I’ve always wanted a Dixon-centric episode. This was very well done. We take the secondary characters for granted. Congratulations to Carl Lumbly for creating a very emotional episode. His chemistry with Jennifer Garner is powerful. By the way, I can really feel the season ending now. They’ve set up some nice stuff for the finale.

          If you would have told me in the beginning of the season that the writers were planning an episode like this one for Dixon, I wouldn’t have believed it. He just hasn’t been an overly important character to the show. More than that, he seemed invincible. There was something about him that made the viewers think that he could do no wrong. He was a strong agent for the U.S. government. That’s what he thought. Ever since Phase One, Dixon is a changed person. He realized that all this time he thought he was a good father, protecting his kids from the bad guys, he was wrong. He has been able to focus.

          I loved his scene with Sydney where she comes to his house. He tells her plainly, “I don’t know how to do this without Diane.” In more ways than one, she was his source. He knew he would always come home at the end of the day. She would be there, loving him. He knew he could trust her. He knew he could talk to her. He can’t talk to her now. She’s gone. It’s going to be hard to live without her. He’s going to have to though.

          Carl Lumbly stole the night though when he was standing on the bridge. We obviously knew he wasn’t going to jump, but that scene felt absolutely real. He’s a CIA agent who just lost another person to Sloane. I thought I was going to lose it. But he was never going to lose it. Although he switched drug tests, lied to his superiors, deceived Dr. Barnett, he was always in control. At least that’s the impression I got. He almost blew up the whole place.

          I really liked Jack and Sydney’s loyalty towards Dixon. Jack is definitely feeling some guilt. He was the one who recruited Dixon at SD-6. He introduced into this life. He regrets everything he’s done to him. On her side, Sydney is his partner. She feels she owes him something. I loved the ending scene where both of them hugged after the mission in Cartagena. That was a very nice moment.

          Rambaldi was everywhere this week. So the NSA is brought in because they fear another apocalyptic event is upon them. Supposedly, on page 94 of some Rambaldi document, he had predicted countless of these events: 1) Napoleon’s bloodiest battle with the Russians 2) the assassination of Archduke Ferdinand 3) Hiroshima…They got these dates from a DNA strand from a man named di Regno. Supposedly, there was something going to happen today. Nothing happened. Or so the CIA thinks. In reality though, something did happen.

          Sloane was given a piece of news that will (I think) put him back on his path of finding the secret of Rambaldi. By the look on Sloane’s face, this thing looks huge. If Sloane has been put back on his path, you can expect it to be huge. It definitely is an apocalyptic event. Conrad (David Carradine) said Emily’s death was necessary. I don’t think it was necessary. I miss her already.

Syd’s Tips

-          Don’t keep secrets from the people you leave.

Alias Mission

MAIN OBJECTIVE: Locate and obtain the Rambaldi heart.

CIA MISSION

ALIAS: None

LOCATION: Panama City, Panama

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS:

MARHSALL’S GADGETS: None

OBJECTIVE: Bring in Di Regno.

CIA MISSION

ALIAS: Triad operative

LOCATION: Guadalajara, Mexico

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS: Spanish

MARSHALL’S GADGETS: None

OBJECTIVE: Interrogate Vargas about the location of the heart.

CIA MISSION

ALIAS: None

LOCATION: Cartagena, Colombia

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS: None

MARHSALL’S GADGETS: None

OBJECTIVE: Retrieve the heart.

Quotable Quotes

-          Carrie: “Right. (pause) Are you gay?”
Marshall: “Why, is there someone you wanted to set me up with?”
Carrie: “No, it's just every cute guy that I meet turns out to be gay.”

-          Sydney: “I had the same thing with Danny.” Don’t mention that to Vaughn.

-          Jack: “I’m not required to justify my actions to you Agent Vaughn.”

-          Carrie: “And the last thing I need is some 15^th century dork telling me I got a day and a half to live.”

-          Sydney (to Vaughn): “It makes me insane when you patronize me.”

-          Jack (to Brandon): “Your jurisdiction just expired.”

-          Conrad: “Your journey has just began.”

Some Final Notes

-          I loved the Marshsall/Carrie relationship. They definitely like each other. She invited him to eat some sushi.

-          Carrie Bowman was crying at Bowi Mitchell.

-          We had another backflash episode. I love them.

-          Dixon was taking pilsl: Vicodin.

-          Dr. Barnett is back and I still don’t like her. She does look better with short hair though.

-          Vaughn aggravated me this week trying to turn in Dixon. You don’t do that.

-          I loved the sword scenes. Sydney was great fighting Emilio Vargas.

-          I really liked the Nepal scenes. The tour guide didn’t dare go to the North Summit.

-          How did they get David Carradine to guest star in the episode?

-          Conrad put Sloane on this Rambaldi path thirty years ago.

-          What’s going to happen to Dixon now that he turned himself in?

Fantastic. 5 stars

-          Next episode

-          Alias season 2

-          Alias main