"Alias" Second Double (2003)

Director:

Ken Olin

Writers:

J.J. Abrams (creator)
Breen Frazier (story) ...

TV Series:

"Alias" (2001)

Original Air Date:

4 May 2003 (Season 2, Episode 21)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Mystery | Thriller

Plot:

Sydney finds herself racing to clear Will's name when the Francie impostor frames him for the CIA intelligent...

Plot Keywords:

Heroine | Dominatrix | CIA | Double Agent | College

Cast

Jennifer Garner	...	Sydney Bristow
Ron Rifkin	...	Arvin Sloane
Michael Vartan	...	Michael Vaughn
Bradley Cooper	...	Will Tippin
Merrin Dungey	...	Francie Calfo
Carl Lumbly	...	Marcus Dixon
Kevin Weisman	...	Marshall Flinkman
David Anders	...	Julian Sark
Lena Olin	...	Irina Derevko
Victor Garber	...	Jack Bristow
Terry O'Quinn	...	F.B.I. Asst. Director Kendall
Robert Joy	...	Dr. Hans Jürgens
Joel Swetow	...	Jens
Michael Canavan	...	Special Agent McCain
Kristopher Logan	...	Garth

Certification:

Netherlands:12

Company:

Bad Robot

Trivia:

In this episode Marshall consoles Carrie Bowman crying because Joni Mitchell's sings. Mitchell will be the name of their son on third season.

Quotes:

Sydney Bristow: I have known Will for years. Trust me on this.
Jack Bristow: There's another possibility... that the man we have in custody is not Will Tippin. Project Helix. The doubling prototype that you destroyed in Poland was designed to reshape a person's physical attributes to identically resemble someone else. The prototype's database revealed two scheduled recipients of the procedure: Dr. Markovic who was killed, and a second unknown individual.
Sydney Bristow: You think Will is the double.
F.B.I. Asst. Director Kendall: We found Provacillium in Will's car. It's a medication usually taken by gene therapy patients to keep the body from rejecting the DNA mutations.

Soundtrack:

I Wanna MMM

Extremely good

*** This review may contain spoilers ***

Will is arrested under suspicion of treason when it is discovered that the leaks of satellite information that led to Irina Derevko's escape and Diane Dixon's death came from his computer account. Having been hypnotized by "Francie" into forgetting important details of his recent past, and shot with a laser beam into his eye that makes him fail the ocular scan, Will is suspected of not being Will, but the second, unidentified so far double from Dr. Markovic's genetic experiment. To clear her friend's name, Sydney must find the man who designed the equipment used in the experiment and oversaw the process. Meanwhile, Irina and Sark want to retrieve the mechanical heart of the previous episode that is now kept by NSA, and devise a plan that requires Sydney's involvement to succeed. This is a great "Alias" episode, in my opinion the best since the two-part "Passage". There is not a wasted moment here, even the smallest scenes contribute something. The "double" plot works extremely well, maybe because we're allowed to view the situation from both perspectives: Will is thrown into a nightmare where his loyalty, his memory and even his identity are questioned, when we know he is innocent; at the same time, the possibility that this man is a stranger and the real Will may even be dead is a shock for Sydney, Dixon, Jack, etc. And I have to admit, "Francie"'s frame-up plan was nearly flawless. This is my chance to praise, once again, Merrin Dungey, who almost steals the show from everyone else here. Almost. Because the best scene of "Second Double", with honorable mentions to the gripping large-scale action sequence in the middle (though Dixon's shooting expertise here makes the fact that he missed a perfectly good shot at Sloane and killed his wife instead in "Truth Takes Time" even more ludicrous) and to Irina's "Hello Sydney" near the end, is the "reunion" of Jack and Sloane at a restaurant table. Terrifically written ("I forgive you!") and acted, this scene confirms, once again, that "Alias" is above all a character-driven show. ***1/2 out of 4.