Alias (TV Series) Firebomb (2003) User Reviews

A missing piece

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 9 November 2009]

With the help of Sark and his team, Sloane slips from Sydney's hands in Switzerland, along with the device that he needed to complete his weapon according to Rambaldi's instructions. The CIA loses his tracks for a while but picks them up again in Afghanistan, where he has apparently gone to do business with a wealthy opium smuggler. Problem is, the only one who knows that location well is Dixon (because he had previously been sent there on an SD-6 mission), and he refuses to work for the CIA. So they have to find another way in, and Will is invited to his first office meeting to drop some ideas. Meanwhile, Sydney and Vaughn discover that her house is full of visual and audio bugs. This episode opens with a vivid car chase / crash (actually the first time Sloane gets so involved in an action sequence), but is probably more memorable for Sloane's "firebomb", a pulse weapon that, instead of going "boom", increases the body temperature of the people near it to the point where they catch fire and are quickly reduced to piles of ashes. The fact that Sloane activates this weapon near the Vatican embassy in Mexico, and the final revelation that his causing of so many deaths was simply a step in an elaborate game to get his hands on a missing part of another Rambaldi document, make him more vile, more inhuman than ever before. At the same time, when he has the chance to kill Sydney he doesn't do it, because in his own twisted logic she is "his finest accomplishment". *** out of 4.

Will Dixon help?

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 11 April 2012]

After Sloane's escape he is tracked to Afghanistan where he is hoping to forge an alliance with a local warlord; as a show of good faith he has offered to let him pick the target for the testing of the Rambaldi weapon he has had constructed. The target he selects is the Vatican Embassy in Mexico City where his ex-wife now works... the same place that Sydney and Vaughn are heading hoping that she will have information to find will lead them to Sloane. They get her out of the area just before the weapon goes off; it doesn't explode or release a poison; it is a neutron bomb which effectively microwaves every living thing in a certain area! Using the information she gives Sydney heads to Afghanistan but is captured; the only person who can save her now is a former SD-6 operative who went there on a mission; that operative is Dixon and he has vowed to stay clear of the CIA! Away from the missions Sydney learns that her home has been bugged and Marshall has identified the bug as one he made for Sloane; fake-Francie will have to frame somebody else if she wishes to evade identification and capture.

This episode contained lots of action; starting with Sloane's dramatic escape and ending with Sydney's rescue in Afghanistan... the most dramatic moment though was when Sark set of the Rambaldi bomb; is caused its victims to spontaneously combust and we weren't spared the sight of several people running around as the burst into flames; nor the grisly aftermath; a scene some people might find a bit distressing. Once again it is the bad guys who make the show so entertaining; Ron Rifkin and David Anders are great as Sloane and Sark; whenever we think they can't do anything more evil than they have already they go ahead and do it. While Carl Lumbly's role as Dixon was fairly small in this episode it looks as if he will be returning to the action permanently which is a good thing as he brings a lot to the show.