This season starts without Irina and we can only hope Lena Olin will be scheduled sometime during it as a guest star.
So I decided to focus on Sydney. Hence the title. Would love to hear your opinion and answers to the questions raised at the end of column.
B)

SYDNEY BRISTOW
The Two – Episode 1
“I Know How To Spell Your Name”

Alias opened with a dazzling episode that kept us on edge the entire one-hour. JJ Abrams did not disappoint. You’ll notice I have headed the beginning of the season with Sydney as the primary. It’s evident that Irina is not yet available to discuss although she is mentioned. Let’s hope that sometime in the future she will show up. However, this season is one that will have Sydney searching for her two lost years. Already, the series is beginning to rev the audience up.

The show opens with a reprise of last year’s ending with Vaughn telling Sydney she was missing for almost two years. She discovers his wedding ring and that he is married. He tells her he is no longer with the CIA, but instead, a teacher. He tells her about a fire at her apartment. They found Will alive, but her remains and there was a DNA match. She wants to know about her father. They have asked Vaughn to bring her back. Standing she asks him how much longer she has to get use to the idea of losing two years out of her life. He stands and she attacks ferociously telling him, “You’re not Vaughn! You son of a bitch, are you working for Sloane?”

The door opens. Another agent enters and she proceeds to do him in with two strong kicks. Vaughn tries to stop her and she gives him one to the chest, knocking him to the floor. Racing outside the safe house, Sydney encounters two more agents and disposes of them in a great fight sequence, using all of her Krav maga training with a broom and garbage can lid. Just as she is ready to get away, she is struck by a tranc. She turns and sees Vaughn holding the gun. As she sinks to the ground, Vaughn grabs hold of her, and she loses consciousness.

The next sequence shows some “fuzzy” figures and you hear weird voices. It was my impression that the next to last one, however, briefly seen was her mother. Of course, that might be just my imagination at work. Still I’ve seen the show five times now and that was my first impression.

She wakes up in bed at a naval hospital with needles, monitors and hanging bags of medicine and the beepers going crazy. Dixon strides into the room. Sydney goes ballistic trying to get him to answer the millions of questions she has, especially after he tells her that he has been appointed the new director of the center. Hooray! Dixon tells her that he has been in charge for six months. Weiss comes in looking fit and trim. Sydney smiles and is happy to see him, someone else from her past. He and Dixon step outside and Sydney overhears part of the conversation. Paris…The Covenant…Scott Kingsley. When he comes back, Sydney wants to know where her father is. Dixon tells her he’s in prison. Put there by the National Security Council and is not allowed visitors, no exceptions.

The scene switches to the train from Paris to Avignon. Men enter a coach and begin killing innocent passengers. The man, Scott Kingsley, fights back, running to the next car only to find all the passengers dead as the villains enter the door in front of him. He is shot, tortured, and then killed after he tried to palm off the wrong chip. The chief villain then locates the chip inside a coin that was in Kingsley’s pocket.

Sydney tells Weiss that she thinks she knows where she was for two years. She is taken by Weiss back to the Center where she meets Robert Lindsey from the NSC and Dixon. They tell her that the plans for a drone plane that can fly under radar and deliver bio-weapons and chemicals have been stolen. Lindsey wants to know if she recognizes the interior of the building in Paris. Lindsey wants her to go on the mission that has been set up to retrieve the chip. If she can recognize anything inside that would help. Dixon doesn’t want to send her. He and Lindsey argue. Sydney tells them she won’t go unless she can see her father now.

Weiss drives her to the prison and she is put into a room. Shortly after that, a door opens opposite a panel of glass, and her father, wearing handcuffs is led inside. He stands before her, bearded, wearing khaki shirt and pants. He looks at her.

“Sweetheart, you look so beautiful.”

Sydney wants to know what happened that the NSC would put him in solitary confinement. Jack tells her that he was obsessed with her death and was hunting for her killer. Then he says,

“At one point, I needed help. I contacted the one person I believed I could trust under the circumstances, your mother.”
“You were working with Mom?”

