I am having a hard time remembering distinct elements from the four episodes I watched over the weekend. I think it’s partly because I caught up on so much TV – so I’m getting V, FlashForward, Sarah Jane Adventures, Stargate Universe, and Sanctuary mixed in – and partly because of the frakkin busted toilet stress.

I liked the glimpse of Rachel’s family in “Solo”. Even though I’m sure we’ll never hear from them again, I’m glad to know they’re safe and sound. And as much as I appreciated Rachel’s inexperience being highlighted, the sparring with Tom was nice as was her failure in the field, I just can’t understand why she was sent on the oil rig mission. You’re telling me that Sydney Bristow is the ONLY agent in the entirety of APO that is of the right age and training to go undercover as a hooker and since she’s knocked up they have to send a computer nerd instead? Yeah. Nice try. Still, it’s fun to see Fred being so badass. Why exactly did Dixon not shoot her when she was jumping off the rig?

The set-up with Sloane standing up to Dean and then visiting Nadia segued nicely to “Fait Accompli”. I liked that Dean was both betrayed and killed in a single episode. If we’re going to move on to the next level of bad guy, I’m glad they didn’t waste any time. The scenes at the Dubai race track were fun; loved Grace’s drunk Australian. And the whole LSD thing was pretty funny.

I knew Rachel would bang Sark as soon as I saw him in “Bob”. Sark! I missed you! You’re so dumb and easy! Didn’t they already have that death ray bomb thingie be a Rambaldi device in Mexico City though? I guess it was reverse engineered or something. I liked the MI-6 broad that Jack was working with. What do I know her from?

Aww, they brought back Vaughn for “The Horizon”. When was the big hiatus during the season? I was distracted by the lack of roundness in Sydney’s face during most of the revisited flashbacks. Had Garner already given birth by the time this was filmed? She just didn’t look pregnant to me anymore. And even though I absolutely guessed that Syd was on a boat, I was completely surprised by the appearance of Irina Derevko. So I guess she’s back to being a bad guy now. Whatever. Though it was seriously creeptastic to see that nursery set up that Jack and Renee found. Possibly even creepier than when they did the same reveal on Lost.

Grabbing this from astrogirl2 because I feel like slacking off and this seems like an easy meme to do.

Take a screendump of your desktop at the moment, no cheating, no tidying up, just as it is, and post it here, and tell us what it says about you :)



Well, there's the Rani, looking adorable as she menaces the underside of the rocking chair instead of going to bed. Despite being in her jammies and sleep sack.

My desktop itself isn't too messy. I have more shortcuts and icons than I use but I have to leave them in place for corporate blah blah blah. I do have a bunch of image files I need to sort through and trash or save elsewhere. And I have two outstanding beta assignments I really need to get on. Looks like I don't have many applications going. Email and internet are standard. I guess I haven't started SAS yet for the day.

For the first time, I really liked the use of the 72 Hours Earlier device in “Mockingbird”. The opening Monte Carlo scene was a fabulous caper and then cutting directly from Sydney hanging in the car to learning Rachel’s call-sign was a great way to inject even more suspense into the proceedings. Incidentally, how many different call-signs has Syd has over the course of the series? I also enjoyed the coaching she gave to Rachel on becoming another person. It’s something I’ve noticed while watching the opening credits: yes Syd has many wigs and costumes but you can really tell the character she is playing in that situation by her posture and body movements. And that’s just on snippets taken out of context! They better not hook Rachel up with Marshall. The Dixon/Grace team was a lot of fun on the beach and during the mobile bank scene.

I’m fascinated by Sloane getting out of jail thanks to the bad guy du jour this season. It was interesting watching him maneuver during “Out of the Box”. I like that he’s been so upfront about his desire to use APO to heal Nadia but it’s also a delight to see him returning to his duplicitous ways. Blackmailing Senator Vash was fantastic! I’m not entirely sure what to make of the cryogenic man plot. Maybe I’m not forward-seeing enough to understand the point of him pretending to be Renee’s father but I really didn’t understand the point. Still, it was nice seeing Renee working with Syndey and Tom. I really like Tom’s character. He’s so understated, definitely of the less-talk-more-action school.

