Alive at Five - Episode 89

[amyk]

I'm giving this one a 3 on the Sidney scale, meaning "of limited quality." I do like that Face wants to get away from Stockwell, and I only wish the rest of the team agreed with him. Strangely, they did not give BA a chance to give his opinion when Face was asking the rest of the team what they thought. I think BA really did want to go with Face or at least agreed with him, but out of loyalty to Hannibal and respect for Hannibal as his commanding office, he didn't go with Face. That would have been kind of neat to see BA and Face break away from Hannibal, Murdock, and Frankie for 1-2 episodes and have an adventure of their own.

I do like a line that BA says in this episode....it's when they are going to have to get through that roadblock and they have a junky truck, after they have just been inside the diner. BA says something to Hannibal like, "I hope you don't expect me to make a tank out of that hunk of junk using spare parts from the kitchen." (I don't have the line exactly right, but it was something like that.) Well, yes, BA, I wish you had done that! But I think it was sort of a tongue-in-cheek reference to past seasons when they did exactly stuff like that.

I think this episode would have worked better if it was actually a major political campaign, like a governor or presidential campaign, rather than something about a labor union. Would a labor union rally really have 3 cameras filming it and all that coverage when electing a new president?

[HoudiniDerek]

I think you are spot on about how cool it would be to have seen B.A. and Face go away together. I love the dynamic the few times we get to see it.

[Eclipse139]

Rewatched this one today. I definitely enjoyed it more than the previous ep (THE SAY U.N.C.L.E. AFFAIR). I've already watched it quite recently and I think it improves with a second viewing. It's one of the better S5 eps, I think, probably because there isn't very much Stockwell in this one!

Face's dream at the beginning is a good way of demonstrating just how much their current situation is affecting him. The show didn't really deal with the effects on the team of being under Stockwell's control, but it must have been very difficult for all of them as although they weren't 'free' when they were on the run before, they had much more freedom than they have in S5. Going on a date at an expensive restaurant is something Face used to do all the time, but he can't do that so much in S5.

I feel like I talk about Face's S5 hair a lot ( ), but it did make me laugh that his hair was so full of hair product in his dream - it wasn't a good look!

I thought it was interesting that Hannibal didn't really make any fuss about Face's decision to leave - in contrast to the way he behaved when Face left in MIND GAMES. I think he always knew Face wasn't really going to leave. Perhaps BA felt the same way too as he was quite calm about it - although I also like the idea you had here that BA actually wanted to leave with Face.

I wonder if Face also knew deep down that he wasn't really going to leave the team, because he didn't take any belongings with him at all. He just had the clothes he was wearing, he didn't even take a coat!

[amyk]

I wonder what exactly Face would have done if he had not had to keep running back to the team to warn them and/or to help them? What if he had, say, maybe a month away from the team?

[Eclipse139]

It would have been interesting to see what he would have done if he'd left at the start of the ep, straight after his dream, with the rest of the team going onto carry out the mission and save the day without him. I suspect he would have followed the events from a distance whilst trying to scam somewhere to live (and some new clothes!) and realised that being alone and on the run is really no fun at all.

It does bother me throughout S5 that Hannibal makes no real effort to leave Stockwell and aside from being a little irritated by the security arrangements at the house he just seems resigned to working for him. I know he understands they have a death sentence hanging over them and they would be killed if they were ever captured by the military again (and they all want their pardons), but they managed to stay on the run for fifteen years without getting caught so I'm sure they could do it again if they tried.

[amyk]

Apparently Hannibal did believe that Stockwell would keep his word about the pardons after a certain number of missions. The problem is that we never heard the specified number, but it seems that maybe the team was supposed to know it. However, if the team ended up dead due to the missions, what good would it be anyway for them to be pardoned? And it seemed like Stockwell would send them on "suicide missions" if he wanted to. But anyway, the belief Hannibal had that the team would succeed and come through all the missions alive, along with the apparent desire for the pardon, seems to be what kept them there with Stockwell. But it seems a bit odd since previously they did not seem to be sitting around pining for pardons. And I still think they would be the type to be proven innocent rather than just to live out their lives presumed guilty but pardoned for their guilt.