This turned out to be a much longer and intricate episode especially since it involved dream sequences. Hope you enjoy it.


SYDNEY BRISTOW
Conscious – Episode 9
“You’re The Greatest”

Somewhere in Southern California in a warehouse district, Sydney wakes up to find herself alone. Crossing an alley, she enters another warehouse to find Jack, Lauren, Vaughn, and Sloane around a table talking about what they must do next. Sloane sees her, then Jack who gets up and goes to her asking if she’s okay. Vaughn tells her they are going to frame the Covenant for her breakout. Sydney thanks all of them, including Lauren for helping her get away from Lindsey and the prison. She even manages a half smile for Vaughn’s wife. Jack also explains to her that Sloane was instrumental in orchestrating her escape. Sloane tells her and the others that his organization, Omifam, has money invested in various research projects and one of them might be able to help her. Jack goes on to say,

“…it’s a non-invasive therapy to retrieve long term memory loss.”

Sydney asks about the co-ordinates she translated for herself. It is somewhere, according to Jack, near the San Andreas Fault. Jack states it was probably buried.
Lauren apologizes to Sydney for not believing her. Then Jack asks about the false information (co-ordinates) that she gave Lindsey. She says she sent him to Simi Valley.

The scene switches to Simi Valley and the police surrounding a liquor store. Lindsey hears from the FBI the place is clean. The agent states he thinks they’ve been played. Lindsey can’t believe Sydney had been able to think to tell him a lie after all they put her through. He insists they check it again. That is too funny when you think about it.

Jack and Sydney head up to the place the coordinates indicate is the spot. Sydney doesn’t know what’s there and has no idea what they will find. The metal detector goes off and they dig.

Shortly after that, we see Dixon in a park with his kids. From two different directions, we see two men walk toward him. He sees them and calls his children to him. The FBI agent tells him he’s being held on the suspicion of conspiracy to impede a Federal investigation, in other words, “helping Sydney.”

Jack and Sydney find a box and it contains a hand with the sign of Rambaldi in the crease between the left thumb and index fingers. The hand is decomposing and is crawling with bugs. Jack looks at Sydney and asks her whose hand it is. She has no idea.

Sloane tells Lauren who asked that the sign is of The Magnificent Order of Rambaldi. They have taken a vow to safeguard Rambaldi property.” They decide that Lindsey is to be told the Covenant will exchange Sydney for the Rambaldi Device. Sydney is extremely skeptical of Sloane’s suggestion. Jack seems to be willing to go along with it, since it gives everyone a reason to believe it, including Lindsey.

Lauren volunteers they send her back, beaten, with the message. Vaughn protests, but Jack says they have a chance if she goes back with physical evidence of her mistreatment. (We know that Shafter is dead—she killed him, so no one can tell Lindsey any different.) She asks Sydney to do it. Lauren goes to the other warehouse (where they’ve been sleeping) taking off her jacket. Sydney follows her and as Lauren turns, throws a punch and hits her on the mouth.

“That’s for turning me into Lindsey,” says Sydney. She puts out her hand to Lauren to help her up. “This is for helping me.”

Lindsey is at a holding cell at CIA. Dixon is inside. Lindsey demands to know how he helped Sydney and where is she? Dixon denies having anything to do with it. Lindsey threatens him with prison for at least ten years. Angry, Dixon retorts, “My lawyer is Shelley Byrd.” Then as Lindsey threatens him again, goes on to say,

“I’ve know men like you. Men who pretend to be patriots. You are always revealed.” Could he be talking about our favorite evil-doer?

An agent, who tells Lindsey that Lauren is in his office, interrupts them. She was thrown out of a van in front of headquarters. When Lindsey sees her, we can see Sydney did a good job of beating up Lauren. She tells Lindsey, the Covenant evidently broke Sydney out. They will exchange her for the Rambaldi Device. Lindsey is suspicious of Lauren, especially when she calls Sydney by her first name.

He even goes on to say, “…or is this about sharing the same man?”

Lauren ignores him and hands him a cell phone, saying he must push the redial button at exactly 6:30 p.m. for instructions.

When he does, he hears a voice-distorted demand. We see it is Jack as the scene shifts to Sloane’s private jet.

