Bump.

Is it wrong that found found Q&A so funny?

I laughed my ass off during SpyDaddy telling the CIA dude who deserved to be castrated with a rusty chainsaw he he told anyone about what happened, he wouldn't be able to wear a hat (meaning blowing off his head)

I also loved Francie and Will's intervention that wasn't in, I believe it was Snowman

It's almost perfect that this thread was bumped the same day I spent the entire day watching my season 1 DVD. The thing I noticed which may be most relevant is a comment Sloane made in Page 47. He is showing Sydney Rambaldi's journal and she tells him she is not sure she is a believer. He tells her, "neither was I." Then he looks kinda sad, and repeats softly, "neither was I." And it is weird, cause I totally believed him. And we all know Sloane became the biggest Rambaldi freak there is so now I am curious if there is a story behind his opinion changing or if that was a throw-away line the writers have forgotten.

Either way, it reminded me how much season 1 rocked. Especially Page 47. I think that is my all time favorite episode. When they are at dinner at Sloane's, there are about 12 meanings to the conversations going on. Totally awesome.

It got kind of answered later with his conversation with Conrad. He regrets betraying his country, destroying his friendships, sacrificing everything for this quest. In S1, before Emily's death, I think he is still devoted to the cause, but it doesn't stop him from missing the things he's lost.

Well, I finished watching season one for the first time last night, and HOLY. CRAP.

That was an amazing season! Although I'm a little upset that Anna just disappeared after the episode where Dixon was shot and Anna stole the Rambaldi book from Sydney.

So, this is the part that will drive me to drink (not that I need a reason). We are beaten over the head about how:

* Spy!Daddy wasn’t there for Syd after Spy!Mommy left
* Arvin & Irina and Jack & “Laura” were close before all hell broke loose
* Sloane keeps mentioning how he viewed Syd like a daughter since Irina left & Jack was distant

BUT
* Didn’t Syd act as if she had never met Sloane when she first went to work for SD-6?
* Didn’t Sloane say that he was away in Europe for most of Syd’s childhood?
* At Emily’s eulogy, Syd mentioned that she was nervous and uncomfortable during the dinner party at Arvin & Emily’s house, but why would she be if Sloane was her surrogate father figure (put your little tiny hands in mine).

Sloane might have felt he acted as a surrogate father figure to Syd, but it didn’t appear in the opening scenes of S1.1 that she felt the same way. Of course it would have been difficult in an office setting to show this.

I'm going to need a liver transplant soon if they cloud the father role.

Sloane/Emily and Jack/Irina may have all been friends way back before Irina went evil. And Sloane may have thought of Syd like a daughter, but that was before "Laura" died. When that happened I think Sloane did either go to Europe or just dropped out of Syd's life. He probably kept a watch on her in a sicko sorta way, but she didn't see him between when she was 5-6 and when she was recruited by SD-6. So Sloane and Emily just never told her her that they had met her when she was a little kid (that would have meant revealing the truth about Jack). I don't know what excuse he gave Emily not to tell her, but I am sure he came up with something.

And Sloane keeps telling us that before Syd learned the truth Syd liked him/was close to him. I don't know if she was closer to him then or if Sloane is just dellusional though.

Whoa, dagny. That little George Michael addition added a whole new spin to Sloane's "father figure" posturing. Ew.

KaveDweller, I'm not sure that Emily had anything to do with not telling Syd that they knew her. Emily had no idea what Sloane was up to, so she didn't know there was anything to hide about Jack.

Or, maybe I'm just confused...

Heh. I can't see the phrase "father figure" without thinking about the next line.

It would definitely explain Uncle Arvin of the "Inappropriate Touching".

The more I think of it, I think the writers dropped the ball with Emily. Arvin might have been able to convince Emily to pretend that she didn't know Syd during the dinner party & afterwards, but when Emily was dying you'd think she'd mention Laura. Words to the effect that Syd's mom would be proud of her work for the government, etc.

I just rewatched "Truth Be Told" and I just re-realized why I love this show. Man, Edward Atterton is so cute. And Jack's whole phone speech to Danny....well, it's Jack Bristow in all of his badass glory.

Bump.

Just got my S1 & S2 DVDs (yay!) and threw them in. I'd watched them before but as I watched Truth be Told I affirmed my evil origins. During the scene where Syd storms in on Sloane "you killed the man I love" I quoted "It's possible, I kill a lot of people"

Yes, Princess Bride turns us all evil in the end...

So I was reading the new Alias Magazine and loved JJ's season one episode by episode commentary. When discussing Masquerade and Snowman, he says that Noah was using Sydney and that if she had gone off with Noah he would have killed her.

THAT go over anypne else's head or just me? I knew he was a bad guy,obviously, but I always thought that Noah actually cared for Sydney.

