Alias (TV Series) Reprisal (2006) User Reviews

Nearing the conclusion

[Tweekums · 9/10 · 11 February 2012]

As the final episode approaches APO is closing in on Prophet Five; having learnt their names the episode begins with the team acquiring photographs of each of the twelve members; it is just a matter of time before they can make simultaneous arrests. Before that can happen though Sark and Peyton kidnap Marshal and Rachel in order to force them to use their computer skills to discover the location of an ice cave identified by Rambaldi. Marshall manages to give a clue to their location so they can be rescued. By then Sloane has the location; Mount Subasio in Italy. Sydney gets there just behind him and when she confronts him she learns of his plan to eliminate both Prophet Five and APO! There is a bomb in the subway under APO headquarters and not everybody will survive.

This was a good penultimate episode; it contained enough action to be exciting in its own right as well are moving all the players into position for the final confrontation that will inevitably occur in the final episode. Once again it was Ron Rifkin's performance as Sloane that dominated although Kevin Weisman put in a solid performance as Marshall; the two of them had a great scene together where Marshall withstood Sloane's torture. The finale was rather emotional as one of the team had to make the choice to stay with a bomb to delay its detonation long enough for everybody else to escape. Having set things up so well I'm looking forward to the final episode... even though it means no further episodes to look forward to after that!

That's more like it

[gridoon2024 · 8/10 · 20 February 2010]

After the rather lackluster "No Hard Feelings", "Alias" steps up its game with an episode that feels bigger than normal in scale, as any penultimate episode of a series should feel. This is evident right from the first few minutes, when we see each member of APO in a different city around the globe, carrying out the mission of photographing the high-ranking Prophet Five figures, after they have been exposed by Vaughn's father's records. Meanwhile, Sloane forms an alliance with Sark and Peyton: they abduct Marshall and Rachel to get them to reveal the location of a specific cavern that Rambaldi described in his writings, and they proceed with their plans to simultaneously eliminate both APO and Prophet Five. The Sloane-Sark-Peyton team is a pretty inspired idea, too bad it came so late in the series and so it will be inevitably short-lived. "Reprisal" does a great job setting up the series finale, however it doesn't really reveal much, which means that the last episode has its work cut out for it, having only 42 minutes at its disposal to make the ultimate Rambaldi mystery worth waiting five seasons for. *** out of 4.

"Sydney, It's Almost Over!"

[pedroedro · 9/10 · 7 October 2019]

Indeed it's almost over, like Jack so adequatly informs Sydney. I loved this episode, it had everything a "next to last" episode, should have. First of all, one of the best pre title sequence, we had so far in the show, and the best of season 5 by far. In this, every member of APO it's getting in numerous ways and in numerous cities visual information of each of the twelve members of Prophet Five, this opening starts with a narration of Sydney (nice callback to the original opening of the first seasons) and we see the shadows of the twelve members only to have them be uncovered by the end of this sequence, very good stuff. The episode continues this pattern of greatness, Marshall and Rachel are both abducted (Rachel after having a strange visit from Tom, and Marshall after checking on little Mitchell) by Sloane to decypher one last clue of Rambaldi's many clues. It feels a little forced to see Marshall's wife again, but she does fit in nicely, and since they both met on the CIA , being the informatic people, it's fitting she ends up helping them with a very clever (if difficult) clue from Marshall. The interaction of Marshall and Sloane is magnificient, without the public thinking about it there is a lot of history between these two, and Ron Rifkin and Kevin Weisman do the stand out acting of this episode, "I never liked you" so much pain in Marshall's voice, it's great how he doesn't want to break because of his kid, and how he wants him to be proud of his dad. Sydney in a clever way ends up convincing Marshall to "help" Sloane, only to find out where he and Rachel are to rescue them. Peyton , Sark and Sloane are a great trio, and it's so consistent how the show manages to make Sloane the "Boss" of every environment he is in, it really speaks volumes to this layered character. In the end we realize that Sloane's plan it's really a "solitaire" one, he wants to end Prophet Five, end APO , and receive the ultimate goal of Rambaldi's (I believe it to be imortality) only for himself. This leads to two great scenes, first we see Peyton in a badass way (as usual) taking down all of the twelve members, and the other is Tom who ends up discovering the bomb, and stays there delaying it's detonation through a product he has, I love the way you understand why someone had to stay there, and the cherry on the top of this cake it's Tom's plead that he talks to Rachel, saying that he would've like to ask her out, had it been more time, when she says "I would've said yes" his smile just as the bomb is going, it's priceless, very good stuff, I wished we would live more with these two characters, and this moment would had even more weight, but Tom goes as a hero. Let's see how the last episode turns out, very anxious. 9/10 ********* Peter Shelby

