Season 5 React: Maternal Instinct

How would you rate "Maternal Instinct"?

  • 5 - One of the best Alias episodes ever!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 4 - It was great!

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 3 - It was good

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 2 - It was OK

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • 1 - It was bad

    Votes: 0 0.0%

  • Total voters
    0
Are we sure it really is Jack and Irina who hide Vaughn? Isn't the hints a litle too clear? :thinking:

Irina was there too, and saw the baby being born so it could be her who sent the message to Vaughn..
 
I felt that Alias has really run out of plots. It has become so predictable and stupid. I've watched alias all five season, never missed an ep. I just want to see how it ends,
 
I felt that Alias has really run out of plots. It has become so predictable and stupid. I've watched alias all five season, never missed an ep. I just want to see how it ends,


I could not agree more! I feel like the writers have just run out of fun things to include, but the whole damn story is so complicated that they're really suffering in an attempt to resolve and wrap things up so quickly! What a downer.

And I forgot to mention in my earlier post - what the hell was the point of Renee wearing the whore outfit when she was sitting on the car? She didn't exactly spend a lot of time using that alias...!
 
I so agree. I ve thought from the beginning that Irina is working with the bad guys to save Sydney and the baby. Maybe she has to leave Sydney in the dark to protect her from the device. Maybe the scenario is that Sydney has to give her life to save her baby, and Irina is trying to find a way around it before Sydney finds out and is willing to give herself up for her baby. I mean, how sweet a storyline would that be. Irina is trying to save her grandaughter and daughter. It would be a good one. I just hope that in the end Irina is trying to help Syd and Jack. Otherwise i will be a little p*ssed.


I agree also, from the very beginning all Irina's endgame has been the protection of Sydney, and as we later found out, trying to locate her missing daughter, Nadia. I think Irina has always known much more about the Rambaldi endgame than she has ever led on. I think she is running out of time and the entire prophecy of Rambaldi involves, Irina, Sydney, Nadia, Sloane, and the Baby. Now that the baby is born, Irina knows she is running out of time to save her family, and will do whatever and kill whoever gets in her way in order to protect her daughters. I only hope in the end she does make her peace with Sydney and Jack, and she is allowed to live
 
Mother Superior
In the final season of Alias, Sydney Bristow wants it all.
By Troy Patterson
Posted Thursday, April 20, 2006, at 3:32 PM ET

Jennifer Garner. Click image to expand.

Jennifer Garner
Alias wouldn't work if it required its star, Jennifer Garner, to do anything remotely subtle or delicate. Rather, ABC's delicious spy thriller, which returned last night for its final run, calls for a pulp goddess, and Garner is a natural. She may or may not be a decent thespian, but she's a world-class overactress. Her face—with its cold titanium jaw, the deep eyes that so often seem ready to leak, and that double-decker bus of a mouth—is a gift, and she uses it to achieve expressions of a type and force rarely seen outside of comic books. Caught in close-ups, she turns your TV set into a Lichtenstein.

Yesterday's episode picked up with Garner's Sydney Bristow on a cargo freighter in the North Atlantic. She was heavily pregnant, in the hands of terrorists, and her vast lips shuddered as she worried that she would get her baby bumped off. The villains strapped her to a table—not for a delivery but some operation Sydney didn't comprehend—and every expectant parent's anxieties underwent a suspense-film makeover: While the needle drawing amniotic fluid bested any Tarantino moment, and the tense strings were straight out of Hitchcock, the maternal terror was all Polanski.

So: who cares about "out of plot"? It's not the first time the plot is complicated and predictable (really???), but the emotional part was SO STRONG! I'll never forget the emotions I had especially in the last part of the episode. I don't manage to react rationally in front of this incredible acting and chemistry through the actors and interchange of high tension through the characters. They sparkled! Someone else saw that? hehehe... Anyway: this is a point of view. ;)
 
To touch on a few points that many people have been making...

1. Sydney was probably in actual labor for a lot longer than we saw. I think she was in the building actually in visible labor for maybe an hour, but she's Sydney, right? She was probably having contractions and just ignored them for a while? Right? No? Being a guy, I guess I can't say for certain. But what I can say for certain...