On the whole I’ve been very happy with this season since the premiere, which I found to be a complete mess. It seems they’ve found a nice balance with all the characters and story lines. I don’t know where they’re going but they’re doing a good job of minimizing Garner’s screentime so presumably it will be less jarring when she’s on leave.

It’s so refreshing to see a *real* pregnant belly in scenes like Sydney’s ultrasound during “…1…”. I found myself wondering if that was actual footage of Violet in utero or if they used stock footage of some sort. Sydney working with Renee was also believable to me. I do like that chick – she sort of reminds me of Rosanna Arquette – and I hope we see her again. Loved Syd’s intensity while interrogating the bad guy. Dude, don’t fuck with the pregnant spy chick. Dixon’s longer hair was very becoming. And aww, Weiss is leaving for his promotion to psychic cop on Heroes. Thinking back, I guess not much happened but it seemed more enjoyable than the season premiere while I was watching it. I think there were still some pacing issues, as I kept expecting the end title card and it would be another scene instead.

I definitely enjoyed “The Shed”, especially the split focus between Sydney’s mission and Dixon’s mission. And Fred! I guess I vaguely remember reading somewhere that Amy Acker was in the final season but I didn’t remember until she showed up on my screen. I admit it was a little weird seeing her be badass instead of super genius. Surprisingly, I didn’t mind that Rachel’s background is mirroring Sydney’s experience with SD-6 so closely – and that annoyed me completely when they did it with Nadia! The actress is also stronger than I was expecting; maybe I just have lowered expectations after the Lauren debacle? Agent Grace (I keep thinking of him as Dick Grayson in my head and then amusing myself with the idea of Jack as Bruce Wayne, but I digress) is compelling to me as well. He’s got an interesting look, vaguely like Live Schreiber, and I like the immediate connection and chemistry between him and Blondie. So I think they’re on track to cover for Garner’s maternity leave quite nicely. We’ll see how it actually plays out…

Today is the release date for the new Mercurial Rage album on Susstones titled Cascade! It's available at all the finest local indie retailers, on iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and other digital retailers, and of course, direct from The Susstones Shop!

I’m not entirely sure what to think of “Prophet Five”. I actually found it to be extremely manipulative and I watched it strangely impassively. I thought it was pretty funny how Sydney went straight into ass-kicking-mode after the car crash. Loved the cornfield chase.

“New credits! Hey wait, no Vaughn? But there’s Michael Vartan in the ‘starring’ list. I must’ve just missed him before.” So yeah, I had no clue that MV left the show. And wow, three new cast members? I knew there was one new girl, apparently referred to as Boobs McGee or some such, but looks like she’s not the only newbie for me to meet.

I liked how they worked Garner’s real-life pregnancy into the storyline. It was cute how she told Vaughn before they jumped off the cliff together. And it was cute how telling Jack just completely shut him down. I totally didn’t buy Vaughn surviving the multiple gun shots to the chest so I guess the only point to him later dying in the hospital was to pick out the baby name?

There were just so many call backs to the first season that I felt they were trying too hard. Direct references to SD-6, but Syd can’t be bothered to ask Dixon how he’s feeling after missing the whole Big Red Ball of Doom due to recovering from being shot? Syd looses yet another fiancée. Syd has to track down the bad-guys-posing-as-good-guys. I don’t know. It was overstuffed. It felt like a pilot almost. Trying so hard to set up the premise that it never got a chance to find a rhythm and flow. I kept expecting the end of the episode to come and then there would be another scene. I can understand why viewers would have tuned in for resolution to the cliffhanger and then bailed.

