Alias (TV Series) The Indicator (2002) User Reviews

Project Christmas

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 21 October 2009]

Sydney's latest mission takes her to Budapest, where she discovers that a criminal organization named The Triad is training young children in espionage, resets their memories, sends them back to their homes and plans to contact them later to make them full-blown spies. Meanwhile, Vaughn figures out what Jack did to frame Irina, and the presence in Sloane's life of an unknown person who seems to know what he did with Emily becomes more and more disturbing. Nothing great in action terms (apart from a very intense public execution sequence at the start), but this is one of the most revealing episodes so far, clearing up a very intriguing mystery set up by an Irina line to Jack in a previous episode: "You still haven't told her what you did to her after I disappeared, have you?". These revelations put the whole series in a different context. The Jack-Vaughn scenes are particularly well played and written in this episode. *** out of 4.

Exposed secrets

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 21 March 2012]

This episode opens with a man being brutally shot and killed in his car; it turns out he worked for a group called 'The Triad' (not the Hong Kong Mafia of the same name) and was providing information to SD-6 regarding next generation weapons. Sydney and Dixon are sent to Budapest to access a Triad facility, find their computer access codes and get photographs of the weapons. The mission is routine until we see the weapons; they aren't guns, bombs or chemical agents; they are children being trained to act as sleeper agents! While this is going on a CIA officer mentions to Vaughn that a US citizen has been returned from Madagascar where he was arrested for explosives charges; it isn't long before he tells Vaughn who ordered him to plant those explosives. Before he can tell Sydney what happened she is sent on a mission to catch the person responsible for the children's training; here she sees a puzzle... one she knows she has seen before but has no memory of.

While this wasn't an action packed episode it advanced the plot nicely and the events we see will have serious repercussions I'm sure; especially regarding the relationship with Sydney and her father. Jack continues to be an enigma; is he doing whatever it takes to protect Sydney, or does he have a more sinister motive for his actions? At this point in the series it is impossible to tell; either way Victor Garber is doing a fine job. Michael Vartan also gives a stand out performance this episode with fine scenes where he talks to the bomber and then when he confronts Jack with what he has learnt. I look forward to seeing how the episode's revelations affect Jack's position at the CIA; after all I don't imagine Sydney will stand by and let her mother be prosecuted when she knows the information she gave was accurate.