The NSC questioned his loyalty to the U. S. when he was found to be collaborating with someone who was number six on the CIA’s most wanted list. Lindsey, in a power play, had Jack put into prison. Sydney sobs out how she feels and that everything’s changed including the fact that Vaughn has married. Jack is surprised.

Jack says strongly, “Michael Vaughn is just a boy who was never good enough for you!” Now doesn’t that sound like a father?

Then he tells her that she must regain the trust of the CIA so she can at least access his personal files where he has stored the information that led to his knowing she was alive. As she is about to leave, Jack says,

“You probably know this, but I love you.”

Oh my God! How long has it taken him to say the words out loud to her? Anyway, Sydney goes to Paris with Weiss and his team. There are six including Sydney who enter the building. As they search the building, Dixon and Lindsey watch and listen on the COM links. Suddenly, Dixon sees men rushing into the building. He tells “Retriever”, Weiss, to pull back and get out. Too late, every agent but Weiss and Sydney is killed. Sydney gets out of a trap by mixing two chemicals together and throwing it at her attackers. At the that moment, the same man who led the raid on the train, show’s up and grabs Weiss. He’s about to cut his throat when Sydney runs down the hall, stopping when she sees him. He jumps up, running out a nearby door. Sydney follows and he gets away.

Sydney is sad and believed she was responsible for the deaths of the other agents. It was an ambush. Weiss tells her she wasn’t responsible even though’ she confesses that she lied in order to see her Dad; that she still doesn’t know what happened to her or where she was. Weiss tells her she should look up Arvin Sloane in Zurich. He says Sloane negotiated a pardon for himself and is a consultant for the CIA. Sydney is stunned. He also says that Arvin runs a world health organization called Omnifam. He probably could help her. She leaves telling Weiss they never had this conversation.

In Zurich, Sydney enters the office to see Sloane. He tells her he was expecting her. He gives her a file that shows a picture of the man in the hallway and who laid the raid on the train. He is Gorde Volkov, a NVD assassin and hit man. Then he makes the big mistake of saying:

“---remember the bond we had between us. I loved you like a daughter…”

Sydney grabs the front of his shirt and holds a knife to his throat, but he tells her he runs an organization that feeds millions of children and is working hard to find a cure for cancer. She sees a magazine on his desk that features him on the cover. She lets him go.

He tells her that the Rambaldi device he put together, Il Dire, gave him a message. “Peace.” He’s had an epiphany and as a result, he turned over information to the CIA that led to the dismantling of over two-dozen terrorist organizations. Sydney doesn’t believe him and tells him the CIA is crazy to trust him. She leaves.

She makes a dozen or so calls, trying to find a contact from her past. She finally finds one who meets her in a restaurant. He gives her the information she wants: where Gorde Volkov is going to turn the chip over. He asks if she is going to have back up. She tells him she doesn’t need any.

The scene switches to LA where Dixon confronts Lindsey. He found out that the NSC has listed Sydney Bristow as an “enemy of the state”. Dixon says that makes her a target. They should use their resources to locate her and that he wants her back in the office alive.

Sydney, somewhere in Prague, disguises herself in a red dress and a red wig. Sounds familiar doesn’t it? She drives away in a red Ferrari (?) heading to the street Volkov will be driving to. Getting out of the car, she stands in the center of the street waiting as his car drives up. She smiles knowingly and he smiles too, thinking she is someone to pick up. Instead, she pulls an armored pistol, fires and blows his car into a burning mass of wreckage. Volkov jumped from the car as she fired. She walks over and searches his left jacket pocket finding the chip. She puts one handcuff on his wrist, but as soon as she does, he hits her. She tries to get him down, but he grabs her around the neck, a knife in his hand. She reaches back and hooks the other cuff to his belt, then slams her elbow into his solar plexus, turns him and kicks him straight into the wall … and into his own knife.