Navel gazing thoughts on Gater and Scaper TWoP posting habits, possibly only of interest to aurora_novarum and monkey_pants7 ( click here )

Well. Where do I start with “Before the Flood”? How ‘bout the ending? I can honestly say I did not see that “My name’s not Michael Vaughn” bullshit coming. Even after Irina’s cryptic advice to “just tell her”. What. The. Fuck. Honestly, it makes me less willing to watch the final season. I was already feeling like this season finale was a perfect *series* finale and I could just call it quits. That may push me over the edge. (I know this is just bluster; I have the S5 box set on loan already. It may take me a while to get around to it though. We’ll see.)

I think it was a little bit of a cheat to have the much prophesied showdown between Chosen One and Passenger be due to chemical enhancement and not actual destiny or beliefs or something. That said, I liked the resolution and I’m glad Nadia’s not killed off. I have no clue if she shows up in the final season or not. I actually have very little idea what happens in the final season other than wedding, pregnancy, and new agent girl. What was up with Lumbly? How come he was on vacation the last few episodes? I hope Dixon isn’t gone the final season.

What else? I felt like Elena’s character had no nuance. She just went balls out evil and that seemed a bit jarring to me. Granted we never saw the “real” Elena so maybe she was like this all along. Irina knocking her out was pretty awesome. Oh and I adored Jack letting Irina go. Is it wrong to want to ship them after all they’ve been through? I was glad to see I read Sloane right and that he was just working with Elena to try to stop her. Even when that meant having to shoot his own daughter. All in all, a very good season. Cracktastic fun.

Jennifer Garner’s name jumped out at me as the director for “In Dreams…” so then I kept looking to see how often Sydney was or wasn’t in scenes. Slightly distracting. She did a good job but was also definitely playing with her new toys; there were certain effects/angles/shots that I haven’t seen used in the show before but good for her to branch out. As soon as I saw Emily again I knew that the big Jacqueline mystery was going to be a lost baby. How awful. But I did find the brain pattern mapping Sloane Clone business to be a bit overtly sci-fi. This show has straddled the line before but this time I thought it stepped over.

I’m glad they cleared Nadia’s name right away in “The Descent”. Lord knows Joss Whedon would have dragged that out for far too many episodes. I was happy to see that Dixon and Angela Bassett had hooked up since I noticed a nice subtle flirtation between them previously. But naturally once that was revealed Marcus had to get shot. I honestly thought they were going to kill off the character. Lord knows Joss Whedon would have done so. Heh. Clearly I have some residual Buffy issues from my recent complete first time viewing of that show. But finally they reveal what I’ve known all season long: that Irina Derevko is (duh) alive. I’m guessing that Sloane is just going along with Elena because he thinks he can stop her but who knows, maybe he really has gone back over to the dark side.

I really enjoyed the opening flashback in “Search and Rescue”, despite being incredibly distracted by the orchid on the back of Fake!Irina’s head. I’m glad they revisited the doubling technology. Let’s see, we’ve had Sark, Lauren, Emily, and now Irina this season. Where’s Will? I liked the emotion of Irina meeting Nadia. Both women played that scene incredibly well. And all the Vaughn/Syd scenes were finally fun again. I swear there was underlying tension due to the Garner/Vartan break-up that I had been sensing all season. Maybe they just had had enough time to come to terms with it? The Ibiza club scene and the almost engagement on the plane were fabulous. As was Jack’s small smile for his daughter.

And then the whole frakked up extended Spy Familia jumps out of the plane and the awesomest Mission Impossible music plays in the background. Looking forward to the season finale. Giant red ball floating overhead? Gonna be cracky good times.

I ended up spoiled that Sonia Braga was Elena. But even if I hadn’t known that and noticed her name in the opening credits of “A Clean Conscience”, I still would have figured she had to be the third Derevko sister once she showed up again. I think they did a great job casting all the sisters. There’s a strange similarity to how their mouths move when they speak. Maybe due to English not being the actresses’ first language??? And all three women are extremely intense in all possible definitions of the word. But her little helper I had trouble accepting as being as evil as she is. Sure, he had the blank sociopath stare down pat but he was Elle Wood’s buddy in Legally Blonde! (Ooh, also staring Victor Garber, nice.)

