(S05E16/S05E17) TV finales can be so tricky. You want to please longtime fans, you want to bring some closure, but you still have to tell a good story. Some finales are great (Newhart, The Fugitive, Cheers), while others are downright horrible (Seinfeld, The X-Files). I'm happy to report that this episode ranked in the former category. Was it perfect? No, not at all. But it certainly tired up all loose ends and provided a very entertaining last two hours. What else could you ask for?The opening scene sets up the finale really well, with Syd giving a narration over a map of what Prophet 5 is. And I also like the little montage of the APO gang going around the world and taking pics of the 12 so they knew what they were dealing with. Seemed like a little wink and nod toward Mission: Impossible 3.
Sloane kidnaps Marshall and Rachel so they can work their tech genius and tap into satellites that will give him the location of Rambaldi's grave. But he gave a clue to Syd over the phone, something to tell his wife so she can tap into what they're doing. This was a really cool feature of the ep: Marshall's wife is a CIA geek just like he is, and Momma Flinkman helps APO find out where Sloane is going. (I also loved her reaction to seeing Vaughn alive: no words, just a hand gesture towards him and a look towards Syd that said "um, what the hell?" Funny.)
So the bad guys place a giant bomb in the L.A. subway system. Why, I'm not sure, except to say "yeah, we have bombs and we can do this." The citizens are evacuated while Thomas uses freeze spray to slow down the timer. But it can't last forever, and Tom stops what he's doing and sits down. He feels so guilty about his wife that he decides not to run and just kill himself with the bomb. He's nice enough to call Rachel and let her know that, "hey, I like you, but I'm gonna kill myself right now." Whatever.
Everyone runs around the world (the globetrotting in this episode is particularlyl ridiculous, but you just accept it and go along for the ride), and Syd and Vaughn trace Sloane to the Mountain in Italy, where he's in a cave with the amulet. Not really sure what he's doing with it all alone in there though. He says that Syd can't see what he's going to do, so he shoots out the snow around her and she falls through the snow. Vaughn saves her, but she gets one of the nastiest looking gashes on her neck that I've ever seen on TV. Vaughn sews her up for the next part of the adventure.
I knew that Sloane was up to no good, and that he and Sark and Peyton were going to get together and screw over Prophet 5. Peyton kills them all while Sloane and Sark go off to Mongolia to find the Rambaldi grave (Sark: "Does it have to be so dusty? If Rambaldi can prophecize the future, you'd think he could advise not to wear $500 shoes.").
It all comes down to two confrontations: Syd vs. Sloane and Syd vs. Irina. Sloane, in a very Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade moment, turns and shoots Jack when he realizes that Syd is not going to give him back the Horizon. Syd doesn't screw around after this. She shoots him several times, including in the head, and he falls back into the water, dead. Vaughn and Syd help Jack out of the tomb while a helicopter races to help him.
Jack tells Syd to leave him there and go stop Irina from launching the missles. He knows he's dying. But back in the tomb, Sloane's body heals and he rises! There was a lot of Rambaldi juice in that water that he fell into. His wounds heal and now he's going to live forever! But Jack has other plans. He's come into the tomb and says, "you might have beaten death, but you haven't beaten me." He sets off a bomb. The tomb collapses. Jack dies, but Sloane is trapped underneath a giant statue of Rambaldi. Nadia's vision taunts him. Sure, he can't be killed, but it's going to suck when you're stuck in a tomb under the earth forever.
Syd reaches Irina. They have a badass fight that falls onto the roof. Irina lands on a glass skylight, with the Horizon a few feet from her. But as she reaches for it, she falls through the glass and dies below.
Now let's get to the part I didn't really like. OK, so this Rambaldi juice can make you live forever. Great, fine, I even guessed that a couple of years ago. I can understand why Sloane and Irina would want it, why Sloane would even spend 30 years trying to get it, but why do they have to try to take over the world and kill millions like some James Bond villain? Why did Irina have to go from bad (years ago) to good (the last couple of seasons) to downright evil this season? Didn't she change? Didn't she just help the gang take down her other nutty sister last season in Russia, with the giant red ball and zombies? So she's as much of powermad villain as her sister and Sloane? Whatever. They shouldn't have made her this evil. There was enough evil to go around, with Sloane and Peyton and the 12 members of Prophet 5.
