TVSquad

Alright, we're going to try out a new feature here on TV Squad: TV Squad Debate. Here we'll take two TV Squad members with opposing views about a show and pit them off against each other via online chat. Who wins? Well, that's all up to you to decide. Maybe nobody does. This week Bob and I discuss Alias and the possibilities for Vaughn's return (or lack thereof).
Keith: OK, Alias. I think it's tired. It's time for it to go to bed after this season, with or without Vaughn making a reapearance. The Rambaldi device was a big letdown after so many seasons of waiting for the payoff, and now we have to contend with tough girl lines line "hormones" from Syd? Please god, make it stop.
Keith: Hey, those lines worked with my wife, so I can see how they could be a little threatening. But I don't want to hear someone say it before they kick someone's ass!
Bob: Well, I know this is supposed to be a debate and all, but here's the thing...I completely agree with you that the show should end after this season. But not because it's getting lame or anything like that, but because I don't think that MOST shows should keep going on for years and years, even if I do love them. And I do love Alias.
Keith: Alright, so let's get away from the "it should end soon" arguement and talk about the last episode. We all knew Vartan was going to leave the show at some point, but I don't think either of us saw this 1st episode thing coming...
Keith: So, of course, right away we can't help but assume he'll return somehow...
Keith: But I have to say, they'd better make it good. I won't stand for him surviving those wounds. Hell, he shouldn't have lived as long as he had!
Bob: Well, I had a suspicion that all the summer rumors were true...i kinda had a feeling that Vartan was leaving the show...but I thought he would die in the car crash, or he'd live and he'd have to go into hiding, a la Will...that way he could leave the show but still be alive...I don't think anyone saw coming what happened: he survived the crash, told Syd what was up, and then got shot 397 times in the chest, only to die LATER in the episode!
Bob: Having said that, I don't think he's dead
Bob: I don't see why getting shot so many times means you're automatically dead...this is a show with evil clones and giant red balls in the sky that turn Russians into zombies, so who knows
Bob: maybe Syd gave him something in his sippy cup in the hospictal
Bob: her and Jack got him away while they solve the fcase
Keith: People on that show have died for lesser wounds! I mean, come on now, point blank range and he was sitting in the hospital getting served Jell-O.
Bob: yeah, but never underestimate the recupertive powers of Jell-O.
Keith: I will admit that the lack of a headshot smells of "he's not dead", but I think that show will be over for me if he doesn't return as either a twin, a clone, or some other oddity like that. But even then, it's a total eye-roller.
Keith: OK, here's a senario I could live with, however a bit lame perhaps...
Keith: Synd finds out that the *real* Rambaldi device is a time travel doohickey. She builds it and, in an amazing two-part SERIES finale, she goes all the way back to before she joined SD-6 and goes and finds Vaughn. The end.
Bob: wait a minute...you won't buy Vaughn being saved from all those bullet wounds by top doctors, but you WILL buy a time travel machine?
Keith: Hells yeah. Come on now, Rambaldi wasn't your typical old dude. He knew things that screame "he's from the future!" all over it. I was grown into believing that was true since maybe the 1st season.
Keith: It's very hard to believe he was so brilliant and future-knowing that it was all just a zombie machine? Wha...? NO!
Bob: I thought it was a time machine too early on...or some kind of healing device, and that's why evil Francie clone was able to survive all the bullet wounds Syd gave her...remember that? The buzz is that the show isn't done with Rambaldi yet, so it could have something to do with Vaughn's return. Maybe Rambaldi has many uses, like a Swiss Army Knife, or paprika.
Keith: Or spam and duct tape.
Keith: Yes, I thought the same about Francie, too! So many bullets, and she lives! *lalala*I'm not listening*lalala*! I had a hard time swallowing that then, but I got over it. A Rambaldi connection would make me feel all warm and fuzzy about it. I *know* the Rambaldi thing is crazy - it's supposed to be! But not someone taking 300+ slugs in every vital organ.
Bob: Exactly. But the biggest reason I don't think Vaughn is dead? I don't think that JJ Abrams is that dumb. From what I've seen of him and his work, I don't think he'd get rid of a major character in this particular way and piss off fans. Even if he has to get another actor and give him plastic surgery, make Vaughn come back! Hell, at this point, I'll take a cell phone call from him in the last episode. "Syd? Vaughn. 'Sup? Yeah, I'll meet you at home."
Bob: So my vote is that he's definitely not dead, and we'll see Michael Vartan in guest star role in two or three episodes at the end of the season.
Keith: OK, just as long as he's a clone. Or a twin. Or seen in multiple flashback scenes. Or via Syd's time machine trip. I'll buy it then.
Keith: But I still won't cheer about it. :(
Bob: But you won't buy that he's alive just by docs saving him? It has to be time machine or flashbacks or a clone?
Keith: Yes it has to be otherworldly for me to grasp it.
Keith: Either that or he's a complete vegetable or in a wheelchair for life.
Keith: Nobody just gets up and goes back to work after that.
Bob: I used to work with a coyote, and he got hit in the head with an anvil or run over by a truck almost every single week, but there he was every Monday punching his time card
Keith: Bah
Bob: One problem with your time machine theory
Bob: If Syd goes back in time to before SD-6, then that means Danny is still alive! Would she choose Danny or Vaughn? Oh, we're in Felicity territory there.
Keith: Yes! Genious! Spin-off time!
Keith: Kidding of course.
Bob: A new WB sitcom: "My Two Fiancees"
Keith: But that *could* open things up in an interesting way. Although I could just see it as a quick scene:
Danny: "Ready for the wedding?"
Syd: "Wedding. Right. Danny, I'm sorry. I have to go."
Danny: "..."
Bob: But if she goes back in time, she'll have to actually go find Vaughn at the CIA and tell him, "I'm from the future! And I'm carrying your baby! And be battled spies and zombies with my dad and my mom! I'm serious!"
Bob: She'd be locked up
Keith: HAH! I'm giddy at the prospect. Good TV right there!
Bob: There's a whole next season of the show right there.
Keith: No, the time machine would have to be that she goes back into her old self. So picture this, she has a choice: leave now to go back to the way things were (young and not pregnant) or stay with your unborn child?
Bob: And that would mean that when she goes back she doesn't remember any of what happened? I think that goes against the official Time Travel Rules set forth by Star Trek, circa 1966.
Keith: Oh wait wait... Here we go. Vaughn reappears because back before Syd knew him, he found the Rambaldi device and comes to the future! *ducks*
Bob: Perfect! Or how about Syd's child Isabelle finds the device in the future and comes back to save her dad! Very Terminator...
Keith: Ok, we can talk the Vaughn death situation to death (*rimshot*), so let's agree that we disagree on his reappearance or lack thereof this season. What says you?
Bob: yeah, you're right
Bob: time travel makes your head hurt
Bob: there's a slogan for Advil