After Sydney leaves her seat, Jack tells Vaughn that he hasn’t thanked him for helping to free Sydney. “I’ve always thought you didn’t have much of a spine.”
“And has that assessment changed?” asks Vaughn.
“No!” says Jack, but he has a half smile on his face.

They end up in New Haven where they are to meet the Professor who works at Yale. He has developed a method of retrieving long-term memory loss. At his digs or really his research facility, they meet the Professor and his “student” Kiya, both of whom look a little disheveled.

The Professor tells Jack, Vaughn, and Sydney a little bit of his history. This included, of course, how he determined the method of getting to the root of the memory loss. He had an accident in which he was in traction for 18 months. It was in the 11th month of his incarceration that he had an epiphany that dreams contain memories. Using a drug cocktail, both synthetic and organic, he will put Sydney to sleep and, as she is prepared, explains he wants her to concentrate on the last thing she remembered before losing consciousness. She tells him when she was knocked out in her apartment. We are then shown the last of the fight when she shoots Francie/Allison.

“Your objective is to pick up the thread of the last memory you had in as much detail as you can.”

The next thing she sees is Vaughn sitting beside her, an EMT on the other side monitoring her vitals as she has had head trauma. The ambulance’s siren is screaming in the background. Vaughn tells her that Will lost a lot of blood, but is going to be all right and is on his way to Cedars. (Cedars Sinai is an excellent hospital in Los Angeles near Beverly Hills) She asks if the Covenant was responsible. Vaughn is a little puzzled, but tells her the CIA was notified the day before of the Covenant’s emergence. It was like how did you know kind of thing.

She sees his hands holding hers and there’s no ring. “You’re not married.” Vaughn tells her that of course not, but that he was going to see how things went in Santa Barbara. She reaches up to kiss him and YIPES! it is not Vaughn, it’s Sloane. The voice, however, is that of the Professor. He tells her she is in a dream state and he wants her to go back to see what happened in the room.

She goes back and things turn into a reddish glow. Now Sydney, wearing a red wig, watches herself being picked up and carried away by three men wearing facemasks. Next, they are on a plane and, looking a little like “Julia” (long wavy hair), she watches. The men are conversing, but she can’t hear their exact words. The wounded Sydney begins to wake up. One man has a syringe in his hand and he injects Sydney in the neck with it, as “Julia” gasps, “No.”

The scene dissolves to one in the park. We see Sydney as a 7-year old and it’s obvious it’s a birthday party with several other little girls waiting for her as she approaches. A younger Jack faces her. A voice, Jack’s, is talking and he tells her it’s time to cut the cake. Did any of you notice the Rambaldi music box on the table? (Cipher) The camera pans up and now it’s Sydney as an adult. As she cuts the cake, blood seeps out. A man appears in front of her and we recognize him as Aidan Lazeray, the Russian diplomat. The knife cuts his hand resting on the cake. Interesting note: the writing in red icing on the cake is “St. Aidan”

Then the little girls, table, and Lazeray are gone. Sydney, dressed in a blue dress, and Jack are alone. A truck pulls up and Sydney runs to it. As she opens the panel door, she is now dressed in white. She sees the three men wheeling her down a long white hallway. They go thru a double door, which as she runs up has the number 47 on them. Oh, oh! Then a door closes behind her. She goes through it to see herself rolled off somewhere else on the gurney. Hey wait, she just saw them go through the door marked 47. No matter, this is a dream where anything can and does happen.

She watches them go down three floors, following and leaving her image behind at the top of each stairway, watching. The window behind her, as she runs down a stairway, is filled with fireworks going off. Again, the three men move the gurney into a room and it again it is labeled 47. She is about to go through it when she hears her name.

“Sydney!” She turns to enter a room. The image she sees is that of Lauren who leads her a merry chase through plastic hanging and then, up an escalator. Sydney searches for her in more plastic. Now she accuses Lauren of having something to do with her disappearance. Lauren, with unusual strength, grabs Sydney and pushes her high up against the wall. When she drops, Sydney strikes out at her, but Lauren throws her against the wall. When Sydney drops to the floor again, she is attacked from behind. Lauren wraps the some plastic around her head and starts to suffocate her.

In the warehouse, the Professor runs to Sydney. He tells Jack and Vaughn she’s having heart failure and is flat lining. He orders heart stimulation medicine and the defibrillation paddles. He stabs Sydney with the medicine in a syringe and then uses the paddles to shock her heart back into action.

