IRINA DEREVKO
DANCE, CHANCE, & ILLUSION – EPISODE 3

Sydney gives her mother an ultimatum. “You will address me as Agent Bristow.” Now, at Kendall’s request, she returns to the cellblock, albeit under protest, to ask her mother about what Sark is looking for with the special camera. Her mother is in a kneeling position, back to the glass wall, meditating. Irina calls her Sydney and her daughter stubbornly insists on “Agent Bristow.”

Irina gives a slight nod, then pauses as if searching for the right answer. She gets up and comes to face Sydney, asking her if she remembers her music teacher Mrs. Adams. Again Sydney says in a rather peevish manner, “We’re not having this conversation.” Her mother persists and in a great two way head shot only, Irina gives Sydney the information. Sydney says thank you and turns to leave. Irina then asks about the Thanksgiving play the music teacher had urged Sydney to be in. “I’m curious, what part did you play?” Thus begins the dance between mother and daughter.

“I don’t remember. It was about the time I was told my mother had died and everything was a blur.” That was done with quiet meanness. The camera catches sight of Irina’s reflection, which mirrors the sadness on her face. There might have been a tear or two in her eyes. What Sydney failed to realize was her mother’s confession that she had been thinking about Sydney even when she was far away. How many times had Irina thought about her during those twenty years? She may have a hidden agenda as Jack believes, but Irina definitely wants to connect with Sydney. Does she love her? I think she does. Asking a question about an event that occurred twenty years ago, should have told Sydney she had been in her mother’s thoughts.

Their next encounter is later when Sydney needs a code deciphered. She is talking to Irina, who asks for paper and pencil. Sydney wants to maintain control as Agent Bristow. She tells Irina, No! But Irina persists. She can’t decipher without paper and pencil. Its interesting to note that Sydney deliberately breaks the pencil and pushes it through the screen, followed by a rolled up scrap of paper and so the dance continues.

Irina takes the paper and pencil. She begins decoding, and as she writes, says,
“Mmm…you know you haven’t asked me how I could shoot my own daughter.” And Sydney responds coldly, “No…I haven’t!” When Irina hands the paper back to Sydney, she warns her that Sark won’t hesitate to kill her. “I don’t want to lose the chance to explain myself someday.”

Then as if to assuage the sorrow her mother has shown, Sydney tells her about the Thanksgiving play and her part, playing a turkey. As she walks out of the cellblock, Irina whispers “Thank you.” Both hands are pressed against the glass window, her head turned to watch Sydney. We are filled with sympathy for the mother who needed to know what had happened twenty years ago. Upstairs we see Jack watching it all on the monitor. He is not happy about the encounter.

Jack decides to visit his ex-wife. Irina is doing some push-ups when she hears the buzzer go off. This is to notify her she has a visitor. She shows exasperation on her face. “Now what?” she thinks. She hears the footsteps. They are not ones she has heard before, at least not recently. She turns around staring into Jack’s face. He shows no emotion at seeing her. She gets up comes to the window, telling him how she felt during their marriage. “I may have been under orders to fabricate a life with you, but there were times when the illusion of our marriage was as powerful to me as it was for you.”

A dynamite disclosure which Jack ignores, as he faces her with his own agenda. If he had thought about what she had said, it might have given him insight into how she viewed their marriage. She bore him a child who she loved. In a roundabout way, I believe she was telling him she had loved him. Now, looking at his stern almost fore-boding visage, she says, “-- the illusion is finally gone.” Is it? Perhaps in that moment, it is.

Jack almost not listening to her, gives her an ultimatum. “—if Sydney in any way becomes victim to your endgame, I will kill you.” Would he? He has been torn apart by the actions of the woman before him. His imprisonment was due to her spying. The ensuing months of drinking also was because of the betrayal of his love by her. His salvation had been Sydney, realizing that if he didn’t take care of her, other people would and he would lose the only thing he thought he had left from the ten years “Laura” and he been married.

He turns and stalks out. Irina, however, has the last word when she calls after him, “You haven’t told her what you did to her after I disappeared…have you?”

Did to her—Sydney? And how would Irina know? After all she had been gone from their lives for twenty years. What did Jack do to his daughter? Why hasn’t he told her. This opens another avenue. Was there someone who Irina had watching her husband and daughter, following Sydney’s growing up? I think there might have been someone close enough to watch and report. After all Irina did become a very powerful underworld criminal and could certainly afford to pay for it. But who was it? If there was no one, then how did she know? She knew about the Christmas Project, but after she left how did she find out Jack gave Sydney the training he outlined in his project papers?

(If any of you have an answer, feel free to jump into the pan.)

Question, question and more questions, as each episode seems to generate more of them. The dance program is filling up.

Great article!!

Yes, it's a great article.

"Cipher" is one of my favourites episodes. It's the first time where i realized Irina loved certainly Sydney...

Indeed, in saison 1 Sydney remembers her mother like a loving woman, tender mother but in the first épisode (of saison 2) Irina shoots her. What mother would shoot her own daughter ??? In "Trust me", the reunion between the two is cold, at least... Even in "I'm your mother", the sentence sound hard...

Here, i start to love Irina

Those words were said with, what I think, is an amazingly strong will to justify what she has done, and why she didn't return to them; to reconnect with Sydney, and later on, Javk as well.

A brilliant article lenafan! Keep up the amazing work! I'm glad I finally pulled myself away from AA, it's totally worth it!

K. Ackles Posted on Aug 2 2003, 01:35 AM

What an amazing character Irina Derevko is...along with Jack...what a pair of agents they would make working together (as we saw in Passage I and II) and then during A Dark Turn, which turned out somewhat the way I expected, but hoped not. She is a delight to write about, muse about and analyze.
Thanks for the nice words. :blush01:
B)

I would love to see Jack and Irina work together again. They compliment each other so nicely! Even in Kashmir they were great!

yep and panama, i can't seem to stop myself from reading these, which is a good thing i might add

It's like a drug...I'm addicted!

I hope they work together, even if it isn't CIA. They would make an unstoppable team!