There are some things Alias can do very well. For one thing, they can do prison scenes. The prop team on the show rocks and so does any production manager. We got some more family drama this week, some nukes, and some Rambaldi. Sounds like some classic Alias action to me. Was this episode as good as part one? Absolutely. Spymomma was deceiving and outright chilling. That’s why we love her.

          Family dysfunction was at its peak this week as the many different scenes with the trio made us laugh, smile, or freak out. I always freak out. I thought it was just beautiful having Irina and Jack talk about “the toaster” in the train. Sydney looked like a little girl curious about her parents’ adventures. Jack had forgotten to take out his toast and he created a small fire in the kitchen. There had been so much smoke that they had to move out for a week. They stayed at a hotel. Syd had a sundae every day. Jack is starting to fall under Irina’s spell. Does she really want to seduce Jack again or has she really changed? I hope for her daughter’s sake she has.

          Irina was all over the place this week. She should go on more missions. The awful truth: the CIA needs her. I don’t know whether she can be trusted or not, but this worries me. Irina knew exactly where all the land mines were, she knew the schematics for the prison, and she was able to improvise when she got caught. Irina plays a bad guy really well. Lena Olin should be a bad guy all the time. She’s great at it. Irina actually had me going. I thought she had double-crossed the CIA. But we don’t know what happened it there. She could have been talking with Cuvee. Did he know she turned herself in? I loved watching Irina poke fun at Jack’s contacts. He was really getting offended. I think what got him angry was the fact that she was always right. He really got pissed off. When he lets Irina out of the bin, his expression spells out disappointment. Jack doesn’t like to be proven wrong especially by Irina. I also enjoyed watching Irina help free Jack from the mine. She really does care.

          I loved watching Vaughn second-guessing Kendall’s decisions. His conversation with Sydney was hysterical: regular families goes miniature golfing and they go save the world from nuclear warheads. So true. We also learned that he was stationed in India for two years. He went searching for the Bristows. The Indian general knew his father and Vaughn uses this to his advantage. Vaughn says that his father mentioned his name in his journals. He trusted him. Good for you Vaughn. The guy, in turn, gave him a helicopter. Vaughn got to the prison right on time. Any minute more and the Bristows would be dust.

          The nukes were used to open an egg that housed a 400-600 year old plant. It is said that this is Rambaldi’s proof to endless life. The idea of endless life (or long-lasting life) was first introduced in season one when Sydney goes to meet the clockmaker Donato. He says Rambaldi told him…Sydney caught this. Rambaldi had predicted the exact day of his death. He died that day. This proves that Rambaldi somehow found the secret to immortality, right? Creepy stuff.

Syd’s Tips

-          To make thermal sensors useless, raise the temperature to body temperature. You will walk around unnoticed.

Mission Files

MAIN OBJECTIVE: Prevent the activation of six nuclear warheads.

CIA MISSION

ALIAS: Indian woman

LOCATION:  Muraffarabad, Kashmir

LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS: Arabic

CIA GADGETS: None

OBJECTIVE: Stop deactivation of six nuclear weapons

Quotable Quotes

-          Vaughn: “How are your parents?”

Sydney: “Some people go miniature golfing with their parents; we go to India and look for nukes.” Who says we don’t do that?

-          Sydney: “This is the way it’s going to be. Dad will decide how we get to the base. (to Irina) It’s his call. Once we arrive, mom takes over. (to Irina) You know your way around. You’ll lead us to the nukes and back out. (to Jack) Then you’ll resume control and get us home. There will be no objection to and no deviation from this plan.” Daughter knows best.

-          Irina: “I just spent five hours in a grain bin. It’s my turn now.”

-          Syd: “Where did the PRF get all these mines?”

Irina: “You American have the worst inventory controls in the world.”

-          Cuvee: “I actually thought that it would have dawned on you that a woman like this would never go for a man like you. Lucky for me, your ego was too big for that.”

Some Final Notes

-          It was nice to see Syd and friends play miniature golf together. That’s one thing Syd sucks at.

-          Irina earned a mattress and a pillow. That’s nice.

-          On the Emily front, Sloane decides to pay the 100 million dollars of bonds to Emily’s captor. He, in turn, sends Sloane pictures of Emily with a bullet through her brain. Is she really alive?

-          Kendall tried getting rid of Vaughn. It worked too.

-          We know why Irina shot Sydney. Cuvee was in the next room at the time. She wanted to keep her cover.

-          I doubt Jack boasts about his daughter. He is also not the type of person to be carrying around a picture of his daughter.

-          I liked how Irina asked Sydney about school. Sydney herself didn’t even know how school was going.

-          James Lesure appeared in the episode playing someone very different from Mike from Las Vegas.

-          The actor who played Cuvee originally auditioned to play Jack.

Excellent capper to a two-part story. 5 stars

-          Next episode

-          Alias season 2

-          Alias main