I got tricked by the cliff hanger for the first time since season 1 and watched “Mirage” right away, even though I knew it would make me stay up too late. I just had to find out what happened to Dixon undercover with the bad guys! And then it was resolved right away. Silly me. I hope they deal with this rather dark fork in the road that Marcus has gone down. First shooting his old training buddy (so if he was originally trained by the CIA how did he end up with SD-6? Maybe I shouldn’t look too closely…) to maintain cover and then the bad guy instead of negotiating for the whatever poison. Very intense mini-arc for him.

I’m torn about the apparent resolution of Jack’s illness. First I was glad to see the writers hadn’t forgotten he was a Dead Man Walking. And I’m always glad to see Michael McKean in anything. But I had speculated that his sickness would be a much slower decline, resulting in him sacrificing his own life for his daughter’s in the series finale, since he doesn’t have any time left anyway. And maybe that’s how it happens after all (ack! I hate knowing even that much!) but it seemed like somewhat of a missed opportunity to me. I changed my opinion about the whole hallucination deal several times. First I thought it was very cool he was so far gone he had cooked up that entire sequence in his head. (Eep! What had he *actually* dug out of his hand and leg?!??) But then I was creeped out that they had Sydney impersonating her mother for her father. The scene was blocked very carefully so that there was no hint of inappropriate incestiness, with only a very chaste touch at the end. So I swung back around to loving the headtrip, especially after Jack’s reveal to “Laura” that missing his daughter’s upcoming birthday was impetus for him to quit. So much pain and anguish in Sydney’s face, despite her attempts to stay in character. Really spectacular acting on both of their parts. And the old man make-up on Michael McKean was probably the best aging I’ve seen any show do.

namarie24 did this one ages ago and I kept it in my inbox because it was such an interesting topic. Now that Fall TV is starting up, I think it’s time for me to do. Obviously there will be exceptions to these rules but it’s fun to analyze.

What are the dos and don'ts that will guarantee you'll watch something or not watch something?


Dos:

1. An interesting premise. I like it when it’s something I haven’t heard before. If it catches my eye in previews, I’m going to be willing to try it out. Warehouse 13 is a recent example.

2. A good cast. I’m not necessarily loyal to specific actors where I’ll watch everything that person is in just because they’re in it. But there are obviously better actors than others and if a show seems to be loaded up with good actors, I’m going to be more interested in checking it out. FlashForward comes to mind, and it fits with #1 as well.

3. Genre, specifically sci-fi or fantasy. I won’t watch something just because it can be categorized like that, but it’s more likely that I’ll try it out. Sometimes it doesn’t work, like Fringe which I just couldn’t get into, and sometimes it works out splendidly, like Sanctuary.

4. Interesting characters. This is sort of a corollary to #1. I want to be entertained with new personality types. I like seeing more than the standard stock archetypes on my screen. Royal Pains really turned out to be a real treat for me in that regard, as has Warehouse 13.

5. Showrunners and writers. Similar to #2, I won’t follow them to the ends of the Earth. But I did check out Dollhouse, despite misgivings, because I liked Whedon’s previous shows. That didn’t work out so well. But thanks to JJ Abram’s Lost, I’m enjoying the heck outta Alias.

6. Franchise. This goes along neatly beside #5. I will watch anything stamped “Star Trek”. Anything Doctor Who. I am going to definitely check out Stargate: Universe and am trying to keep an open mind despite the scary spoilers out there. I rented Caprica but probably won’t stick with the actual show.

7. Actual talent. I do not care for reality television of the eating bugs and enduring pain variety. But if it’s something that requires real skill, I’m there. I’m devoted to Project Runway and Top Chef and completely addicted to American Idol (though the “talent” portion is negligible at the beginning of each season).

8. Serialized storytelling. This is a tough one because you have to come in at the beginning. I missed out on Farscape, despite *knowing* I should be watching, because I didn’t come in at the start. But if I get a sense that it’s going to be arc-heavy from the promos, I’m much more willing to test the waters just in case I like it. That way I don’t have to play catch-up. I stuck by Lost from the very first moment and I’m hoping that FlashForward serves me just as well.

