IRINA DEREVKO
“SHE’S HAD IT COMING” – Episode 6
As in The Indicator, Irina Derevko is prevalent throughout the episode, until at the end she is brought back to Intelligence Operations Center, during a rainstorm, and in chains again. Her daughter, Sydney, sits at the window, watching her mother who has fallen into her bunk and is asleep.
In the beginning, the episode has Sydney talking to Vaughn who agrees to help her see the opening remarks at her mother's trial. Sydney is distraught enough to ask for a joke, which was a dull one at best. Later, at SD-6, Jack tries to explain why he programmed Sydney "after your mother left". She, of course, at this point doesn't trust anything he says.
Two things: First, there's that word trust again. I'm beginning to think that's the theme of this whole season. There hasn't been one episode so far that doesn't use the word in one context or the other. "Trust Me" … trust you, trust her, trust him and on and on infinitum.
The second thing was Jack's statement "after your mother left”. The truth is she ran to one, save herself and two, to keep Sydney from knowing that her mother had been a spy for a foreign nation. It was a well-known fact in the 1970's and 80's that KGB agents, known as ‘illegals’, often turned themselves into the FBI seeking asylum. This was preferable to returning to the Soviet Union where they would be regarded with suspicion as CIA double agents. In most cases, each of the ‘illegals’ had become enamored of the way of life they had been living. They were usually sent into a witness protection program.
If we examine the circumstances of her running and the so-called fatal accident, we have to come to a far different conclusion than Jack. She knew the FBI was going to arrest her for not only espionage, but for murder. Her handler worked in the FBI and knew what the warrant would say. He warned her and she escaped. There was no place for her to go, but back to Russia. The U.S. Government would not deal with an assassin, especially since she was allegedly supposed to have savagely killed 12 agents.
For the moment, I want to examine two points of view as presented by the script regarding these ‘murders’. In this episode, Senator Douglas states that she pled guilty to the 86 counts of espionage that led to the deaths of twelve agents. Then Jack tells Sydney in another scene that Irina pled guilty to keep Sydney from seeing photos of the agents she savagely murdered, including Vaughn's father. In the same episode, there are two different statements regarding Derevko's crimes. So what was the truth? You should know the KGB put their "illegals" in the U. S. to spy, not to kill. It would be extremely imprudent to ask an important spy such as Irina, now married to a CIA agent, to kill other CIA agents. It is more likely that her espionage led to their killings.
As Sydney watched in growing dismay, her mother was given the death sentence for her crimes. Not only that, she opted to not appeal, thus insuring her death by lethal injection. She writes a letter telling the CIA Handler Director that her father was behind the Madagascar affair, not her mother. Her father has intercepted the letter and tells Sydney that her mother's latest maneuver has worked.
Sydney asks, "What maneuver would that be?"
Jack answers, "Pleading guilty, accepting the death penalty”.
Sydney responds: "Yep. She's got us right where she wants us."
It's interesting that Jack believes Irina did this to get Sydney's attention and sympathy. His anger/hate/love for this woman he has never been able to forget, makes him paranoid regarding her ability to get herself out of a seemingly life ending threat. Naturally, she is depending on her daughter to save her. Jack really believes she has the power to persuade almost anyone to do what she wants. I believe she loved Jack. If she hadn't she would never have had a child by him. It was certain the KGB would not have been happy about this event, although she could have told them it was an unfortunate mistake. Irina must have persuaded her government she would do her ‘job’. She continued to do so while becoming a mother of a little girl she apparently loved.
So, Sydney once more makes a quick judgment before thinking things through. Jack, unfortunately, has been dwelling on his wife far too long and, going in the opposite direction, has overanalyzed her actions during the ten years she was married to him.
Jack turns himself in after their mission is completed. Knowing that he has to make it up to Sydney, he tells the senator that he loves her more than he could ever say. Could it be, he knows she'll be watching and this is the only way he can tell her his feelings? Now who's playing Sydney?
By cell phone, Vaughn has to tell her that Jack is being sent to prison for lying to his government and that her mother is still going to be executed the next morning. Sydney is not left with much time to correct this piece of fuzzy thinking on the part of the government that also employs her. Being Sydney, smart, audacious and spur-of- the moment actor, she hi-jacks the senator and tells him a horrendous lie: a U. S. Senator works for the Alliance and that she, her father and mother have been trying to learn the name of that senator. It has the desired effect; both parents are released.
Jack confronts his daughter and she tells him about the lie. She did it to get both her parents back. Two reasons are obvious: she has just learned that her father loves her and two, she has just begun to know her mother whose cooperation with the CIA had been exemplary to this time. Jack tells her that even though he believes Irina is up to something, he will not stand in the way of his daughter's desire to interact with her mother.
For someone not seen in the episode, Irina Derevko impacted it immensely. Jack is forced to reveal his true feelings for his daughter. Sydney comes to understand him a little better, although there is still a long way to go. Both parents are very complex individuals. It's also interesting to note, Sydney has never asked her mother about the murders.
Oh well, another episode coming up.
A great analysis of Jack, Sydney and Irina! It's amazing that we still don't have half a clue what Irina's motives are, and she's been around for an entire season
