I'm thrilled you're loving the season. I do think it's not as bad as some people would say. However, this episode is just... yeah it's hard to get connected to anything here imo. I noticed whilst I was watching that there was a problem, the Doctor would speak very fast and then she'd fix it. Granted, that's the Doctor. It always tends to happen that way but usually, there's more setbacks, drama, dilemmas to contend with first. Everything seemed to happen so smoothly. The only real source of tension in this episode was Graham's revenge, which fizzled out. This episode was very flat to me and that's a shame.

Ever since I saw this episode, I have wanted to see your reaction to it. I figured you'd either love it or there'd be some subtle trope that I've just not seen before. I was confident that there was no White Saviour trope here because the script makes perfectly plain "we have to not help her." That tiny line makes all the difference but perhaps, there was something I'd not heard or seen before that would taint it. After all, I only know about the "White Saviour" trope because of a Friday Night Lights review you wrote.

I am hugely relieved then that you loved it. This is my favourite episode of the series. Even putting aside Rosa Parks for a moment, I quite like the concept. Sometimes, huge moments in history rely on all the various factors that could influence things. For Rosa to stay seated, it needed that particular driver with the right amount of passengers etc and if any one of those were affected, it could change the course of history. Very clever. Add Rosa Parks and it just makes it ten times better.

The only slight niggle I have is the whole neural restrictor thing just automatically made me think of Spike and was a little distracting but it's only one scene! I can let it go

Thank you, that explains why I missed it too, I tend to just periodically check the liveblogs rather than watch it on the TV.

I can't seem to find it anywhere and figure this is the best place to get a serious answer, is it common practice if someone who tables an amendment decides not to pursue it that other signatories can push it or is this a case of Bercow making new precedent again?

From what I have seen, it's felt like some members have dropped amendments before despite other members still wanting to pursue it and none of this has happened. Admittedly, not an expert in this as I don't always follow the parliamentary proceedings so don't know these technical details. Would be grateful for a response/previous examples.

Hey, Weiss is on the team now, much better. It was obvious it was going to happen when it turned out Sydney and Weiss were trapped in the same room together. That secret was out quick, worst spies ever.

If you want to keep a secret, you have to think more like Jack. “Is he always this cold?” Yes Nadia, he is and he’s happy to manipulate facts and official reports to get the narrative he wants to tell you. I did wonder why she suddenly went all Rambo so I should not have been surprised that Jack would do such a thing. I like Nadia so far, she seems nice and loyal...

... which brings me to Sloane, the polar opposite. I will admit that perhaps this reboot is complete and there is nothing more to it. The show has altered so much in its dynamic that perhaps it was willing to sacrifice the storylines/flaws of its main “villain” to match. Would I be satisfied with that? Yes and no. I didn’t have the same issues that Mark had with the season 3 finale because I figured that it would just spend time on it during season 4 but instead the show has done this incredible U-turn. That means that now I get that sense of dissatisfaction that almost a whole season worth of story was for nothing. On the plus side, Rembaldi was getting incredibly tedious and far-fetched so it’s nice to have a break from it.

The reason I bring it up is that during this episode when Sloane and Nadia are together, it just reminded me that these two had this huge trip together to gather some ancient Rembaldi artefact and no-one brings it up, it’s weird. I cannot believe that Sloane would hand a Rembaldi artefact to the government [edit: forgot to add that I also remembered during this episode that Sloane manipulated the entire Alliance and CIA to bring the Alliance down so he could be free with his wife... who he then ditched to search for more Rembaldi artefacts] but I don’t know if that’s just because I’m thinking of the old Sloane and not Reboot Sloane.

Then during her Psych Evaluation, Nadia makes it perfectly clear that she would protect her partner no matter what and who was her partner on this trip? Sloane.

Is there more to this than meets the eye? I am so paranoid about this show that I don’t even trust that it’s a proper reboot.

Haha so funny. Perfect delivery too

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!
Irina was the best character, I was always hopeful of a comeback and now it’s never going to happen. I’ll be honest, I thought this might be one of those fake-out situations again where Jack pretended he was going to kill her then stashed her away, a bit like Emily and Sloane. But then Sydney specifically says that she found her body as if the writers knew people would think like this and wanted the issue done and dusted.

I’ll admit I’m a little confused with the whole Jack killing Irina thing because I don’t have a timeline. It would obviously have to be after his last chat with her about The Passenger and Lauren getting shot and somehow a memo about it got into a safety deposit box that Lauren knew about. Where did he even have the time? Thinking about it, this actually makes no sense because the file that we saw clearly said Sydney Bristow on it and asking to kill Irina Derevko has no link to what we saw on the page.

I am not going to even try get into the whole Irina put out a contract on Sydney because.. yeah just refer to my first sentence in this review.

I am glad that Marshall is back, it’d make no sense not having him on the team. It is an absolute buzzkill though that Weiss is still in this show in the capacity that the story has now forced him into. I should be all happy that the team is back together and they’ve left Weiss out on the sidelines.

I did enjoy the story for this episode. I can see how this reboot is going to go back to basics with the mission of the week storylines with some added mysteries. I can get behind that, I like it.

Side note: I am going to sound super shallow here but throughout the episode, I think I just expected Tamazaki to be middle-aged and have the typical underworld thug look. Wow, that guy was hot. I’ll give you the sword for your phone number.

Side note 2: The heist in London. I’m from the UK and those accents were the worst. Also, that police car is just... yeah I don’t even know what the hell.

