I'm pretty well in between you two when it comes to this season of Alias, but my opinions do not fall in with one entire view.
For instance, this episode? Great. I thought it was entertaining, exciting, and the balancing of Jack being a sonofabitch with the Nadia situation and the rest out on the mission was well done and made for an entertaining hour of television.
At the same time, I have much less positive things to say about the way they pretty well threw away Season Two/Three entirely to revert back to Season One ideals. Now, I am not of the mind that it is impossible to do so well.
For instance, I have no issues with Sloane and Dixon working together. I think that Dixon no longer harbours that grudge. He spent his time going insane with grief, lashing out, and I think he's moved past it. He's not happy about it, but he wants to get back to serving his country. Sydney, by this point, shouldn't be working with her father considering all of the bullshit he's pulled on her, but she does because she wants to seperate her personal issues from work. While I would still be mighty pissed about my wife being killed, having sworn to protect my country might actually supercede that anger.
I do, on the other hand, have an issue with the pretty well destruction of all Season Three storylines, and hope to see the Covenant pop up again in the near future. Very simply, love it or hate it, Season 3 happened. And, in that finale, Lauren was shot, Sark was in custody, so the North American wing of the Covenant was dead. And, we learned that they killed all the other leaders a few episodes previous. But this still left the leader of the Covenant. There are theories that that particular person could in fact already be dead, in light of recent events, but the thing didn't die. It needs to return, and attempt to answer some questions.
Where I disagree strongly with you, Cloud, is in terms of standalone episodes. You and I have very different definitions of the term. I view a standaone episode of a show as one where, when the next episode rolls around, you would not have had to have seen the last one to jump right in. CSI, for instance, is a procedural cop show that I can miss an episode and it really won't matter. As long as there are serious plot issues regarding the people involved, they are not standalone episodes.
But, I see your point entirely, and agree. What is missing is some sort of plot point that relates all episodes to one another. That was Rambaldi's purpose, and that is what very simply is missing in this situation. MS, you're right, it could come backk into play. But, without that, each episode is a different situation. Season One saw each episode focus on a different mission, a different bad guy, but at the same time there was a common theme of Rambaldi linking these missions together. That common string is MISSING in this case, meaning that the threats are almost picked at random. I am hoping that some sort of longterm threat is established, at least at midseason, if only to give them more motivation outside of saving the world.
Irina wanting to kill Sydney makes perfect sense, considering Katya almost killed Sydney in the Season 3 finale, and since her entry into the show was due to Jack speaking with Irina. It was obvious that there was something more to Irina than meets the eye. Whether she hired a hit on her is a different story, but killing her would not surprise me. For all of her compassion for her daughter, she also had a lot of evil in her.
I find it a little annoying that they kind of switched around what the papers saw...but at the same time it seemed like it was a whole lot of files Re: Sydney. It is likely that Sydney "knew before she knew" as she said. I think they did that pretty well. If ABC's own synopsis for the finale had not said something contrary to what actually happened, it isn't glaringly wrong.
Really, I do not think they have done anything they can't possibly explain. The issue is that some of it was not explained. They have not explained Marshall being shot, and TOO much of Season Three has been ignored. While I was not a big fan, I still enjoyed it well enough to not want to see it erased from history. It happened, and Abrams needs to realize this. It's one thing to rebuild, it's another to attempt to neglect part of the foundation, however annoying parts of it were.
For now? All three hours thus far have been entertaining television with likeable characters, neat action, and has not been disappointing in terms of television. As it progresses, it can get better or worse. Let's not judge yet.