Sydney returns to the CIA headquarters. Weiss sees her and the look on her face. He gives a little smile. Sydney has the chip. She enters Dixon’s office where Lindsey is talking to him. Dixon sees her and says her name. Lindsey turns. Sydney brings out the chip and tells him she has the plans they wanted so desperately. She will give it to them only if her father is released. Lindsey refuses. She pulls out a mini blowtorch, fires it up holding the chip close. If he doesn’t give her Dad a get out of jail card, she will torch the chip. Lindsey says he won’t be blackmailed. Sydney starts counting down from five. Dixon warns him she will do exactly as she says. She is about to burn the chip when Lindsey gives in and begins to write the note releasing Jack Bristow from prison. She begins to spell the name for him. He says,

“I know how to spell your name!” If he hadn’t before, he sure knew now.

Next, there is one heck of a powerful scene between Sydney and Vaughn, in which she tells him that if circumstances had been reversed, she would have waited. She would have had more faith. It was evident that he did not. He wanted closure, she said, and she was not about to give it to him. There was a lot said with intensity and passion and I felt that Sydney had finally grown up.

Later, at work, Jack comes back into the center. They hug and he thanks her for getting him out. He then takes her someplace private and proceeds to show her the reason he knew she was alive. Sydney watches herself on the screen meet a Russian diplomat Jack was investigating. Then, to her horror, she watches herself cut the diplomat’s throat.

It was a dazzling opener and I hope JJ doesn’t lose focus. This almost matched season two when Mom met her daughter. Of course, those of us who might be called fanatics and addicts have a few questions. I’m going to list them. I’d love to hear what you think.

Do you think after seeing this episode Sydney was taken by her mother, by Sloane or someone else and if so, who?

Was Vaughn wrong to believe that Sydney was dead? Why, since he said her DNA indicated the body was hers?

Do you think Jack should have been put into solitary confinement for contacting his legal wife, Irina Derevko, about their daughter? He gave her no secrets. His only purpose was to work with the one person he could trust to help find Sydney’s killer. He knew that she loved her daughter. (What he doesn’t know is that she loves him also.)

Did Francie/Allison die? Was she the one Vaughn says he buried?

Do you believe Arvin Sloane? Did Il Dire tell him one word, “Peace”? What about the prophecy?

Do you think Arvin Sloane is behind the new criminal organization, The Covenant? Is it possible that Irina Derevko has surfaced to head it up?

Finally, is there a mole in the CIA, whose only purpose is to inform and help Irina Derevko watch out for Sydney? Did he/she switch the DNA results in order to make everyone believe she was dead?

Well addicts and fanatics, that was the best season opener so far and I’ve seen quite a few. I think someone who turned on Alias, could be hooked, simply because the plot line is about Sydney and her quest to find out how she lost two years of her life. It was the best, again, of the new season.

OMG

I am loving season 3 and can't wait for sunday night now!

I think Jack being put in solitary comfinement- for talking to his legal wife about his daughter is a crazy mistake on Lindsey's part. Who can tell a parent not to look for a missing child. Any parent would, and many do- and god knows in this case- ( the whole spy family scenario) to have Sydney arrange his rescue in mexico city- chase after her mother- and return home to deal with the whole AG Doren mess- even if she were dead- jack would have been crazy with grief. As he says "obsessed with your death" Jack needs to find answers and in the case of Sydney- he really needs to know where she is and how she is dong.

2 years- 1 of which he is in prison completely unable to do anyhting? If it were me I would have gone crazy with frustration. Thankfully he had discovered she was alive and he only had to torture himslef with the knowledge that she was out there somewhere working as an assasin or pawn for God Knows who- in how much danger- while he gets to rot in jail and worry himself silly. The whole "I love you and sweetheart you look so beautiful and micheal vuaghn is just a boy who was never good enough for you- oh oh oh as a jack brsitow /victor garber fan I was cheering myself hoarse while bawling. Finally. and then at the end when he embraces her and says Thank you I think he is saying thank you for so many things- "thank you for saving my life in mexico city thank you for being alive and safe thank you for getting me out of jail thank you for loving me thank you for putting up with all of my crap all of your life and loving me"


I am dying to see Irina and hear what she knows- i suspect she will show up in episode 3 entitled "the reunion." Perhaps the bristows will all go rogue and reunite as a family- one can only hope Jack and Irina have some passionate moments and some time together with their daughter.

