Alias finale

[kangeiko]

Wow.

That, um, sucked. It was 1) predictable, 2) it borrowed from the big finales of practically every show I've ever seen, and, and, and, look, I wasn't affected by it (i.e. did not cry or wail or anything) other than thinking they'd wasted some really nice character development.


I'm not pissed about the huge amounts of death that seemed to befall everyone over the age of 30. I'm not even pissed that Sloane went for 1) world domination and 2) immortality, two things that he nearly beat a man to death over as being tacky. No, I'm pissed about Irina, and pissed about Jack, and pissed about Nadia, and, really, I just want to beat people with sticks. The alienation of villains is very important for us to be able to sleep at night, sure, but the neatness of it grates. Jack atones for everything he did with Sloane by beating him at the very end. Sloane is entombed like Callisto, alone with his madness. Irina dies in a manner nicked from The Last Crusade. So, basically, all the villains bought in a villanous manner, and our heroine got to live on, happy. See, even the heroic parts of Jack got to live on in his grandson. Isn't that sweet?

So, let's see, who gets done in by hubris and obsession? Oh, wait, that's all of them. It would be very Greek, if it wasn't quite so trite.

You know what I wanted to see happen in the finale? I wanted to see Rambaldi. I wanted to actually see what the hell was going to happen, without the tactical nukes and destroying the world and uber world domination, moo hoo haa haa. At the root of it, rambaldi knew things he didn't, and for me, the search for his work was the search for Prometheus. What happened to Rambaldi? What happens to those who try to unchain Prometheus from his rock? And in what roles are all those little pawns cast in? (Yes, and why, excatly, was Sydney needed? Did I blink and miss it?) What was Irina's motivation? And if you say 'power' I'm going to twat you. Wow, she's a woman torn between wanting to be a mother, and wanting to be powerful. And she espouses the 'you can't be both' line. And Sydney proves her wrong, doesn't she, by living on a desert island. Yup.

I think that I'm going to call it a non-season, as far as the Spy!Rents is concerned. It dangled character motivation in front of me, then cruelly took it away. I'm going to gather the beauuuuuuutiful Rachel to my bosom (rwar) and also take comfort in the fact that Sark wasn't completely unbearable, and pretty much ignore everything else. Yes, that includes the Jack/Irina/Sydney birthing scene, because no one has a baby in three minutes. Especially one that hasn't turned! *headdesk*

Right, it's rather late, and I have to revise. Point me to some good fan-fixings of this travesty, so that I may rescue my precious babies away from the horribleness of it all!

To wit:

1. Jack, Irina and Sloane are not Villains, OMG, stop giving them cartoon deaths.
2. Peyton should just shut up.
3. Is there a point to Vaughn other than being alive?
4. Dixon's hairstyles rock my socks.
5. Rachel is yummy. She should shag Sydney. Loads.
6. Speaking of yummy, Sydney when very pregnant? Yum yum. Her face got all soft and glowy, and she grew boobs from nowhere. *stares* 'scuse me while I perve.
7. Sark - not as annoying as at all other times. Especially liked the 'didn't sign up for this destruction thing!'. Too bloody right, mate.
8. Tom whatsisface - no point. Forgot him already.
9. OMG, what were Sloane's glasses like? They looked like they'd been nicked from Elton John.
10. See #1.

Comments

[eirena.livejournal.com]

Word.

In particular:

I think that I'm going to call it a non-season, as far as the Spy!Rents is concerned. -- Yes. Although from time to time in s5, Jack was cute and grandfatherly. "A very young grandfather."

Did you know that, before 8 episodes were cut from the run of the show, Irina was going to be the one who had saved Vaughn's life? Yeah. Stupid writers.

I'm not even pissed that Sloane went for 1) world domination and 2) immortality, two things that he nearly beat a man to death over as being tacky.
-- See, that irritated me. But not nearly so much as the complete annihilation of Irina's character and the fact that they reduced Jack to a white-washed tragic hero in the end. Grr.

You know what I wanted to see happen in the finale? I wanted to see Rambaldi.

Amen. selenak, gentilhomme & I are taking on the events of season 5 after Irina stole the Horizon in order to try and make things make sense. We're planning on bringing Rambaldi to the table. ;) Will let you know when things are fully sorted, but the ongoing tale is over at enticing_lies so far. And it's looong. :)

[eirena.livejournal.com]

That was selenak & gentilhomme & me!

[eirena.livejournal.com]

...wow, more of that got screwed up than I realised.

We're rewriting the events of season 5, starring the older spies, set after Irina steals The Horizon, and through to the endgame. And yes, we're planning on bringing Rambaldi into it! :)

(Hopefully third time's the charm.)

