SYDNEY BRISTOW
Succession – Episode 2
“You Never Broke”

I really would have liked to call this one of two other titles, “Miss you too!” or “Hi”! However, I’m featuring Sydney in these episodes (until Irina makes an appearance) and so I decided on the quote that gave her insight as to what might have happened to her those two missing years.

The show opens with two men entering an elevator somewhere in Berlin. Suddenly, as it is about half way up, there is an explosion. The elevator falls (remind you of an episode from last year?) and then it is jerked up out of the building by a helicopter. Nice reversal of the other elevator scene.

Meanwhile, Jack has given Sydney a test that proves she wasn’t brainwashed. She probably underwent some form of torture by electrotherapy that caused the amnesia. Sydney wants to tell the CIA about the tape and tells her father that she can’t be trusted, that she doesn’t even trust herself. Jack tells her he trusts her, but that if she tells the CIA about what she did, the agency might detain her indefinitely (prison?) and he needs her help to discover what happened to her.

Sydney, with Weiss’ help, moves into an apartment next to his. She asks him about Vaughn’s new wife, but he doesn’t answer. Instead, he tells her that after she died, Vaughn dropped off the face of the earth for six months. No one knew where he was or what he was doing. Weiss is buzzed on his pager and they both leave for the office.

There they learn that two CIA agents, Klein and Rotter, have been kidnapped and are being held. Jack says he believes the Covenant is behind it. This organization is probably Russian, consisting of former members of the Central Committee and by former KGB agents. Instructions will be left in a box in an adult theatre in Munich. Sydney volunteers to get the box. Dixon agrees to let her go, but tells her she is not the only agent who has “lost time.” There is a meeting at the end of the week and he wants her to attend.

At the theatre, she finds the box and inside is the head of Klein. (Ugh) There is a piece of paper in the mouth. She tells the ComLink listeners it is a list of demands by the kidnappers in Russian. It seems they want Sark and are willing to trade the other agent for him. Lindsey of the NSC wants the trade since Sark has been bled dry of everything he knows. Sydney objects to turning loose a terrorist. Lindsey thinks they want him for revenge and to kill him. It is possible he was responsible for the death of a high-ranking official. As he leaves the room, Lindsey cynically says, “welcome back” to Jack! As Sydney and Jack walk out of the CIA building. Sydney sees her name on the list of agents killed. Jack assures her he will see that it is adjusted. She asks where she was buried. Jack tells she wasn’t, that she was cremated and Vaughn scattered her ashes at sea.

Learning that Vaughn is considering returning to the CIA, Sydney goes to the school where he is teaching French. She says she he’s thinking about rejoining the CIA. She just wanted him to know if he was hesitating because of her, not to worry. Then he tells her about his mourning in the aftermath of her death, when he began to have conversations with her and she answered—in his head. So, that said, he tells her two more things: first “that I was so in love with you.” Secondly, I don’t regret moving on in my life.”

In Zurich, Jack confronts Sloane. He is as unbelieving as Sydney is regarding Sloane’s new life. “You really don’t expect me to believe you’ve changed?”
Sloane tells him about the Rambaldi artifacts and how it gave him only one word, “Peace!”
Jack responds in disgust adding, “you could have acquired that from a fortune cookie!”
“Always the atheist, Jack!” Says Sloane.
“I believe you were responsible for Sydney’s disappearance. Tell me you were and give her some peace.”
Sloan then goes on to remind Jack that he was surprised that Jack contacted his wife, Irina Derevko, for help even though he had sworn never to trust her again. Jack never flinches. (Good for him, because Sydney is her daughter too!)

“Every morally questionable thing I’ve ever done was to protect Sydney!”

Sloane goes to his desk and takes out a disc. On it are all the leads he followed while looking for Sydney. He wants Jack to go through it and see if there was anything on it that he, Sloane, missed.
“If this is your official denial of having nothing to do with Sydney’s disappearance then you have made the mistake of your life, because I’m going to bury you!” And walks out. He meant it too!

Sydney goes to the prison to see Sark who is astonished to see her. He can’t believe that she somehow cheated death. She tells him that she believes he knew who caused the explosion and wants to know whose body was burned. Sark denies having anything to do with it and that if was Sloane, he was not privy to that information. He asks her if she really doesn’t know where she’s been for two years. He laughs, not in an unkind way, but ironically, because “in 24 hrs I’ll be free and you’ll remain in the dark.”

