Two less grumpy reviews, luckily for everyone:

1.8- 'Time Will Tell'

This isn't a dreadfully deep or intelligent episode, but it has loads of fun stuff going on. At the centre of the storyline comes the combination of the odd synthetic piece of material taken by Sydney from the church window in Malaga, and the clock made by Donnati. The bringing together of time and matter to produce a picture of space. Neatness. It suggests, perhaps rather along way below the surface of the story, that what Rambaldi has to say is universal, that it covers both the objects in the earth, and the dimensions the earth is made in, space, and the extra dimension, the fourth one, which humans live in, that of time.

This actually isn't the only plot-line in which these three aspects are combined during this episode. We also have the book. A book which, at first, appears to be a generous gift from Jack to his wife Laura. But when Francie spills things on it, the book is revealed to have code inside it. Over time, the story of Jack's kindness is revoked, and although Sydney continues to learn 'little by little' that 'He has a heart', the story is changed by the discovery of the special properties of the book, apparently revealing more about Jack as a KGB agent, involving the space of the world once again. Time, matter, space.

Thirdly, we have Tippin's tip-off from his mechanic friend. The tip-off allows him make contact with someone in another space, cia the genius of the flower, the symbol of ephemerality, something changing with time. This flower, however, is artificial, has been made to have a life much longer than that of its floral counterparts. Which brings us back to Donnati, who is prophesied to live until the clock comes back to him, and then is shot down by K-directorate. Here we have the first hint of genuine fantasy in Alias, that Rambaldi could grant Donnati a life of around five hundred years. It is used to show how Rambaldi's skill at bringing this trinity of things together: matter, time, space, is so extraordinary that Abrams can base a programme around it. And because of this groundwork done at the metaphorical level, the Rambaldi storyline continues to intrigue the viewer.

-Sydney reminds Espinosa of her earlier taunting when she kisses the glass after locking it behind her. It binds them together once again, with Espinosa as Sydney's shadow. At the end of this episode, however, we see Espinosa finally, and apparently ultimately in Sydney's case, getting the better of her, and consigning Sydney to the abyss that yawns below her. Anna, in her alternate version of Sydney, shows her two sides interestingly. Both, we see her delight when she does something better than her- when she surpasses herself with her mission. But also the despair, that body falling into black, when she doesn't do as well as she could; when she finds Rambaldi's journal but fails to return it safely to SD-6 and the CIA.

-Oh, the Vaughn/Bristow fun. It's not one of th emost originally written sexual tension storylines ever, but I do enjoy the way the two of them nudge their mutual interest forwards without ever seeming to discuss it outright. In this case, he's virtually brazen by their previous flirtations, mentioning the idea of romantic interest explicitly. Perhaps one day soon they might hug each other or something...

-Chile in the first decade of the 1500's. I know I was speedily shouted down when I ignorantly complained about Darla in Virginia in 1609, but surely unless he was a member of Columbus' or Vespucci's adventures, it's unlikely that such a position was known to contain land. I will watch for the resolution of this with interest: another piece of the puzzle to do with how we view space, our place within the world.

1.9- 'Mea Culpa'

This is one of those episodes which works like one of those elaborate gadgets that Marshall makes. It's all the plot's contents and not much the character's motivations, but it's just such good fun, a game of chess played with real people: with our main character, indeed.

-This is also the episode where we see a little more of Sloane, played by the brilliant Ron Rifkin who to date is in my opinion by far the best actor on the series, (any other contenders?), First of all, we see him upside down in a paperweight, as if to suggest we are about to revise our views of him. What happens is something more complicated than our view of the character merely being turned upside down. First of all, there is the conversation where he explains to Sydney how he was around when she was a baby, and how, on and off, he saw her grow up over the years. This introduces a whole Mafia spin to SD-6; she's almost inheriting the spyness of her father and her father's apparent friend. The idea that Sloane thinks of Sydney is a surrogate daughter is surprising, especially when her real father is so close to him professionally, but presumably is hiding some kind of past between the two that we will discover later.

Then we get the confirmation from the professional that he believes Sydney is the mole. This, as is the natural order of things, would have spelt the end for our hero had it not been for the fact that the office is in fact infiltrated by two double agents. It is Jack who manages to outfox Sloane's devilishly intelligent scheme, whereby he hopes to lure Sydney's contacts out by 'leaking' a statement to them only claiming they were to have Sydney killed during her dead drop. In parallel to all this, Sydney explains to someone else that Sloane's conversation felt like he was saying goodbye; perhaps to lure her into the sense that she might be despatched by SD6, so she relayed information to the CIA which would make Vaughn even jumpier. In the meanwhile, he talks to the man wielding the psychometric test results, and claims that he'll deal with the situation. It is telling, however, that, as the tester explains to Sloane later, there is a vital flaw in his plan. Had Bristow been guilty, she would have been saved by the CIA and lost to SD6. While she appears innocent, (due to Jack's intervention), she is free of any suspicion within SD6. Bizarrely enough, when you look at the Magic Eye drawing for long enough, it appears Syd was safe either way. So is Sloane, despite his shady look to Sydney, actually protecting her above and beyond what is good for his cell? The intriguing cat-and-mouse continues. At the end of the episode when it becomes clear that Syd's relay is giving the bank codes to a line other than SD6's, (poor old Marshall telling Dryer, who doesn't want to harm a fly, ironic considering his position), Sloane is checkmated. His next move in the story becomes achingly interesting.

As the paragraph above demonstrates, the episode is really interesting through the sheer tangle of narrative it weaves in itself. There are other interesting moments as well though:

-Who is, in the end 'mea culpa'? In the episode's smaller storyline, Syd forgets to be around for Francie's wedding dress shopping. That she is honest enough to explain that it was not her thoughts of her marriage to Danny, but instead merely her work which kept her form being there, is again emotionally honest if not quite honest in every detail. It is becoming clear that Syd is painstakingly careful to be honest with Francie at every turn, even when it is not the easy option- because she is in the one sector of her life where conflicting loyalties and continuing double-dealing is not a necessity.

Other 'mea culpa's include Sloane, who has to own up, finally, to the fact that he was shielding his eyes from Sydney's guilt; Wil, who needs to explain to his editor precisely why he's been blowing hot and cold over his willingness to write his front page story, and Vaughn, as over-protective of Sydney and almost making a mistake when her own father, (who obviously has her best interests at heart?!) tells him how to proceed, in essence playing Russian Roulette with Syd's life. But though all these people own up to their mistakes, it's interesting that the real admissions of guilt, or explanations which would power the plot forward in this episode, don't come. We see lots of minor admissions, but nothing of Jack or Sydney explaining their position in the machinations of SD-6, nor Wil coming clean to Sydney that he is still tracking the odd circumstances of Danny's death. In this episode, the title is the ultimate mislead.

-There's a very lovely final shot, with Sloane sitting alone in his office, lots of empty chairs all around him. Life as a director is hard, particularly when the person who feels like your own daughter turns out to be the prodigal mole. It can feel like you have no-one at all to trust, just ghosts and liars whose intentions are shaded in mystery. It's hard for Sloane, but it's what makes the series interesting viewing.

Still waiting for an episode which will make me go 'Gah!' at the brilliance of the whole though. Any suggestions about how long I need to wait?

Thanks for reading

TCH