[kangeiko]

Hee! That sounds mighty good - when might one see all this?? (Is it part of the RPG that selena linked me to, the one with Sloane and Sydney?)

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Now, that's another RPG.*g* Check out enticing_lies, where we moved all the AU ropleplay into (so people reading the regular journals don't get confused), and start with the first post (they are only four so far).

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

Did you know that, before 8 episodes were cut from the run of the show, Irina was going to be the one who had saved Vaughn's life?

For what it's worth, that's not true. (And yes, I have that on really, really impeccable authority.) The Jack/Sydney/Vaughn plan was always the plan for Vaughn's survival. (Now, whether there was originally a plan to have Irina be a part of the plan, perhaps sheltering Vaughn while he was recuperating, I don't know. It wouldn't surprise me.) Also, they never had another 8 episodes; they were signed for 22 but always figured it likely they'd probably do more like 18 due to baby hiatus. They ended up with 17. So at most they lost five, and from the time they would've been writing the final arc on, they lost a total of 1. At no time was Alias supposed to have 25 episodes in its final season, or any season.

Not that I do not have problems with the finale. I liked it better than y'all -- I thought Jack's death, though unnecessary, was truly grand, as was the Greek-mythology horror of Sloane's fate. I liked the flashbacks, liked the flash-forward at the end, liked Nadia's appearance and thought the Marshall stuff was utterly fantastic. I am extremely upset at the handling of Irina's storyline, but I do see that -- if properly framed, as it was not here -- having Irina choose Rambaldi over Sydney and even her own life was a potential end for that character even at her best. I thought Tom and Rachel got just the right amount of time, not tons but enough to give me a sense of closure for them. And I didn't think Jack was white-washed; the last season was very much about Jack having finally laid some of his demons to rest, and I liked that they acknowledged that and let him be an angry, vengeful son of a bitch when he went after Arvin at the very last.

What I don't like is the way that what should've been a half-season arc for Irina was compressed into 20 unbelievable, poorly plotted minutes; the fact that Jack's death was just not plotted to be believable (how did he know to go into the cave? How did the medevac team not get there before Sydney got to Hong Kong?); the fact that they still never really explained what the hell Rambaldi was doing (I don't think it was just immortality or world domination, but I'll be damned if I know what it was); and -- this is really the most important part -- Sydney didn't do anything special. She ran! She fought! But what did she do that anybody else couldn't have done? Vaughn could have fought Irina on the roof. Dixon could've. Red Shirt Anonymous Agent could've. Sydney was reactive to the very end, never taking command or control. Sloane was ahead of her even when she shot him; Jack was the one who finally finished off Sloane. And Sydney didn't win anything, you know? Her momma's dead and never really loved her; her daddy really loved her but is just as dead; her sister's gone; her enemy is taken care of, but not by her. THAT is the biggest problem with the finale.

But they don't have a missing eight-episode arc in which Irina saved the day. ;)

[eirena.livejournal.com]

I agree entirely with the statements about Syd -- and thanks for clearing it up about Irina's arc. I kept hearing that from all corners and due to the sheer volume of talk about it, assumed it to be true. :)

[yahtzee63.livejournal.com]

That story is going around because Kristin Veitch at E! says so -- in large part, I suspect, to cover her own butt about a fake spoiler she unwittingly published. (She does that a LOT -- "They changed the storyline!") But it is not so. In fact, if/when you rewatch "Prophet Five," the setup for Jack's role in it is already really very clear; also, at no point during the entire season to Sydney and Jack refer to Vaughn as dead when they're speaking between themselves. Although very little of S5's long-term plotting stands up, Vaughn's "death" and survival was planned from the start and well-executed.

It's possible the fake spoiler arises from a grain of truth; maybe Irina really would've been the one keeping Vaughn instead of the Monks What Magically Move From Bhutan To Nepal. I would've loved that. Definitely it would've been more satisfying than what we got.

[kangeiko]

Not that I do not have problems with the finale. I liked it better than y'all -- I thought Jack's death, though unnecessary, was truly grand, as was the Greek-mythology horror of Sloane's fate.

I liked the mythological aspects of it, but it felt poorly done to me. Like, the idea was sound, but it was poorly executed. I didn't understand why Sloane shot Jack. If it was just to get Sydney to shoot him, why did he have to shoot him 68 million times? What was Sydney's significance as the Chosen one? She didn't do anything. I loved Nadia walking away, but the way Sloane lost his other 'daughter' felt like a let-down. Where was my Greek!bad/wrong?

I am extremely upset at the handling of Irina's storyline, but I do see that -- if properly framed, as it was not here -- having Irina choose Rambaldi over Sydney and even her own life was a potential end for that character even at her best.

