Indeed it's almost over, like Jack so adequatly informs Sydney. I loved this episode, it had everything a "next to last" episode, should have. First of all, one of the best pre title sequence, we had so far in the show, and the best of season 5 by far. In this, every member of APO it's getting in numerous ways and in numerous cities visual information of each of the twelve members of Prophet Five, this opening starts with a narration of Sydney (nice callback to the original opening of the first seasons) and we see the shadows of the twelve members only to have them be uncovered by the end of this sequence, very good stuff. The episode continues this pattern of greatness, Marshall and Rachel are both abducted (Rachel after having a strange visit from Tom, and Marshall after checking on little Mitchell) by Sloane to decypher one last clue of Rambaldi's many clues. It feels a little forced to see Marshall's wife again, but she does fit in nicely, and since they both met on the CIA , being the informatic people, it's fitting she ends up helping them with a very clever (if difficult) clue from Marshall. The interaction of Marshall and Sloane is magnificient, without the public thinking about it there is a lot of history between these two, and Ron Rifkin and Kevin Weisman do the stand out acting of this episode, "I never liked you" so much pain in Marshall's voice, it's great how he doesn't want to break because of his kid, and how he wants him to be proud of his dad. Sydney in a clever way ends up convincing Marshall to "help" Sloane, only to find out where he and Rachel are to rescue them. Peyton , Sark and Sloane are a great trio, and it's so consistent how the show manages to make Sloane the "Boss" of every environment he is in, it really speaks volumes to this layered character. In the end we realize that Sloane's plan it's really a "solitaire" one, he wants to end Prophet Five, end APO , and receive the ultimate goal of Rambaldi's (I believe it to be imortality) only for himself. This leads to two great scenes, first we see Peyton in a badass way (as usual) taking down all of the twelve members, and the other is Tom who ends up discovering the bomb, and stays there delaying it's detonation through a product he has, I love the way you understand why someone had to stay there, and the cherry on the top of this cake it's Tom's plead that he talks to Rachel, saying that he would've like to ask her out, had it been more time, when she says "I would've said yes" his smile just as the bomb is going, it's priceless, very good stuff, I wished we would live more with these two characters, and this moment would had even more weight, but Tom goes as a hero. Let's see how the last episode turns out, very anxious. 9/10 ********* Peter Shelby