I am curiois by Jack saying "at the time" Irina was number 6 on the CIA wanted list

does this mean/foreshadow that her status has changed? is she no longer wanted by the CIA? or is she now number 1

I wonder myself if Irina took her and was stonewalling jack by attempting to help him?

The proephecy? well we need to know what that scar is all about- something sinsiter is brewing and I need a bit more to try and solve this mystery. God to get inside JJ abrams head for a week- sigh-


I loved the angry speech sydney gave vaughn. You really see her pain - and in his eyes you see so much regret and shame- He did lose faith- or did he?
is this marriage a cover he has to keep from her to solve something-

as for who was buried- it could be doren becasue i did not see merrin dungey in the credits but only JJ knows and i wil have a better idea once I see the next episode and get a feel for S 3. I want to see Will, meet mrs vaughn and see what Jack will do now that he is out of jail. How will Sydney handle seeing herself as an assassin? What the devil is vaughn gong to do this season- and Weiss is much more prominent.

Will Sydney be "punished" for blackmailing Lindsey into letting Jack out of jail?
technically they could lock her up- but I don't hink that will happen.

what happened to the di regno heart????


only a few more days till sunday

Brenda

brenda_wood posted Oct.2, 2003 11:15 a.m.

Well, that's another question to bring up? Where is it? or Who's wearing it? I can't believe it was one of the 47 parts that went to make up Il Dire.
And what about Sydney's scar? we see it, we hear about it. I don't believe anything was planted in her because while she was out (tranc), they would have x-rayed her head to foot.
The promos showed Vaughn back in the CIA acting as handler again. YIPES! And also him telling her "he loved her so much." I hope Jack's around to warn her that he's a boy!
Syd's much tougher and doesn't flinch, esp while watching Volkov die...
And in the promo, she meets Lauren. Ooohh boy!
B)

first of all, i absolutely love you for writing this awesome column. and my what a breathtaking episode that was. secondly i'll have some fun anwsering these questions:

no idea but i highly doubt irina had sydney since she was looking for her with jack.

yes he was, and sydney did loose a lot of blood in that fight with francie, i could just be some left-over blood they found from that.

no, jack is really cool, lol. and someone just wanted to stop him from moving up rank in the c.i.a.

i sure hope allison died, and what vaughn buried someone? must'vemissed that part.

no, he still has some evil DNA left.

don't really think he's behind this or irina for that matter.

there might be a mole but i highly doubt it.


that's all i got, can't wait to read another column sometime next week, i assume.

Okay. here goes.... B)
LOVE LOVE LOVED :wub: the premiere!!! Awesome job to JJ!! :lol:
First Q: I think she was taken by Sloane AND someone else, someone with power now. The same someone that had their hands in the brainwashing and training of Danny's killer. THAT would be a shocker/twist!!
Second Q: I believe the facts came out, the 'evidence' and he was in disbelief. Our Vaughn, we HAVE to believe, wouldn't just take that as the truth though so.... :unsure:
here's a thought that my sister thought of....she thinks that he was tricked into believing it was Sydney. Like the way Allison did those hypno-things on Will, the same thing was done on Vaughn, telling him to believe that yes, Sydney was gone and yes, I am going to bury her and move on. :huh:
I know, it's a little out there. BUT....it fits!!?? :wacko: Now, for who is DOING it to him....well, she thinks it's his wife, who's REALLY working for whoever had Sydney. Yeah, the whole Laura/Irina thing back and at it. I think that it's someone else and that Lauren IS a good person who loves her husband and respects what happened between him and Sydney. I'll RESPECT the women, but THAT'S it!! You can't make me LIKE her!!!! :innocent:
Third Q: No, I think that was all that Lindsey guy, he needs a butt chewing from ALL the Bristows available!!! But I think that he wasn't just getting info from her and working with her I think that they also totally reconciled their relationship and are back together...until he was put in jail.

