"Alias" Countdown (2003)

Director:

Lawrence Trilling

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator)
R.P. Gaborno (story) ...

TV Series:

"Alias" (2001)

Original Air Date:

27 April 2003 (Season 2, Episode 20)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

As Dixon struggles with the death of his wife, He refuses to take time off from work until Sloane is brought to justice. But Sydney worries that Dixon's repressed rage could cause more harm that anything Sloane could do.

Plot Keywords:

Heroine | CIA | Double Agent | College | Fight

Cast

Jennifer Garner	...	Sydney Bristow
Ron Rifkin	...	Arvin Sloane
Michael Vartan	...	Michael Vaughn
Bradley Cooper	...	Will Tippin (credit only)
Merrin Dungey	...	Francie Calfo (credit only)
Carl Lumbly	...	Marcus Dixon
Kevin Weisman	...	Marshall Flinkman
David Anders	...	Julian Sark
Lena Olin	...	Irina Derevko (credit only)
Victor Garber	...	Jack Bristow
Danny Trejo	...	Emilio Vargas
Jonathan Banks	...	N.S.A. Deputy Director Frederick Brandon
Amanda Foreman	...	Carrie Bowman
David Carradine	...	Conrad
Patricia Wettig	...	Dr. Judy Barnett

Certification:

Netherlands:12

Company:

Bad Robot

Quotes:

Conrad: [to Sloane] Now you understand. Your journey has just begun.

Great acting, disappointing ending

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

Despite his almost unbearable grief, Dixon insists that he wants to remain on active duty, however his single-minded determination to make Sloane pay for killing his wife, combined with his unprescripted drug use, make him somewhat of a loose cannon. Meanwhile, the CIA decrypts a page from a Rambaldi document that has so far accurately predicted worldwide apocalyptic events like the beginning of WWI and the Hiroshima bomb....and the next date set on that page is only a few hours away. The key to all this may be the mechanical heart of a Panama citizen with a specific DNA profile, but when Sydney and Dixon go to meet him he has already been killed and his heart has been stolen from his body. The acting is one of the areas where this series has excelled from the beginning (there is not even one weak actor in the cast), but here it is particularly powerful from Carl Lumbly as a desperate, violent Dixon. Sloane is not in a much better mood, either, as he goes to Nepal to find the man who, 30 years earlier, sent him on his Rambaldi quest. But in the midst of all the tragedy, some relief is provided by the nerdy flirting between Marshall and an NSA tech expert, played by the quite adorable Amanda Foreman - these two are a match made in heaven. This episode was made around the period when Jennifer Garner was also doing "Daredevil", and you can see her comfort with double swords in one action sequence; cult guest stars Danny Trejo and David Carradine are also welcome. The only problem with this episode is the ending: it seems to imply that either Rambaldi's prophecy was wrong (don't think so), or that the big disaster he predicted was the mere event of Sloane finally reading one of his documents. Sorry, I don't care what was ON that document, when you promise an apocalyptic event, you have to deliver it on time. *** out of 4.