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Alias: An Overview
In case you were thinking about watching the third season premiere tonight. :) Spoilers through the end of season 2.
Left to right: Arvin Sloane, Jack Bristow, Will Tippin, Sydney Bristow, Michael Vaughn, Marcus Dixon, Francie Calfo, Marshall Flinkman.
Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner). Our Hero. er, Heroine. Brilliant, vulnerable, tough, and far too good a spy for her own sake.
Jack Bristow (Victor Garber). Even smarter than his daughter Sydney. A long-time double agent. Really, really bitter. His relationship with Sydney is rocky, mostly because he can be a total ass, and also because she loves to jump to conclusions about him. Appearances aside, he's completely devoted to her, and has done a number of unspeakable things in the name of protecting her.
Left: Irina Derevko (Lena Olin). The woman formerly known as "Laura Bristow" was actually a KGB agent who seduced Jack as an in to the CIA. She used her knowledge to assassinate a dozen CIA agents. Then she faked her own death and took off, only to reappear as the head of one of SD-6's mercenary/intelligence rivals.
Rambaldi. Dead but still an important character. He's the mystical equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci, a man who five hundred years ago predicted the transistor and made macguffins--er, I mean gadgets--that the entire intelligence community is after. He also made a prophecy about a woman who will "render the greatest power unto utter desolation." The woman he refers to is probably either Sydney or Irina.
Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan). Sydney's CIA handler, the man who helps her thwart SD-6 daily. Loves hockey. Yes, he's a babe, but he's also a good agent, if not the fastest runner (sorry, joke) and a really good guy. Of course Sydney falls for him. There is a forbidden love. First of all, if SD-6 finds out about him, both he and Sydney are toast. Second, he has an on-again, off-again girlfriend. Third, her mother killed his father. Whoops.
Left: Eric Weiss (Greg Gruenberg). Works at the CIA. Vaughn's friend and dogsitter. Company man, doesn't like to break the rules. Usually. Inveterate scene stealer.
Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper). One of Syd's best friends. Has loved her unrequitedly forever. Cute, no fashion sense, smarter than he lets on. Completely loyal. Reporter. Investigated Danny's "unsolved" death and stumbled onto some of the truth behind SD-6, leading to his kidnapping, torture, and rescue (some of these multiple times). He published a story about them and was forced to recant it to avoid being killed; recanting involved telling everyone he was high and made it up. Credibility ruined, he found work as a CIA analyst after Vaughn interceded for him.
Francie Calfo (Merrin Dungey). Syd's other best friend and roommate. A caterer who wants to open her own restaurant. Her job is to be the normal person in Syd's life and give her someone to lie to.
Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin). Head of SD-6. Bad guy who shows a human side just when you're sure you hate him. Obsessed with Rambaldi. Evil genius. Desperately loves his wife, Emily (as does everyone).
Left: Sark (David Anders). British. Bad guy--mostly. Immensely sexy. Skilled agent and assassin. Has worked for Irina and Sloane.
Marcus Dixon (Carl Lumbly). Sydney's partner. Has no idea he works for the bad guys. Devoted husband and father. Good agent. Began slowly to suspect Sydney was up to something and tried not to believe it out of loyalty.
Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Weisman). SD-6 tech genius. The nerdiest of the nerds. Heart of gold. I dare you not to love him.
Characters you might hear about in fic:
Emily Sloane (Amy Irving). Sloane's wife. Had cancer, which went into remission. Was targeted for elimination by SD-6 until the byzantine plan mentioned below kicks in.
Anna Espinoza (Gina Torres). Mercenary agent opposing Sydney.
Noah Hicks (Peter Berg). Syd's ex-boyfriend. Secret assassin. She killed him with kitchenware.
Shepard (John Hannah). The brainwashed assassin who killed Danny.
Devlin (James Handy). CIA (Deputy?) Director.
Kendall (Terry O'Quinn). FBI higher-up who ends up in charge of the Bristows.
Dr. Judy Barnett (Patricia Wettig). CIA shrink.
Carrie Bowman (Amanda Foreman). CIA techie and Marshall's love interest.