That's what I thought too!! I was like 'at the time'? What's THAT all about? I'm SOO interested in that little bit of the story line!!! :reallyexcited:
Fourth Q: Yes, I think her body was used for 'Sydney's' body, the one they buried. I think 3 bullet wounds and an a**kicking by Sydney Bristow just about does it for ya'!! :P
Fifth Q: HELL NAHHHH!!!!!! I think it told him more, like what Irina was saying about Sydney being a part of the Prophecy or something. It HAS to have a connection to that scar of Sydney's too. That's a part of the puzzle that I believe is really important. I don't think anything was implanted in her. The CIA would have found it. I think that there WAS something in her that was taken OUT! By who!? I don't know and why? Not sure. :blink:
Sixth Q: Yes, if not completly, a big partner of it all. He's a worm and always will be, especially if it has something to do with his obsession, Rambaldi which in turn means Sydney since she's supposedly a part of the Prophecy.
But I don't think Irina is a part of it truthfully. Like, IF she's a part of it, it's only as a front to keep an eye on Sloane some how and keep in touch with what's going on the 'bad guys' team.
Seventh Q (last one, WHEW!): I'm not sure on the mole scenerio. Maybe if their is one, I think it would be to make sure no one goes looking into Sydney's death to find that it was all a lie, to keep the secret that Sydney was still a lie and all that jazz quiet. Not sure, that's a toughy. :huh:
Well, that took FOREVER!! But I loved being able to express my thoughts!! :P
Thanx Lenafan!!! :reallyexcited: :rolleyes: :D
Colly E. :bunny:

Light Traveller posted on Oct. 2, 2003

Actually he contacted Irina about helping him find Sydney's killers. I don't know if he had time to tell her that Sydney was alive, before being put into prison.

Arvin Sloan may be behind Omnifam, but given he's the primary villan, my bet is he's the one behind The Covenant.

Colly E. posted on October 2, 2003:

I am fairly sure that Lauren didn't meet Vaughn until in the second year of Sydney's disappearance. Just remember, it wasn't her fault that it interfered with the S?V relationship. He's the one who lost faith!

Thanks again for the nice words and yes, I'll be continuing the column for the season. :blush01: :blush01:
B)
PS: Colly, I like your new sig.

I agree, at least one of the images really looked like Irina. But we'll have to see. . .

Definitely. I love it when Jack gets all paternal. And the "I love you" . . . yeah, I was crying. a lot. soooo sweet.

Uh-huh. Yeah. Right. AN EPIPHANY? IS HE KIDDING US? Sloane? NEVER!

Yay, now I get to express my opinion! You know how I love to rant and rave about Alias!

Not her mother, probably not Sloane. Most likely someone else. Having seen 3.02, I'm probably a little affected by what was revealed, but at the time I watched this episode, I wasn't sure who else, just that it wasn't Sloane or her mother.

Well, I guess he did need to move on, but come on, a body which was most likely completely burned and unrecognizable? And I'm sure that you can fake DNA test stuff, although I know very little about it. Vaughn has really gone down in my estimation since this season started.

The whole Jack and Irina working together thing? The stuff that dreams are made of for us Drunken Toasters. I guess according to the CIA he was working with a "terrorist", and that was enough for them to put him behind bars, athough it's possible Lindsey or someone had a grudge against him, and that's why he was imprisoned.

Arvin Sloane and Peace in the same sentence? NEVER!

Ok, running out of time here. Thanks for letting me babble on about my insane and probably stupid opinions. Great column, lenafan! Thanks for the PM!

I know what u mean here, but the actual sentence seems a bit...off...

My second favourite scene in the whole episode!!! :)

This kinda implies that she killed him...she didn't kill him? Did she???

Hmmm...I'll have to check that out tomorrow...