2. The entire giving-birth scene really was beautiful in many ways. Not only was Jennifer Garner at her acting best during this part, but Sydney became such a real person again. She was vulnerable. She wanted Vaughn. She wanted a mother. Also, the complicated relationship between Sydney and Irina became more grounded, realistic, and just terribly touching. Irina regretted choosing her life as a spy over her life as a mother but still loved Sydney enough to deliver her baby. Probably the best exchange of dialogue on Alias since some Season 2 moments happened here. I specifically remember Irina telling Sydney something along the lines of how you can't be both a spy and a mother. And Sydney, sitting there exhausted, sweaty, angry, scared, and crushed all at the same time is able to grit her teeth and respond "Watch me." Just magic. PURE MAGIC.

3. Aren't you all forgetting the last time Jack and Sydney saw Irina?! She HELPED them is Svogda (sp?) where they took down Katya and saved the city from the giant Rambaldi ball. They let her go because the CIA would have taken her into custody otherwise. They thought that she WAS good and could help them find the Horizon. I didn't find it unrealistic that they trusted her so quickly in this episode considering the terms they were on the last time they saw her.

4. This episode was so full of action considering Jennifer Garner was not able to do any stunts yet (I believe she had already given birth to the actual baby, but it would have been preposterous for Sydney to fight with an about-to-pop pregnant belly.). It really was heart stopping... Renee driving that guy on the hood of the car, Jack barging into the CIA meeting and shooting one of the alpha-black members, Irina stopping the ambulance and killing the CIA agent, the aliased mission at the bank (which was more clever and intriguing than action-packed, but hey), Peyton shooting the helicopter, Irina and Jack fighting each other off, Jack and Peyton trying to kill each other... I mean, the episode was FILLED with action.

5. Dixon's braids... yeah... not sure what's up with that...



Yeah, I didn't mean that the whole action thing had to be with Sydney, just a little more action at all would've done it. And I suppose you are right with the trusting thing, and I'm glad you agree about Dixon's braids. They were creeping me out, lol.
 
k so um yeah I want to cry inside, and I may have died inside a little, but I still stand by my name! I do belive Irina wanted Sydney and still loves her and Jack very much, I think someone is pulling her strings, I htink she is being controlled by the same people Arvin was talking to on the phone, so she doesn't want to have Nadia get hurt or Syd or Jack, but i don't like how she turned against Jack, not good, not good. the whole k I'm gonna shoot the Helicopter out of the sky thing, that was just tackym I'm sry, I could barely handel the big ball in the sky, that took it over the top for me though. did anyone else think Lena look damn sexy? come on she was hott! I love how she helped syd give birth:smiley: and I love mother daughter bonding time:smiley: made me cry a little:smiley::'(
 
HOLY EFFING MOTHER OF....

Wow. I'm in shock.

The birth was SOOO moving, I was completely in tears.

OMG. SKDJFHLKSJDFHLKSJDHFLKSJDHFLKJSDHFLKJHSDLKFJH. I don't know. The plot is so screwy this year, but still continues to amaze me :D

Hehe haven't been on the boards for so long :P
 
at the end, Vaughn is alive ... so good ... but some people say that Syd knows ... and that the messenger was sent by Jack ... if it were so ... why would Vaughn be like tight up ... you know ... he would just be sitting around having some coffee and not be tight up the way he was ... so I am not sure Syd knows he is alive ... ;)

OK ... after seeing the episode again ... I can now believe that he wasn't tight up ... but that doesn't mean that Jack and Syd have Vaughn in hiding, does it? Irina knew about the baby too, so she could have sent the message to him too ... but if Jack/Syd are the ones who have hid him all these months ... good for them ... ;)
 
I thought this was a great episode
Aside from maybe Prophet 5 it was the best episode of S5
Lots of action, suspense and sweet Spyfam moments.

The birth...OMG when Syd was talking about missing Vaughn I was in tears
Jack was so sweet with her and I'm so glad Irina decided to stay and help her.
As someone already mentioned, it was so nice to see Syd acting like herself again.
She was emotional, stubborn and vulnerable...welcome back Syd
And Irina...I think she has always been torn. She has always had her own agenda
but she also loves her daughter. I would like to think she still has Syds best interest at heart.

My other favorites:
Great to see Weiss again and Rachel running into the door...so funny
Syd/Dixon waddling talk
Dixon/Renee car interrogation
A very scary Jack confronting the 7 men....even I was scared
And of course Vaughn being alive....all 5 seconds they showed of him LOL

The things I didn't like:
Dixon's hair...whats up with that???
Tom's storyline...its bothering me that at this point they should be giving us answers to
some of the other questions not giving us one more question.
Peyton still alive... so predictable. As soon as Jack walked away I thought
"her fingers are gonna move" Can't they ever let anyone actually die??
Irina telling Syd she didn't want her....how cruel can you be to a woman in labor...Geez

Anyway, if this was any indication the rest of the season should be awesome
Can't wait for next week....I love Will!!!
 
