the audience however for that big screen mission, is next to nil. And again, the design of the finale effectively closed the door on her story.

The Rambaldi's plotline that was problem, but Loyal has a point, Sloane's motive was cliched. His obsession with Rambaldi was os much, and his motive, it just comes across in the recap like they ran out of ideas. Sloane was one of the great villians on tv, in his complications and obsessions.

Despite being bored by an uncompelling storyline, what I really didn't like about the finale was this...

The show always treated Sloane and Irina with a lot of ambiguity: We were never really sure whether to believe that they'd truly reformed. And although their actions may have been ostensibly evil, there was always the possibility that they were genuine.

I can understand keeping Sloane evil, but it just seemed like such a cop-out to do the same to Irina, who'd always had her family at heart.

It just seemed lazy to me. And I dislike it more and more when I think back on it.

It didn't make sense to me, either. Sloane's worked for years and years for Rambaldi's secret, plotted covertly, killed his own daughter...

For immortality?

Ugh.

I dont know how they ran out of ideas exactly? The finale was much more developed than a summary guys, at least go to ABCs site and watch the thing for free.

The ending was the natural progression that, if the show had continued down the season two route for three more seasons, is exactly what would and should have happened anyway. The past half season basically steered the show back to the original premise and completed what it started.

By the way Loyal I think you underestimate the audience just because its final season had such poor ratings, Just a year ago it was doing very well, much better than Invasion and so many other shows this year, and it did so earlier on in the shows history as well. It used to regularly attract more than 11 million viewers, but, it became so complex that even dedicated viewers were getting frustrated and confused. On a big ads push the show reached 16 million viewers. So whats to say that a standalone movie, advertised as such, couldnt attract enough people to make it viable? I dont think, personally, that an Alias movie would happen because it would have to pull out a bag of tricks and have a really good ads campaign and it'd still be a gamble to see if it could attract enough people. It'd be easier if they just came together as a cast and crew and made an entirely different movie and called it "Felicity Titwank" or something. So i guess your right and to be honest, Id love to see an Alias movie, but i think id be one of very few.

But its unfair to dismiss alias as if its a show no one ever watched or cared about, because people did watch it despite everything ABC did this year to make it not so. Hell, nearly 7 million Americans followed it about timeslots this year from beginning to end Yes, 24 may be doing very well as you have so obnoxiously rubbed in the face of Alias fans for over a week now, but the fact is a few years ago these two shows were on the same boat, last year Alias outrated 24. And 24 is FOX's top drama that they spend a helluva large percentage of their marketing budget on. Things could have gone very differently for either show on a flip of a coin, so please. Do not patronise.

I think more than anything it was about the completion. The original fascination for him was with rambaldi's prophecies, he didnt know what the endgame was at the start, but he worked and worked to try and discover what it was, I think in the end it became this obsession just to finish what he had started. "A question of faith" as he put it, it was about the faith, he believed he was chosen to fufill the prophecy. Not to gain the immortality, but to fufill the blueprint rambaldi had set.

Lena Olin however, was in it for what she could gain from it.

Did everyone just ignore the entire dialogue with Irina on numerous occasions where she tried to look out for Sydneys best interests? She tried to warn her off, She tried to push her away. My take on Irina is that she has been conflicted throughout the years over her hunger for power, her original driving force when she was introduced to the show, and her relationship with her daughter. In the end, the lure of power proved too much for her to resist. I think that making Irina good and giving them a happily ever after with her as part of the family would have been a real cop out. But I was really sad when Irina died.

It's a good point, maybe he'd just gotten in so deep it didn't matter what the reward was.

But regardless, plot-wise? It just seemed uninspired.

different takes I guess. Im glad that the general fans who watched it were happy with how it ended, the finale is #3 out of all time best episodes, critics also were kind. Thats pretty good, right?

Jack dying was totally shocking to me. Im still sad. Jennifer Garner needs like some crazy awards.

I get what you're saying, but it seems like you're introducing this complexity to her actions that just wasn't there for me.

I guess if I'm criticizing Irina, though, what I should be criticizing is the season in general. There was nothing leading up to this to tell us that she had, in fact, succumbed to the power of Rambaldi to the point that she'd disregard her family.

And I don't buy that solely warning Sydney was all she had in her.

If it's any consolation, I thought the "Thank you for five incredible years" was nice.

I should say the same to them.

I do concede that Jennifer Garner deserves that emmy more than any other actress.

I wonder how many nominations it will receive for its last year. When are nominations out?

July, I think.

I agree, too, though. I don't know if I'd give her the win this year (I might!), but she does deserve another nomination.

I guess with Alias ive always looked at the bigger picture when justifying actions. When Irina does something it makes sense to me in reference to her history.

