Bumping up for The 2nd Evil.

The 2nd Evil?

Topic: Just watched the Passages. Still the best episode block to date, I think. Oh good writing, good acting. How I do miss thee.

The 2nd Evil is a poster, dude. Emailed to request a thread being created for season one and two. These already existed so I bumped them up.

Clear that up for ya?

Can anyone tell me which episode does the blooper where Jen hit the fence came from? Thank you.

It was from a really serious scene oddly enough. The one were Alices father died. The Abduction wasn't it?

Ha! That always cracks me up. My friends and I have laughed much and often over that scene.

Had a question about the episode Double Agent: why was Olivia d'Abo there anyway? Did she ever show up again?

Not after she was blown up, no! She was in a couple of scenes at the beginning of the episode demonstrating that she suspected something fishy was going on, started to e-mail her suspicions but didn't get to finish, and then was knocked out, bound up, and kicked out of a van, ordered to sing "Pop Goes The Weasel," and blown up on live TV.

That was probably the creepiest scene that season for me. Olivia d'Abo did a good job of looking absolutely terrified (and also embarrassed to be on the street naked other than a bomb).

You know, I really thought that blond trainee, the one Weiss hit on and Sydney found crying in the bathroom, would show up again. If only to give Weiss a little more dialog, because whenever he gets a real line, it's always great.

I thought Blandie would get a recurring role too, sarhvb, considering how they were setting her storyline up. But I guess it just didn't work out.

That's the thing that I like about this show: JJ listens to fan feedback (at least, he *used* to). That's how DA went from One Time Bad Guy to Recurring BadAss.

Blah, I'm a big idiot. I got the blond chicks mixed up in that episode. What about the other blonde girl who was a trainee or something? I think she was the one who Syd found crying in the bathroom.

The trainee CIA agent was there for just the one episode, and I think I recall reading somewhere around here that she may have actually been intended as a possible third apex in a Syd/Vaughn/_____ love triangle (yeah, we never do seem to get away from those, do we?), and they were just testing out her character first. (May I just add, this really ought to be the way a triangle is introduced, not some instantaneous Vaughn's-got-a-wife! crap.) Then something didn't work out, quite possibly scheduling conflicts with the actress's schedule, so she never did return. If anyone knows this more certainly, do feel free to correct me or add on to this...

All this season two reminiscing got me busting out my DVD set last night. After I enjoyed the lovely hug between Syd and Vaughn at the end of "The Indicator," I had to re-read the recap and find one of my favorite Regina paragraphs:


That just cracks my ass up.

Bump.

In light of all the Jack stuff after the finale, I have to wonder - at the end of S2, he tells Sloane that he "used to pity him." That Sloane had been "left for dead." Huh? What? I wonder if that has anything to do with last night's cliffhanger.

ETA: If Sydney's life was prophecized, then Jack knew she had to end up with Vaughn somehow. Maybe that's what he meant by "We can't lose Vaughn" in Counteragent.

Regina, thanks for the thread bumbs

I finally got my hands on some S2 episodes (The season DVD actualy).

I've only seen the first episode of the season so far, but Damn! What an episode. I'm in lust with Spy Mommy.

That thing she did with the gun so it kept firing was so freakin' cool.

Although I found the thing with Will and the heroine rather anti-good for this show.

I rewatched "A Free Agent" yesterday, and finally remembered where my fear of aquariums came from. The last time I was in one, I held on to my nephew's hand the entire time, waiting to be kidnapped. Thank God I finally recalled why that scared me so much. Thanks a lot J.J., we can just add aquariums to the list of things you've fucked up for me.

Just watched "Countdown" on DVD. Anyone else notice that when they are in Panama City, ALL of the police are hispanic - Sydney even speaks to the detective in Spanish.

Ummmmm...Panama City is in the Panhandle, and having lived there I can tell you that while it has a hispanic community, it's a lot more like Alabama than Mexico. Just because it's in FL doesn't make it Miami LOL! I laughed the whole way through this scene......:)

Panama City, Panama is in the panhandle of Florida?

I think they went to the actual capital of Panama.

THAT makes so much more sense! I am going to sit in the corner with my dunce cap on..........LOL!

ETA: I was thinking Panama City BEACH.......

I'm watching my tapes and I have this perma-grin from the scene where Will and Vaughn meet for the first time. I kept smiling and "eep!"ing every few seconds watching Will ask Vaughn about the picture frame he gave Syd. EEP!