Neil Caplan (Christian Slater). Nerdy scientist. Except not.
Faye Dunaway, Quentin Tarantino, and Rutger Hauer played SD-6 baddies at various points. Ethan Hawke and Olivia d'Abo played CIA agents.
Setup
Syd, the product of a somewhat rocky home life (mom *cough* died when she was little, dad raised her from a distance) was recruited her freshman year of college by a super-secret arm of the CIA called SD-6. She told her friends she worked for a bank, but in reality she was juggling college life and dazzling actiony missions. When our show opens, Syd is working on her masters, dating a yummy British med student named Danny, and flying off to Taipei to pick locks.
When Danny proposed, Sydney broke the rules and told him the truth about her double life. SD-6 found out and followed procedure. Unfortunately, procedure meant having Danny killed.
Sydney, not surprisingly, tried to leave SD-6 and go back to civilian life. That violated procedure, too. They sent assassins after her. As she was finishing the last one off, a car pulled up with her father in it.
Surprising Revelation #1: Dad works for SD-6.
Surprising Revelation #2: SD-6 is the bad guys, part of the mercenary Alliance of Twelve.
Surprising Revelation #3: Dad is also a double agent for the real CIA, helping to bring them down.
Sydney goes double as well and begins a series of missions designed to bring down SD-6. Some of them work, some of them don't. Most of them involve breath-taking stunts, Bond-level gadgets, kickass fights, and a variety of wigs, costumes, and accents. So much fun.
The End of SD-6
Irina shows up and almost immediately turns herself in to the CIA, ostensibly to help them defeat SD-6 even though it means they put her under lock and key. Uh-huh. (Oh, and she shoots Sydney and Weiss first. Grrr. They get better.) Things proceed at lightning speed, and SD-6 (along with the rest of the Alliance) is raided and destroyed. Two people are not taken, though: Sloane and Sark. It turns out that Sloane fed the CIA the intel they needed in order to bring down his own organization. It was part of a byzantine plan that involved Rambaldi, faking his wife's death, and Rutger Hauer. Really.
With SD-6 gone, Syd wants to go back to civilian life, although she'd like to keep Vaughn. (And yes, Vaughn breaks up with his girlfriend.) But Sloane is still out there, and the mother she's building a reluctant bond with is still in CIA custody.
Sloane continues working on his plan. Part of it is to put a spy into Sydney's life. Francie is killed (sob) and replaced by a nearly exact double, Allison. Allison continues "Francie's" budding relationship with Will, which gets interesting because Allison already has a lover--Sark. She's able to get a great deal of information out of Will (shades of Irina back in the day) and nearly succeeds in framing him for murder at one point. Sloane also puts together an uber-device Rambaldi designed, although we still don't know what it is.
Irina escapes, whether it's to join him or work against him, it's hard to say. Don't trust what you see her doing on screen. This is Irina.
Sydney goes on numerous missions to find and stop Sloane, helped by Marshall and Dixon, who now work for the good guys. Dixon's relationship with Sydney is damaged by the truth of her double agent status, and his marriage cracks under the pressure of his new situation. He tries to leave the CIA, but gets sucked back in.
As things build towards the second series finale, they get really messy. Dixon tries to kill Sloane, but gets his wife, Emily, instead; in revenge Sloane has Dixon's wife killed. More Rambaldi crypticness is uncovered. Will is framed, becomes a fugitive, nearly gets killed, is cleared...er, I mentioned messy, right? Meanwhile, he's coming closer and closer to the identity of the true double. Jack gets a job offer--from Sloane. And in the middle of all this, Sydney and Vaughn try to build a relationship.
Season Finale
Will figures out Allison is Francie, just in time for her to stab him. Sydney comes home, makes a similar discovery, and an epic fight ensues. It ends with Allison shot and bleeding on one side of the room, and Sydney badly wounded and losing consciousness on the other.
She wakes up in an alley on the other side of the world, her wounds scarred over. She calls the CIA and they send her to a safe house.
Enter Vaughn and a whole new set of Surprising Revelations.
#1: It's two years later, even though to Sydney no time at all has passed.
