'Grey's' Isn't Going Anywhere
'Red Widow' Gets The Axe
Alias: Reprisal/All The Time In The World (series finale)
by Bob Sassone, posted May 22nd 2006 11:50PM
(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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