When I offered to do a column on Irina, Sydney said go ahead...this is the first and I hope you like it. :rolleyes:
I write this on behalf of Irina's many, many fans.
IRINA DEREVKO
SPY, ASSASSIN, MOM - Profiled
Of all the characters on Alias, Irina Derevko is the most complex and mysterious of them all. Jack, himself a complicated man, has a history we are aware of from the beginning. Irina, though we know her as Laura, Jack’s wife, has no history. In the profiles originally provided by the writers of the show she is sketchily drawn. It was as though they were waiting for us to get to know her or want to know her. I believe we were led seductively down the garden path during the first season. Sydney wanted her mom, especially after she learned she was alive. She hunted for her during various episodes, looking for some sign that she was ‘around’.
Did we want to know her? Definitely! She is the mother of our heroine, Sydney Bristow. She is also a spy and alleged assassin. Sydney’s father, Jack, is a double agent working for not only SD-6, but also under cover for the CIA. Then Sydney becomes a double agent. What a family! Intriguing doesn’t begin to describe them.
We do however know more about Jack and Sydney than we do “Laura Bristow.”
We are told she was born 03/22/51 in Moscow, USSR. She’s six feet, 120 pounds with brown eyes and chestnut brown hair. She speaks Russian, English and portions of several other languages. She has a B. A. and Masters in English Literature and was employed by UCLA as an English Literature Professor while living in Los Angeles. According to the original profile, Alexander Khasinau was her colleague and lover. This aspect of their relationship was never exploited during ensuing episodes. The profile also stated Khasinau was the one who recruited Irina when she was eighteen. At first, we were told she killed 20 CIA agents then, it was revised to 12. There was never a dispute about the 86 counts of espionage she was been charged with. Together or even separately, they spelled the death penalty.
Training and special skills were never disclosed, but the profile stated she graduated from the KGB academy in 1972 and shortly after that was sent to the U.S. to seduce and marry Jack Bristow. Ten years and a daughter later, she was warned the FBI was going to arrest her. So she ran, returning to her motherland, Russia.
She was incarcerated for six months on her return to the USSR. Where did she go after that? Technically, she was still in the KGB although somewhat disillusioned. Logically, as she was an English literature specialist, I think they would use her to teach English to other spies. So, until the breakup of the USSR, we can assume she was still on the KGB payroll. It also makes sense that Irina Derevko was an angry and disillusioned Communist Party Member. Instead of garnering respect for the job she had done, her country punished her.
The USSR broke apart in 1991-92. Russia was the largest of all the former members of that behemoth. History reports that two organizations evolved from the former KGB: the Federal’naya Sluzhba Besopasmosti or FSB, which was the government internal security force and the Sluzhba Vneshney Rasvedki, or SVR, the counter-intelligence organization. It was similar to the old KGB, but better. We might assume that she became a member of one of these organizations.
However, it was about that time that Irina put together a crime cartel, which dealt in blackmail and anything else she could make a lot of money from. Khasinau was her right hand man in the beginning. As she became more powerful, she destroyed the competition, i.e. the K-Directorate and the FTL. She was totally ruthless in dealing with her fellow crooks. We are not sure when the CIA began to run afoul of her organization or if they ever came in direct contact until, while as double agents, Sydney and her father learned she was still alive. We do know that SD-6 was well aware of ‘The Man’ as were the other cartels, all of whom were trying to get Rambaldi artifacts under their control.
There has been speculation that Irina Derevko is in deep cover for her government—or for the United States. The first is a good possibility. Someone, somewhere, suggested she was working for the U. S., but that seems extremely remote. It would make more sense if she were an agent for the SVR, which is responsible for the external protection for Russia. I suspect that, with her training, she would be an asset Russia would need during the early formation of their new government. I think the idea of being her own boss, allowed to run the organization as she wanted to run it and not have to deal with the FSB or its counterpart, the SVR, would definitely appeal to her even though in the end she reports to someone.
Her personal life, after leaving Sydney and Jack, was probably in a shambles. She told Sydney that “my love for you, for your father, were not a contrivance.” That means during the empty, unseen years, she hung onto the emotional ties she felt for her daughter and husband even though she could not see or touch them in any way. We know now she truly loves her daughter and Jack. We can see the hunger she has to hold her daughter, to touch her. The desire to be with Jack again. She is trapped however by her past: the killings and the espionage.
She ran her own cartel, coldly, with deadly strength of will and without fear of retaliation. As Jack said, “she is ruthless and her methods loathsome, but she is not without feeling.” We witnessed that fact in the ensuing weeks as the episodes unfolded. We know now she was on a mission to gain Sydney’s trust and, up to a point, she did. She used control, manipulation and half-truths to get her daughter close to her just as Jack said she would. In a number of instances, Irina has rescued Sydney, but she is so stubborn, like her mother that she fails repeatedly to see the big picture. Is there an emotional cost? Possibly, and what could it be? Sadly, it could be the loss of contact with her daughter and, of course, Jack.
Then she left again, devastating Sydney and disillusioning Jack once more. She had her reasons, the Rambaldi artifacts and her own obsession with them that is almost equal to that of Arvin Sloane. She revealed some of that obsession when she put her hands on the manuscript in Hong Kong. Why the obsession? I believe she wants more power and possibly, even more, the knowledge that Rambaldi was looking for and found. She has a lot of money, which she amassed over a ten-year period. However, by having access to or owning the Rambaldi collection, she could become the most powerful woman in the world, just as Arvin wanted to be the most powerful man. She is not above double-crossing him as she has done to others to obtain this goal.
This is a extremely intelligent, highly motivated woman whose life has not been all fun and games. She can kill with a gun or a knife without giving it a second thought. She is almost heroic in some instances. She is courageous and absolutely, I believe, without fear. She is repeatedly put into situations that remind us Sydney has many of the same characteristics.
Irina has always been extremely protective of Sydney. For some reason, she knows it is Sydney, who ultimately will destroy Sloane and not herself.
In my next column I will explore further Irina’s persona via the episodes starting with the first of the second season: Enemy Walks In. Look for “Deception, Truth and Fishing Line.”
Wow! *gasps* That was an abosolute fabulous article! I love it!! It really desribes Irina REALLY well. One of the best I've read! ^_^
I know I'm reading this article a little later that the rest of you, but I just registered a couple days ago. The description of Irina is very accurate. It shows what has made her one of the more interesting regular characters on Alias, as well as one of my personal favourites.