Sydney wakes up and sees Vaughn. She asks him to help her up and then kisses him. He’s surprised. He tells her she shouldn’t, but she smiles dreamily telling him it’s just a dream. She tells him she misses him so. The door behind Vaughn opens and it’s Jack, telling her that she’s recovered. The look on his face is that of disapproval, sensing that he interrupted something personal that should not be happening. Sydney is shocked because she thought she was dreaming.

Back in Los Angeles, Marshall who tells her none of the DNA matches stops Lauren. They don’t know whose hand it is yet, but forensic analysis says the hand was cut off four month’s ago. Jack knows Lauren has some contacts in Russia. He’s going to ask her to see if they can match the DNA.

Sydney retells what happened including the fact she was strangled by Lauren. Jack reminds her that she didn’t know Lauren when she was taken. The Professor tells her that shape shifters can people dreams, taking the place of other people including parents.

Sydney says she has to go back. “I have to find out what happened to me in Room 47.”
Kiya looks at her admiringly saying, “You’re the greatest.”

Sloane meets with Lindsey at the latter’s request. Lindsey says they will meet the Covenant’s demands, but he wants Sloane to use his contacts to find someone trained in wet work – assassination – especially someone who can use a long-range rifle. He will make the trade, but he wants Sydney Bristow taken out. “I want her eliminated.”

“Oh I see, she has something on you, does she?” queries Sloane.
“How do I know this isn’t some form of entrapment?”
Lindsey doesn’t answer, but instead, says, “I know what you’re up too, Mr. Sloane. I can see the big picture. I know your endgame. I even have proof.” He hands Sloane an envelope, which he opens up to read. “Once I have made the arrangement, I’ll call you with the details.”

There’s that damned envelope again. (Counteragent Season 2) I’m thinking Mr. Abrams is up to something slam-bang exciting and probably as much so as Phase One. This is really getting exciting.

Marshall tells Lauren that the Russian DNA matches that of Aidan Lazeray and that means, says Lauren, that Sydney did not kill him. She reports this to Jack.

Sydney is back on the table hooked up for another go at finding out why she was missing for two years. Dreaming, she’s in a car driven by Dixon as if they were on a mission. The car is a St. Aidan.

She gets out of the car and sees Weiss and Marshall, both smoking huge cigars, playing cards. She is carrying a box which probably is another Rambaldi artifact, although I can’t quite identify it. She supposedly is there to play cards with Weiss and Marshall. She wants to know where the building is and they tell her it’s through the kitchen. She watches Marshall flick cigar ash into a replica of the Donato clock (Time Will Tell).

The Professor tells Vaughn and Jack that Sydney is doing fine that everything is on track.

Back to Sydney, who now is inside the building and the room of plastic. Sydney and Lauren meet again. However, Lauren is different this time. She warns Sydney not to go into the room. “You are so stubborn.” (Hummm, that sounds almost what Irina told Sydney in The Telling.)

Sydney wants to know who she really is and pulls the plastic over Lauren’s head. She knocks over Sydney and pulls the plastic away, only now it’s Sydney.

The two Sydneys, one in black and one in white, fight. A gun falls to the floor sliding away. The two fight harder and the white Sydney knocks black Sydney down and then does a couple of back flips, finds the gun, and fires six shots into black Sydney, dropping her. She runs down the white hall. She opens the door to Room 47 and looks, with a somewhat horrified stare, saying, “Oh my God!”

DISCUSS

What do you think Sydney saw in the room?

Why do you think Lindsey wants to kill Sydney? Does she have something on him, something that happened when she was Julia? I don’t think he’s interested in finding out what happened to her. He just wants her out of his life.

Is there any significance to the Rambaldi artifacts that are in this episode? IF so, what is it? Can you identify the box Sydney was carrying when she encountered Weiss and Marshall? I only ask this because I couldn’t. Can you identify episode if you know the artifact?

Do you think Jack is too trusting of Sloane now that he took a bullet to save his life? Sydney hasn’t changed her mind. Does Sloane need the Bristows for anything?

What does Aidan Lazeray have to do with Sydney?

nice analysis as always, thanks for the pm and sorry for the late reply. again.

dunno, let's hope it's something good. maybe it's the room were she was in her nightmare, when she had a tube in her stomach.

