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1.1 Truth Be Told Jack: "I guess we'll just have to learn to trust each other." This stunning pilot was wildly impressive. The action just rocketed along, and the torture scenes actually shocked me. It sucked me in and got me hooked. "You are schizophrenic," her unknowing friend Francie told Sydney near the beginning of this episode, and she pretty much said it all; the main theme of the show is, of course, Sydney Bristow's double life. The wholesome graduate student with nice friends and a normal job working for a bank is constantly contrasted with the dangerous existence of a secret agent. When Sydney got engaged and told her fiance the truth about herself, she caused her two worlds to collide. Jennifer Garner was just wonderful here. Sydney is heroic, charming, athletic, brilliant, emotional and sexy; she's the ultimate heroine, and Garner is perfect for the part. I particularly liked her aghast reaction to Danny's "Build me up, buttercup!" proposal; the way she charmed Chinese torturer guy into thinking that all she was doing was looking for a bathroom; her shock and grief at Danny's death; and her determination at the end to do what was right. The most interesting character in the pilot, other than Sydney, was by far and away her father, Jack Bristow (Victor Garber). He went through several iterations here: at first a cold, distant businessman who was sarcastic with his daughter's fiance (the Jack/Danny phone call was a hoot); then an evil cohort of Sloane's at SD-6; and finally, his true face was revealed when we learned he was a double, like Sydney -- a true hero, a patriot who risks his life every day. We saw bits of Jack in all of these different personas, but the true Jack is a cipher, and his relationship with his daughter is a big, fascinating question mark. Although the focus was mostly on Sydney, the major characters were all introduced: Arvin Sloane, who appeared to be all business until he showed his ruthlessness by having Danny killed; Dixon, Sydney's SD-6 partner, a nice, normal married guy who also happens to be a spy; Marshall, a sort of young, bumbling Q (from Bond, not Star Trek); Francie, Sydney's clueless best friend and roommate; and Will, Sydney's reporter friend, who is very obviously in love with her. The briefest and least informative introductions were to CIA agents Vaughn and Weiss at the end of the episode. Vaughn appeared to be a stereotypical clean-cut CIA agent, and Weiss was pretty much just someone for Vaughn to do dialogue with, and that was it. Bits and pieces: -- Sydney has parental issues not just with Jack, but with her mother, whose death after many years is still too painful for her to discuss. -- Is Sydney getting a masters in literature? Tennyson is mentioned. -- We learned here that SD-6 is part of the Alliance of twelve, not part of the CIA, as Sydney believed for the past seven years. -- Rambaldi was not mentioned, but we learn in later episodes that the ball of water device that Muller supposedly invented was actually invented by Rambaldi. -- Devlin, the director of the CIA, was mentioned but not seen. -- There was a lot of pop music in this episode... almost too much. The best was "Forever young," which we heard during the Sydney/Danny shower scene. Danny will never get any older now. -- The woman with magenta hair that Syd was using as a non-agency alias was Will's sister, Amy. Good for the plot, but who keeps their hair that color long enough to get a passport photo with it? -- There was a photo of a blond woman with Vaughn on Vaughn's desk. -- Number 47: Marshall mentioned that he wanted to bring the number of exposures in his camera from 42 to 47, and that 47 was a prime number. -- This week's itinerary: Taipei, twice. -- This week's cool gadgets: a lighter as a scrambler, and a lipstick as the above-mentioned camera. -- This week's language skills: Sydney spoke Chinese, Dixon spoke Hebrew, and the unseen Mueller took notes in Demotic. -- This week's hot look: the skin-tight red dress at the party, and of course, the famous magenta hair. -- In the credits, you can see the sign of the Magnific Order of Rambaldi <0> over Victor Garber's name. Four out of four spies, Billie |
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