The Return of "Alias"

Tonight marks the long-awaited return of “Alias”—just in time for it to say goodbye.

I have to say that I have never been an “Alias” fan, but I did check it out occasionally. I watched last season’s fantastic “My name is not Michael Vaughn” cliffhanger, only to be completely disappointed by this season’s premiere in which Vaughn was “killed” and the complicated Prophet Five storyline was introduced.

But as ABC keeps telling us every 15 minutes, one of those problems will be fixed tonight.

We’re going to see other old friends (and enemies) in these final episodes too, including Will, Weiss, Irina and Anna.

Though I was never a fan, a lot of my friends are, so I hate to see the show go; but it had a good five-season run, which is more than many shows get. It catapulted Jennifer Garner into Hollywood stardom and introduced us to the brilliant J.J. Abrams, who would later bring us “Lost” and this summer will bring us “Mission Impossible III.”

And, I can’t help but be sad to see “Alias” leave because it came into the world with “24” in 2001. The two shows were often linked together and have many of the same fans—which just adds to the travesty of ABC scheduling the series finale smack dab in the middle of this season’s “24” finale, but I digress…

You can catch the two-hour beginning of the end of “Alias” tonight at 8 p.m. on ABC.

And yes, “Lost” fans, this means there is no new episode tonight as “Invasion” returns at 10 p.m.