#2: He's married.
#3: They thought she was dead.
So you think Alias fans are a little wacky? We've had THAT running around in our brains all summer.
Important episode titles:
Truth Be Told: The pilot.
Q&A: Clip show that explains a lot of the double agent and Rambaldi arcs. Also the ep where we learn Irina is alive.
Almost Thirty Years: First season cliffhanger. Irina's first (sort of) appearance. Ends with Syd captured and Vaughn possibly dead. That was a long summer, too.
Phase One: The shakeup ep that took out SD-6 and killed Francie.
The Telling: Second season finale. "The Telling" is the name of the Rambaldi uber-device.
The Festival of Fic is another good place to look for stories. That's the annual Alias fic awards, conveniently divided into categories for you. :)
Feel free to leave any other links to archives or rec pages in the comments. Also, feel free to correct me--I know I skimmed some of the plot points, but hopefully I didn't get anything actually *wrong.*
Left to right: Arvin Sloane, Jack Bristow, Will Tippin, Sydney Bristow, Michael Vaughn, Marcus Dixon, Francie Calfo, Marshall Flinkman.
Sydney Bristow (Jennifer Garner). Our Hero. er, Heroine. Brilliant, vulnerable, tough, and far too good a spy for her own sake.
Jack Bristow (Victor Garber). Even smarter than his daughter Sydney. A long-time double agent. Really, really bitter. His relationship with Sydney is rocky, mostly because he can be a total ass, and also because she loves to jump to conclusions about him. Appearances aside, he's completely devoted to her, and has done a number of unspeakable things in the name of protecting her.
Left: Irina Derevko (Lena Olin). The woman formerly known as "Laura Bristow" was actually a KGB agent who seduced Jack as an in to the CIA. She used her knowledge to assassinate a dozen CIA agents. Then she faked her own death and took off, only to reappear as the head of one of SD-6's mercenary/intelligence rivals.Rambaldi. Dead but still an important character. He's the mystical equivalent of Leonardo da Vinci, a man who five hundred years ago predicted the transistor and made macguffins--er, I mean gadgets--that the entire intelligence community is after. He also made a prophecy about a woman who will "render the greatest power unto utter desolation." The woman he refers to is probably either Sydney or Irina.
Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan). Sydney's CIA handler, the man who helps her thwart SD-6 daily. Loves hockey. Yes, he's a babe, but he's also a good agent, if not the fastest runner (sorry, joke) and a really good guy. Of course Sydney falls for him. There is a forbidden love. First of all, if SD-6 finds out about him, both he and Sydney are toast. Second, he has an on-again, off-again girlfriend. Third, her mother killed his father. Whoops.
Left: Eric Weiss (Greg Gruenberg). Works at the CIA. Vaughn's friend and dogsitter. Company man, doesn't like to break the rules. Usually. Inveterate scene stealer.Will Tippin (Bradley Cooper). One of Syd's best friends. Has loved her unrequitedly forever. Cute, no fashion sense, smarter than he lets on. Completely loyal. Reporter. Investigated Danny's "unsolved" death and stumbled onto some of the truth behind SD-6, leading to his kidnapping, torture, and rescue (some of these multiple times). He published a story about them and was forced to recant it to avoid being killed; recanting involved telling everyone he was high and made it up. Credibility ruined, he found work as a CIA analyst after Vaughn interceded for him.
Francie Calfo (Merrin Dungey). Syd's other best friend and roommate. A caterer who wants to open her own restaurant. Her job is to be the normal person in Syd's life and give her someone to lie to.
Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin). Head of SD-6. Bad guy who shows a human side just when you're sure you hate him. Obsessed with Rambaldi. Evil genius. Desperately loves his wife, Emily (as does everyone).
Left: Sark (David Anders). British. Bad guy--mostly. Immensely sexy. Skilled agent and assassin. Has worked for Irina and Sloane.Marcus Dixon (Carl Lumbly). Sydney's partner. Has no idea he works for the bad guys. Devoted husband and father. Good agent. Began slowly to suspect Sydney was up to something and tried not to believe it out of loyalty.