9. Relatable subject matter. This is probably more crucial for sitcoms than anything else. I got hipped to Big Bang Theory in reruns over the summer and know those guys. I’m curious about the new Jenna Elfman show because I have a new baby (and see #2).

10. Peer pressure. This one can backfire (see #3 below). But sometimes it’s just the thing I need to tip me over the edge about a show I’m not quite sure of. The current example is Vampire Diaries. It frankly sounds just too angsty and teenagery and Twilighty and ugh, do I really need that? But I’ve got a couple of girlfriends desperate for me to give it a try so I’m going to see what I think. I do love talking about TV...


Don'ts:

1. Love triangles. Yuck. It’s just so gross and overused. There is no need for that device to keep a couple apart. It's a writing crutch. It really isn’t actually that common in real life. It gets old. I’m sick of it.

2. Procedurals. This is a tricky one because there are some that I do watch, but they’re definitely of the “quirky” variety (think USA Network) rather than your standard acronym shows and ripped from headlines plots.

3. Peer pressure. I will actually deliberately not watch a show if it’s all anyone can talk about. If I happen to already be watching something that catches the zeitgeist, that’s different. But a show that is all the rage and I’m even slightly curious about I will stubbornly refuse until many years later. See: Buffy the Vampire Slayer. (Still haven’t gotten around to Twin Peaks. And telling me I’m missing out will only make me wait even longer.)

4. Clone shows. Shows that I perceive to be ripping off shows that I like, whether fairly or unfairly, I will most certainly avoid out of loyalty to the original. Rarely can I overcome that initial bias. Alias is one of those rare instances, but it’s taken years. Yes Simon Baker is cute but I’m not watching his Psych clone.

5. Shock value. I don’t watch gory slasher movies so why would I want to see this on my television screen? It’s usually not an issue for network dramas but it’s becoming more and more prevalent in cartoons. There is really almost nothing I care about on Adult Swim anymore and I used to stay up WAY too late every Sunday night to watch their entire line-up.

6. Serial killers. Similar to #5, you can’t make me watch Dexter. I don’t care about character development and blah blah blah. He is a serial killer. Won’t watch. Ever. End of story. And that goes for procedurals that have a season arc involving a serial killer. Or movies about serial killers. Or documentary shows about serial killers. Or books about serial killers. They are verboten.

7. Overly precious concepts. I don’t really know how to put this one into words. I know it sort of contradicts Do #1 but sometimes it just seems like they're trying too hard to be a Special Snowflake and it comes off as twee. Maybe I'm missing out on some good stuff but eh.

8. Teenagers. Look, I didn't like my fellow teenagers when I was one, so why would I give a damn about them on my television?

9. The stench of immanent cancellation. Another tricky one. But sometimes you can just *sense* when a show isn't going to be given a chance. I try to stay away from those now. I've been burned too many times and it still stings. The Tick, Strange Luck, Firefly, John Doe, Arrested Development, Sarah Connor Chronicles, Futurama...should I go on?

10. Going off the rails. This is more relevant to shows I quit watching than shows I'm going to give a try. I've gotten better as time goes on with quitting shows. My time is precious and I have kids so if I can't have it on with them around then it better be SPECTACULAR. Complete premise do-overs, attempts to recreate the magic of a first perfect season, replacing beloved characters once actors leave, show runners jumping ship, all of those things signify it's Time To Go.

I’m glad that Vaughn’s Daddy Arc was essentially wrapped up between “Nightingale” and “Pandora”. It was a bit messy, especially having Vaughn & Sydney double crossing Jack & Sloane at the same time that Jack & Sloane were double crossing Vaughn & Sydney but I found that to be pretty funny as I was watching it. Michael Vaughn is a dumbass though. “Inject Me”…and he does it?!?! I thought his time with the rogue squadron was a bit more believable than Dark!Vaughn going after Lauren so that’s something. I hated that they waved off him shooting Dixon with a mere line of dialogue about Marcus wearing his vest. That’s it?

