MovieChat Forums > Alias (2001) Discussion > Nothing ever came out of...

Nothing ever came out of...

posted 8 years ago by MissEFierro
6 replies | jump to latest

...the OBVIOUS fact that it was Sloan who was in the car accident that killed Sydney's mother? When we first see the newspaper clipping of the accident, there's a picture of a man who caused the crash and it's SO OBVIOUSLY SLOAN!!!! But Sydney doesn't realize it.

Then later when she finds out that Jack was being investigated by the FBI agent Calder, his widow shows her a picture of the SAME GUY from the crash. And again Sydney just thinks it's the guy from the crash who was after her father for being a spy. But then it's cleared up by the fact that they were actually after Sydney's mother, then it's never brought up again.

And it turns out that Bristows and the Sloans are actually good friends, good enough that Irina and Arvin could have an affair together. When they hypnotize (or whatever they did) Jack talks to Sydney (who's supposed to be her mother) about doing something with Sloan and his wife, and Jack says he knows she doesn't like him. But she says they're friends so she puts up with him.

Anyway, that's just always bothered me. It's Sloan in the picture. OBVIOUSLY. I know they did a lot of rework as the series went on. It seems as though JJ Abrams had the idea of Felicity going off for a summer and working for the CIA and coming back as if nothing happened, but that was all.

I love the first two seasons, and I like the third season. I hated Lauren so much, but the 3rd season was really good.

[–] Link6321 8 years ago

Because it was never Sloane to begin with! lol I, too, thought he kinda looked like Sloane, but it was NOT Sloane...he just had a slight resemblance to Sloane.

[–] DebLovesBeccy 8 years ago

but it was NOT Sloane...he just had a slight resemblance to Sloane.

This.😂 I was one of the people who thought it was Sloane too 'cause he did look kinda similar but after looking into it I found out it wasn't and I am surprised the OP still thinks it is all these years later.

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[–] Link6321 8 years ago

Yeah, I remember being absolutely "sure" it was Sloane the first time I saw the episode on TV, wondering why Sydney didn't seem to realize it. I was in high school then. I didn't have much school allowance (2 bucks a day for lunch and transpo), but I soon saved up enough to buy Alias...VCDs! Yes, the VCDs that came in volumes, because that's all I could afford. (We got the show on TV a year late, where I'm from, so the VCDs were already available, as well as the DVDs).

This Calder/Sloane thing was one of the first things I checked over and over, because I was one of those obsessed with finding clues in the show (hell, I even remember jotting down the highlighted letters from the city name fly-ins, convinced they could one day be "decoded" to mean something).

It wasn't Sloane.

[–] Link6321 8 years ago

Just a follow-up in case you have any doubts:

Below is an image with the photos of Calder from the newspaper clipping, as well as the photo from Calder's ex-wife's mantle (season 1, episode 6 - "Reckoning").

https://s13.postimg.org/qb0qwscs7/calder.png

While he truly does look a bit like Sloane (Ron Rifkin), he was a different person altogether, since the person in the photos is credited as Paul Lieber. Also, those photos are actually one and the same. I'm guessing it's Paul Lieber's old headshot. The colored photo is clearly just photoshopped with different hair and clothing.

When Calder reappeared on the show in person in season 1, episode 19 - "Snowman," the same actor, Paul Lieber, is credited, and he's significantly older in appearance. Calder was the person the snowman stabbed and killed in the kitchen when Sydney got there too late.

https://s18.postimg.org/kjiq5iwyx/calder_old.png

You mentioned that the show did a lot of rework throughout its run, and I agree. However, I believe this whole Calder thing was planned out from the get-go, considering they got an actor to provide an old photograph of his for episode 6, just so they could physically bring him in for episode 19.

Finally, for reference, this is Arvin Sloane:

https://s12.postimg.org/ob7k01mu5/Arvin_Sloane.jpg

[–] MissEFierro 8 years ago

The picture of Calder is from 1978 or whenever Laura Bristow died, so yes it's not exactly what Ron Rifkin looks like in the 2000s, but it's a younger version of him.

Why would they use a man who looks similar to Sloane and not even talk about the fact that that maybe Calder IS Sloane.

[–] Link6321 8 years ago

Well, the actual actor who played Calder in the 1978 photo showed up in the show's "present," and he looked nothing like Sloane, so there's that. It was a simple coincidence that young Paul Lieber somewhat resembled the "present" Arvin Sloane. Second, if they really wanted to hint that it was Sloane, why bother finding a different actor to play the part when Ron Rifkin could have just provided an old photo of himself for the editors to photoshop? I fail to understand the logic in that.

Calder was just never supposed to be Sloane. If you still don't want to believe that, then there's nothing more I can say about the matter.