But, hey, it was a happy ending. As happy an ending that you could expect anyway, given that Syd lost both of her parents on the same day. Vaughn is back, Dixon and Marshall and Rachel are alive and well, and she has two kids with Vaughn, living a nice live of semi-retirement on a hidden beach somewhere. Cute touch having Isabelle being able to solve the tricky Jenga-ish puzzle. One of my favorite moments? Finding out that Vaughn let Sark go and he was still causing trouble. That was funny.
So, all and all, I'm happy with this finale. It really did feel like a finale. It had action and globehopping and deaths and a little sci-fi and all the Alias stuff like gadgets and torture (I love when Marshall was getting his fingernails pulled out and said to Sloane, "I've always hated you.") It had flashbacks that explained her childhood and everything that had happened to her (nice cameo from Merrin Dungey and mention of Danny). All that was missing was Syd in a tight dress and red wig, but you can't have everything. And while it's too bad a cool show like this has to end, it really was time to end, and they sure did a good job of sending the show off.
The final screen showed the words "Thank you for five incredible years." And I'd have to agree with that.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
5-23-2006 @ 12:05AM
Man said...
Five years of waitng for immoratilty. Then at the end no one knows about it except for Sloane and he's buried alive.
At least have a follow up on what happened with the magic immortality potion.
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5-23-2006 @ 12:17AM
Keith McDuffee said...
One thing that occured to me after seeing this episode: what the hell ever happened with that mystery surgery Sydney got a season or so ago? They took her eggs and then ... eh?
This entire episode was completely telegraphed. I knew what was going to happen each step of the way. Nothing was shocking really, except Jack dying. It was obvious he wasn't yet dead there in the desert, but I think he died fittingly, putting Sloane in a permanent, living tomb. Imagine in 120 years when they dig that place up and find a lunatic buried there?
I gasped a big sigh of relief when this episode was over. Finally, I didn't have to watch Alias and get disappointed anymore. It's over. No more people living through 5-100 shots to the torso. No more talking when a bullet would do just fine.
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5-23-2006 @ 12:54AM
Noah said...
i first want to say I am really pleased with the last ep. - (been a die hard fan since day 1, and held with it through it's ups and downs) - but i do have to ask something - are we to assume that the immortality potion went into effect on Sloane and that he is trapped in the tomb forever and will not die? - cause if so, I like the ending even more
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5-23-2006 @ 12:55AM
joevideo said...
So they never really did say how/why Syd was the chosen one. Or did I miss it?
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5-23-2006 @ 2:20AM
itsy said...
Uh, they bombed the LA subway system to destroy the APO headquarters and to kill everyone who works there. They talked about it right after Sark set up the bomb and evacuated the area.
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5-23-2006 @ 2:26AM
Alison said...
I only have to say, that I wasn't going to cry, until Sydney said her son was named "Jack." Yes, then the water-works began.
Damn Alias, it knows how to press my buttons.
Sad to see the show run off into the "horizon," but it was beautiful while it lasted.
And Garner and Garber - wow- what a pair.
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5-23-2006 @ 2:32AM
MM said...
Sure they did. Syd was the chosen one who battled the passenger to end season four. She was the chosen one who was the ONLY person who could get the rose from the dude in the jail basement last week. And as it turns out, she was the only one who could save the world from Arvin and Irina's over-reaching... she proved that even though something such as utter desolation was prophesied, fate is what you make of it. And I couldn't be happier with the fate she and Vaughn ended up having.
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5-23-2006 @ 2:34AM
MM said...
I think I figured out the end-game after I typed it all up. Rambaldi CHOSE Sydney to have eternal life... although Sloan went and tried to get it for himself, and look what happened. Sydney CHOSE a normal life instead, and amen to that.
