season four cannot come soon enough

Technically this is all my brother's fault. If he hadn't decided to pull a marathon viewing of all of Alias season two before he went off to college in our living room with the sound turned up so loud that you could hear every angsty, spying word wherever you happened to be in our house, I would not have gotten sucked into J.J. Abrams' world. I would certainly not have rented all of Season Three and watched it over a period of several weeks. And I would not be so crest-fallen now that I've seen it all and have to wait until January before I can find out what's really going on. *sigh*

I have to admit, I'm a fan now. Especially after watching "The Hourglass," otherwise known as the Season Three Episode where Sloane dies... sort of. (Random anecdote: Anybody a fan of Demetri Martin? His stand-up routine is hilarious. One of the most memorable riffs is on the phrase sort of. "Sort of is such a harmless thing to say. Sort of: it's just a filler, it doesn't really mean anything. Only after some things, it means everything. Like after, I love you. Or, You're going to live.") Anyway, this episode blew me away. This is some of the best of the best in action: great writing, great acting, just great story-telling, period. My favorite scene is between Victor Garber and Ron Rifkin who just tear into one another while sharing a glass of wine right before Sloane's execution. So dreadfully civil, and yet so nasty... Garber's "salut" gave me chills. I don't care if he's evil, he'd be such a cool dad. (Damn. This is probably another case of false perceptions of fictional characters, see below.)