The exchange is going to take place in the Sonoran Desert in Mexico. The CIA brings in two vans and stops. The two cars from the Covenant stop two hundred yards from the CIA vans. The Russians send up a flare and then the CIA does. Sydney frees Sark who looks at her and saying, “My life is in danger, isn’t it?” Sark and Rotter (CIA agent) start walking toward each other. Suddenly, Sydney sees three vehicles heading toward them and a helicopter flies in from behind the CIA group. It is an ambush set up by that no good Lindsey. The Russians and CIA start shooting. Sark and Rotter drop to the ground as bullets sing and zip over them. The helicopter is shot down. Four of the Russian mobsters are hit and a couple of CIA men are hit. Then the one remaining Russian drives out and pointing a gun at them, takes both Sark and Rotter into the car and drives away.

Then there’s an excellent scene between Sydney and Lindsey. She’s leaning against a wall near the door inside the men’s room when he comes out of a stall to wash his hands. They exchange words. He says, “By the way, you’re in the men’s room.” She retorts, “Who let you in?”

Sark and his rescuer meet in a room. The Russian tells him Sark accidentally killed his brother in a car bomb, so he thinks he owes him something. Sark asks how much and the Russian responds with “eight hundred million.” Sark stares and tells him, “I have nowhere near that amount in my nest egg.” “The funny thing is,” says the Russian, you do.”

Vaughn returns to the CIA. He, Sydney and Dixon are talking when Jack joins them. Vaughn says hello and Jack ignores him. Jack tells them his sources have told him that early this same morning at a bank in Europe, Sark and the Russian opened an executive vault, which contained eight hundred million in gold bullion. It belongs to Sark as he is Lazerey’s son and Lazerey was a member of the Romanoff family. As you no doubt remember, he was the Russian diplomat that Sydney killed. Marshall joins them and tells them that they traced the car to Frankfurt. Sydney is going to a synthetic drug club to find the agent, who they believe may still be alive. Otto Udell runs the club.
Sydney meets with her father, still upset that she killed Lazerey and now they find out Sark was his son. It was no coincidence. Sark was released so they could obtain the eight hundred million. Jack tells her that he is going to contact her mother this evening.

That night in a garage, Jack sits in his car, operating his laptop computer. “Distinguished music composer is looking for a music lover.”
“Couldn’t believe it when I saw your ad in the London Globe.” We hear Irina’s mechanical voice.
He types, “Glad you’re alive. Our daughter is alive.”
“My God. How is she?”

“Recovering, although she doesn’t remember the last two years. Need your help in getting background on a man named Adrian Lazerey.”
Will upload information on our FTL site. Miss you.
Jack responds, “Miss you too.”

This begs the question then, during the first year when he contacted Irina about Sydney’s disappearance; did he actually go to see her? If so, where was she? Again, how did he initially know where to contact her? Their “miss you” by Irina and “miss you too” by Jack gave me shivers up my spine. Doesn’t that sound like they had met before he was sent to prison? He still cares for her. I don’t know about you, but I’d sure give anything to see them together again with Sydney. (The next episode is called “Reunion” but don’t count on that happening, especially knowing J. J.s penchant for double meanings.)

(As an aside, my signature here at this site is a picture of Lena Olin alias Irina Derevko, when she was 32. I guess we all know now how beautiful Irina was at that age and how much Jack adored her.)

The scene shifts to Frankfurt. Sydney gains access to Otto Udell, telling him she can triple the money he makes by making his synthetic drugs more addictive. He takes her to his office and gives her a sample. She takes a sample in the syringe, drawing in an air bubble. He sees it and warns her, but she takes him down with the syringe at his neck, warning him if he doesn’t cooperate, she’ll give him an aneurysm. He gives her the information and she knocks him out. At the door, she uses the device Marshall gave her which shows the code that will disable the alarm system. She is about to open the door when Vaughn jumps in and tells her to stop. Putting the code in will trigger the alarm.. He decodes the numbers and comes up with the password, TOPHAT. As soon as she enters it, the alarm system shuts down. Weiss and his men enter, kill two guards as Sydney runs up and pulls a gun and a card key from one guard’s pocket. Going back to the door, she runs the card through the slot and the door opens into a room with one man on a table and the other, the doctor who cut off Stein’s head, standing over him. He tries to shoot Sydney, but she shoots first, sending him crashing into equipment. She releases Rotter who says, “Thank God.”

“You kept your promise! You said you would kill me!” Gasps the doctor. “You were my favorite. You never broke.”

Sydney tries to get him to tell her more, but he dies.

She returns to Los Angeles and attends the meeting with other members who have lost time in their lives. They are all CIA operatives. After the meeting, she returns to CIA headquarters and bursts into Dixon’s office, telling him she doesn’t want to go to those meetings. That she can deal with losing Vaughn on her own. Dixon stops her and introduces her to a young woman. Her name is Lauren Reed and she is the new liaison between the CIA and the NSC. Lindsey took Sydney’s words to heart and decided to return to Washington D.C. The two women shake hands and Lauren says, “By the way, I should tell you that I’m Michael Vaughn’s wife.”

