Alias

Alias might easily have blown it at the start of its second season. The writers could have played up Jennifer Garner’s newfound stardom by emphasizing the wigs ‘n’ slink and playing down the wit ‘n’ deep think. They could have turned last season’s cliff-hanger — in which Garner’s Sydney Bristow comes face-to-face with her worst enemy and trauma: her traitorous, KGB-trained mother (Lena Olin) — and used it as an occasion for either teary hugs or vindictive hugger-mugger.

Instead, ”Alias” just…lifted off, so wittily, so gracefully, and with such purpose, it was like watching a 2,000-piece puzzle assemble before your eyes. Creator J.J. Abrams and his scribes have streamlined the storytelling for newcomers, making Sydney’s double agency (good CIA infiltrating bad SD-6) a metaphor for emotional conflict. Just as she was warming to her cold father (Victor Garber, robbed of an Emmy, plays Jack Bristow as a shut-down CIA vet whose anguish is communicated entirely through his dewy eyes), Sydney must now wonder if Mom, who’s turned herself over to the CIA, can be trusted. ”Alias” always works on two levels: The derring-do missions plus Syd’s disguises are over-the-top hoots, but the family tensions are realistically messy and wrenching.

Garner has the extraordinary confidence to allow Abrams and Co. to use her like a doll: She gives over her long face and lanky body to any wig, any lipstick hue, any outfit, and becomes a startlingly alert woman whose thinking is always a half step ahead of her enemies, her allies, and us.

New ”Alias” episodes reveal a more ruthless side of Syd’s SD-6 supervisor Arvin Sloane (Ron Rifkin, his voice as prickly as his beard) and reintroduce Chris Carter refugee Terry O’Quinn (”Harsh Realm,” ”Millennium”) as a tough CIA official. The actor’s line readings are as gleamingly smooth as his skull, and he provides a sharp contrast to the sympathy Sydney receives from her hunky ”handler,” Michael Vaughn (Michael Vartan).

Amid all of this, Olin possesses — to borrow the title of her best movie — an almost unbearable lightness of being. All the camera has to do is pull up close as she gazes at Syd and every sharp stare and perfect facial crease make motherly love and menace intermingle, clouding Syd’s — and every viewer’s — mind; you instantly understand why she was a persuasive spy. This, despite Jack’s brutal assessment of his wife: ”The minute you start depending on her, she will gut you.”

Me, I’d gut the characters of Syd pals Will (Bradley Cooper) and Francie (Merrin Dungey) — love ya, guys, but you’ve outlasted your plot necessities. But then, I don’t have the problem-solving imagination of ”Alias”’ writers, and it’s great to place yourself in the hands of TV makers who can confound you each week.