If I recall...she has more than a million questions :P She would've been happier if she'd only had a million questions *chuckles*

Sydney didn't overhear the conversation...she read Weiss and Dixons lips, so she knew all (or at least most) of the conversation.

They certainly mean that...he can't even see his daughter who has just come back from being missing for two whole years! You think they would've made an exception, but nooooo.

How are all of these passengers dead if the one set of men came from behind him, and the other set in front of him? I mean, did somebody enter the coach and then leave and then come back, or am I missing something???

Hehehe...don't go spending that by accident! :lol:

First, I think he actually asked about the exterior of the building.

Wasn't it the FBI's most wanted list?

Doesn't this mean that he only got married within the past year? Surely Jack would've known about it if he was a free man?

Those 2 years certainly had an effect on him. He's not taking chances that she'll just 'know'. :) Sweet!

The one was Sodium (if the jar was correctly labeled) so I'm guessing she mixed up some Sodium Nitrate :)

I'm tempted to agree with her, I don't care what kind of epiphany Sloane had.

All she needs are clothes!

Yup. Red Ferrari. Could give you model, but don't think that matters :lol:

A pistol wouldn't have done that to a car, I think it was more of a flare gun (or a sophisticated flare gun type thingy)

She also has a 'walk' for things like this.

And that was an awfully cheeky comment she used just to prove to him that she was in charge. Totally Brilliant!

Yay! Interactive question time!

Well...I think somebody else, because if she was taken by Sloane even before his epiphany, he would have no more use for her, and it would have taken him most of those 2 yrs to become CEO/director of that company-esque thing of his. I don't think it was Irina either, because if she was working with Jack, I think she still loves him enough not to let him go through the agony of that. Especially if they had been working together so long ago (like a year at least). Anyways, those are my thoughts on the issue.

I'm gunna say yes, because surely he made his 'star connection' soon after her apparent death. But if Jack believed she was alive, why didn't Vaughn? Was he looking for closure, and perhaps ignoring any evidence that she was alive? And surely it should have taken him more than two years to completely get over her.

In the eyes of the state, he shouldn't have contacted her at all. Legal wife or no. So they put him in solitary. It was a bit harsh, but as Jack said, the NSC wanted to make an example of him.

Not sure...I think I may have missed something here...

I promised 2 season ago not to believe Sloane...but he's got one hell of a cover operation if he's lying. In the public spotlight, maybe not...hmmm...I'm unresolved about this issue...

For some reason I doubt it, but I could be wrong. I don't have any proof either way, but as I said above, if it is Sloane, he has quite the cover operation.

There is ALWAYS a mole in the CIA. I don't know if that will have anything to do with the story this season though.

Okay, so that's my opinion/review thingy. And in replying, keep in mind that I'm totally unspoiled except this eppy :) :)

Hey
Cool review. I'm not going to respond to your first impressions of the review. However, let's discuss the discussion questions. :rolleyes:

There was no evidence that she was still alive until Jack saw her. Two years was enough for our so-called hero..He just got on with his life.

I'd like to know HOW they found out they were working together? I wrote a story called Sydney is Dead..if you haven't read it, do so, it's my version of what happened during their collaboration.

Actually not much was told to SYdney at all about either Will or Francie.

Think about it. Remember season 2. This time we're talking Sydney's guardian angel and I don't mean Vaughn. The mole has only one job: keeping tabs on Sydney and her whereabouts while she's working as a CIA agent.

Okay ... you're going to love the next several episodes.
We're on 11 tomorrow.
B)

Dum dum dum...well, I'd like to know how they knew Jack was working with Irina!

After seeing the second episode, I don't think I can blame him for moving on...but I stil don't like him!

K. Ackles Posted on Jan 17 2004, 03:36 AM

Possibly they were seen together. They evidently met somewhere. He had to tell her about Sydney. Oh there I go romanticizing again :wub: ..."Sydney is dead" is a good story... And after all, Irina was on the CIA's most wanted list still. B)