“Another Mister Sloane” was one of the most intense episodes I think this show has ever done. I was totally on the edge of my seat. And not because I thought they’d fail to figure out there was an imposter (HEE! to all the fake names they came up with!) but because Ron Rifkin acted the hell outta this one. Especially that scene at the end where he was beating the Number Two man to death with the Rambaldi swoosh. And then Nadia came in and he’s all covered with blood. *shudder* Brilliant. And Michelle Forbes! Love!

I can see why the network figured they could air “Tuesday” before the previous trio but I actually think there was more subtext to Sloane seeing it come after AMS. This was an excellent bottle episode either way. I loved how they finagled Marshall into being the only one not in lock-down (though no way did he fly to Cuba, then to Europe, then back to LA in a single day). I loved Sydney’s palpable terror in the coffin (though no way did her cell phone battery last that long if she kept it open for the light the entire time). I loved the role reversal of op tech. I loved the heat vision image of CPR. I loved Jack’s concern for his daughter. And then it just ended with them continuing to work, even as they’re still trapped in the office. Perfect.

I found myself snarking “A Taste of Armageddon” relentlessly. It’s not that it’s a bad episode. In fact, I really like the concept and think it’s extremely clever and a great look at the realities of war. I love that pointing out that the messiness and brutality is what *actually* brings peace is what it took them to consider negotiations instead of just rebuilding their computer. Boy, Kirk sure does love breaking computers, doesn’t he?

My problem with this one was execution. It just seemed sloppy. It was filled with little things, like first Jim takes on a pile of guards and they beat him down and capture him. But later, he’s able to miraculously knock out three with a single punch. Huh? But maybe I was on the look out for mess more than I would have normally been. I blame the costumes. Because they so recycled these for “Friday’s Child”. The one-legged jumpsuits and the head caps. And everybody knows I’m obsessed with the bad costumes in that episode. Heh.

I love Barbara Babcock though. She’s so gorgeous. And tall! She was wearing flats and stood maybe an inch shy of Shatner in his little Cuban heeled Starfleet boots. I don’t know that I ever noticed how tall she was on Dr. Quinn. And ooh, she did the voice for Trelane’s mother!

I didn’t remember “This Side of Paradise” initially. I found it both engaging and extremely slow. Again, I really liked the concept but wondered at the execution. Less frequently than with Armageddon but there were still moments that made me snort. I think everyone did a wonderful job playing the dazed-by-Utopia versions of their characters. And it really was perfect that Kirk’s romance with his ship is what kept him from being overcome by the spores.

I think this episode gave me a lot of insight into Movie Spock because of the undercurrents of his humanity and how he comports himself in a relationship with a human female. The line about him not even putting his arms around her immediately made me think of how coldly he embraced Uhura in the turbolift. But that he *did* embrace her at all was the key difference for me.

When I noted that DC Fontana wrote this one, Mr. b made a comment that she must have been the inspiration for Kira’s alter-ego in DS9’s “Far Beyond the Stars”. I can’t believe I never thought of that before!

I adored the premiere episode of Glee when it aired back in May at the end of American Idol. What a stroke of programming genius from the usually inept monkeys at Fox. I was totally looking forward to this show and was delighted to discover that the new season was starting already! But sadly, the second episode didn’t charm me the same way. ( Ah, push it. Push it real good. )

I had been looking forward to “Welcome to Liberty Village” based on title alone. I was hoping for some The Prisoner style mindgames or something. I definitely wasn’t expecting a serious take on the John Travolta movie The Experts! I really, really loved it. There was a lot that seemed familiar to me throughout the entire episode. I wouldn’t be surprised if I kept flipping back during the commercials of whatever else I was watching at the time to keep taking a peek at this one. It almost felt like a bottle episode, despite Sydney and Vaughn being in Russian and away from the others. The pacing was really tight and it was honestly a pleasure to have such focus on them and have it not just be all relationship angst, all the time.

