Sydney, Jack, Irina, Nadia and Vaughn parachute into the Russian city that is under Elena's attack, and look for a way to disable her giant device while avoiding the attacks of the infected population; back home, Marshall and Weiss desperately try to cancel the planned Russian air strike that will have catastrophic worldwide consequences. This is basically "Alias"'s version of an urban zombie movie. It's very tense from start to finish, with the only comic relief provided by the (well-matched) team of Marshall and Weiss. Of course as a season finale it has to end with a cliffhanger or two, and the ones here are quite shocking. At the same time, this episode - and the entire second half of season 4 in general - gives us more closure than anything in the show before: Irina's disappearance, Sloane's reformation, the Covenant's agenda, the Rambaldi prophecy about The Chosen One and The Passenger doing battle for the sake of a sphere, even the person who's pulling the strings that Lauren was talking about at the end of season 3, all these are made more clear now. Two minutes before this episode, and this season, is over, you are left wondering where the show can possibly go next. And then - BAM! *** out of 4.
Review of Before the Flood