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5-23-2006 @ 3:09AM
matthew m. barnes said...
it was a pretty good ending. however, the ads stating that all of your questions will be answered definitely were not telling the truth. as someone who has watched every episode since day one, there are a lot of unanswered questions (such as the ones posed above about Syd's eggs). also, who was McKennas Cole and where did he go? why did Evil Francie (Allison) survive being shot one time and not the next? (or if, as i had assumed, she really did survive, where is she?) i think someone needs to make a list of unanswered questions. perhaps, one day, there will be an Alias movie and we can get even more answers.
by the way, doesn't it make more sense that Irina was the chosen one? i mean, Syd did see the sky from that mountain (which the chosen one shouldn't have been able to). Irina fought with and killed her sister. (Syd fought her sister, but nobody perished because of it.) there was a debate for a long time about which one it was and then all of a sudden, it was Sydney... no questions asked. i don't get that either.
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5-23-2006 @ 4:19AM
RevJonathan said...
I took a different idea away from it. What if Sloan was Rambaldi all along? I never ingested the fluid in any way, and could've just been Rambaldi. His endgame could've been the mass destruction of people to give him domination forever.
Just a thought. Would've/could be a better ending. It explains why Sloane had to get such an awful fate. I mean, he was the good bad guy, he didn't deserve such an awful way to go.
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5-23-2006 @ 6:36AM
Orestis said...
Does anyone know why Lauren knew the access code to the top secret files that Sydney found about Jack "killing" Irina in season's tree finale? I mean Lauren told Syd the code just before she died,how could she possibly know?
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5-23-2006 @ 8:39AM
DrewMG said...
I was wondering why, at the very beginning, they suddenly knew who to go take pictures of?
Another glaring hole is that if Syd was in Sloane & Emily's custody when she was young, why did she not recognize Sloane (and therefore her father's relationship with him) when she joined SD-6?
All in all, I loved the finale. I thought it was WAY intense, just like the pilot was. If Jack Bristow had to go, then this was the perfect way for him to do it.
RevJonathan, I also took away the idea that perhaps Sloane WAS Rambaldi. The way the screen went to him as Irina said "Rambaldi is still alive" seemed to indicate as such.
I was a little unclear on exactly how the stolen missiles were supposed to relate to the Immortality Juice. And what was the deal with Tom? Am I crazy, or was he still doing mysterious dealings as of the last episode? Didn't he ditch Rachel to go meet up with some guy? I dunno, maybe I need to re-watch. And what was the deal with him at Rachel's apartment? She goes to get coffee, and he leaves the door open for Sark?
Was he a traitor the whole time, and is THAT why he chose to die?
Help!
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5-23-2006 @ 9:15AM
Jimmy said...
Series finales rarely live up to expectations, and the final episodes of Alias were no exception. First, the good: loved having evil Sloane back. Considering he's been an emascualted goody two-shoes for the last few years, it's easy to forget how much death and destruction he's caused just in Sydney's life alone. Also, loved how Marshall got so much play in these episodes. Turns out he has balls of steel, after all. Now, the bad: I hated the whole Rambaldi plot, always have, and it just did not live up to expectations. All this global destruction for some immortality juice? I also hate the final confrontation between Irina and Sydney. It went toally against the character the show had been developing over the years. I would much rather have had Irina coming in to help Sydney stop Sloane. I would have loved to have seen her help a dying Jack back into the tomb to blow Sloane up together. That sort of reconciliation would have been more satisfying, even if it's overly romantic. I know a lot of people are sorry to see the show go, but it was time. The last season wasn't so incredible, but the show will definately live on in rerun heaven.
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5-23-2006 @ 10:29AM
MM said...
>>I was wondering why, at the very beginning, they suddenly knew who to go take pictures of?
They found Vaughn's dad's bunker with all the Prophet Five research, including the names of the 12.
>>Another glaring hole is that if Syd was in Sloane & Emily's custody when she was young, why did she not recognize Sloane (and therefore her father's relationship with him) when she joined SD-6?
