"Alias" Goes Permanently Undercover

Sydney Bristow is about to change clothes for the last time.

Her assignment, should she choose to accept it, is to tie up a dossier full of loose ends Monday by the time Alias' series finale puts a grinding halt to the relentless action, plot twists and mistaken identity that characterized five seasons of the ABC show that creator J.J. Abrams has referred to as "a family drama set in the world of espionage."

And what a mad, mad world it has been.

Over the years, Sydney, the sexy, butt-kicking secret agent played by Jennifer Garner, has been presumed dead, had her memory erased, given birth and seen her lover return from the big agency in the sky--after finally learning his real name, of course. That sums up about 10 minutes of what Abrams and executive producer Jeff Pinkner have put their heroine through.

But through it all, Sydney--and Garner, who won a Golden Globe for her efforts--came out on top, come rain or pink hair.

"From Jen, I learned just how to be a classy person," Kevin Weisman, who plays sweet tech geek Marshall Flinkman, told E! Online TV columnist Kristin Veitch. "How to treat people with respect when you're working and when you're in that position and you're scrutinized so much. I've seen other actresses crack under the pressure, but she never did."

"This show will always be the backdrop to me growing up and I did it with these people," the 34-year-old Garner told the Associated Press. "They've seen me struggle through stuff, figure stuff out, struggle through it again."

(Perhaps she's referring to her divorce from her Felicity costar Scott Foley, her romance with Alias costar Michael Vartan, and her eventual marriage to Bennifer coplayer Ben Affleck--all of which happened during Alias' fast-paced run.)

"[My costars] have been enormously kind to me the entire time and have done nothing but facilitate my growth, and been very patient," Garner added as she headed off to shoot a scene in which her character rappels down a wall.

And by her character, we mean Garner, who enjoyed doing her own stunts until her popularity soared and the show's producers put the kibosh on the more dangerous stuff. She told the AP about what she had wanted to do in one of the final episodes--a "descender."

"Couldn't be easier," Garner said. "A hundred and fifty feet. I've done higher than that several times."

As for the rappelling? "It's just a wussy thing."

Well, after you've flown through the air and worn hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of wigs, what's next?

"I think we have done these characters justice and to do any more would be pushing it," Garner said.

That's one way to look at it. ABC announced Alias' impending demise in November after the show took a dive in the ratings after moving from Wednesdays post-Lost to Thursdays opposite Survivor, which gave viewers a chance to choose their own adventure. Unfortunately for Alias, more than 3 million people chose to turn the page.

True Alias fans never missed a step, though.

"We are so incredibly grateful to the fans of Alias who have stood by us, sought us out when we weren't easy to find and refused to let us go anywhere," Garner told E! Online's Veitch. "It is because of these people out there who cared about this world that J.J. created that we have had the good fortune to bring it to life day after day after day, and now year after year. And that has been an experience that has changed my life forever and that I will never forget."

After sending Sydney, Jack (Victor Garber), Sloane (Ron Rifkin) and the rest of APO on a four-month sabbatical during sweeps, the Olympics and American Idol auditions, ABC returned the series to Wednesdays where it showed new life for awhile--especially when there actually was new life. The April 19 birth of Sydney and Vaughn's baby girl attracted 7.5 million people, Alias' best numbers since its season-five premiere.

The pregnancy plot was whipped up to mesh with Garner's real-life mommy-to-be status and to allow Sydney to root out the bad guys hunkering down in Lamaze classes and OBGYN offices.

As for the two-hour series finale:

Now that Vaughn (Vartan) is back and Sydney doesn't have to go around pretending to be Rambaldi fanatic Anna (Gina Torres)anymore (now that Anna's, like, totally dead), she can get back to her main objective--stopping Sloane and Irina (a devious Lena Olin) from carrying out an evil scheme involving artifacts, prophecies and a really important necklace.

The first half of the finale, "Reprisal," finds Sloane taking Mitchell and Rachel (Rachel Nichols) hostage, while Sydney, Vaughn, and the rest of APO try to save them. The second half, "All the Time in the World," will finally shed light on the Rambaldi endgame mumbo-jumbo, as well as focus on Sydney's ties to Vaughn and her father. And we can tell you this (VAGUE SPOILER):

Someone dies.

Amy Acker, who originally auditioned for the roles of Nadia and Rachel but took the role of murderous Kelly Peyton, remained tight-lipped during an interview with reporters in London Wednesday, but gave the impression that her beauteous baddie might survive.

"I think you can assume I'll be there in the end," Acker said. "But I really can't say."

"People die; people live," Jeff Pinkner told the AP, explaining all and yet...nothing.

But during an appearance on Live with Regis and Kelly earlier this week, Garner talked about the fate of her fellow characters in a way that made perfect sense, considering Alias rarely threw a pitch that didn't turn into a loopy curveball.

"Some of it may break your heart, but a lot of it will make you happy," she said. "There's a little bit of a love story" and "people die, people come back to life."