IRINA DEREVKO
COUNTDOWN – EPISODE 7
“I didn’t do it for you.”

In this episode, we have an Irina and Vaughn exchange which borders on the
“Anything you can do I can do better” genre. Countdown starts with our seeing Vaughn bleeding from the fingernails. He knows he has to get to the doctors, but he also is aware Irina Derevko might know if there is an antidote.

He goes to the Op Center to see her. She thanks him for saving her life. He says “I didn’t do it for you.” He is, of course, reminding her that Sydney was his priority and certainly not she. I found this exchange particularly lacking in one thing. Vaughn really didn’t save her. He only proved that it was Jack who set up Sydney in Madagascar, not Irina. It was Sydney who saved both parents with a daring lie to the Senator.

Vaughn wants to know what Khasinau might have learned from his experiments with the “red ball” fluid. He knows she has said she would only interact with Sydney, but there isn’t much time.

“You’re the one who’s sick.” She states.
“Yes.” He answers.
“Tell me how you feel about my daughter.” She asks.
“That’s none of your business.”
“Are you in love with her?” She asks.
“I don’t know why that matters to you.” He responds.

I think it does matter to her, a lot. She hasn’t had a chance to be around Sydney for twenty years and now she is getting to know her bit by bit. Of course, she needs information as fast as she can get it. So, Vaughn promises to tell her, if she will help him.
He collapses though before getting to the doctors.

Sydney rushes down to see her mother and ask for help. Irina obviously tells Sydney what she probably told Vaughn about the antidote. Jack is, as always, skeptical. But Sydney insists on going through with the mission. She has to save Vaughn. She cares a great deal about him by now even though neither has expressed their “love.”

Meanwhile Sloane is interrogating Richter about Irina’s base of operations. He knows she has “gone into hiding.” He also knows she has some of the Rambaldi artifacts and he wants them. Eventually he learns nothing and orders him killed.

Sydney is caught by Sark who is at the base in Estonia. He forces her to agree to kill Sloane for him and in exchange he will give her the special formula she had made that would save Vaughn. She goes to Tokyo where Sloane is in a meeting with another member of the Alliance. She poison’s him for Sark, watching the ambulance drive away with Sloane, who apparently is dying. However, later we see that Sark revived Sloane. He gives him a piece of paper which would explain what happened and why. This leaves all of us up in the air until the end of the season.

However Vaughn is saved. He returns to the cellblock to see Irina, who is waiting for him.

“You asked me some questions. I told you I’d answer them if you helped me. You did help me and I thank you for that.”

“I didn’t do it for you.” She says quietly, reminding him that neither would do anything for the other if it weren’t for Sydney’s sake. I think she knows now that Vaughn is a complication to her continuing her relationship mending with her daughter.

Vaughn tries to explain how difficult it is, forgetting that Irina was once in a similar situation. After all, she was a KGB agent who also was weighted down with “rules and regulations.” He tells her that his life has become much more difficult since he met Sydney. She reminds him that he hasn’t even told the one person that does matter. And once more, Vaughn forgets Irina’s own personal knowledge of what it means to be an intelligence agent. It’s as though he doesn’t think she understands the complexities of being in counter intelligence.

“And between a man and a woman?” She says quietly, staring at him.

I think this is an important statement here. Irina is Sydney’s mother and even though she hasn’t been around her for twenty years or helped raise her, she understands the complexities of love. She’s been there – with Jack and probably still is, deep in her heart. She has given Vaughn something to think about. She’s pushing him to make his feelings known to Sydney. Although she may have a deeper purpose in giving herself up, as Jack expects, she genuinely wants Sydney out from under the eye of the CIA and SD-6. She would never have wanted her daughter to follow in her father’s footsteps.

Earlier in the episode, Jack and Sydney have a talk about her going to Tokyo to murder Sloane. In a speech, which I found pompous, especially on his part, considering who he is and what he does, Jack tells Sydney it was a choice he never wanted her to make.

“To kill someone and I’m not talking about self-defense, I’m talking premeditated murder. To be there when the door closes on him for the last time. Knowing you are responsible. That is something you never came close to considering before getting to know your mother.”

I thought that was below the belt here. Sydney probably wasn’t even thinking about Irina. Her only concern was Vaughn. She would do anything to save him and she was, after all, contracting to kill the devil! Isn’t that what she wanted to do anyway? As for Jack’s remark about killing only in self-defense, I thought about his own history as a double agent and how he had taken the life of Hadlaki. He knew going in that confrontation, he wasn’t going to let the traitor live. I considered that being two-faced as he pontificated morals and ethics to his daughter.

Next: Passage 1 and II - The family goes to Kashmir for nukes.
I found out ABC is not going to put this two-parter on, yet it was one of the best. So based on the transcripts and copies of the shows, I will post an analysis of the two together as well as one on Abduction which shows Sunday July 6th. B)

Great anaylsis, lenafan.

More brilliant work! Thanks for all the PM's!

one of my favorite endings, okay have to go to bed but i'll be up early morning(11:00 at the earliest) to read the rest of these amazing columns

Thanks everyone. :blush01: :D

VAgentGill Posted on Jul 5 2003, 08:22 PM

Thanks, but I noticed you changed your avatar. I don't recognize her.
B)