"Alias" Firebomb (2003)

Director:

Craig Zisk

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator)
John Eisendrath (writer)

TV Series:

"Alias" (2001)

Original Air Date:

23 February 2003 (Season 2, Episode 16)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

When Sloane gets his hands on a terrifying Rimbaldi weapon that causes internal spontaneous combustion...

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
Merrin Dungey	...	Francie Calfo
Carl Lumbly	...	Marcus Dixon
Kevin Weisman	...	Marshall Flinkman
David Anders	...	Julian Sark
Lena Olin	...	Irina Derevko (credit only)
Victor Garber	...	Jack Bristow
Terry O'Quinn	...	F.B.I. Asst. Director Kendall
Eli Danker	...	Ahmad Kabir
Lina Patel	...	Alia Gizabi
Yvonne Farrow	...	Diane Dixon
Greg Grunberg	...	Eric Weiss

Certification:

Netherlands:12

Company:

Bad Robot

Goofs:

Continuity: When Michael is teaching Sydney how to play hockey at the rink, the top edge of the vertical Canadian flag hanging behind them alternates between being to the right and to the left.

Quotes:

Michael Vaughn: You said everyone in the radius was affected, even people who were taking cover?
Marshall Flinkman: Yeah. Well, there's no defense against this kind of energy. It goes through walls, concrete, steel, everything.
F.B.I. Asst. Director Kendall: There's no shield.
Marshall Flinkman: No. Sorry. Oh, um, I should probably also tell you that, um, this kind of energy knocks out computer circuitry. Which means if it's pointed at the sky, it could take down planes.

A missing piece

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

With the help of Sark and his team, Sloane slips from Sydney's hands in Switzerland, along with the device that he needed to complete his weapon according to Rambaldi's instructions. The CIA loses his tracks for a while but picks them up again in Afghanistan, where he has apparently gone to do business with a wealthy opium smuggler. Problem is, the only one who knows that location well is Dixon (because he had previously been sent there on an SD-6 mission), and he refuses to work for the CIA. So they have to find another way in, and Will is invited to his first office meeting to drop some ideas. Meanwhile, Sydney and Vaughn discover that her house is full of visual and audio bugs. This episode opens with a vivid car chase / crash (actually the first time Sloane gets so involved in an action sequence), but is probably more memorable for Sloane's "firebomb", a pulse weapon that, instead of going "boom", increases the body temperature of the people near it to the point where they catch fire and are quickly reduced to piles of ashes. The fact that Sloane activates this weapon near the Vatican embassy in Mexico, and the final revelation that his causing of so many deaths was simply a step in an elaborate game to get his hands on a missing part of another Rambaldi document, make him more vile, more inhuman than ever before. At the same time, when he has the chance to kill Sydney he doesn't do it, because in his own twisted logic she is "his finest accomplishment". *** out of 4.