Is this a reboot? It felt very much like a reboot, a fresh start away from most of the drama that had preceded it. I’ll be honest, it felt a little like a slap in the face. I just wasn’t feeling it very much. It is now season 4 but these characters have so much history between them that rebooting the show in this way feels a bit disingenuous.

I think part of the problem was because there wasn’t such a big fuss made over some of the story arcs of the past season. It’s almost like everything that happened before is now just an afterthought.

The Covenant? Not mentioned once.
Nadia and Sloane? Yeah they found the artefact and handed it to the government (I find that hard to believe).
Vaughn? It’s briefly touched on but he seems to want to move on with Sydney now.
Jack and Sydney? They’re not talking but it wasn’t a huge portion of the episode.

Most importantly and not mentioned at all, WHERE IS MARSHALL? You can’t have a new secret ops team without tech from Marshall. He’s smarter than all of you combined. What gives?!

I say all this with a question mark because perhaps it’s not so much a reboot after all. It is highly likely that these issues are going to crop up in the show again. Like I said, I don’t believe Sloane’s story about the artefact at all.

As for the secret ops team with no bureaucracy and Sloane in charge, this is going to end well, isn’t it?

1.Nadia and Sloane will visit the coordinates. Nadia will betray Sloane and take whatever is there for herself.
2.This is because I feel that Nadia/Katya/Irina are working together. I say this because that evil!dentist who was doing the experiments on Nadia ended up working with Irina’s organisation.
3.We will find out more about Vaughn’s father and his role in Nadia’s life
4.Marshall will survive the gunshot wound. I think the show will gloss over it to be honest and he’ll just bounce back into his usual role [which I am also fine with, he’s the best].
5.We were given so little information about what was in those files but I have to disagree with Mark. I don’t think Jack is a Rembaldi fanatic (I’d actually be disappointed if he was). I think this has something to do with Project Christmas
6.I think Sydney will feel betrayed and not speak to Jack but they will resolve their differences before the halfway point of the season.
7.The Covenant will be demolished by the end of the season
8.This is because I think The Trust will become the villains for this season
9.They will be more of a bureaucratic nightmare for the team, using their power and influence to cause trouble
10.Vaughn will struggle for a bit about killing Lauren. However, he will get closure by dating Sydney again and moving on.
11.Sark will escape again from CIA custody and be reunited with Irina
12.There will be a final showdown between Sydney vs Nadia at the season finale.
13.Nzl Npxre nccrnef va guvf frnfba. V nz tbvat gb xrrc vapyhqvat guvf cerqvpgvba hagvy vg unccraf fb gura V unir n fubg bs ng yrnfg 1 cbvag vs zl bgure cerqvpgvbaf ner nofbyhgryl ubcryrff nf guvf vf gur bayl fcbvyre V xabj.

1.The reason for Sydney’s disappearance is linked to whatever Sloane was making. I just don’t think it’s a coincidence on the day this device was assembled, Sydney has lost 2 years of her memory.

Not even close. 0/1

2.The CIA has not been able to advance any further with their investigations of Sloane and Irina/Sark

True. I mean this wasn't what I actually meant. I just assumed that the trio would continue to operate and that the CIA would be 5 steps behind all the time. I don't think I'd have predicted that Irina would disappear and Sloane would GET A PARDON. I would have to be a seer to predict that but in a roundabout way, this is true and I need the points. 1/2

3.In the meantime, Sloane has managed to acquire himself more of a team. Just to be clear, I mean with names and more character development than his usual hired goons.

This was probably a silly prediction come to think about it. Sloane would never trust anybody but himself. As you can see below I thought Irina/Sark and Sloane would continue to operate but separate from each other so Sloane would need to assemble some sort of team. Again I repeat, who the hell would be able to predict a pardon? 1/3

4.He no longer co-operates with Irina/Sark

Yes, very true. 2/4

5.I honestly can’t predict what Irina/Sark are up to. I have no clue. I do think that Sark will escape from CIA custody.

Nailed it. 3/5

6.Fake!Francie is definitely dead and they find the real Francie’s body and have a funeral. Annoyingly this will have already happened during that two year gap so we’ll just get a scene of Sydney visiting her gravestone

OH MY GOD. REMBALDI MEDICINE RUINED MY PREDICTION. As for Real Francie, yeah, not even worth a mention. 3/6

7.Will continues to work as a CIA analyst and will even go on a mission with Sydney

Okay half a point because he actually did go on a mission but he stopped working for the CIA. 3.5/7

8.Marshall/Carrie (? I think... Miss Bowman) shipping will continue. Oh jeez, I’ve totally forgot her name. Either way, I’m so paranoid about everyone that I think she will be not who she says she is and will betray Marshall.

Well she had a personality transplant for some unknown reason but not what I meant. Also, she's off screen 99.9% of the time so not sure the shipping continues much either. 3.5/8

9.Kendall will be killed by the end of the season.

Apart from that one episode, disappeared but still alive. 3.5/9

10.Nzl Npxre nccrnef va guvf frnfba. V nz tbvat gb xrrc vapyhqvat guvf cerqvpgvba hagvy vg unccraf fb gura V unir n fubg bs ng yrnfg 1 cbvag vs zl bgure cerqvpgvbaf ner nofbyhgryl ubcryrff nf guvf vf gur bayl fcbvyre V xabj.

Nope.