Lauren Reed & Julian Sark
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Title: Enigma / Taunting and Teasing
Category: Characters – TV / Relationships – TV
Open since: September 29, 2009 / March 2010
Status: open
URL: http://fan.sohryu.nu/sark/ / http://fan.sohryu.nu/lark/
Alias
Alias is an American television series that mixed espionage with science fiction. It was created by J.J. Abrams (author, among others, of Felicity, Lost and Fringe), produced by Touchstone Television and Bad Robot Productions and with music composed by Michael Giacchino.
The shows debuted in 2001 and it was broadcasted on ABC for five seasons, ending on May 22, 2006. The series was highly successful and won both an Emmy and a Golden Globe Award. Alias featured many famous actors and actresses (Jennifer Garner, Victor Garber, Michael Vartan, Ron Rifkin…), along with a large number of A-list guest stars (Quentin Tarantino, Isabella Rossellini, Ricky Gervais, Terry O’Quinn, David Carradine and many, many others).
The common thread was linked to Milo Rambaldi, a sort of Leonardo da Vinci slash Nostradamus from the Renaissance period. The search and recovery of his artifacts was often behind Sydney Bristow’s (Jennifer Garner’s character and main protagonist) missions. Others themes addressed were trust/betrayal, family, secret agencies and obviously Rambaldi’s prophecies.
Julian Sark
Sark is the reason I started watching Alias. At first I wasn’t interested in the show, mainly because I couldn’t stand Jennifer Garner. Years later I stumbled upon a summer re-run of episode 1×20. Sark immediately caught my attention, when the episode ended I was craving to know what was going to happen so a friend of mine kindly lent me all her DVDs. Needless to say, he quickly became my favourite character. He is fascinating, smart and ready to switch alliances whenever the situation calls for it.
Yet, he also surprised me. At first he seemed the average bad guy (nothing wrong with that, I have a thing for bad guys XD), but his development showed also his “softer” side. There where episodes where Sark just killed or tortured someone. Toward the end of the series instead, Sark proved to be not as bad to the bone as he seemed. He wasn’t turned into a good character (luckily, that would have never worked), yet he seemed more wise and caring.
Sark for me is one of the best villains portrayed on TV. Just seeing him on the screen made me giggle and sent chills down my spine. I was always hoping to see Sark in the next episode, especially when he was no longer a series regular. As far as I was concerned, they could have made Sark read the alphabet and that would have been fine by me!
Lauren Reed & Julian Sark
Lauren and Sark’s first meeting takes place in episode 3×07 “Prelude”, when he gives her important information to resolve one of her investigations; the murder of a Russian diplomat (who also happened to be Sark’s father). While Sark holds Lauren at gunpoint, he reveals that he never got to know him, but what he knows is the identity of his murderer.
A few episodes later, in 3×13 “Blowback”, Sark, who has discovered Lauren’s true allegiance, meets her. In the changing room of a clothes’ store. Sark all dressed in black, Lauren dressed in black (well, actually she is more un-dressed than dressed 
) and the conversation that follows makes it clear they are destined to be partners in crime. Lauren agrees to help Sark climb toward the bosses of the Convenant and their successful plan leads both of them to become the leaders of the North American division.
Lauren and Sark are just made for each other: both are blonde, pretty and bad to the bone. Basically, they are Vaughn and Sidney’s evil version, which I think is one of the reasons why this couple works so well. The duelling spy couples part (Sidney and Vaughn versus Lauren and Sark) was one of my favourite elements in Alias’ season 3, it was a shame it didn’t last a lot. Indeed I was really let down by the fact that their relationship ended with Lauren’s death only a few episodes after it had started.
Another reason that lead me to like this pair is that both characters benefited from it. Lauren became an interesting villain and Sark…well I always liked Sark but his relationship with Lauren was marked by many funny moments and quotes, it proved to be much more entertaining than his former relationship with Allison.