Alias series wrap-up

I'd like to comment briefly on the Alias finale, if I may. I thought there were some nice touches in there. Starting in Sydney as a tribute to the main character was kind of fitting, as was setting the climax in Hong Kong, where the first episode began. The flashbacks leading up to when we first meet Sydney were also appropriate in bringing her arc full circle. And they cleverly fulfilled Rambaldi prophecy that had been supposedly thwarted by putting in a little twist or two.

In terms of flaws, I am a little disappointed with the resolution of the Rambaldi arc as a whole. Given the direness of his prophecies, I expected the ultimate endgame to be something a little more cataclysmic than a fountain of youth. And I'm not convinced that Tom Grace had to sacrifice himself. He had plenty of time to get out of that tunnel while he was talking to Jack and Rachel over coms. It was almost like he didn't care that he died down there. Fortunately for us, we really didn't either.

The important deaths in this episode, of course, were the end of Spy Mommy and Spy Daddy. Seemed a little extreme to dispatch both of them, but I guess you want to go out with a bang--literally, in Jack's case. Speaking of which, Sloane's fate was rather poetic: newly immortal and pinned under a rock for all eternity--plenty of time to ponder the definition of irony.

And so that brings the Alias book to a close. In retrospect, I think the whole series could've been stronger without the Rambaldi stuff. If they had just stuck to straight-up espionage and left out the sci-fi fantasy element, who knows what they could've done?

While we ponder that, I'll be wondering where I can get my next Jennifer Garner fix.