ALIAS - Prophet 5

By: Jason Davis
Review Date: Tuesday, October 04, 2005

The best part of last year's ALIAS finale was undoubtedly the final moments when Vaughn and Sidney were T-boned on their way to scenic Santa Barbara for a much needed rest. "Prophet 5" picks up from that impactful moment to deliver a pretty good season opener that, if one can easily forget all the that's gone before, makes for a good start to what will likely be the story arc for at least a few episodes. Though there are some new faces briefly introduced, the bulk of the hour rests on the shoulders of the long-haul characters reintroducing the audience to a world where betrayal and deceit is a way of life.

Taking a page from STAR TREK II: THE WRATH OF KHAN, Vaughn survives the car crash intact despite Internet rumors of his death, which probably haven't been greatly exaggerated. Sidney's in and out post-crash state is well realized as is her revelation that the emergency workers extricating Vaughn from the vehicle are not the friendly paramedics they appear to be. In a skillfully directed chase courtesy of ALIAS mainstay Ken Olin, the pregnant Jennifer Garner manages to elude her pursuers while obscuring her condition from the camera's perspective.

After four years of discrediting, re-crediting, deconstructing, and reconstructing its cast of characters, ALIAS has finally turned its attention to everyone's favorite Boy Scout. Hints of Michael Vaughn's shiftiness surfaced in last year's episodes as the stalwart went rogue to discover if his father was actually the victim of Irina Derevko or still alive. After confirming that, yes, Bill Vaughn was dead, things got back to normal just in time for his confession to Sidney in the final moments of year four's finale. In typical Abrams fashion, Vaughn manages to hook the audience with the fact that he's using an alias and that it was no random chance that made him Sid's handler when she came into the CIA. Thankfully, "Prophet 5" resolves all these points in a fashion that LOST could learn from before promptly resolving Vaughn for the time being in a fashion that calls to mind Sonny Corleone.

With the mystery of the late Michael Vaughn's past taking center stage, a theoretically dead CIA agent (shouldn't these internal affairs folks be checked out before starting their little witch hunts?) taking part in his murder, and a mysterious assassin in a London bar, season five looks to be headed in some interesting directions. With the incomparable Rachel Nichols joining the cast, in a short one-line close-up this week, things are certainly looking up though Greg Grunberg's relegation to guest status is a downer. Now, if only someone could set up a petition to stop overlong montages set to Sarah McLachlan, television could be a better place...not that I don't love Sarah McLachlan, but I don't have enough fingers and toes to count every time she's been used in the last ten years--and it would take both hands for the song "Angel" alone.