I felt that Alias has really run out of plots. It has become so predictable and stupid. I've watched alias all five season, never missed an ep. I just want to see how it ends,

Totally agree! This episode was just...bleh...everything was too unrealistic and predictable at that...although I can't say I was expecting too much. It's only been going downhill...

Marshall made up for the moments though. He's just hilarious!

Still...this was the first ep I voted 'bad'. *sighs*

I think by trying to "go out with a bang", the writers are going to overdo it...it's going to be quite crowded these coming eps...with all these returning characters...

Maybe they'll prove me wrong and come out with some fantastic eps...haha. we'll see... :confused:
 
It is true that last two season's plot lines cannot be compared to s1 and s2. Yes, they are out of good ideas and yes, they are making it too dumb coplicated instead of cool and inteligent.

About the birth....well, I really wished they didn't do it like that. In the middle of action, she says "Ehm dad? The baby's coming." What a cliché. It would be a lot better if she just were in a hospital. Still, I liked Irina in those scenes. She was really great.

I didn't expect to see what is the Horizon. I know better than that. They are not showing us for another few episodes. But I found it's location and finding rather stupid. If it's that super important, wouldn't it be hidden better than just in a safe deposit box in a bank? Everybody can steal those!

I didn't notice Vaughn was tide up, and I don't think the monk would call him brother if he was their prisoner. And I still think Syd and Jack hid him there.
 
Just watched the episode! It was so great. From the beginning to the end.

First when Irina shot Davenport, asking him what Jack told him. Classic Spymommymoment! :cool:

The hug in the safe house, when Irina first met Sydney after Sovogda was cute. :love: But in Irina's face you could see she is up to something.

I loved the Spyfamily mission! It kind of reminded me on the two Passage-episodes. Fun for the whole family! :D
Interesting that still it seemed like Jack didn't trust Irina. Unfortunately he was right. What Irina said to Sydney about she was a mistake and she never wanted a child. That was really...Poor Syd! She was so happy to see her mother again and then this. :cry:
Though I think Irina is right at some point: It really could be hard for Sydney to be a mother and a spy, but great how Syd reacted: "Watch me!" :cool:

I doubt Irina doesn't love Sydney. First, yes she said becoming Sydney was a mistake, but she never said with a word that she doesn't love Sydney or Nadia. She only said: "I chose to fail as a mother."
Second, she stayed to help Sydney delievering the baby, though she had the Horizon. She could have go, but she didn't. I guess, this was the moment where the Maternal Instinct kicked in. ;)

I was spoiled, so I wasn't suprised that Vaughn is alive. But I'm wondering what the last conversation between Sydney and Jack means when she said: "Dad?...." and Jack: "I'll take care of it." Just before Vaughn learns that he has a daughter.
It could be possible, Sydney and Jack new all the time that Vaughn was alive. Can't wait for the next episode. (y)
 
Although I wasn't spoiled about Vaughn being alive, I realized pretty quickly during the episode that he must be.

Every time Syd talked about Vaughn she never said anything about him being dead. When she asked Irina about him she said "Did you put out the ORDER to kill him?" not "did you have him killed?"

Then there was the whole thing on the airplane...she must know. Her and Jack must know. That's why she didn't cry at his funeral. Now that I think about it, did Syd ever really say that Vaughn was dead? Nope. She said that people had ordered him killed, and that she missed him, but not that he had actually been killed.

Good episode, will Thomas and Rachel hook up? I'm not sure I even care...
 
So, I just remembered something. In season 2 Jack told Irina that they were still married legally. I wonder if he ever got that taken care of............ I say this because Irina called him her husband in the new episode. How funny would it be if they were still married!!! LOL
 
I think he also said in the same episode of season 2 (or the following one) that he got them divorced.

Irina likes to tease him, I think. Thta's why she still calls him his husband.

Of course Syd new all the time that vaughn was alive. She never cried, she never said hi was actually dead and there were all the suspicious hints in 5x09 The Horizon. And, most importantly, don't forget Jack said "I'll take care of it" just before the scene with the mongoloids telling MV he's got a daughter. Onviously Jack was talking about taking care of giving the info to Michael.
 
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