I was mostly confused about him being the Snowman in the first place.

Why did he need to use her? Wouldn't it have been better if he'd kept his mouth shut and left?

This confused me too but when I thought about Noah's plan--kill Calder--he did use Sydney to help him get info useful in finding him. True, he could have done all this by his own means, but he did use Sydney's quest to find her mother to his benefit.

Now, when I go back to watch the scene where she kills Noah, it has much more meaning than it did before where I only considered Sydney feeling devestated at learning he was the Snowman and that she killed him.

That's bullshit, and it doesn't even make sense. And in any case, what was he using her for? I don't recall him getting the upper hand on anyone/anything (aside from killing Calder). Plus, when he was dying at the end of "Snowman," he said something like, "I tried to keep you from this," which I thought referred to her finding out he was the Snowman. It seemed like the whole plan he had for starting over meant escaping the spy business and forgetting about everything he did in the past.

So yeah, JJ was clearly smoking something when he claimed otherwise.

I see a pattern of behavior there!!!!

The whole Noah storyline was lame. Perhaps if a different actor had been used, it would have worked.

Wait a minute. I see this as being a pattern, too.

I thought the Noah storyline worked fine and I liked Peter Berg. *shrug*

I had a problem with him turning out to be the Snowman on the level that Syd's always being betrayed, and apparently doesn't have many people she can trust. I mean, that's always been true, but for once, I'd like to see someone who isn't Vaughn be trustworthy to Syd.

It's just really manipulative to me, especially with Katya being eeeevil in the finale and Jack apparently being eeeevil since the day Syd was born.

Are there no decent people out there? I mean, really. They can't ALL be out to get Syd. She IS Prophecy Girl, but damn..

In the article, JJ says something along the lines of it being "fun" that here was Sydney being betrayed by yet another person in her life. When I read that I realized JJ and I have a markedly different idea of what fun is......

Because Vaughn is being so trustworthy nowadays.

In addition to information, I think Noah may have been using Sydney for legitimacy inside SD-6. But luring her off to some tropical island in order to kill her? He has no motivation to murder her, and plenty of reasons not to (Jack comes to mind, as does Sloane). I always read the ending of that episode as being: Noah wants to get out of the assassin trade as well as the spy trade - he just can't tell Sydney about the assassin part - and he wants to take his old flame, Sydney, off with him. It fits in with the shows theme of "Just Because This Person Is Killing People Doesn't Mean They're Evil".

I mean in the sense of, he's not going to turn around and stick a knife in her back. ;P

I didn't have a problem with Peter Berg either. I thought the two eps he did were fun and fast-paced, and somewhat interesting; the only thing I didn't like was the predictable 'Syd's lover is evil' thing.

Also in the camp of 'what is JJ smoking' if he believes that Noah was going to hurt Syd at all. Boy, did they not shoot it that way. Or act it that way. I'm fine with him being a brutal assassin - he is SD-6 after all - but I don't buy he was gunning for Syd in any fashion.

Now, I am one of the rare few who liked Noah and the whole Snowman storyline so maybe I am a little biased but I do not believe he would have killed Syd if she left with him. I think he was using her for info, but Syd knew that she couldn't trust him and this is why she didn't tell him that she found Calder in Australia. If JJ wanted us to believe that Noah was gonna hurt her if she ran off with him, why would he have said "I tried to keep you from this" as he was dying? Why would Noah keep lying as he died? I really believed Noah cared about her. Yeah, he was lying to SD-6 and stole info from them, but Syd was doing that too. That is why I liked the storyline. I thought it was interesting that they were two people who did care about each other but would never be able to trust each other or really be together. And there was also the fact that he was a crazy assassin....even back when they first met, which I find really interesting and wanted them to explore that more. Damn, I am gonna have to rewatch those episodes.

ITA. Plus, during the fight in which he died, they had what felt to me like a significant shot which demonstrated that Noah had a choice of weapons to use against Syd. There was a knife, which she ultimately grabbed, and something like a meat tenderizer. It seemed to me that he looked, paused, and grabbed the less deadly weapon - I assumed because he only wanted to protect himself. If he wanted her dead, why wouldn't he have grabbed the knife? No, I truly believed he loved her.

I hadn't discovered TWOP when those episodes aired, and I was surprised when I came here and found how much Noah was disliked. Personally, he never bothered me that much. I always saw him as being kind of like Syd, living a double life and hiding it from the people (person, really) he cared about - only with more tragic results.