Apparently there was an ulterior motive on the part of the show runners since Vaughn then abruptly stopped working with Sydney in the field after that. (Did that have anything to do with Garner and Vartan breaking up? Not sure of the timing there…) The characters spent nearly all of their time apart in “The Index”, “The Road Home”, and “The Orphan”. I’m glad that Vaughn didn’t keep his daddy quest secret from her, though I’m confused why he suddenly has so much time off from his fieldwork to go on said daddy quest. I hope there’s decent resolution to the whole thing. At the moment it feels a little like it’s tacked on, especially since Bill Vaughn is the one that delivered young Nadia to the orphanage.

I’m much more fascinated by the Jack plot. There’s some kind of convoluted secret whatever going on with Jack and Sloane, apparently involving the so-obviously-not-actually-dead Irina, but I can’t figure it out at all. I definitely didn’t see it coming when Jack was the one meeting with the old bad guys (though I knew Sloane wouldn’t be so dumb as to get caught if he was truly intending to put the band back together) and it was nice to see him being sneaky again. I wasn’t sure about Jack going through with the garroting after learning the guy’s wife was preggers. I’m guessing that this will all converge upon the Vaughn and Nadia/Passenger plotlines in some sort of Rambaldi clusterfuck at the end but for now it’s just nice to get some serialization back into the storytelling. Interesting that Sydney seems to be taking on the standalone story elements as the arcs build around her.

I was a little hesitant to have a Nadia flashback episode. Even though I genuinely liked Ezri Dax, the DS9 writers’ treatment of the character as their new plaything to the exclusion of all else has definitely made me wary. On the whole, I liked the Nadia background detail. But did they really have to make her part of a bad guy organization posing as the good guys just like her sister? That was a step too far for me. They could have come up with another reason for her to legitimately want to kill her recruiter/trainer. I was thrilled to see the actress that played Samantha Jones’s artist girlfriend.

Each new family revelation on Alias makes me roll my eyes that frickin’ everyone is interconnected in a slapped-together, pulling-names-out-of-a-hat kind of way. Whereas on Lost it seems truly revelatory in an OMG WTF kind of a way. Plus the world of Alias was not initially presented as rife with borderline sci-fi/fantasy elements whereas Lost’s very premise promised that there was going to be magic or supernatural or Something Unexplainable behind everything, which makes all the interconnections, for me, much easier to handle and actually very welcome and exciting. Layers and puzzles and the like to support the story, rather than as window dressing added at the last minute.

I had only just realized I still hadn’t seen Sark yet this season when he shows up in the two-parter “Echoes” and “A Man of His Word”. I hadn’t been checking the cast during the opening credits because I’m always mesmerized by the wigsapalooza! I’m torn with how they used Sark here. Some of his actions were just plain awesome. I loved that he led them to South Africa just to fuck with their heads. But then he demanded to see Lauren’s body? And he claimed that he loved her? And he actually truly wept over her deadness? I was really disappointed that it wasn’t just a ruse to retrieve some whatever object that he knew would be implanted on her. Did they really get Melissa George back for a corpse shot?

Gina Torres, however, was delightful all around. I was thrilled to see her again, remembering the promise that she’d be back eventually and it would be worth the wait. I’m glad Sydney admitted that Espinosa brings out the worst in her. But I had expected that Syd started the department store fight just to palm the putty stuff back, thereby not actually turning it over to the bad guys. It was a bit weird to have Nadia sidelined during so much of the action but I did like the dueling fathers with Sloane and Jack. As I get further into the season I definitely agree that it would have been character assassination to have Jack actually be involved with the Rambaldi bullshit so I recant my earlier statement that I thought that would have been a good storyline.

Sydney: Who is it?
Jack: Anna Espinosa.
Sydney: I...She's supposed to be dead.
Jack: So are a lot of people.

I guess this means Irina is still alive. I suspected as much but this line really stood out to me as “proof”.

