No way. Sloane's "death" was the most fitting death ever.

I was at the other board and I can't believe how shocked people are over Irina. The fight with Syd was years in the making. It was obvious to me that those two were going to have the ultimate battle. In fact I thought that whole prophecy about The Chosen One and The Passenger duking it out and only one surviving was going to be about Syd and Irina. Irina truly loves Sydney in her own twisted way. And will do anything to help Syd if it also works out to her own ultimately evil purposes. But the woman is evil. She was NEVER going to settle down with Jack and become Grandma Irina. Babysitting Isabel with Jack while Syd is on a mission and knitting quilts. Syd killing Irina was inevitable because as long as Irina as out there making trouble, Syd and her children would always be in some kind of danger.

Marshall with FOUR boys in 6 years. He has been very busy indeed.

I am kind of happy with the Syd/Vaughn ending. I was spoiled but I thought it would end with Syd and Vaughn retired from espionage. These two have been through physical and emotional hell and no normal person could continue at the pace they were going. Especially with kids. And was it just me or did Syd look like she was pregnant with another one? So it shocked me to find out Syd is only semi retired. It was one thing when she was doing it when Isabel was a baby because she really had no choice. She had the Rambaldi mess to clear up. But after they took care of that and wiped out Prophet 5 the danger was over and she could go about her life with her own free will. I just can't see her still traipsing all over the world doing this and leaving her kids in the care of babysitters. That's the way she grew up and I had the impression she did NOT want her kids to grow up that way.

Isabel knocking over the blocks was great. I think it's a sign that she has the gifts to someday become a superspy like her Mom, Grandma, and Grandpa. But unlike her Mom, she has free will. And Isabel CHOSE to knock the blocks down. Meaning she will become whatever she darn well wants to be.

[Deleted]

I agree about Irina. It seemed destined to come down to the two of them. But I really loathed them killing off Jack. That was unecessary. But his final line was brilliant. "You may have escaped death but you can't escape me" heh. That was wonderful.

[Deleted]

I forgot to mention how much I liked them thanking us for five amazing years. Very classy IMO. One of the things I really liked about Alias is how appreciative the cast and crew have been of their fans all along.

[kostgard]

I was completely "meh" about the finale. I can always tell by whether or not I actually sit down and watch something or if I watch it as I do other things, and I was doing other things for the last hour.

I agree that Irina had to die, if only because the only way Syd would be free would be for Irina to be out of the picture so Syd wouldn't always be wondering when her mother would pop up again and screw with her head.

But, I didn't like the way Irina became a moustache-twirling villian in the end. Why, exactly, did she launch the missiles? Just because? In the past, Irina was always different shades of grey. You knew she loved Syd and possibly struggled with that, but in the end Rambaldi would win out. Here it seemed like Syd was no more than an afterthought to her. It didn't even compare to Irina's good-bye to Syd at the end of season two when she jumps off the roof and escapes. There I got the impression that she truly loved Syd, but the pull for Rambaldi's power was too strong. I got no sense of conflict at all from Irina at the end and when she died, I didn't care. And that sucks.

And Jack's death felt completely unnecessary. It didn't feel organic at all. It just felt like the writers said, "Hey, we need to give Jack a big heroic death!" so they churned one out. I was misty-eyed during his good-bye to Syd, but when he died I only thought, "Well, that seemed really unnecessary." The only satisfying "death" was Sloane's.


Resolution of the Rambaldi stuff? Lame. Sloane told us in season one that Rambaldi was working on the secret to eternal life and then they lead us through this big mess of a mystery where everyone was trying to figure out Rambaldi's end game and it was...exactly what Sloane told us it was within the first few episodes of the show. Couldn't they have just told us upfront what Rambaldi's secret was and then the mystery would be not the "what?" but the "how?"? Big "whatever" there.

