In the past few years, there have been so many movies and shows with females as the heroes. At first, it was refreshing, but now it's really getting old.

Well, if I'm using cut-tags, I might as well use them for fun. The above is a quote I stumbled upon when checking that the guest star in these two episodes was the David Cronenberg, who directed the magnificent super-Matrix, 'eXistenZ'. It's nice to see how thoroughly imdb choose their user comments. I mean, yeah, it's fine to have two, maybe three shows with a female hero, but frankly, it's just such a gimmick, y'know? ;-)

Back in the world of the unmoronic: OK, more seasons, more nuance. I'm starting to appreciate the way this Season is ticking along now. It has all sorts of issues between the major characters just simmering, (Sydney's relationships with Jack, Vaughn and Sloane), but all of this is played out in background portholes we can barely notice while a troupe of foreground one-episode characters slowly reveal the edges of interest in Sydney's two years away.

3.9- 'Conscious'

To add to the delight of it all, this episode also had a prolonged conscious dream sequence, (and I'm a sucker for those), and a hero of mine, David Cronenberg, who has made some enticingly warped films that have had Daily Mail types scrambling for their placards in a manner similar to Chris Morris. In the few films of his I've seen, the persistent undercutting is of voyeurism and vicarious thrills; of living in the world of a computer game so intensely, of gaining meaning for your life through someone else's car crash. Here, he almost uses the very aroma of his film direction, that perverse, disturbing calm of someone we don't really understand, to craft a very memorable character. Partly memorable, admittedly for the absolutely magnificent reaction shots of Jack after we see him complete one of his over-elaborate sentences. Usually in situations like this, Jack will not suffer the fool gladly and demand that he get on with his task. Here, Syd's father has no choice but to allow the good Doctor to continue on at the pace that suits him. And that makes for delightful moments of Jack looking is if he'd rather be anywhere else but listening to this man.

-Before we reach the man, the episode purrs into life unthreateningly as we cover the period after the salvage mission for Sydney. Syd says to Sloane that 'I suppose I owe you a thank you'. I thought Syd might have a little more ambivalence about Sloane's role after his help, but I keep forgetting how much she hates him. Incidentally, browsing oyceter's review of the next episode, (I'm footholdless since Herc got haphazard with his episode reviews), I came across the immortal section:

I think it would be funny if Sloane were Rambaldi the entire time, because really, how is Sloane not the mastermind of the world?

I did consider this in Season one, but I love the way it's phrased here. Regardless of how many double crosses anyone else does, Sloane is still three steps ahead of them. That's why I love him, (as a character).

-While Lindsay is being hopelessly led to a liquor store, Jack and Sydney discover the maggot hand in the San Andreas fault. This in a sense appears to be Sydney's last straw. She has to take the lead Sloane gives her on recovering her memory.

-I like the dignity with which Dixon continues on his merry way despite the all round sliminess of Lindsay. When he can say with understated authority and total certainty 'I have seen people like you. Men who pretend to be patriots'. And then tell him he doesn't have long to remain as NSC Senior Director, you see Lindsay wrack his mind, wondering if Dixon has some subtle conniving plan he isn't tuned in to. He can't quite understand this thing that Dixon has, a faithful optimism. Which, very soon after, comes to fruition, as a result of? Who other than the man whose last licensed killing was Dixon's wife? Oh, the twistiness.

-An intriguing precursor to Jack and Vaughn's conversation about his kindness to Syd in the next episode comes in the little exchange:
J: I used to think you didn't have much of a spine.
V: And has that assessment changed at all?
J: No.

And there's an imperceptible glimmer in Father Jack's eyes. Is this almost a joke, but with the kicker that Jack now respects Vaughn's professional capabilities but not his personal choices? Well scripted, anyway.

-Watch David Cronenberg work the phrase into a posteriori into prime-time network TV! Then cheer that J J Abrams appears to have an inexhaustible supply of cool film director and film actor friends to draw on! Pretty cool!!!

-There's an element of the 'Wrecked' mentality here, but the writers use the drug addiction metaphor in a much subtler and 'less socially responsible' way. Good on them.

And so to the dream. A few thoughts as they come to me, since it seems counter-intuitive to itemise them clearly. The way that Vaughn suddenly changes into Sloane as Sydney is kissing him is of course a horror staple, but it provides lovely confirmation in the next episode where Sloane tells Michael, 'I love her too'. I like these chunks of continuity that Alias bothers with, even if at times disposing with wider thematic resonances, unfortunately. We have Syd spinning round with what appears to be a wig very similar to the one way back in the pilot episode. I suppose that for us it symbolises what Sydney was at base; where she when we first met her, the foundation of her character. What's left when later memories are left behind. Because Sydney's awake in the dream, it would have been a really good way of showing the previous two years logically, so it's brave and surprising they showed nothing but Escherian clues. We see Kid!Syd, who seems to crave her father in childhood, though this is just a by-product of the cake which fills with blood, the blood running thicker than water, but the absent parent, and the de-handing of Lazarey, a ghost come back to life like Sydney's mother. While Jack's hysterically saying 'How nice for you' to Brezzell's stoner girlfriend, we find Room 47. The phrase later, 'What is in Room 47?' is an unmistakable reference to 'The Prisoner', and I think much of the dream sequence plays as a homage to the wacky British series. In the mean time, Lauren is given us as the Tara of Buffy's dream, the representational figure, but also strangles her with a bag, which can't say much for Syd's trust in her, (and did she in fact know Lauren during those two years? Since logic points to no, I'm suspicious the answer is yes). When Sydney kills herself, do we see it as Julia killing Sydney? Or of Sydney killing Julia by agreeing to blank her memories? Or of Normal Sydney killed by the Sydney abducted into SD-6? or all of these?

-Once the first dream's finished, she acts on her fantasy of Vaughn, only to find it's reality. Vaughn knows he should have pulled away quicker, but perhaps has shock to blame it on for now.

-Are we to suppose Lindsay really did know Sloane's endgame? More in the next episode.

And we end on one of those cliffhanger moments I continue to hate, as Sydney is amazed by what is in Room 47, and we see nothing.

3.10- 'Remnants'

Luckily, unlike some poor saps, i can go straight on and find out. That it was Will in the dream is a tremendous let down, (surely Syd would go 'Huh?' not 'Oh my God'), but Will was a favourite character of mine during my favourite period of the show to date, (late 1, early 2), so I'm not going to complain about his turning up. This episode, though of similar quality, I don't like as much, though that's just my delight in Cronenberg and dreams I think, and this ain't bad at all.

-So what I was saying about Sloane? Here we get the question of why he has the sniper take down Lindsey. Is it merely because he loves Sydney and dislikes Sloane? Is it because Lindsay was hindering his ability to get the next piece in the Rambaldi jigsaw? Or did Lindsay really know too much, and need to be taken out to stop him acting on his knowledge of Sloane's plans? Even in the third case, there are two splinter cases; firstly that Lindsay knew a bit, but a fatal amount, secondly that he actually knew all of Sloane's motivations. We may never know, or it may become a crucial plot point.

-We get the 'I love her too' moment I mentioned above between Sloane and Vaughn. Here there's still the tension that he's about to shoot Sydney down, though given her role in the series and Sloane's doublecrossiness, it doesn't seem that likely.

-Sark continues to investigate very successfully, leading to a reunion with his father that has strange resonances of Sydney with her mother for all of the thirty seconds before Sark starts torturing him with a flame. Meanwhile, Lazarey admits he staged his death, (with Julia's help, we must assume), and Sydney's position during those two years remains as mysterious as ever. It might be that she was only into lopping off the odd hand rather than murder, and who cares about that?

-I like the way that even when the audience think Jack's lost it, he always has a rational explanation for his emotional impulse, even if sometimes it sounds suspiciously like a cover story. Last season we had the passive tracking device. This year we have him punching Lindsay, and explaining to Vaughn later that they were going to be arrested anyway. Going by Dixon's custody for no reason whatsoever, it appears Jack's right.

-What is more debatable is his opinion in the Sydney/Vaughn debate. Jack reminds him of his similar position, in regards to Irina returning from the dead before proceeding to claim 'Be cruel if you have to', since 'your kindness tortures her'. It's against Vaughn's habits to be cruel only to be kind. I feel for him, since some of my problems come from the same instinct, I think; that desire to want to be amenable even in situations where the least pain in the long run is caused by a touch of painfulness.

-The little scene between Lindsey and Marshall really has us barking for Lindsey's removal, because here we have two exactly opposite people; this powerless, nice bloke, and this powerful horrible man, double the stature, half the height again. And he equivocates to Marshall brutally, and surely doesn't think about it again, it being the least of his misdemeanours.

-Syd and Will I'm not quite sure about, particularly considering the last time Will slept with someone from El Cadiz, it didn't end well. I understand completely Sydney's motivations, and I suppose Will had always really loved her in that way, but it was never the moment. Their parting at the end of the episode would have had more resonance if without the little moment about their sex, I think.

-'You're a smarter man than that', Sloane chides his hit-man when he claims he was starting to believe Arvin was a humanitarian. Is Sloane presenting the front of an anarchist, or is he really playing a deep game with Sydney?

Even smaller little snippets of thoughts, since this is getting to a sizeable length:

-I liked the 'Where would I hide something?' epiphany that Sydney has. It has that ring of truth; an element you discover about a situation which is clear once you know it but totally opaque before hand.

-Weiss as Sloane's tracker was a satisfying little detail.

-For my money, Will's English accent actually was rather good, (much better than Lauren's if that's supposed to be British not Australian, as I think she explained to my incredulous ears once).

-Will kills "Francie" is wish-fulfillment but not an important enough plot twist for me to begrudge him his moment, particularly given his lack of catharsis.

I'm starting to get into this Season.

TCH