“Space Seed” is one of those episodes that I’ve seen so many times that I sort of take it for granted. I tried to make sure I watched with a critical eye the whole time to look for little things that I’ve never noticed before or that have been pointed out, like Kirk spending his final breath recommending commendations for his officers. Kirk knowing about Botany Bay off the top of his head is definitely an obvious nomination for the list of Evidence James Tiberius is a Dork but I thought his reaction to Uhura at the beginning was even more so. He was in such a huff about her identifying the signal as Morse Code and then trying to translate it. Like he was completely exasperated that she might think he didn’t already know that!

My eye for costuming continued to consume me as I counted costume changes for Khan: five. Which is a lot for any cast member in a 44 minute episode but seriously over the top for a frickin’ guest star! The iniquities in women’s dress uniforms continued as none of the women in the banquet room had even the paltry version of the dress uniform we saw in “Court Martial”. At least some of the other male officers were also not in dress uniform to make it slightly more even. But then all the women on Khan’s ship were still wearing their Barbarella gold netting as the men were changing into the red jumpsuits! What?!

So is McGivers definitely the wife that Khan mentions in the movie? I guess I’m surprised that he was so into her. Ten minutes and he’s already controlling her like it’s been ten years of steady verbal and emotional abuse! I gave her more of a pass this time than I have in previous viewings because of that bad hair. Seriously. All those pinned curls were “comfortable”? That shit was worse than Christine’s wig! Nice make-over Khan. Go back to the dictator business because you suck at hair styling.

I loved how Uhura kept on twiddling buttons and working the controls, even as everyone around her was passing out from the gas. And I personally like to pretend that Chekov and Sulu were out on R&R and that’s why they missed out on this particular adventure. Their names and photos would have still been in the ship’s files for Khan to see though, and with his genetically enhanced memory he’d definitely recognize Chekov at the beginning of the movie.

I’m watching episodes in the production order which means that “Détente” came next for me. The only problem with doing it like this is I’m spending an awful lot of time focusing on relationship continuity and speculating if it would have been noticeably jumpy to watch in the order as-aired. I’m really glad I saw this one next because I think the showdown between Sydney and Sloane was an important thing to get out of the way. They had to come to an uneasy understanding in order for it to be believable that they can work together at all. And then to have the Awesome Adventures of the Spy Sisters on top of that was just delicious icing. Yay girly intuition!

I feel like “Ice” provided the same sort of understanding that was necessary between Vaughn himself and his angsty manpain (tm whoever originally came up with that gem) as well as between Vaughn and Sydney. I did like the IRA chick and the interesting chemistry she had with Vaughn. But the Ice Five creeped me right the hell out. It seemed altogether too sci-fi in the opening teaser – I had flashbacks to Farscape – and then just utterly barbaric and gross as applied to the test subjects.

I felt like “Nocturne” was also dabbling in another genre, vampire horror this time. However, I don’t think this episode was nearly as successful as the previous two in setting up the emotional stakes of the players involved. We got a little bit of a Sloane versus Dixon face-off, again very necessary, but too much time was spent on Sydney’s Bram Stoker-esque transformations and extreme paranoia. I understand what they were going for with her not feeling like she can trust anyone and never taking anything at face value but it just didn’t work for me.

So did they incorporate the birth of Marshall’s real-life son for his character? If so, that’s a lovely bit of reversal to accommodate a male actor’s life changing event for a change. Good on them. He’s lost quite a bit of weight since the previous season, too, which definitely could be the result of sleepless nights…

Answers for the Pick Five meme!


Asked by opheliandreams: ( Top Five Annoying Things Kids Do )

Asked by namarie24: ( Top 5 male TV crushes )

Asked by aurora_novarum: ( Top five impossible last minute save the day moments )

Asked by mack_the_spoon: ( Top Five TV Girlcrushes )

aurora_novarum did this one quite some time ago and I’ve just been saving it up for a rainy day. Well, it looks like the skies are clearing but I still don’t intend to be productive…so help me procrastinate people! Please!

Ask me my fannish Top Five [Whatevers]. Any top fives. Doesn't matter what, really! And I will answer them all in a new post. Possibly with pictures.