Okay, is it just me—or did Jennifer Garner gain like 20 lbs. since the last episode?  No matter how much she’s gained, I’m apparently the only one who’s noticed because it doesn’t seem to stop her own father from assigning her to risky missions.  Unless, of course, he secretly wants her to miscarry Vaughn’s love-child.  After all, Jack does know first-hand how hard it is to raise a child in this business.

Well, even if Jack Bristow doesn’t recognize Sydney’s limitations, JJ Abrams apparently did, which is why he added another 100+ lbs. to Sydney’s side by giving her another child to look after—a new protege.  While we can understand the introduction of agent Rachel Gibson (after all, Sydney’s zombie/sister is currently of no help to her,) her introduction has been lackluster.  I mean, was it really necessary for them to give her the exact same back story as Sydney’s?  Methinks this is JJ Abrams’ lazy way of plotting out the show beyond this year.  Should Jennifer Garner fail to return post-baby, the producers could just start the show all over again - with the same heroine!  And with the introduction of the new SD-6 clone, The Shed, they could retool the same plot lines as well.

Why does Sydney think Rachel would be such a great addition to APO anyway?  Thankfully, Rachel only thought she worked for the CIA because she would have seriously made a lame-ass “real” agent.  Sydney and crew hadn’t even begun to torture her when she professed she being a government agent.  I mean, what kind of agent gives up so easily?  Aren’t they trained to keep that secret to their deaths?  After all, Sydney managed to have a couple of teeth pulled out by that freaky Asian guy without ever divulging a sliver of info.  So when Sydney told Rachel “I believe in you”, it seriously took a lot out of me not to gag.  I know Syd is desperate for someone to cover her maternity leave, but she needs to either kick that stupid blonde out of there or dye her hair. Yes, I admit—I am a brunette.

Now, let’s get to that other APO addition:  Thomas Grace.  First of all, I can’t stop staring at the guy (actor Balthazar Getty) because he looks too much like Liev Schreiber with an outdated Caesar hairdo.  It’s terribly distracting. Secondly, his agent skills thus far are lacking.  All he managed to do in the last episode was offer someone a light and run up a bunch of stairs. Yee haw!  I saw more action out of him in Lord of the Flies.  With Vaughn supposedly dead, Sark MIA and now Weiss leaving, Alias desperately needs a strong (and cute) male character.  So far either Getty’s just not that guy, or the writers better find a way to make him matter to me quick.

Sadly, the most exciting characters on Alias for me are usually the ones on the opposing team (where is my Sark??) and this week was no different.  I was very excited to see that Fred from Angel (actress Amy Acker) had been brought in for a few episodes.  While she was great to watch as the sugary-sweet Fred, it was much more interesting to see her also play the the evil Illyria.  So to see her transport her bad-ass skills over to Alias is a real treat.  ON A RANDOM SIDE NOTE:  Am I the only one who gets Joss Whedon’s (Angel) and JJ Abrams’ projects confused?  They might as well merge into one uber-producer.

NOTE TO JENNIFER:  Start eating some spicy foods and have that baby in a hurry.  If you don’t start kicking some ass again soon, I may have to redirect my focus to the other shows duking it out in your time slot.