Alias: The Complete 4th Season (DVD)

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A family that spies together, stays together. Well, mostly.

Compared to other perpetually highflying television series like "CSI" (together with its other reincarnations), "Desperate Housewives", "Lost" and even reality juggernauts "Survivor" and "American Idol", "Alias", in its entire run on television so far, has never made much of an impact on the Nielsen ratings. Considering that a TV show´s all-important ratings usually determines its continued survival, "Alias" has repeatedly managed to dodge the cancellation bullet. After spending its first three seasons in its usual Sunday night timeslot, ABC decided to give the show a boost in its fourth season by moving it to the more popular (and competitive) time of 9pm on Wednesday night. The real significance of that particular timeslot was that "Alias" followed series creator JJ Abrams´ other surprise hit series, "Lost". With Abrams distracted by his other projects, notably "Lost" and his movie direction debut with Tom Cruise in "Mission: Impossible 3", overseeing "Alias" would seem to be a responsibility set for delegation and relegation to the bottom of Abram´s newly expanded priority list.

However, if there is one thing that "Alias" does very well, it is keeping its loyal fan following always on their toes. Dynamic and constantly full of surprises and clever plot twists, "Alias" changes direction again in Season Four. It´s safe to say that what you know about the various scenarios from the previous three seasons does not carry over to the reality of what is in store for the main characters in the fourth season. Remember SD-6 from the first and second seasons of the show? It was the criminal organization that Sydney (Jennifer Garner) was working for and thought was a covert branch of the CIA. Long story short, after switching sides to the good guys, Sydney then played a major part in bringing SD-6 down, and for the major part of the next couple of seasons, worked hard in bringing SD-6´s reviled former head, Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin) down as well. Hated by Sydney for ordering the assassination of Sydney´s fiancé during her time with SD-6, Sloane is a leopard that has continuously changed his spots to pursue his own agenda. Sloane even went as far as remodeling himself as a humanitarian by establishing an organization called Omnifam that seeks to end world hunger in Season 3. Yeah right. As always, Sloane´s one true obsession is still to amass the extraordinary artifacts created by a Da Vinci-like inventor named Milo Rambaldi from the Renaissance period, whose fantastic prophesy, believed by avid Rambaldi followers like Sloane, involves Sydney and her yet-to-be-found sister.

Season Four opens with an entirely new scenario. Gone is the old CIA as we know it as Sydney and the rest of the regular cast of characters are now reassigned to a top-secret black ops division of the CIA, tasked with accomplishing objectives using methods that are outside the realm of international legality. If this sounds familiar to longtime fans, that´s because it sounds almost like the description of SD-6. Overseen by CIA Director Hayden Chase (Angela Bassett), this new division is called APO, which is short for Authorized Personnel Only, a literal reference to the exterior sign on the door leading to the agency´s secret entrance at an undisclosed train station. This new scenario is nice and all but this being "Alias", what is the catch? Well, here it is: Sloane has been appointed the head of APO! Due to his extensive contacts in the world of espionage, Sloane´s new role, highly constrained by the pardon agreement he signed with the CIA, is to use those contacts to facilitate the missions that APO undertakes. While Sydney and Dixon (Carl Lumbly) are highly skeptical of Sloane´s actual motives (after being extensively lied to by the same man while they were both attached to SD-6), Director Chase uses their deep concerns as a logical safeguard against allowing Sloane to revert back to his treacherous ways.

As the continuing saga of the Bristow family dominates another season of "Alias", we see a new addition to an already convoluted family tree. Towards the end of Season Three, Sydney´s sister--specifically her half-sister--was finally revealed to be Sloane´s own offspring, Nadia (Mia Maestro), a daughter that he didn´t know he had with Sydney´s mother, Russian double agent, Irina Derevko (Lena Olin).

Still with me? Good.

For this season, Nadia joins APO fulltime, making the spy business even more of a family affair. Then there is the matter of the other two notorious Derevko sisters, Katya (Isabella Rosellini) and Elena, Syd and Nadia´s aunts, who won´t even blink at the prospect of killing their own blood. Add in the fact that Syd´s father Jack (Victor Garber) was revealed (early in this season) to have recently killed his traitorous ex-wife Irina (aka Laura Bristow) because she apparently put out a contract hit on Sydney, further muddles the already-fractious father-daughter relationship. As an ironic parallel to Jack and Irina, Vaughn (Michael Vartan) had to kill his wife Lauren (Melissa George), who was a double agent working for the Covenant in last season´s finale, setting up a new beginning for him and Sydney in Season Four.

Without a doubt, "Alias" is as much a bumpy emotional ride as it is an action-oriented show. In fact, Sydney Bristow is the emotional center and the glue that holds the show´s somewhat ridiculous espionage and prophesy-heavy premise together. These conflicted relationships serve to not only provide a familial bond for the characters but also to add depth and grant a multi-faceted allure to them. On "Alias", everyone can be someone else and the characters that you have come to know might not be who you think they really are. The relationships between most of the characters are almost always in flux with new revelations constantly streaming in to rile things up. This, I think, is the only fault of the show as it makes it very inaccessible to new viewers who are looking to get into the series. Without having a clue about what had happened in the previous three seasons, one cannot truly appreciate the complex nature of the interpersonal relationships between many of the regular characters.

For anyone who hates the bewildering Rambaldi story arc, well, I´m sorry but it is again a big part of this season´s stories. But no fear, there are other interesting episodes in Season Four that will provide some thrills, spills and even chills. One of the best episodes from this season is "The Orphan", which recounts Nadia´s childhood in Buenos Aires and how she became who she is. Like a recent episode of "CSI", Sydney gets buried alive in the episode "Tuesday" and it is up to Marshall (Kevin Weisman) (of all people) to save her. The episode "Welcome to Liberty Village" has Vaughn and Sydney go undercover in a Russian training facility that trains spies to become convincing suburban Americans, providing some intense "Mr. & Mrs. Smith"-like moments, especially the shootout at a fake car dealership. Also, who can forget Joel Gray´s fantastic yet disturbing portrayal of Sloane´s clone (it rhymes!) and look out for the APO team to encounter zombies in an obvious take on the horror movie "28 Days Later". Oh, and there is that ending. Ah, yes, the ending. Nope, I won´t reveal a thing; you just have to watch the last episode to find out what it is.