“Hi!” is all that Sydney can say. (Gulp! And that describes the look on her face.)

What a show. J. J. didn’t disappoint.

Hehe!! :P First to reply!!! :reallyexcited:
Yep, another great one down in the books! :rolleyes:
Just a quick post (gotta algebra exam in the morning!) on my fave parts:
I was SOO excited when she went to Vaughn's classroom and we got to hear MV speaking FRENCH!! :drool: LOVE that! :wub:
I thought that whole scene was awesome cause she went there and confronted him so that he didn't second guess coming back to the CIA. I thought that took a lot of sucking up and guts on her part. :)
I LOVED her squabbles with Lindsey!! :D So miss the baldy!! :P HAHA! Kendall would be LhisAO if he knew Sydney was 2-0 in the 'sparring' fights!! :ph43r: And the bathroom scene!? ROTFLMAO!! :lol:
I was REALLY intrigued with the computer conversation Jack and Irina had!! I sounds like our SpyFamily might be back on the road to actually BEING a family!! :reallyexcited:
And the WIFE. Well,...what can I say....I don't like the chic but to me she seemed just as scared to meet Sydney as Sydney was to meet her. :huh: All I can say is, can't wait to see next weeks eppy, cause it looks like we might get some cat fighting action!!! :D
See y'all next week!!! :innocent:
Colly E. :bunny:

beautiful as usually, i'm really impressed at the way you write syd's point of view, it's brilliant simply. but i still loved the little jack and irina chat in the episode, but then again who doesn't. and thanks for the pm

just to tell you even though its a spoiler irina isnt coming back

but i loved this column. Great job.
i totally loved the scene where she was in the bathroom

No one really knows if Irina is never coming back. There is always the possibility Lena Olin will show up as a guest star. If I remember correctly, Bradley Cooper, was supposed to be back according to all reports and he's now in the witness protection plan and Sydney says "I'll never see him again." So spoiler or not, don't believe everything you read or hear. Have faith.
Irina Derevko does live on as Sydney's mom, no matter what!
B)

Irina will live on . . .

hopefully she'll guest star as the season goes on . . .

otherwise I hope to see Jack and her IM each other . . .

but I will always miss her. . .

Yes Sydney was amazing in the washroom . . .

Just before Dixon introduced Lauren and Sydney . .. Lauren overheard Sydney say that she still loves Vaughn . ..

I am soo looking towards a catfight between those two . . .

Yeah, when the scene first started, I was annoyed because they were totally ripping off A Dark Turn (BEST.EPISODE.EVER, in my humble opinion) but then, when the elevator went through the roof, I was like, "cool"!

I totally agree - just to see them together again! And I totally fell for that "Reunion" thing (yes, I read your reviews way too late, sorry!). I was hoping against hope that Irina would make an appearance . . . JJ, do you realize what you're doing to me? Depriving me of my favorite character is not a good idea, not at all. Anyway, straying from the topic at hand, as usual . . .

Completely. I'm kind of on the fence about Lauren - I really don't want to despise and hate her just because she's Vaughn's wife (I'm actually more annoyed at him than her right now) but I felt sooo bad for Sydney at that moment. Poor baby. She never gets a break . . .

My favorite moment of the episode(pretty obvious if you know anything about me): Miss you. - Miss you, too. // *sigh* WE NEED MORE SPYRENTS! NOW!

Great column, lenafan! By the way, I do love your avatar. She is so incredibly gorgeous. . . *sigh*

And this is the CIA talking...they can usually find a lotta people!

This was a seriously moving scene...I was crying *sniff* (oh, and LF, you're quote marks are funny ;) )

That's what I was thinking!!!

Haha! Is he admitting that seeing his wife was in fact morally questionable???

I laughed myself sick at this!!!

There is soooooooo no reason why anyone should hate her, I don't think. She seems kinda nice! Poor Syd though!!! This was an amazing show. Much better than the premiere!

K. Ackles Posted on Jan 17 2004, 03:38 AM

Oops, I missed that. I usually don't have time to give this to my editor. I want to get it up before VH's review on AA.

Based on his oath of allegiance when he joined the CIA. However, at this point in Jack's life, his devotion to his daughter :wub: is unquestionably put above any oath to his country. SO there, MV, take that you wuss!! :angry:

So was Laura Bristow...no, I'm not giving anything away. Still, one should remember that nothing is as it seems in the world of Alias. :rolleyes:

B)

Yeah, I know... *sigh* well...she didn't seem tooooooo bad, but if Alias teaches you anything, it's to not trust anyone! :lol: