Hey folks! I’m Michaelangelo, and in my quest for dominance of InsidePulse, I’ve stepped up to review the best TV show around. Not The Sopranos. Not Desperate Housewives. Not ER. Nope. I’m talking about Alias, with the hottest woman on the tube, Jennifer Garner. This is the fourth season for this show, and I’ll be recapping it each and every week for you. So let’s get started with the jumbo-sized 2-hour season premiere, “Authorized Personnel Only”.
The fourth season finds Sidney embarking on a new career path. The CIA, frustrated with all the bureaucratic red tape they have to go through, decides to form a new black-ops team. Sidney, Vaughn, Jack, and Dixon are the new members of APO, short for Authorized Personnel Only. The shocker is when their new boss is revealed to be Arvin Sloane. Sidney and Dixon agree that had they known of Sloane’s involvement they would never have joined, but Sloane asks them to give them another chance. The rest of the gang reluctantly go along with the decision, but Sidney doesn’t hide her hostility towards Sloane.
In the meantime, Sidney’s relationships with the two men in her life are strained, to say the least. She won’t talk to Jack at all since she read the documents in the safety deposit box. And she’s taking things VERY slow with Vaughn, to the point that she won’t even let him in her house lest it lead to something she’s not ready for yet.
APO’s first mission is to recover an unstable isotope being sold by a rogue Russian agent, and to track down the buyer. The isotope is recovered with Sidney using her feminine wiles and a negligee that should be illegal. The second part of the mission isn’t quite as successful, as Vaughn’s attempt to impersonate the Russian scientist fails, and all they are left with is a name: Vadik.
With no leads on Vadik, they decide to try to flush out his contact, Tamazaki. Sidney makes contact with her half-sister, Nadia. Nadia and Sloane had tracked down a Rimbaldi artifact, which Sloane turned over to the US government in order to get the position of head of APO. Nadia wants nothing to do with Sloane, but points Sidney in the right direction in regards to Tamizake. APO decides to break into the National Museum of Britain in order to steal a priceless samurai sword, which Tamizake had tried to steal before. Dixon says there’s only one man who can help them steal the sword. Cut to Marshall in a CIA office talking to Weiss about how much he misses the guys and how he doesn’t know any of the new people. As he’s walking to his car some Chevy Suburbans pull up and CIA agents surround Marshall. Turns out he was playing Playstation 2 on government work stations. They blindfold him and take him to APO headquarters. They pull off the blindfold and he sees Sidney, Dixon, Vaughn, Jack, and Sloane. “Am I dead?” Marshall asks. Sidney tells him no. Marshall sees Sloane and asks Sidney if she knows he’s there. Sidney says yes. Marshall gives Sidney a bear hug as she welcomes him to the team.
Before they leave, Jack visits Sidney and tells her that she can’t keep ignoring him. Lack of communication will hurt the team. She tells him to leave and he does just as Vaughn shows up. Sidney reveals to Vaughn that what she found in the safety deposit box was classified documents authorizing Jack to assassinate Sidney’s mom Irena. The theft goes OK, but before Sidney can make her escape, a guard shows up and trips the alarm. As Sidney makes her escape, a cop car shows up with Jack driving. He helps Sidney make her escape and tells her the least she can do is say thank you.
Now that they have the sword, Dixon goes into the field as a fence and sets up a deal with Tamizake in Rio de Janiero. Sloane assigns Jack to go with Sidney, against Sidney’s wishes. Before they leave, Jack and Sidney meet with one of Tamizake’s henchmen who they captured. He tells them that Tamizake is Vadik, that Vadik is just a cover. Jack and Sidney go to Rio, where they are contacted by Tamizake by pay phone. He tells Sidney to come alone through the tunnel into the office building and to go to the 10th floor. Sidney tells Jack to stay behind and heads into the tunnel. Vaughn heads into the office building to back up Sidney. Jack tells Marshall to check the blueprints for the office building. Marshall discovers that there is no 10th floor in the office building. Jack and Vaughn head for the tunnel, but when they get there Sidney is gone.
Sidney has been captured by Tamizake. He asks her if she knows about the deal, and she asks what deal. He puts a mask over her head and begins to flood her with water. He repeats this a few times, and she keeps telling him that she doesn’t know what he’s talking about. He says that for some reason he believes her. He tells her that he was hired to assassinate her, but the deal had fallen through. He puts the mask back on her, turns the water on, and leaves.
Meanwhile, Vaughn has tracked down Nadia and asks for her help. She agrees and leads them to Tamizake’s last known hideout in Rio. She finds Sidney and pulls the mask off and frees her. Sidney heads off after Tamizake. They fight and Sidney runs Tamizake through with the sword. As he’s dying, she asks him who put the contract out on her, and he says it was Irina, then dies.
Back at APO headquarters, Sloane congratulates them on a job well done, and tells them that Nadia has agreed to join them. After the meeting, Sidney talks to Jack. She asks him if he had Irina killed because of the contract and he says yes. She wants to know why her mother would want her dead and he says he doesn’t know. Later, Nadia visits Sidney and asks her about their mother. Sidney asks her if she has her passport and Nadia says yes. They travel to a mausoleum in Russia where Sidney had Irina interred after she found her dead in the morgue. Nadia asks her if she knows who killed their mother and Sidney says no. Nadia swears that she will find their mother’s killer and kill them in revenge.
Questions? Comments? Email me and I’ll be sure to post your email in next week’s column. Thanks for tuning in, and I’ll see you all next week!
