Thursday, January 26, 2006

Oldies and Newbies

34 Days until the return of Alias

As the return approaches and wild speculations fly, I can’t help but wonder how Alias writers are going to incorporate the newbies into the series finale. There are seemingly 4 years of Alias mysteries to solve and it seems as if Rachel, Grace, Renee and Kelly Peyton have little to do with what many of us picture for the end Alias. What role will these characters play? How will writers explain their existence in a world that has solely revolved around Sydney Bristow and her life in the CIA? Here are some of my ideas and/or questions.

Rachel Gibson
We understand that Rachel’s character was brought in as a substitute, but not as a replacement, for Sydney. Due to both Jennifer and Sydney's pregnancies, Sydney's physically abilities as a CIA operative have been sidelined, for now and someone has to pick up the slack. We have warmed to Rachel as we watch her struggle; much like Sydney did, to understand the crazy world she is living in. Rachel is our link to The Shed and to Kelly Peyton. We know Kelly has Sydney- how will Rachel’s knowledge of The Shed (which is now in the hands of Kelly) help Sydney in her struggle to bring down this group? If there is a mole inside APO, could Rachel be that mole? Could she have been working with Kelly this entire time- to get rid of Dean and infiltrate another government agency?

Thomas Grace
As we know, Grace was brought in to replace APO’s fallen agent, Michael Vaughn and departing agent, Eric Weiss. His shady past seems to agree with Jack and Grace has an undeterred loyalty and protection for his pregnant partner. It has now been revealed that Agent Grace was in fact married at one point and how that will play into the upcoming episodes is unclear. But, it has been said that Jack specifically asked for Grace because of a dark secret. Could Grace’s wife or past be somehow related to the situation at hand? Could Grace be the mole? Could it have been Kelly Peyton’s hand he took in marriage and now the wedded team is pulling one over on APO?

Renee Rienne
She has been working for seven years, along side Michael Vaughn, to discover the truth behind P5 and what happened to their fathers. When the man in the box turned out to be Dr. DiSantis, Renee seemed to be at the end of her rope. What leads is she following as she hides out as one of the CIA’s most wanted? Dr. DiSantis says to Gordon Dean, after he is extracted, that “the girl is alive; she’s working with the CIA under the name Renee Rienne.” If she is merely using Renee Rienne as an alias (or perhaps it’s the name her father chose for her to evade P5) then what is her real name and who is she?

Kelly Peyton
It was announced this week by Amy Acker, the actress who plays Kelly Peyton, that she will be a season regular after the hiatus. We met Kelly as a gopher for Gordon Dean. She fights Rachel, takes Gordon Dean’s place as the head of The Shed and kills several CIA agents in search of Vaughn’s files. Now, she is working with another CIA killer, Irina Derevko. How did they meet? What are their plans for the information retrieved in Sydney’s memory? What role will Peyton play in retrieving the Horizon (whoever or whatever it is)?

With the return of Will, Evil Francie and Nadia, how will the new characters fit into the close of the show? How will writers tie together the old and the new to give Alias the proper send off? What are your ideas and thoughts on this??

PS. Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin) is confirmed to return for episode 5.11 “Maternal Instinct.” Merrin Dungey (Francie/Evil Francie) is confirmed to return, as is Mia Maestro. As mentioned before, the Alias will return with a 2 hour episode (a combination of 5.10 and 5.11). Two whole hours, what is a girl to do?!!

Ps. Thanks to Addicted to Alias for the cast banner.

8 comments:

SKlaft said...

I have no idea how they will fit into the final hurrah, but I do not think Grace is or was married to Kelly Payton.

Remember, he walked up to her outside Dean's headquaters and lit her cigarette, pretending to be Chech. She got all giggly, and hadn't started to suspect Rachel's betrayal until they returned inside. This necessarily doesn't mean they were not bluffing together, but, well... it's just hard for me to swallow.