I love that scene, too, Pulpbomb.

Both men look extremely good, and the tension regarding the picture frame had me cracking up.

From the shallow end of watching S2 DVDs again...

It just struck me why the stupid "What Alias Is" summary that starts the eps off ("Special Agent Sydney Bristow blahblah blah and her dad and everyone") doesn't bother me so much in S2. It's for just one moment, but it's worth it. That last shot of Irina walking up to turn herself in to the CIA, that sloooowly comes into focus, that the "Unknown" flashes over? I don't know that I can think of a moment where Lena Olin looks more beautiful. Go, SpyMommy!

No, I like the thing with Will and the heroine. Will and the heroin, though, I don't like. For Will's sake, that is. I realized what they were going to do a few minutes before they actually did it, so that was cool.

I just finished watching S2 on DVD, and damn, this show rocks. I thought the first season was great, but then the second was even better. Even though it sounds like the third season is a downslide, I can't wait for the DVDs to come out so I can watch it.

I'm still trying to wrap my head around Sloane's Master Plan, and how it gels with Irina's Master Plan. Was "Sloane knew all along" a retcon? I don't think he said when exactly he found out Jack and Syd were double agents, so I can't go back and think about how much he must have let slide while Syd kept screwing up all his missions. And hell if I can figure out exactly how evil Irina is, though I do believe her love for Sydney is somewhat genuine. At least in a "she's my daughter, I won't let her get blown up if I can help it" kind of way.

HEE! Sorry, I love homonyms.


She's not evil, dammit. And yes, she loves her daughter -- and her husband. She's not evil. She's just not. Dammit. *goes to watch Dead Drop, Passage, The Abduction, A Dark Turn, and The Telling to confirm this*

Supposedly Sloane knew the truth from the episode where Syd kidnaps him for Sark (the 'Geisha' eppy) and Sark hands the note from Irina to him.

To add to that, in The Telling, Irina spilled that info to Syd and the viewers so we'd all be caught up that it was in fact Irina's plan to take down the Alliance, not Sloane's, as we had thought in Phase One.

Oh yeah, what the hell is a "retcon"? I've seen that a lot lately and I haven't the foggiest idea what it means. I also have no clue what FWIW and IIRC mean, but those are another story.

"Retroactive Continuity", "For What It's Worth", "If I Recall Correctly".

I'm not so sure about Irina's letter divulging that info about Sydney and Jack. Irina assured Sydney that she never told Sark about her status as a double agent and I tend to believe that's true. I always thought, especially when Irina told Sydney her plan in "The Telling," that the letter was an offer to Sloane to combine their efforts with regards to Rambaldi and outlined the details for her extraction to come.

I think that Sloane found out about the Bristows' double agent status on his own, but I'm still not sure exactly when that happened.

I wholly agree. As much as I think of Irina as the woman who ties up all her loose ends, the 'taking down of the Alliance' just seemed like something Sloane did on his own to make ends meet with his plan for Irina. The letter she gave him was all the information he needed and an outline of what she was planning to do to get out of CIA custody after learning the location of those artifacts.

Slonae may have been the assistant in Irina's extraction, but he was the master planner in the Alliance. Maybe it's just my Evil!Sloane love that prohibits me from even considering that Sloane didn't come up with that plan.

ETA: Because Distraction and Extraction are two entirely different words!

So in something that's vaguely Canon, Sloane apparently was writing that letter (the one discovered in Phase One) at the end of S1. They found this out as part of that weird webhunt game they did over the summer between S1 and S2. Between that, and between the whole plot with Emily, I'd say that he knew all about Syd and Jack, and simply used Sark as a tool for that purpose. He would have found someone else to bring down SD-6 otherwise, at a time that best benefitted him.

I think Sloane didn't know that Irina was alive until Sark showed him the paper. I really suspect he had no idea that he was "The Man" - since he didn't and couldn't know Irina was in CIA custody. That was the big surprise that Sark gave Sloane, which allowed him to work on the deal spelled out in The Telling. The only thing Sark did was allow Sloane to move up his timeschedule some.

Sloane did know Irina was alive. He knew she survived the car accident as he was part of the investigative committee at the time and admitted to Jack that he was under orders not to tell him because of the precarious emotional state Jack was in at the time.

I agree that Sloane did not know that Irina was "The Man" (at least until the beginning of S2) and did not know she was in CIA custody until he saw the letter in Japan.

