Rushed. That's the one word that first comes to mind when you're trying to describe the final episode of "Alias". In my comment for "Reprisal", I predicted that the series finale would have serious trouble making the necessary revelation of the ultimate Rambaldi mystery worth the long wait of five seasons, and "All The Time In The World" confirms my suspicions: turns out the one big secret / reward at the end of the Rambaldi labyrinth is immortality. But immortality was already suggested in a very early season 1 episode ("Time Will Tell"), and later dismissed as a mere rumor by Arvin Sloane himself in a season 4 episode ("Another Mister Sloane"), so longtime fans of the series should be excused for expecting something more. But "All The Time In The World" is rushed in other ways as well: the way they track down Peyton so quickly, the way a critically wounded Jack climbs down the crypt so quickly, the way Sydney finds Irina so quickly (you'd expect she'd have some guards with her, especially after getting hold of the Horizon, but no; it's just her and Sark, apparently). In fact, the whole Irina = evil thing doesn't ring 100% true. After all, she helped save the world at the end of season 4 - and now she wants to destroy it? This episode follows a format similar to "Lost", with lots of Sydney flashbacks centering on critical points in her life, but most of them don't really tell us anything new: the one that stands out is when she announces to her father that she got a job at Credit Dauphine; he tells her to quit, she says her mother wouldn't have a problem with it, and Jack can barely hide his anger at Irina's (still unknown by Sydney at this point) betrayal. There ARE some other brilliant touches in this episode (Sloane's ultimate fate and Jack's final line, for example, feel incredibly fitting), and Sark steals the show every time he's on the screen, but it's all a bit too shallow compared to the character and story depths that the entire series often achieved. *** out of 4.
Review of All the Time in the World