Marshall Flinkman (Kevin Weisman). SD-6 tech genius. The nerdiest of the nerds. Heart of gold. I dare you not to love him.
Characters you might hear about in fic:
Emily Sloane (Amy Irving). Sloane's wife. Had cancer, which went into remission. Was targeted for elimination by SD-6 until the byzantine plan mentioned below kicks in.
Anna Espinoza (Gina Torres). Mercenary agent opposing Sydney.
Noah Hicks (Peter Berg). Syd's ex-boyfriend. Secret assassin. She killed him with kitchenware.
Shepard (John Hannah). The brainwashed assassin who killed Danny.
Devlin (James Handy). CIA (Deputy?) Director.
Kendall (Terry O'Quinn). FBI higher-up who ends up in charge of the Bristows.
Dr. Judy Barnett (Patricia Wettig). CIA shrink.
Carrie Bowman (Amanda Foreman). CIA techie and Marshall's love interest.
Neil Caplan (Christian Slater). Nerdy scientist. Except not.
Faye Dunaway, Quentin Tarantino, and Rutger Hauer played SD-6 baddies at various points. Ethan Hawke and Olivia d'Abo played CIA agents.
Setup
Syd, the product of a somewhat rocky home life (mom *cough* died when she was little, dad raised her from a distance) was recruited her freshman year of college by a super-secret arm of the CIA called SD-6. She told her friends she worked for a bank, but in reality she was juggling college life and dazzling actiony missions. When our show opens, Syd is working on her masters, dating a yummy British med student named Danny, and flying off to Taipei to pick locks.
When Danny proposed, Sydney broke the rules and told him the truth about her double life. SD-6 found out and followed procedure. Unfortunately, procedure meant having Danny killed.
Sydney, not surprisingly, tried to leave SD-6 and go back to civilian life. That violated procedure, too. They sent assassins after her. As she was finishing the last one off, a car pulled up with her father in it.
Surprising Revelation #1: Dad works for SD-6.
Surprising Revelation #2: SD-6 is the bad guys, part of the mercenary Alliance of Twelve.
Surprising Revelation #3: Dad is also a double agent for the real CIA, helping to bring them down.
Sydney goes double as well and begins a series of missions designed to bring down SD-6. Some of them work, some of them don't. Most of them involve breath-taking stunts, Bond-level gadgets, kickass fights, and a variety of wigs, costumes, and accents. So much fun.
The End of SD-6
Irina shows up and almost immediately turns herself in to the CIA, ostensibly to help them defeat SD-6 even though it means they put her under lock and key. Uh-huh. (Oh, and she shoots Sydney and Weiss first. Grrr. They get better.) Things proceed at lightning speed, and SD-6 (along with the rest of the Alliance) is raided and destroyed. Two people are not taken, though: Sloane and Sark. It turns out that Sloane fed the CIA the intel they needed in order to bring down his own organization. It was part of a byzantine plan that involved Rambaldi, faking his wife's death, and Rutger Hauer. Really.
With SD-6 gone, Syd wants to go back to civilian life, although she'd like to keep Vaughn. (And yes, Vaughn breaks up with his girlfriend.) But Sloane is still out there, and the mother she's building a reluctant bond with is still in CIA custody.
Sloane continues working on his plan. Part of it is to put a spy into Sydney's life. Francie is killed (sob) and replaced by a nearly exact double, Allison. Allison continues "Francie's" budding relationship with Will, which gets interesting because Allison already has a lover--Sark. She's able to get a great deal of information out of Will (shades of Irina back in the day) and nearly succeeds in framing him for murder at one point. Sloane also puts together an uber-device Rambaldi designed, although we still don't know what it is.
Irina escapes, whether it's to join him or work against him, it's hard to say. Don't trust what you see her doing on screen. This is Irina.
Sydney goes on numerous missions to find and stop Sloane, helped by Marshall and Dixon, who now work for the good guys. Dixon's relationship with Sydney is damaged by the truth of her double agent status, and his marriage cracks under the pressure of his new situation. He tries to leave the CIA, but gets sucked back in.