I'm with Cherzdotes on this one... the shot of Noah choosing the less lethal weapon was, to me, a very intentional one to show that Noah doesn't want to hurt Sydney, and that he cares about her. I don't buy that he would have killed her if she'd left with him. I kind of liked these episodes also, because it's always nice to see that Sydney had somewhat of a life before the series started, given that she worked for SD6 for 7 years and all. I liked that Noah represented a part of her past, and I liked the scenes where she talked to Francie about him because it was a little insight into how Sydney dealt with all the secrecy pre-series start, that she had told Francie about him, but obviously not everything.

Just for my own sanity, I am going to pretend that JJ was misquoted when he said that. That he may have said Noah was using her for information, but that he didn't really say Noah was going to kill her. He just meant.....that uh, if Syd went off with Noah she may have been in danger because Noah was a killer. I don't care if it was in the official Alias Magazine, they can still misquote someone as easily as anyone else. I mean, maybe the person writing the article was just stupid. It makes more sense than trying to re-analyze those episodes. You won't get me to believe that Noah was going to kill her.

What? If I can still be in denial about half of season 3 I can be in denial about that.

What worries me is that if JJ was not misquoted, he is so far out of touch with Alias that he can't even remember the damn episodes.

Season 4 all of sudden doesn't look too hopeful.....

Now that I think about it, it's kind of like Buffy and Riley in "Hush."

I watched S1 on DVD, and it hooked me good. Every time an episode ended, I screamed in frustration because of the cliffhanger. Way to get the viewers to tune in every week, Mr. Abrams.

I also love Will. I haven't read the recaps, so I don't know Regina's true feelings about him beyond calling the Willage Idiot, but he's the Chloe of the show, always searching for the truth at the expense of his own safety. I had a giant cow when Sark shot him.

Not to speak on Regina's behalf, since I hate when people do that with me, but the last episode or three of Season One she finally warmed up to Will.

I am in the camp that found him slightly annoying (yet still totally adorable/delectable) when he was going about the whole 'who murdered danny' leading to the Eloise Kurtz (spelling?) crap-ola situation. Maybe it's the fact that we KNEW what had happened and what he was doing was quite redudant and stupid.

I kinda liked Will in season 1. My problem was that I was always convinced he was gonna be killed off in the next episode. I would always read quotes from JJ saying he would make it to the season finale, and not believe a word of them. So I was trying not to let myself get attached.

See, I thought that initially, but the brilliant thing was that, yes, we knew how Danny died, but I loved how Will discovered all these clues, like the traffic cameras going out, and the plane tickets, and the fake Eloise Kurtz. And by then, he was far deeper than we even suspected. He wasn't finding out things we already knew, but things we didn't know about a thing we already knew.

I also found him kinda hot, and I'm a heterosexual guy.

I concur on the annoyance factor of this storyline, but I still adore season 1 Will, mostly I think because he is just so damn sweet when it comes to Sydney. The scene in So it Begins where he tells Sydney that he found out about Danny's plane ticket, and she begs him not to keep bringing it up because it's so painful for her, and she gets weepy, and he almost starts to cry is one of my favorites. A brief example of how devoted he is... ah, Will.

It really WAS a lot we didn't know. We didn't know that Danny was booked on a plane to where-ever that was. We didn't know (and still don't) know what that guy Ken Olin played (Neil?) was in jail for, or what happened to his wife...or how that connected to SD-6. You know, I wonder whatever happened to that guy's daughter. She left the country to go into hiding and then Will had to drop the story. I hope she came back after the Alliance was destroyed. And that her father (I really wish I remembered his name) got out of jail, because I don't think he actually did anything illegal.

That's one of those small threads I really hope they revisit - that guy and his daughter. I would love it if they had to go talk to him for some odd reason.

Dude, that's right! Ken Olin, please come back in front of the camera!

I think they explained all that.



SD-6 wanted the encryption program he created, he said no. SD-6 pulled strings and got him thrown in jail for a crime he didn't commit, and killed his wife, making it look like a suicide. McNeil didn't want his daughter to be killed, too, so he refused to talk to Will about SD-6 until she was safe.

After McNeil was thrown in jail, SD-6 got his encryption software anyway - we know this because McNeil wrote something into the program that automatically records the names of whoever uses it. Will got that file and found that a bunch of companies using the program have a common board member - Alain Christophe: Alliance bigwig.

But I thought there was more to the story, or else how would McNeil know what SD-6 was? He could have just thought it was some random company that approached him to buy his program. They probably would not even have used the name SD-6 when they approached him.

And I still want to know if he got out of prison or reunited with his daughter.

Hmm, good point. The only thing I can find along these lines is that Will found McNeil by Googling "SD-6", and it showed up in the transcripts or files from McNeil's court dates. So it was out in the open at some point,
but that doesn't jibe with SD-6's usual MO of "kill everyone who even thinks they know about us".

I suppose they could call themselves SD-6 without arousing too much suspicion - it doesn't scream "We're evil!" in the way that "The Alliance" (Or the Covenant, or the Trust, etc.) does. But why would they use their real name with McNeil, but not with anyone else?