Interesting idea, poorly executed. I mean, I don't buy it from where irina was three episodes ago. Actually, I don't buy from where irina was twenty minutes before the end.

And I didn't think Jack was white-washed; the last season was very much about Jack having finally laid some of his demons to rest, and I liked that they acknowledged that and let him be an angry, vengeful son of a bitch when he went after Arvin at the very last.

I wasn't saying he was white-washed during the entire season, but during the finale. I didn't have problems with the season as a whole, just with those last 45 minutes of it. And jack - jack was always going to die, because it was the only way of clearing the tables and letting the new kids start afresh. He was always going to have that final out-and-out with Sloane, too. My issues with his characterisation in the finale are:

1. where was the jack/irina scene? i needed a resolution of some kind there, and him nearly killing her pre-the birth didn't count, due to the evolution of irina's character almost immediately after.

2. jack's death is treated as somehow deserved, at least to my eyes. when he stops arvin, he does it in a way that is overly dramatic and needlessly causes his own death. why not just throw a grenade in there? instant burial. why be so determined to die? it smacks of 'tragic hero' moments, and it pisses me off because i never saw jack as a tragic hero. if anyone is a tragic hero, it's sloane, who reaches for something humanity is not meant to have, and who is brought down by hubris. jack is very human, all the way through Alias, and his coldness and his anger and his vengeance are part of who he is. They aren't something that was just painted on, and he gets to shed them like a second skin through his death. The link in with the baby!Jack also pissed me off, because it was a visual rebirth, without all those nasty Sloane associations, and again had Jack as an innocent corrupted by those around him.

Sydney didn't do anything special. She ran! She fought! But what did she do that anybody else couldn't have done?

Amen!!

Also, Irina doesn't seem overly concerned that her youngest daughter is dead. Um. She seemed pretty taken with Nadia at the end of S4 - what, did she decide she just wasn't worth it?

Did I mention I was mostly confused?

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As you can see here (http://selenak.livejournal.com/221702.html#cutid1), my reaction was very similar. (Oh, and nothing "nearly" about it, he did beat a guy to death for the tackiness, and since no one else was present, there is no way to explain that by saying he was faking or putting on a show. But really, Irina is the one who got shafted worst in the finale.) Otoh, as eirena mentioned, it's just the kind of thing that gives you a mad writing impulse. On two fronts - we're writing an AU departing from canon after "Maternal Instincts", with Rambaldi (and his endgame being something far more intriguing which will create a truly difficult choice for everyone), and there is post-finale roleplay over at fandom_muses busy salvaging characterisations all around (Irina in the finale was another double - hey, this show is bursting with them -, Jack ended up being thrown in the Rambaldi juice as well, hence being immortal...).

All this being said: predictably, I enjoyed No Hard Feelings a lot and wrote fanfic, Revenant (http://selenak.livejournal.com/220875.html#cutid2). So did eirena, Cause & Effect (http://eirena.livejournal.com/152618.html).

[kangeiko]

yay for fanfic! *dances* And thankee for the links - those fics are fabulous!

I am full of fic-writing impetus myself. Of course, it being me, I came up with Jack/Sloane necrophiac!porn, which was, erm, best left deleted. But! Am working on a theory to make Sloane finale!compliant, and actually not have my head explode with rage.

RE: Irina - I read a fic called 'Lady Lazarus' (was it by eirena?) which was fab, and basically fixes the Irina arc for me. Although, that said, trying to come up with a finale!compliant Irina - my word, thatr's a fic and a half!

[selenak.livejournal.com]

Lady Lazarus is by eirena, yes, and was originally written for fandom_muses as well.

Am working on a theory to make Sloane finale!compliant, and actually not have my head explode with rage.

Here are my own efforts in that regard, to be read in that order (they're all fm challenge prompts but venture into roleplaying and were written with the knowledge of the finale in mind):

http://a-sloane.livejournal.com/6274.html

http://a-sloane.livejournal.com/6450.html

http://j-bristow.livejournal.com/6664.html

(The last is by gentilhomme who writes Jack and leads into post finale roleplay between two newly immortal First Gen Spies currently trapped underground)

[queenspanky.livejournal.com]

Sark always rocks, it's just the writers that suck. ahem. enough fan girling from me.

I'm torn between ignoring S4 finale for Irina character purposes, or S5 finale for Irina character purposes. Because they don't exist in the same universe. I'm fine with Sloane's death, except not for his motives, but everything about Irina sucked, and that made me very very angry.

[kangeiko]

Fine with Sloane's fate too, except for the motives - that's a pretty big 'except', though. yep, re: irina, cannot even begint o wrap my brain around it.

am still toying with the idea of r. as a virus or meme, which would explain irina's broken!brain craziness in the finale, though.