I just wrote the whole of this and had it swallowed, so since I don't have anything particularly insightful to say about these two, I'm going to give you a very short notes version what I originally had.

3.15- 'Facade'

-Referring to the facade of the fake hotel room in Russia, but also one of those words, like many of the episode titles of Season One, which is a theme for the whole of 'Alias'. The facade of Syd as an agent pretending to be a normal person when on a mission, and the rejected facade of her trying to have a normal social life when she's a spy. The fact Francie and WIll and their blissful ignorance are gone testifies to Alias' perception that the second is just not possible to do emotionally honestly.

-Ricky Gervais here was a bit off-putting thoguh did a good job. Since he's British, the 1124 being his brother's birthday wouldn't work; we'd write it as 24/11.

-'I believe in America', is a deeply ironic quote from the first line of 'The Godfather. Lisecke perhaps believes in America even less than the mafiosi did.

-Weiss as decoy- cynical, but not as cynical and mischievous as the funeral scene in 'Lover's Walk'.

-Only interesting aspect in poor episode was the reveal that Christopher Ryan was the man who Sydney shot. Fascinating in the aftermath of the revelation that Syd decides to use her time at the Covenant as a means of emotional manipulation of Daniel without owning up to the fact (and why) that she killed Christopher. Casts her in an ambiguous light.

Pretty ordinary.

3.16- 'Taken'

Good, but not quite as good as I'd hoped after seeing it was by JR Orci, one of my favourite writers. Much better than the previous one, however.

-Key point is that episode uses Dixon as lead character, not Sydney. We see Sydney in the scene where she takes Robyn's collar as a noble supporting character rather than the lead. The effect on the rest of the show is to cast everyone in a light from a slightly different angle, which gives the episode a certain freshness.

-Senator Reed turns up, but we don't get what I expected; the third act zinger than Lauren is the mole, and Senator's belittling denial and anger about it. May be for a different episode, considering Jack's connection of Lauren's 'love' endearment at the cool end shot of the episode.

-'The benefits of having a predictable adversary'. Was wondering if they'd do a 'Best of Both Worlds' type plot line, with Dixon/Riker having to learn to be sneaky and slightly less arrow-straight decent in order to outsmart Sark. In reality, they just showed his emotional stability under pressure; knowing when to give way to Jack, and even before that asking for an 'honest assessment' to help out his clouded opinion on the matter. Remains a great character.

-74 is 47 backwards. Syd taking an item of The Telling form Nevada turns Operation Black Hole on its head. The word Irina is less definitive; why shouldn't the name of the Mother of the Destroyer be mentioned.

-Sloane becomes man who cried wolf as his truths go unheeded and unbelieved after so many lies.

-Liked bit about Algerian aid stopped by American senator. Dark and satirical.

-Lauren helps rescue Robyn, showing a touch more humanity than Sark, who tortures her.

Hmmm. I seemed to cover most of the same territory in a third of the words. Maybe twas a good thing in the long run. Six episodes to go.

TCH