Thursday, November 03, 2005

Bits 'n' Pieces

First, my couch has to be the best place to watch Alias ever. And as I was lounging on my couch last night, perusing episode 4.05 "Welcome to Liberty Village," I came across an interesting tidbit of information. In the episode, Sydney and Vaughn go into deep cover as two Czech terrorists auditioning for a spot in the October Contingent, a radical group of Russian ex-patriots. Jack contacts Alexi, one of Irina's commanding officers when she was with the KGB, to gather information about the location of Liberty Village, the trqining ground for the group. In return, Alexi asks for Irina's books, the books Jack bought her as gifts from a small bookstore in Prague when they were married. Jack, suspicious as to why Alexi would want the books now, has Marshall analyze them for any hidden information. Encoded in an ink dot is code namename "sentinel." When Marshall asks about the significance ocode namedename, Jack brushes him off, offering that it was the name of a murdered CIA operative. But, Jack goes to Sloane with the information. Jack states, "The Russians are looking for Elena Derevko." And Sloane returns, "We must move up our time table."

I did a little research on the word "sentinel." The term has several meanings. A sentinel is one that keeps guard or is posted as a guard. But more interesting is this definition: "being an individual or part of a population potentially susceptible to an infection or infestation." AH HA! Was Elena not in control of a massive world take-over involving contaminated water and zombie-like mind altering? Was not the entire city of Svogda representative of a sentinel? Gosh, I love Alias and all its mystery and I love my couch!

10 comments:

Andrew said...

Stuff from way back in that 5th episode that I didn't catch on to until I started rewatching on DVD.

Interesting tidbit: If you watch the scene with Sloane and Jack with subtitles, while they say "ELENA DEREVKO" the subtitles read "IRINA DEREVKO".

I doubt it means anything, but it made me rewatch the scene again.

Girlscout said...

Slingshot, I think you better come over to my house, because I ain't going to Mom and Dad's. (For all of you, Slingshot is my little sis. Also Alias addicted. It's hereditary apparently.)

Girlscout said...

Interesting Andrew. The subtitles are weird sometimes. And actually, when Jack first said it I had to rewind to make sure what sister's name he said. It was Elena for sure though.

SRM said...

hm, ya know I just watched that eppy too and was wondering about the term Sentinal, those writers sure do their research don't they?

SKlaft said...

Okay, this is a little off your topic, but I just recently watched the first 4 episodes in S-1 and I'm looking for an outlet for my comments.
First: When the whole "Rambaldi" thing first came up on the show, Vaughn said that the CIA was already looking for the stuff SD-6 was after via Sydney. She asked, "You already knew about Rambaldi?"
"The CIA did; I didn't," he replies. I am having a hard time reconciling that with the whole, "It was no accedent that I became your handler" bit. Yes, maybe he simply lied, but I am now realizing that he became her handler BEFORE Rambaldi ever came into Sydney's life. Vaughn's search for his father as it connects to Rambaldi could not have been what brought Vaughn to Syd. This is a problem for the current season's premise.

Second: Rememberwhen Francie thought her boyfriend was cheeting on her with that blond girl because she found the matchbook? Do you remember what that girl's name was who "really loved tonight"? That's right. Her name was... Rachel. Coincidence? Maybe, but I'm not so sure. How many blond women named Rachel can there be in the world anyway? Surely not more than... oh, say, five or six... hundred. Okay, maybe this is a stretch, but you just never know in the ALIAS world. Anyone have anytheories on this?

uncle111 said...

Very nice observation robetron.
- Either Vaughn was lieing, or what he knew about Prophet 5 never intersected with Rambaldi, or it's another continuity problem.
- If it was the same Rachel then someone was using her to get inside info on Syd. The only problem is if Rachel really wasn't a field agent. If she was then she's been lieing about that. But, then this could be another continuity problem. They do tend to like to reuse plot lines, gimmicks, things from movies, and they may have just tripped over themselves in the process.

Girlscout said...

Robetron,

We met the Rachel that Charlie was "cheating" with. We met her at the music bar the night Charlie sang. I don't think it's the same person. Alias has used names before, like Will and Bill, both William, just used differently.

As for Vaughn knowing about Rambaldi and lying, I don't think he knew that Rambaldi was tied to Mueller. When Renee told him about P5, she mentioned the Mueller device, and that was what Sydney had mentioned in her statement, the Mueller. I don't think Vaughn or Sydney knew about the connection to Rambaldi until after Sloane stated in a debrief, that Mueller had constructed the device from a plan drawn by a 15th century prophet.

Desiree said...

Someone help me please! I was watching S3 episode 1 when Sid wakes up in China. During that episode she makes some phone calls to different contacts that are now inactive. The first contact that she calls is in french and she asks for someone and I can't tell if it is Marchou or Marchon. He then replies in french that there is noone there by that name. I don't have subtitles on my S3 because it is a copy I got while I was in Israel. Somebody PLEASE tell me the name she says. It is driving me crazy with not knowing.

SRM said...

interesting desiree, I'll make a point of checking that out tonight after work :)

SRM said...

desiree - I tried playing that part of the episode w/ captions and all it says is "speaking French". I listened to the dialoge a few times and it sounds like she says "Je cherche Monseiur Machont" (silent t, nasal sound at the end). Hope that helps. :)