Alias is Not Forever !

[elshikh4 · 7 June 2008]

This is my 20th review about one of (Alias)'s episodes. I just want to add some notes that I didn't find the appropriate chance to say them before.

After the end of season 2, the writers wanted to make a cross between (Mission: Impossible) and (Dallas). And it was almost fine as a show, since all the factors of attraction was available, except for the persuasion! But who cares? In front of (Alias), we want to be amazed, not to get thoughtful. In fact, the best thing here was always the thrill. So no wonder when (J.J. Abrams), the very creator of this special world, would write and direct (Mission: Impossible - 3) for (Tom Cruse) in the same year of the final season. Simply the man is good at it. Too good to say the least.

Aside from the writing, they couldn't have the power to continue for all of these years without that magnificent cast. It was pure magic to have those actors in these roles. (Ron Rifkin) looked like a politician, a real one, and how his role as (Sloane) unexpectedly revealed his strong charisma which was one of the main reasons of the first 2 seasons' astonishing success. It's only his strange green glasses during season 4 and 5 that I couldn't explain, or feel at ease about, at all!

If you watched (J.J. Abrams) in any interview, you'd grasp easily how the cute short stumbling (Marshall), played by (Kevin Weisman), was almost a copy of him. (Weisman) seemed with his way of talking, and dealing with all the characters, as the less important, more childish, in the bunch, while he was the talented Mr. Merlin. Like the creator made a character close to him to represent that the writer is the actual magician of such a world, despite his lack of being hansom or brawny. In one word, he / the technician / the writer still can be a hero without the Bond mojo.

Another thing, look at the way the show's title is written every episode. I liked the creativity of it. Lots of people didn't notice that, but try to observe the status of the letter (S) at the end of it. It's nothing like the rest of all the previous letters. It's the opposite of their color and condition. Like a sudden "twist"!, or to inspire that there is always a hidden unpredicted fact which contradicts to all what we already know. It's close to a wonderful line said by (Sloane) to (Nadia) at season 4: "None is one". It incarnated the word "Alias" as a meaning.

Originally, the title (Alias) got its own deepness. As the show itself didn't only rely on so many disguises, but also so many concealed secrets, history, and feelings; such as the love between (Sydney) and her father, so the love between her and (Vaughn) in season 1 where it fitted perfectly.

In an interview before airing the last episodes of season 5, (Michael Vartan) nearly declared how they used to be silly sometimes with excessive twists, and too many unbelievable miracles. Even (Victor Garber) when they asked him about how the end would be, he told them something like expect the unexpected (or the unacceptable!), saying: "HEY, it's Alias!". The bottom line: (Alias) exceeded its own power of surprise, and exhausted it, especially when they began storyline and hanged it, or didn't finish it well, or forgot all about it after a while! (Vartan) himself said at the same interview how he got to review the old episodes just to remember his character's history, or the origin of it! I think it's natural, since the heavy melodrama inundated what used to be cool espionage series.

(Alias) is an assured cult in the history of TV, and in the eyes of its countless fans. It created something rarely smart, touching and amusing. Since the 1980s, I didn't run into a show that could make me believe it, and be excited with it, unless very few times. (The X Files) for instance, (Vengeance Unlimited) for another. (Alias) made it to be one of those, however nothing is forever, and the funny thing is that you would learn this truth about it too early.

Bad writing

[dtiesma-52532 · 2/10 · 29 May 2021]

So they needed to take pictures of the 12 to know who they were.

And then needed Marshall to track them when they just showed they could find them. Very poor writing.