I think Grace will eventually be the hero. He will discover the double agent and will stalk him/ her to get the proof. I would not be surprised at all if Rachel is has been working on Irena's behalf all along. (Caught her in Prague... Irena is Russian... Rachel fits the bill too perfectly to make Sydney sympathize with her... the list goes on)

I would like to see Mysterious-heavyset-overcoat-P5-guy work a little more closely with Kelly Payton. He was a great actor.

Girlscout said...

Hmm, I can't decide who the mole is. Remember, awhile back there were rumors to keep an eye on Dixon, that he may not be who he seems. Also, anyone have any ideas on who will die at the end? I am thinking Dixon. I think they need to keep Sloane, Jack and Marshall for possible spin off. Maybe SpyMommy will finally sacrifice her life for Syd.

SRM said...

I know I've said this before, but I wouldn't be surprised if Irena died while saving Syd and maybe Jack and/or other CIA agents. It would be a fitting way for her to go, ending up the hero that Syd always imagined her mom to be and proving her love once and for all for Jack, no matter the obsticles they've encountered. I'm very intrigued about Grace's past marriage...I agree w/ robby that it's hard to buy him with Kelly. Some other people suggested that he was maybe married to Lauren. When Jack hired him it seemed that he did so IN SPITE of the dark secret Grace had, not because of it...I'm thinking it does have something to do w/ that marriage. We've had episodes center around Renee and Rachel, I kinda wish they would do that for Grace because I still have lukewarm feelings about his character. I don't really care about him much...maybe he's just supposed to be a supporting character, but I'd still like some background info (maybe I've been watching too much Lost hehe).

I'm curious if either Kelly or Renee is the long lost neice of Irena (from the picture), we never found out whether that story was true or false. I'm hoping if there is a mole that whoever it is will be a total shock, but I have a hard time thinking it will be since there are so few characters it could be. We shall see! Can't wait for the 2 hour eppy!!

SRM said...

phoenix I agree w/ you, I'd be disappointed too if Rachel turned out to be the mole, seems too repetitive and predictable.

amy said...

lets start with rachel..i really really hope she is not bad!!!! i like her - but it would be kinda brilliant because they have portayed in the perfect way to make it the ultimate surprise if she was working for the bad guys....(although is that really a surprise on alias??) at the same time a little repetitive with the whole roommate/mole thing....still thinking that they may try to partner her with grace at some point....

hmmm i doubt grace is the mole, just my opinion, especially because whatever his secret is - jack approved of it, and every time we think jack is getting duped he really seems to always have the upper hand....anyways i really like grace and think that since they played up his "loner" status at first i think he is going to be fiercely loyal to syd, jack, and apo in general....

i haven't really warmed up to renee rienne yet...i somehow can't picture her and vaughn working together. maybe they will show some flashbacks of that...i also am not a huge fan of amy ackers acting at this point, but of course it could get better....

i cannot wait to see will tippin back on the show....MARCH 2 cannot come fast enough!!!! i can't wait to see jennifer g back in action as syd (cute pic of her on people.aol.com) and see how they tie everything up!!!!!

SKlaft said...

I've thought about that too. I have the feeling that Weise is checking in to see Nadia when he has some free time away from whatever his current work is (subliminal thought: taking care of Vaughn). I don't know WHAT he might be doing. (Protecting Vaughn's Alias)

Here is my fun-for-hiatus-period thoughts about Thomas Grace. I think its possible that Jack discovered the doubling process and Grace is really Vaughn in disguise. Then, Jack decided to double himself as a beautiful woman, and Rachel is actually Jack in disguise. Meanwhile, Weise is playing the part of Jack to protect Vaughn's identity.
:D

Girlscout said...

Ps. Robby is on drugs! You have been Alias'd out. When I start dreaming about being on Alias, that is when I stop watching the DVD's for awhile, but last night I had a dream Will Tippin was at my house, soo I might watch "Remnants" again. HAHAHA!!!

Tammy said...

Robby - Love the "fun-for-hiatus" theories! They made me laugh out loud at my computer screen this morning! (glad no one else is in yet!)

I'm guessing they are pretty far-fetched, but as we've all said - who knows?! It could happen.