Who said she didn't recognize Sloan? She probably didn't tell Jack she was working with Sloan, since, ya know, she was told not to tell ANYone.
Oh and I don't think Rambaldi's still alive. I DO think, though, that the dude with the heart/clock and the dude in the jail that had the Rose were "living forever" due to Rambaldi.
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5-23-2006 @ 11:05AM
panasianbiz said...
I just wanted to say that I actually liked the way the show ended. I know they didn't answer all the questions, as the promos stated they would, but still... I think the most important threads were tied up. At any rate, I'll definitely miss Sydney and the rest of the gang!
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5-23-2006 @ 11:25AM
sugarlylily said...
I loved the ending but it most certainly left some unanswered questions. I did love the way in which it showed Nadia's death as being a fight between her and "Sydney" after all. I mean, it was a fight for Sloane within himself to choose between the Rambaldi page and Nadia, when she was about to throw it in the fire, so that prophecy came true. The prophecy always said that there would be a fight to the death between these two, but I loved how it played out in not so literal terms, but as a metaphor for Sloane's inner struggle.
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5-23-2006 @ 11:46AM
skiqt said...
Might be just my ever-wishful thinking-but sure seemed to me-after a Very Satisfying 2 hours, that the door was left open....for maybe a movie--or perhaps--some.....dare I say, spinoff series. I mean-who doesn't want to see more Syd, Marshall, Vaughn & gang?
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5-23-2006 @ 12:42PM
RJ said...
I am a die hard Fan but I am very pleased and also very disapppointed. Too many questions that seemed critical were not answered and I think Jack's death was unnecessary.
I can only think that they left open a chance for a spin-off.
Maybe Jack was able to reach the immortality pool? Maybe the prisoner (or Sloan) is Rambaldi? Did they use Sydney's eggs for the clone project and there is more then one? (Project Christmas, perhaps?) If Sydney saw the sun rise on the peak of Mt. Sabastio, doesn't that me she is NOT the chosen one? Where are the rest of Irina's sisters who were also supposed to play a part in the end of the world? Didn't Sloan already risk Nadia's life last season and he was awfully eager to do it again, perhaps he knew she was to be sacrificed all along?
Still a great show, great finale and I still watch the re-runs on TNT all the time!
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5-23-2006 @ 12:46PM
Shane said...
Overall I really liked the final episode. I thought Jack's death and Sloan's final fate was perfect. If Jack had to go, that's how he'd do it. And sloan got exactly what he deserved. Be careful what you wish for!
Glad Sydney and Vaughn Ended up together. Of course it's shot in Malibu, a bit cheesey and cliche for me. Is that everyone's dream, to live on the beach in Malibu? If Sydney had become immortal, that would have been even better!
I was confused by Sloan's scene in the ice cave. I don't understand what he gained by going there. Did the light there trigger some reaction in the amulet?
I don't see how gaining the resources (from Prophet 5) to buy nuclear warheads was really part of Rembaldi's prophecy, or what he created. The Eternal life potion really had nothing to do with the warheads in my mind.
With all of Sydney's special gifts being the chosen one, in the end Vaughn and Marshall disable the missles. To me she didn't really save the world with any special gifts. Maybe she could have been the only one that had the ability to solve some puzzle to create the eternal life fluid. I didn't like that Irina was totally evil. I think that was out of character. I thought for sure after Irina fell through the skylight, that she was going to wake up.
Really, I think they could have ended with season 4, and wrapped it up then. I think that would've been better. Eternal life was what Sloan was after all these years? I'm half his age, and already I know I don't want to live forever...
I'm grateful for this site and to be able to share with others who have enjoyed Alias as much as I have!
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5-23-2006 @ 12:49PM
aliaslover said...
Can anyone tell me if Vaughn and Renee were actually brother and sister? Was it ever said? I know that thier fathers were linked, and that's why the chips were inserted in both of them, but they made it seem like the relationship between the two characters may have been more important. They were both French..???
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