The ending was "meh" for me as well. I'm not a shipper so I don't really care about Syd and Vaughn and the part of me that loves Jack is pissed that he was going to go down after about three bullets in his chest (before he blew himself up) and yet Vaughn can get about 200,000 bullets in the chest and he's fine. I just didn't like the whole "kill Syd's entire family" thing (sister, mother, father - although I guess Auntie Katya is still out there somewhere, and that should worry Syd), but Vaughn survived being made into swiss cheese with a machine gun so he and Syd can live on the beach and make babies, so everything is cool. Meh.

ETA: I should say one good thing - I really, REALLY liked the one little flashback we had to "College Syd" with Francie. It made me realize how much I missed her character and how much I missed the show when Syd had friends and a normal life.

[swanflake]

My biggest overall complaint was just that it seemed like two hours wasn't enough to wrap this all up. They needed another couple of episodes so things didn't seem so rushed.

The first hour began with Syd doing a voiceover about Prophet 5, so I thought that was going to come more into play over the next two hours, but then that girl (whose name I can't even remember) just walks all up in there and shoots them all and POOF it's over. It was so quick and anti-climatic, and Sydney had practically nothing to do with their final demise. I didn't like that.

And I agree that the final showdown between Syd and Irina seemed so impersonal. There seemed to be very little connection between the two of them, and in the past, even if Irina was about to try to completely screw Syd over, she still had a way of making it seem like she had a true connection to her daughter. I didn't get that feeling last night.

The fact that Jack died didn't really bother me too much, because I felt like a character or two needed to die in order to show how these people sacrificed themselves to do the job they did, but the WAY Jack died, again, felt really rushed. I would've bought it more if somehow they could've kept Jack down there with Sloane after he'd been shot. Then, knowing he only had about 90 seconds to live, Jack blew the place up. But if they did that then they wouldn't have been able to have the powerful scene of Syd driving off to save the world and taking one last look at her father (which totally made me cry). But the way that Jack, in a much more stable condition than we had seen him a few minutes ago, was able to get back down into that cave to do a suicide bombing--well that didn't quite seem like a plan that Jack Bristow would conceive of.

I also thought they kinda brushed past Tom's death too quickly, and the ending of the Vaughn-Bristow family walking on the beach was kinda too trite/sappy for my taste.

But what I did LOVE about the finale was how they really did a beautiful job at showing how the strength of Sydney's character was what gave her the ability to endure all that she had been through. I loved the flashbacks of her as a little girl and as a young woman, and I loved Sloane's little monologue about how she protected her stuffed animals as a little girl, and how she always felt she had to rescue everyone. That's Sydney Bristow--underneath the red wig and the ass-kicking exterior was a woman whose motivation to do good for others remained untouched since she was a little girl, remained untouched as she was betrayed by the people she trusted, remained untouched as she learned the horrible truth about her mother, and remained untouched as the world was constantly on the brink of falling to pieces around her. Even if the final scene seemed a bit trite, the one reward Sydney got for herself for all she had done was the opportunity to give her daughter the kind of life that she herself was not fortunate enough to have. So from that perspective, I guess it was a pretty good ending.

Farewell, Sydney Bristow.

[kostgard]

Yes, two hours wasn't enough. They should have started wrapping things up several episodes ago.

The stuff with Marshall was good, but has poor Dixon had a storyline in the past two years? Not really. I don't know - I guess I wish they spent less time with the new kids and gave Dixon his due.

Good overall wrap-up for Sydney's character - and I do hope that she learned through her flashbacks that her life as a spy was her choice. She's spent so much of the show whining about the things other people have done to her and how she wanted out, but she really chose that life for herself. Maybe that's why at the end she was only semi-retired. Being a spy and saving the world is who she is. She said it herself - it is in her blood.


I'm not completely unhappy with the ending, but I really don't like how everyone who was so wonderfully grey before got wedged into boxes of black and white. They boiled away all the complexity that made the this show wonderful and in that sense cheapened it.