Hi, everyone! I just started watching Alias a few months ago (from the beginning) and am now almost done w/ Season 2 (I allow myself one episode per day so as not to become a complete hermit obsessed with fictional characters but whatever). I've been trying to keep myself moderately, ah, spoiler-free, as much as I can knowing the major plot points from all the seasons but I HAVE to know - they do address the issue of why Irina turned herself in to the CIA in the first place, right? Or did I already miss that? (I just watched A Dark Turn last night...)

Yes, they do, but not for a while. Have fun watching...it's a nice ride for the next few eps, though I don't think it can be better than A Dark Turn...

Well, The Telling does rock.

Aw hell yeah.

I actually watched the Best Girlfight Ever about a week ago and I'm still impressed with it. I mean, Jen is awesome, Merrin is awesome, the stunt work is awesome (it won an Emmy), and well, WOOT! I'm such a sucker for action sequences.

Really? When did that happen? I may know already, my brain is just simply fried. Just got done watching Lord of The Rings: Return of the King. (Dayum, that movie is long!)

Yeah, I definitely loved A Dark Turn, seeing as I'm such a sucker for the Spy Sex and was audibly squealing when Jack and Irina got in on. And despite the five bazillion things wrong with it, I couldn't help but want their little Spy Family to be happy and back together. *sniff*

Is Season Two substantially better than Season Three? I've heard some mention of it not being as good what with Vaughn and his wife and all and having been burned in the past by Buffy...well, I'm a teensy bit scared.

Saying that season two is substantially better then Season three is like saying The Godfather, Part One is substanially better then New York Minute. However, if you ask me, and many will disagree with me, I think Season 3, unlike New York Minute, is worth watching. Season 2, however . . . may be one of the ten best seasons of television ever produced. Almost certainly, in my young opinion, the third best year in action TV (after the second and third seasons of Buffy, the Vampire Slayer).

Although, I have to tell you . . . I've never been really behind the pronouncement of the Best. Girlfight. Ever as,well, the best girlfight ever. While I agree that it was masterful and deserved every gold-plated inch of that Emmy I'm not entirely comfortable with offically declaring it better then the Buffy/Faith fight in the finale of BtVS season 3. Come to think of it, when I get the S2 DVDs, I'm gonna watch them back-to-back and come up with Ravenwing263's offical Best. Girlfight. Ever.

ETA: I realized one of my jokes was a clunker. It's gone now.
ETA2: Italics are goooood
ETA3: (What? it's late! Shut up.) These italics are better. Also, I realized I missed a word

A comparison between the two seasons: If Season Two is like pure, dark, Swiss chocolate, Season Three is like that Hershey's powdered bittersweet cocoa that you buy at the grocery store. It's horrible in comparison, but you eat it anyway because you like chocolate so much.

Or something.

But Season Three definitely had some moments that were pretty good, and I'd say that you'd probably want to at least rent the S3 DVD's so you have an idea what's going on when Season Four rolls around.

(By the way, karabella, have fun with Endgame when you get to it. That was always one of my favorites.)

To take the comparison even further, S2 was like that great swiss chocolate that you get on your European trip and bribe your friends and coworkers with in exchange for getting days off.

S3? It's like when you were a kid and took a bite of baker's chocolate. It was like a giant candy bar, right? It had to be good, right? Yeah, well, it looks okay and it should be okay - it is chocolate, after all - but it's pure vile death in a bar form.

To sum up: S2 == best Alias season ever. S3 == slightly better than Charmed.

I agree. I was having trouble understanding why Sloane didn't take down the Alliance sooner, but I realized this morning Irina was the last piece of the puzzle. He needed someone on his side in the CIA, someone who could maneuver them like puppets. He could leak some intel she could work with and develop, since a gobsmack of intel would be suspicious.

It had a Buffy/Faith in TYG feel to it, what with the resourcefulness and glass doors. One of the most effective things about it was the lack of music. Made it that much more brutal.

And hey, Kalbear. Nice to see a familiar face.

Okay, somehow I got sucked into watching "The Telling" last night. I just wanted to watch the Syd/Irina confrontation on the ice, but when the DVD was starting up, I was like, "Screw it," and decided to watch the whole thing.

Best. Episode. EVER.

It's odd 'cuz I always considered "The Confession" to be my favorite ep because I've seen it no less than 92 times, but really -- "The Telling" is just. fucking. awesome.