I really don't care about lindsey, I just hope syd kicks hiss ass or kills him,lol.

weird I noticed that too all the artifacts, kinda weird. I don't know about the box she was carrying but the st.Aiden thing was defenitly interesting, it said that on the cake too.

jack is a little too trusting, I don't like that. and I would just love to find out what Sloane is up too.

the question everyone asks these days, but according to clone syd(or whoever that was) he is trustable.


I really love these question thingies, just one more day and we'll find out more about all of this cliffhanger stuff, can't wait. anyway, great job lenafan!

Episode 10 tonight has Will in it. Thank goodness. #1 fan will be thrilled, but she's in So. Africa and is fighting to stay free of anything to do with Season 3 until she can see it. It doen't start there until April 2004. B)

Soo sorry for the late update!! I had the flu and plus I'm a cashier at a major sporting goods store, so yeah, Holiday hours!! :wacko:
I'm just going to briefly go over the eppy 9 since 10 is on tonight! :lol:
All I got to say is that was one of my fave eppy's so far on Alias this season. I loved how we got to go inside Sydney's mind and walk around in it for awhile! It scared the s*** out of me when she flatlined like that, but I loved seeing the flash backs of her as a little girl and when she was at her birthday party and the breif look at what it could have been like if Vaughn had gotten to her that night after fighting with Alison! OH,and LOVED the cat fight scene with Lauren!! :lol:
But the best part was when Sydney had to hit Lauren and Lauren was like 'I know this is going to be difficult- BAM!!' B*t*h punch from the Syd!!! :P Didn't bother her a bit!!! :lol:
And ahh with the real Vaughn and Sydney kiss!! :wub: You know that's going to come back up in the future!! :)
But I believe a part in this eppy, the part where Sydney was fighting herself, that was where Lena was supposed to have come back into the picture. I believe Sydney was supposed to be fighting her mother in that scene but they had to change it cause our SpyMoma wasn't back. :huh: Just something I observed cause in that scene the 'bad' Sydney said something like 'stop being so stubborn' or 'why are you so stubborn' and that's something Irina's said before to Sydney in Season 2.
That's all for me! See ya' next time....some time next week for tonight's eppy! :reallyexcited:
Colly E. :bunny:

Colly E. Posted on Dec 7 2003, 09:17 PM

It's sounds good, Up until she kills the other self. That would have meant she killed Irina. :(
Good grief it says you posted the review at 9:17 p.m. Alias was on then. :huh:
No there have been plenty of times we could have seen her, but didn't...so we'll see what happens. :redhair:
B)

Oh, is that what that was...I JUST missed the beginning...didn't quite get what

that was all about :rolleyes: But I saw the part with Lindsey. That man has isssues! :lol:

That wa just for the legions of S/V shippers,

and the additional Lauren haters! :lol:

That was good :D Pity I think that he was joking :rolleyes:

Disheveled? They look either stoned or

high!!! :lol:

For a minute I thought she had gone back to normal reality! It was like

a weird paranormal universal plane cross-over or something!

But remember, Simon said she had

changed her look...

I actually

caught that, and another interesting point, in the beginning it says Sydney!

Oh yeah, didn't see this coming :rolleyes: Sloane is bad! *fake gasps* but

how did Lindsey (prick!) find out?

That was funny ^_^

Discussions

I DON'T KNOW!!! But I've been

cursing JJ all damn week for leaving us on a cliffie like that!!! EVIL ******!!!

She is getting in his way and

interfering with his plans. I don't know all of those, but every time he almost finds

something out, he ends up at her. I think that Julia might have something on her though. I

mean, why does he care so much about some stupid Russian Diplomat? I would take him as

somebody who hates Russians.

I'm not actually sure...Only Time Will Tell!!!!

I don't

think Jack trusts Sloane entirely, but here is my take: Sloane truly values Jack's friendship,

and as such he is able to do all of these things self-lessly...but I have to wonder if he

doesn't also have some sort of alternate plan...

Well, she faked his death!

and he ended up dead while she was still Julia (I believe) and I don't know...but SAINT

Aidan...makes me wonder...

Another great column! Can't wait for the next episode x2!!!!

sorry about the formatting error there :rolleyes: