It’s a little over an hour until ALIAS premieres its third season, and now that it’s in a timeslot that doesn’t conflict with 90% of the programs I’ve been watching, I’d like to start, because a) I’ve heard great things about the show and b) Victor Garber is such a hottie (and what a singer!).
So.
Please spoil the first two seasons for me.
Is it set in the present; is it our world or is there some big invented enemy out there; what’s the family tree of Sydney, the heroine; are her parents divorced or whatever; do they all work for American intelligence or are they mercenaries; what are the main subsidary characters and/or romantic entanglements that I’ll see tonight and should know about, and so forth.
Here’s the incredibly condensed version: (by the way, this is season 4!)
Sydney Bristow is a CIA Operations Officer. Her father, Jack Bristow, is a career CIA agent. Her on-again/off-again boyfriend Michael Vaughn is her partner (or has been lately.)
Sydney was originally recruited by a secret agency called SD-6, which was part of The Alliance. SD-6 pretended to be the CIA, and was headed by Arvin Sloane. Jack and Sydney were double agents inside SD-6 for the CIA, and SD-6 was destroyed in the middle of season 2 (as part of Sloane’s plan.)
Sloane is obsessed with the life and works of an obscure Renaissance inventor named Milo Rambaldi. He has pursued what he believes to be a superweapon created by Rambaldi in the 1500s.
Sydney went missing at the end of season 2 following a shootout with a duplicate of her best friend Francie. She reappeared two years later with no memory of her past. She discovered that she had been working as an assassin under the name Julia Thorne, and had actually been in contact with members of the CIA. Vaughn had gotten married to the evil Lauren Reed, who was working with the Covenant, a group that replaced the Alliance.
Sydney’s mother, Irina “Laura Bristow” Derevko was a Russian agent who was believed dead until she shot Sydney at the end of season 1. She would occasionally help Sydney during season 2 before disappearing hours before Sydney’s fight with Francie.
This barely scratches the surface. I haven’t even gotten to Sark, Dixon, Marshall, Will, Sydney’s dead fiance Danny, The Telling or Project Christmas.
Thanks so much, guys! I was so confused when Natalya showed up, because she didn’t seem to have a relationship with Jack at all yet she was Syd’s sister and then Sloan mentioned HIS daughter…which still doesn’t explain why two pasty people had a daughter who’s a beautiful Latin woman. Oh well.
I still don’t get it about the mom, though–she was dead yet able to put a hit on Sydney? How long ago did she die, like a week? And who did really kill her? Do we know? And what was this fake execution order from 1975?