Sydney had this family that was totally twisted yet awesome family and they all died. Who lives? Vanilla Vaughn. The not-so-complex good guy who has always been on the up and up. Irina was this complex character who loved her daughter and husband, but Rambaldi was like an addiction that she could not shake. The Irina in the finale was just plain evil and wanted to blow up some cities just so she could cash in on some sweet government contracts to clean up the mess she made. What? Why did she work so hard to stop the destruction that Sloane launched at the end of season four? Was it just because it wasn't "her" destruction? While I can understand a heroic death for Jack, it just didn't feel right and was unsatisfying - and again, the "grey" characters are not allowed to live. Sloane's death was good, my only complaint is that he's felt "off" for the past several episodes. I don't know if it was the writing or Ron Rifkin's acting, but just...off.

And speaking of "off," Jennifer Garner and Michael Vartan's chemistry felt really weird in these episodes. Practically non-existent, which is weird since you'd think it would have been worse in season four right after they broke up. Maybe they have just completely moved on from each other and it just ain't there anymore at all.

I know it sounds like gripe city here, but I didn't hate it. It just wasn't as good as I wanted it to be. Sort of like expecting a really awesome dessert after a meal and your host just microwaves some Ding-Dongs for you. You don't turn your nose up at because hey, it's dessert and it's chocolate, but you really wish it was something like cheesecake.

[Deleted]

Well, I liked the ending but I have been enormously sad all day long. First, because my favorite TV show of all time is done. Second, because they killed Jack! That took some balls, it seems with the other characters- some viewers liked them, some did not. But I do not know a single person who disliked Jack Bristow. So they killed off the biggest fan favorite, arguably, they killed off the three biggest fan favorites. I hated that.

I liked that Rambaldi's endgame was eternal life. I fanwanked it that all those other artifacts that they recovered over the years were red herrings, and Sloane did not get the ultimate clue until the fight with Nadia. I was OK with turning him evil again, because I love batshit crazy Sloane.

I was not as excited about Irina's death, but once again fanwanked it that as much as she loved Syd, she was obsessed with Rambaldi and now that she was so close, she would rather sacrifice Syd than give up Rambaldi- I thought it was interesting how that paralleled with Sloane and Nadia's relationship.

Did not care much for Tom and Rachel and thought their flirtation was completely unnecessary- but when he sacrificed himself- it actually finally defined the character. And Getty did a very good job.

I am just so sad that it is over, although I know that it needed to be. Especially with the dismal ratings that the finale brought in. This is one of those few times that I wish we could communicate with the people who run the show, to show that even though there were only 6 million of us, most of us were invested, dedicated fans that appreciated the work that they did. RIP.

[Deleted]

I watched it last night and I guess I'm with a lot of you being on the fence about it.

I was bummed that Jack died, but Victor Garber did such a great job. I was glad to see Sloane finally get his due. I loved the flashbacks and it was great to see Francinator again!

Sark is just too sexy for his own good and it was great to see Vaughn get the upperhand with him for once.

I guess because I lost interest so quickly at the beginning of this season, the fact that it's over doesn't bother me. I liked the "Thank you for the 5 amazing seasons" message at the end - that was cool and classy. But, because I didn't watch much this season, I guess I don't feel like I'm missing much. I did my "mourning" last fall when I could tell this season was going to suck and I stopped watching.

My highlight for this episode was Marshall. I have always loved him, and it was great to see him finally stand up to Sloane.

[Deleted]

Hee. Marshall really did rock didn't he? I was screaming you go Marshall at my screen. But damn, four boys? I also loved seeing Amanda Foreman back.

I am going to take back what I said about wishing Sark died. Clearly I was emotional because there is no way I can rationalize killing the pretty. Yes he's a puppet to the highest bidder but seriously, the pretty y'all. It doesn't get much sexier than that. Someone give David Anders a show please. I need a weekly dose.

I will say that as I mentioned I am re-watching the whole series. As of last night I am up to season two episode 8 and it really changes my viewing knowing what ultimately happens. I just can't love Irina like I used to. But Sark is still so pretty. Ain't nothing gonna change that.

[Deleted]

I don't know if I can rewatch the series yet, I am still mourning the show. Seriously, what am I going to watch in th fall besides Grey's?

I will have to say as much as I hated Jack dying, the way he died seriously rocked. Even in death, its still on Jack's terms. A blaze of glory, indeed.