I've always stayed away from Buffy, but I should probably catch the reruns and watch this fight of which you speak. ;P


I never thought "Endgame" was all that great, but that was probably due to the excessive SV, the literal incarnation of SpyBarbie in the drugstore, and the mechanical bullriding in Russia. VG and TM were great, Slater was great, Lena was bad-ass as usual, but the rest of the ep? Eh..

Which Buffy/Faith fight are we talking about? First there was the mention of the one at the end of S3 and then the one in TYG.

The one in Faith's apartment at the end of Season Three wasn't all that memorable and doesn't even hold a candle to The Best Girl Fight Ever.

The one in This Year's Girl...eh. I have Buffy on DVD, and the show was great (emphasis on was) but the fights never did it for me like the ones on Alias. Maybe because even if SMG did some of her stunts, most were done by a stunt double and even when SMG threw punches they always seemed so....unlike Sydney's.

Maybe it's just that Jennifer Garner trains more, but when she's fighting, it looks far more realistic. Am I making any sense?

Funyun, you are aware that a lot - quite a bit - of the Best.Girlfight.Ever was done with stunt doubles, right? Any time anyone was thrown into something, over something, etc - that was a double. It doesn't make it less of an awesome fight, but it's not something to knock other fights for.

That being said, it's definitely better than almost any of the fights between Faith and Buffy. Now, if we got to Faith and Angel, that's another tale.

Yes, ITA. Not only is Garner fantastic, and in great shape, but I think that the show, and the stunt doubles, all do a brilliant job of making it seem just like one Sydney fighting. It's so cool, too, on the Season 1 DVDs (slightly offtopic i know) when you watch the special on stunts how everyone keeps saying that Garner always wants to do her own stunts, even when they're dangerous. The Best Girl Fight Ever is just that as far as I'm concerned... the best. Girl fight. Ever.

Season Two is what turned me from a rabid fan into a dangerously obsessed television viewer. As much as S1 rocked, it was the deepening family relationships and the heightened tension between S/V (not to mention the increased Sarkie-poo) that totally made the show for me. S1 put out all these pieces, while S2 started to put them together.

Pre-phase one (plus The Telling) I can rewatch a zillion times without tiring. Firebomb, Countdown, and a Free Agent, those episodes are a little more tedious to me. Although they're masterpieces compared to the average S3 ep. I think I've seen the Telling about fifteen times. I'm not proud of that fact. But I agree with most of y'all, that the Fauxlio/Syd fight was the best fight ever. I'll even take out the "girl" part of it because I can't think of ANYthing else on television, male or female, that rivals it in terms of execution and emotion.

Oh yeah, of course. It's obvious when they're out on the patio and Syd does that backflip off the bench that it's the stunt double. And when Sydney smashes Francie into the cabinet, breaking the glass, that's obviously Merrin's stunt double.

What I was implying was that it's quite obvious when it's a stunt double on Buffy and also, the punches and the fights, IMHO, don't cut it realistically from the camera angles they have when Sydney, Jennifer Garner, looks as if she's actually punching them (when of course, she's not).

ETA: The BGF, actually, was done mostly by JG and MD. With the adorementioend stunts, the glass breaking and the patio jumping, that was about it. There were some quick cuts of it with stunts, but 90 percent of it was done by the actual actresses.

Yeah, i'm obsessed. I watched that Alias Diary thing on The Telling.

I watched this, I thought the best parts were when they showed the hockey rink scene and the part where Syd and Vaughn were having a shootout with Sloane and his henchmen and JG was going "Bang, bang, bang, bang" at the point were the guns were supposed to be shooting.

I just watched "Countdown" and I always get teary at the end when Dixon was going to jump off a bridge, but then he said he heard a baby cry and he thought of his babies, and stepped off the ledge, but then it turned out to be a branch. It's so sad.

I've been wondering...
Which episode is it when Syd starts ranting to Vaughn in the parking garage about something that Kendall said to her (about her mother, I think..), and then Vaughn interrupts her with a kiss? Then he says something about the meeting being boring (I think...) My S2 dvds have been residing at my mother's house for the past two months so I can't figure it out for myself :'o(

That deleted scene was in episode 2.15 "A Free Agent."

J.J. Abrams is a Buffy fan, right? Do we know whether the scene where Syd and Vaughn have sex for the first time, reflected in the TV, with NotFrancie watching is a reference to the scene in "The I in Team" where Buffy and Riley have sex for the first time, reflected in the TV, with Maggie Walsh watching?