Thursday, October 06, 2005

Gathering Intel

Alias is in a genre of its own. Its incredibly complex, intricate plot and storylines can leave you with a migraine. To keep you from breaking out the aspirin, here are a few tips for catching as much info. as the writers are pitching:

1. The Rule of 3: Look for items or information that are mentioned more than three times. If it’s brought up more than three times, it’s important.
2. Stay in tune with the tunes: JJ is a music lover and he and the crew do a great job using songs as double meaning. (Hence, Sleeping Beauty).
3. Eyeball It: It's all about the eyes. Sydney and Jack have some of the best stare-downs. Guaranteed they are hiding something.
4. Call-Backs: Keep an ear out for lines you've heard being said before. Also, pay attention when characters make references (verbal or not) to past episodes. (In the season opener, Dixon mentioned when he caught Sydney stealing from SD-6. Also, Vaughn’s watch is a call-back to several episodes).
5. CAMERA, ACTION!: Pay attention to the shots. In last week’s episode the camera captured a cut of the cup and straw in Vaughn's hospital room. You might not have noticed, but it was there, a HUGE clue.
6. Not Said: Listen for what is NOT said. For instance, when Syd interrogates the man in the previews, she says "my baby lost it's father," and not “killed my baby's father.” Subtle sidesteps allow for honesty with deception. Verbiage is huge on Alias. (Thanks to Robetron on the ABC message boards for this one).

If something catches you, if you get a hunch or have a question about something, jot it down and bring it to the board. Maybe others have some answers for you. If you have any tips to add, please do! The more intel we have, the better! Happy viewing!

4 comments:

SRM said...

thanks for all the tips, enjoy the show tonight!! I'm sure we'll be chatting tomorrow. :)

Girlscout said...

Thanks SRG! I will post a synopsis of the episode and then we will knee deep in clues and theories. Should be a good post day!

SRM said...

what's w/ all the spamming?? grr...

amy said...

i love the whole music theme -last year for my birthday my husband made me a set of CDs - for each season on Alias - he used the website to look up the songs and then bought them from itunes- the cd's themselves look real with the alias logo and pics of vaughn/syd -its awesome! (: i listened to them while training for a marathon last summer and thought about the episodes as the different music played....sydney inspired me!!!! my friend even made me a water bottle for the day of the race with a huge pic of the APO gang and a label saying "what would sydbey do??" - it was so cool!!!