What about the episode where it was clear Irina was working with Prophet Five and she basically told sydney she was a mistake and if she knew what was good for her shed stay out of her way before delivering her baby?
Thats a hint of things to come. Thats also pivotal in showing just how conflicted irina was between good and evil. She was a good woman broken by circumstance and upbringing. That said. I expected the final showdown to be between sydney and sloane, NOT sydney and irina, i expected Irina to support sydney in the end. But if you watch the episode, the fact that this didnt happen is made into a big twist, the fact that Irina had never redeemed herself. Throughout Alias she was a character who constantly shifted between good and bad. In the end the ball stopped in the bad court, but I know where your coming from. I do think Irina could have fended off Sydney a little more. I guess it all comes down to Lena Olins paycheque though. How many episodes more could they have involved her with without bankrupting ABC ?

I think it will only get a few nods, Not expecting many to be honest. No one really watched this year

Its wierd but every time I hear someone in the media or online or whatever acting confused about something on Alias, to me it makes perfect sense. I think i just really clicked with the show and was willing to take more from it than what was lying out on paper infront of us. It was quite obvious that those involved indeed made the show as such, so not everything was blatantly obvious, we have to think and connect the dots on some things ourselves really. Everything in Alias made sense to me and thats why I loved it so much I guess, because every time i think about the show, i remember new things, and now i think "wow so thats what that meant" if we look at it in the context of the finale. I think they really brought everything together in the end quite well.

A positive of this season is how great every cast member has been, Marshall was brilliant as was Rachel, who turned out to be a really great character past few episodes if you ask me.

I'd actually agree and say that even though the pregnancy and ending the show played into it, I'm glad they chose to make her another supporting character and not some sort of half-lead/new direction.

me too, plus Rachel Nichols is a surprisingly good actress!

I hope Amy Acker and herself have long and fruitful careers as film stars. They have what it takes.

She gave us a good supporting turn in Alias. But I actually didn't see anything too impressive that makes her stand out from the rest of her struggling-to-get-name-recognition peers.

Same goes to Amy Acker. She fit the role in Alias but I'd really have to see her in something else to see how much she can stretch.

It was actually this episode that i realised how good rachel nichols actually is. She's very likable indeed, she has been put in the unfortunate position of being seen as pretending the role of the shows star.

Amy Acker was very good as Fred in Angel. I remember watching Angel for half a season and she was this quiet, kind of dorky girl, she was a brilliant bad bitch though.

I don'thave a problem with SLoane or Irnia, I have a problem with the end game, they actually made Rambaldi's different creations kind of clue, but th eimmortality bit, what is this highlander. It is felt so uninspired, that's my problem.

I believe that originally the writers tried to wrap rambaldi at the end of season 4 with the big meuller device in the city. I think thats where they saw it going. Immortality is a holy grail I suppose. It is infinate power. I'm guessing that the woman in Rambaldi's prophecy was Irina after all?

I don't think it was the immortality itself that they were after, but as Irina said the power (that came along with it).

I liked how the finale was more of a "personal epic" than this huge thing. Season 4s finale was this huge global catastrophe, and it worked well. But i really liked how this finale concentrated on the people at the core of the story rather than spectacle and disaster. There was the worldwide destruction story overlayed, obviously, but the suggestion was that the rambaldi blood would provide irina with enough power and "all the time in the world" to become all consuming. I liked that.

Still, for me, the scene where Jack is dying in sydneys arms will be one of the best scene of the show ever for me. I will probably watch the Irina v Sydney showdown 75 times. I'm not sure If id wish for sloane to be trapped undergound for eternity, after all they made him seem like a loving father and good samaritan for like, two seasons.

I'm really glad that critics have been so positive about the show.

I'm a hundred times more glad that fans enjoyed the finale even more. They said it'd please us all. It did.

Alias had its ups and downs, but it was always a grade a show for me. I Never really understood why so many people left the show, Did they not have the patience I have? I don't know. But im so glad i stuck with it. I always saw (and even about the finally saw) people who didnt understand so many things that happened in the show when, to me, everything that happened i understood perfectly.

For example, the final rambaldi prophecy raises some paradoxes considering the finale that many fans have questioned.

It claimed sydney would, with anger and stuff, render the greatest power into utter desolation.

She did. It's just the greatest power was not the United States or the world or anything, it was immortality.
She shot sloane and killed her mother with the same rage that had been described by rambaldi. The prophecy all rolled out, she fufilled everything about it.

"sHE will have had her effect, never having seen the beauty of my sky,
behind Mount Subasio. Perhaps a single glance would have quelled her fire"

Sloane made sydney fall through ice when, under the Mountain, something major was happening because of the amulet reacting to the light coming through the ice. He said "you cannot see this sydney". Im guessing it had another meaning.

tv.com has some great alias interviews anda behind the scenes 100th episode party special.

The best part is seeing jennifer garner next to merrin dungey and the whole cast! I didnt recognise Eloide Bouchez for a while, her teeth look good here! lol She looks a lot better.

I hate admitting to this, but I loved the finale. I thought it was all very fitting. Even though there have been tons of ups and downs for the entire five-year run, the show is something I'm glad I dedicated five years of my life to.

Yay Mr.X!

Did you well up?