Alias (TV Series) Countdown (2003) User Reviews

Great acting, disappointing ending

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 15 November 2009]

Despite his almost unbearable grief, Dixon insists that he wants to remain on active duty, however his single-minded determination to make Sloane pay for killing his wife, combined with his unprescripted drug use, make him somewhat of a loose cannon. Meanwhile, the CIA decrypts a page from a Rambaldi document that has so far accurately predicted worldwide apocalyptic events like the beginning of WWI and the Hiroshima bomb....and the next date set on that page is only a few hours away. The key to all this may be the mechanical heart of a Panama citizen with a specific DNA profile, but when Sydney and Dixon go to meet him he has already been killed and his heart has been stolen from his body. The acting is one of the areas where this series has excelled from the beginning (there is not even one weak actor in the cast), but here it is particularly powerful from Carl Lumbly as a desperate, violent Dixon. Sloane is not in a much better mood, either, as he goes to Nepal to find the man who, 30 years earlier, sent him on his Rambaldi quest. But in the midst of all the tragedy, some relief is provided by the nerdy flirting between Marshall and an NSA tech expert, played by the quite adorable Amanda Foreman - these two are a match made in heaven. This episode was made around the period when Jennifer Garner was also doing "Daredevil", and you can see her comfort with double swords in one action sequence; cult guest stars Danny Trejo and David Carradine are also welcome. The only problem with this episode is the ending: it seems to imply that either Rambaldi's prophecy was wrong (don't think so), or that the big disaster he predicted was the mere event of Sloane finally reading one of his documents. Sorry, I don't care what was ON that document, when you promise an apocalyptic event, you have to deliver it on time. *** out of 4.

Dixon wants revenge

[Tweekums · 8/10 · 15 April 2012]

As with so many episodes the opening scene is just a taster of what we will see later; Dixon is standing over a suspect with a ticking bomb in one hand as he demands to know where something is and Vaughn is given the order to shoot him! We then return to the point where Dixon returns to work for the first time after the death of his wife; Vaughn warns Jack that he believes Dixon is not ready to return to the field but Jack overrules him. The team are assisting the NSA who on the trail of a man whose DNA matches that in a Rambaldi document; a document that has predicted several cataclysmic events already and has predicted another that will happen in a few hours. The man in question is found by a man Sark hired and killed before the CIA can get to him; his heart has been cut out; an artificial heart matching the design given in the document. They must find the heart before the predicted event can occur. This is made harder by the fact that Dixon is self medicating to cope with his loss and fears he could be found out. The target of his hatred, Arvin Sloane, isn't feeling too much better and he sets of to Nepal to find his old mentor; the man who introduced him to Rambaldi. It isn't all doom and gloom though one of the NSA team; Carrie Bowman has taken a shine to Marshall and it is clear that he likes her too.

There was plenty of action in this episode; the opening was tense and when we return to it later the resolution was satisfying. Jennifer Garner demonstrates her two handed knife-fighting skills in a spectacular fight and Dixon gets a bit heavy on a suspect in order to get information. Carl Lumbly did great work here as the grieving Dixon; managing to show intensity and fragility. Amanda Foreman did a good job as Carrie; hopefully we will see more of her in future episodes... Marshall deserves a girlfriend! This episode continued the run of A-list guest stars as David Carradine appears as Sloane's mentor; a character very reminiscent of his role in 'Kill Bill'. The only down point to the episode was that we were promised an apocalypse and it didn't end with a bang!