The only thing I can think of is that McNeil did research on the overly-persistent company when they started to make threats. But he's a programmer, not a spy or a journalist - how would he know where to find that kind of information?

Conclusion: lazy writing.

Lazy writing is probable but I like the idea that they will come back to it better.....Although I know they won't. Wasn't McNeil also surprised to find out that Alan Christophe, who was one of the people on his excrypted names, had retired from the CIA? Or was he just happy that Will got proof?

Maybe SD-6 just had an incompetant agent talk to McNeil. Like the person who killed Eloise Kurtz when she was wearing the pin, and let Will hear the name in the first place. No, wait. That was a trick. But Eloise Kurtz was kinda incompetant so someone who talked to McNeil could have been, let the name drop, and that is why it was mentioned at the trial.

Well, yeah. Remember that everyone who works for SD-6 knows it's called SD-6; they just think it's part of the CIA.

As an aside: 100 Bullets fan?

No idea why I'm straying off topic, but what, to you guys, was the best storyline in season one and what was the worst? (You can include Characters too)

I'm currently about half way through my S1 DVDs and although I can safely say I don't think Quentin was Emmy worthy, The Box Pt. 1 and Pt. 2 were pretty good: SpyDaddy and Syd working together ("I can't believe we're saving SD-6!"), Marshall calling the CIA, Jack's continued use of Morse Code (does he ever do that anymore?), etc. And looking back after the horror that was Season Three, Will's arc with McNeil and the bugged brooch and Eloise Kurtz wasn't that bad and it makes me really miss Bradley Cooper. More specifically the interaction between Will and Sydney.
The worst storyline was probably poor Francie and her restaurant. Although Merrin Dungey was awesome, Francie was boring.

Also, I didn't love the Syd in Russian psych ward episodes, John Hannah was, as always, superb.

I really wish they played up Syd vs. Anna more. It was cool to see an evil agent up to par with Syd (despite Syd being the Worst. Spy. Ever!) in comparison to someone like Lauren. So that was a storyline I enjoyed, however small it was.

What I didn't like? Noah. At least he was only around for a couple episodes. But still. I skip those episodes on the S1 DVD.

I love the Will finds out about SD-6 story. From its early inceptions to the scream to "1 in 5, bitch!" to hugging Jack, it all rocks. The Box got..well, it sucked a lot more than I remember it sucking when I first watched it.

I love the episodes after Sydney realizes her mom is still alive, goes to Sloane to ask for his help finding her (despite Jack's objections), and pursues everything she can to find her mom. These episodes, of course, intermingled Syd's search, Sloane's dilemma with the Alliance over Emily, Will's work with Jack to find the indentity of his source, and Syd and Vaughn working together.

These episodes at the end of S1 were simply remarkable in their rich content and the way so many storylines meshed together at the end of the season. With any luck, we'll get a taste of that again with S4.

Even though I couldn't care less about the SVR now, I kinda miss S1 SVR. Back then, it was so forbidden-love-y, which is actually interesting... I miss Syd and Dixon going on missions together. I want Joey Slotnik (Haladki) to be non-dead. He was so great.

And, as has been said, the last three episodes of the season, viewed together, are an absolute masterpiece.



Um, no? Why?

I love almost all of S1. I think my favorite is the whole page 47 saga. That includes the dinner at Sloane's house with Will, Syd, Jack, Sloane, and Emily, which is one of my favorite scenes ever. I especially love how Sydney doesn't want to use Emily to bug Sloane's house. But that episode, and then the next one where they break into the Vatican all leading up to the car chase and Syd's realization about her mom being alive is fabulous.

However, that all leads up to a major problem I did have in season 1. Not really a storyline, just a continuity error that always bugged me. After Syd found out about her mom being alive, Jack went to Sloane and tells him he knew that he has always known this. But Jack never explains how he found out. He obviously couldn't have told Sloane the truth, so what did he say? That bugs me to this day.

That moment caused me to go "Did he say what I think he just said?" in my head, and then, on realizing he had, go, "Will is so fucking cool!" Shame four out of five dentists choose Not Dying.

The Trust is that comic's secret organization.

I think it is a testament to the show or my idiocy that I found Syd's discovery about her mom compelling. Because of course I knew she was called SpyMommy, though I guess I didn't know she was KGB. But I knew there was more to her than Syd thought. Yet, everything felt like a revelation, and the end of "The Confession," (I think that was the episode) when Jack revealed that her mom had been a spy, made me go, "What the fuck?!" And then, a moment later, "Wait! I already knew that."

Polter-Cow, The Trust is also a secret organization - albeit a totally toothless and lame one - in Alias-ville.