Alias (TV series): Difference between revisions

One of the leaders in [[Wig, Dress, Accent]].

{{tropelist}}

* [[A-Team Firing]]: For the first season. Sydney does not kill anyone until this point, apart from a rather contrived situation in which an assassin falls on a knife. After the start of the second season, she's frequently shown shooting people to death.

** Debatable, Sydney rather brutally breaks a guard's neck near the end of 1x02.

* [[Cliff Hanger]]: Several examples, of which one classic must be Sydney trapped under ice.

* [[Clip Show]]: 1x17, "Q & A," is a [[Clip Show]] and [[Recap Episode]], consisting mostly of flashbacks. Sydney is interrogated by the FBI and tells her story up to that point in the series. A couple of the flashbacks have never-before-seen backstory, but most are from the pervious 16 episodes. There's actually a good bit of present-day story as well. But a good 75% of the episode is flashbacks.

* [[Conveniently Timed Guard]]

* [[Cut Apart]]: In "The Horizon", when a pregnant Sydney is kidnapped, her father tracks her down while she's simultaneously making an escape attempt. It seems like he found the right place, but he hasn't, of course; instead he finds something ''incredibly creepy''.

* [[Double Agent]]: Most of the cast, at some point

** Sydney and her father worked for the CIA, posed as SD-6 agents

** Sark is always claiming to work for someone or other, but is usually just out for himself

* [[Dueling Hackers]]: Marshall (the resident Omnidisciplinary Nerd) was in a hacking duel at least once, as someone tried to break into [[SD 6]]'s system.

* [[I Have Your Wife]]: Played with in respect to Emily Sloane, though ultimately {{spoiler|subverted, as Sloane was pulling this on ''himself'' and Emily was in on the con}}.

* [[Trope Workshop:Impossible Mission]]

* [[In-Series Nickname]]: "Arvin Clone."

* [[Instant Sedation]]: Happens a ''lot''.

* [[Ironic Nursery Tune]]: "Pop Goes the Weasel" in Season Two's "Double Agent".

** Except for {{spoiler|[[Kill'Em All|a large number]] in the last season - Jack, Irina, Thomas, Nadia, and Sloane all bite the big one}}.

* [[Kudzu Plot]]

* [[Late Arrival Spoiler]]: Oh yes. Everything from the pilot, with its [[Nothing Is the Same Anymore]] plot -- Sydney's father is a double agent, her fiance is killed by Sloane, and Sydney becoming a double agent herself -- but there are a few other things that you ''will'' find yourself spoiled for by looking at just about any press for the show:

** Sydney's mother is [[Not Quite Dead]], and she's an ex-KGB operative.

* [[Love Triangle]]: Sydney, Vaughn and Lauren.

** Implied at times: Jack, Irina, Katya.

* [[MacGuffin]]: What exactly was Rambaldi trying to achieve again?

* [[Magical Defibrillator]]: At the end of the season 3 episode ''Facade''.

* [[Martial Arts Do Not Work That Way]]: Mostly seen with the female characters, who occasionally use high-flying kicks, backflips and the like. The male characters' fighting styles are generally less flamboyant.

* [[The Masquerade Will Kill Your Dating Life]]: ''Literally'', in many cases, and the first major event in the show.

* [[Mata Hari]]: Most of the cast.

** Not to mention one of TWOP's [[Fan Nickname|favorite nicknames for Irina]], "Mama Hari".

* [[Memory Gambit]]

* [[Mind Screw]]

* [[Pair the Spares]]: Will Tippin and Francie. Also, much later, Weiss and Sydney's [[Dead Little Sister]], Nadia.

* [[Papa Wolf]]: '''Do not''' mess with Sydney or you'll be dealing with Jack, and you will '''not''' be in good shape after.

* [[Parental Abandonment]]: During the first season we learn that Sydney's mother apparently died in a car accident when she was six. However, at the end of the Season 1 finale, we learn that she faked her own death and now leads a criminal organization. Upon meeting Sydney for the first time as an adult, she proclaims, "You must have known this day would come. I could have prevented all this, of course. You were so small when you were born. It would have been so easy."

** Repeatedly. One thing is consistent through all the reboots and changes is that Irina is not trustworthy and won't be there when Sydney needs her. Sydney, of course, repeatedly trusts her over and over and over in spite of this.

** Jack also counts, considering in the first season, Sydney seems to have no personal relationship with him whatsoever. She describes Jack as cold and emotionally distant, having never been there when she really needed him.

* [[Plucky Comic Relief]]: Marshall

** Weiss, too, to an extent.

* [[Spot the Imposter]]: Via [[Cloning Blues|Project Helix]].

* [[Spotting the Thread]]: Happens several times, given the villains' tendency to clone people close to Sydney and send them in as spies.

* [[Spy Drama]]: Kind of self-explanatory.

* [[Spy From Weights and Measures]]: While working for SD-6, Sydney and associates ostensibly work for Credit Dauphine Bank.

** Except Jack, who allegedly manufactured airplane parts for Jennings Aerospace.

* [[The Stoic]]: Jack Bristow, ladies and gentlemen.

** [[Not So Stoic]]: Any time his family is threatened, and most of the time Irina is around.

* [[Story Arc]]

* [[Stuffed Into the Fridge]]: Danny, her fiance in the pilot. Kind of subverted, because it actually ''is'' her fault.

* [[Taking You with Me]]: Jack Bristow's final [[Crowning Moment of Awesome]] in a long line of them.

* [[The Teaser]]: at times long enough to have their own commercial breaks.

* [[Terrorists Without a Cause]]: Sark routinely changes his alliances, and his true allegiance seems to be only to himself.

** The same can be said of Irina.

* [[There Are No Therapists]]: Subverted. Dr. Barnett is even a [[Recurring Character]].

* [[Time for Plan B]]