As things build towards the second series finale, they get really messy. Dixon tries to kill Sloane, but gets his wife, Emily, instead; in revenge Sloane has Dixon's wife killed. More Rambaldi crypticness is uncovered. Will is framed, becomes a fugitive, nearly gets killed, is cleared...er, I mentioned messy, right? Meanwhile, he's coming closer and closer to the identity of the true double. Jack gets a job offer--from Sloane. And in the middle of all this, Sydney and Vaughn try to build a relationship.
Season Finale
Will figures out Allison is Francie, just in time for her to stab him. Sydney comes home, makes a similar discovery, and an epic fight ensues. It ends with Allison shot and bleeding on one side of the room, and Sydney badly wounded and losing consciousness on the other.
She wakes up in an alley on the other side of the world, her wounds scarred over. She calls the CIA and they send her to a safe house.
Enter Vaughn and a whole new set of Surprising Revelations.
#1: It's two years later, even though to Sydney no time at all has passed.
#2: He's married.
#3: They thought she was dead.
So you think Alias fans are a little wacky? We've had THAT running around in our brains all summer.
Important episode titles:
Truth Be Told: The pilot.
Q&A: Clip show that explains a lot of the double agent and Rambaldi arcs. Also the ep where we learn Irina is alive.
Almost Thirty Years: First season cliffhanger. Irina's first (sort of) appearance. Ends with Syd captured and Vaughn possibly dead. That was a long summer, too.
Phase One: The shakeup ep that took out SD-6 and killed Francie.
The Telling: Second season finale. "The Telling" is the name of the Rambaldi uber-device.
- Major Archives
- All genres: Cover Me. Main fic archive, currently under construction, but they still have all the older stories up for your reading pleasure. Has links to other sites, as well.
- Slash: Alias Slash Archive
- Syd/Vaughn (hugely popular pairing): Allies
- Smut only, het and slash: Omega-17
The Festival of Fic is another good place to look for stories. That's the annual Alias fic awards, conveniently divided into categories for you. :)
- Other Sites
- About Alias. The ABC's official site. Doesn't suck.
- Alias Media. Best source for graphics, some video files, and articles.
- Vartan Hos. Don't be fooled by their name; they've got it all.
- Project Alias. More news, links, etc. and a whole section on the video game.
Feel free to leave any other links to archives or rec pages in the comments. Also, feel free to correct me--I know I skimmed some of the plot points, but hopefully I didn't get anything actually *wrong.*
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Also,...Eric Weiss...Inveterate scene stealer.
So true. Me luffs him. He needs more scenes, dammit!
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Inveterate scene stealer.
I know season three is supposed to be "all sark, all the time," but i am *so excited* for weiss to be part of the signed cast. so. excited. seriously. also terribly geeked out for marshall.
think we'll have donovan back this season?
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::snerk:: Not the brightest either when it comes to, y'know, not just standing and staring at *a giant wave*.
Third, her mother killed his father. Whoops.
Ahem. Fourth, the CIA frowns on fraternization among the ranks. Fifth, he's hiding a secret love affair with Weiss. }:-)
Excellent overview, Celli! Eee -- the season premiere is starting now! ::runs to the TV:
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What did you think?
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You should have seen me trying to condense. I had *pages* of notes. *g*
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What'd you think of the premiere?
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I hope Mrs. Vaughn (I typed Mrs. Weiss, heh) treats him well.
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*dies laughing*
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I actually liked the premiere more than I thought it would. Weiss! No more Syd/Vaughn at least for the time being! And...Weiss! (I actually posted in my journal halfway through the ep and declared him my newest TV boyfriend). I did still having some issues with it, though (it would have been nice to have seen her questions about her friends answered, and the convenience of Sloan's freedom irked me).
I'm bookmarking the fics you are reccing (as I've no time to read now). Oh, and I ♥ your icon. Hee.
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I dunno...I was okay with them leaving some stuff hanging at the moment, but if they stretch that out too long someone will have to die. And we're not really supposed to believe that about Sloane. are we? 'Cause I was born at night, but it wasn't *last* night. :)
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Thanks a lot for the summary! I just have one question: what's Rambaldi? :P