ALIAS – 7th Episode – Sydney
DÉTENTE
“You’re going to have to trust me.”

Arvin is the bad guy here even though he thinks he has everyone fooled. It isn’t that he shows his true colors, but that Sydney AT LAST gives him the raking over the proverbial coals he deserves, at least from her point of view. She has been far too nice, letting him walk over her in Season 1 and part of 2 and then being cool in Season 3. Tonight, however, she let him know in no uncertain terms what she thought about him top to bottom, stem to stern…however you want to say it. The action from the start was fast and furious. Russian names rolled off the actors tongues so fast that they were hard to pick up…so if I misspelled or misspoke them, forgive me.

The show opened up with Vaughn talking to a Russian lieutenant about an explosive that Russia had developed. There was only enough to fill a vial. However, the vial was stolen and now, it seems ‘his’ boss has recently come into a lot of money. Vaughn is trying to find out where the explosive is, but just then, two Russian soldiers enter and shoot the informant when he pulls a gun. Vaughn is about to be shot also, but the barmaid (Sydney) gets into the fight in a hurry. They whip butt and escape with the information.

Sydney returns to her apartment to find Sloane there. We get a peek at what will happen during the episode later when she throws him out (actually she tells him to ‘get out’) which he does. He was there to visit Nadia, who tells her that—

“I know what he did.”
Sydney tells her that there is no way she can possibly understand.

The next day in APO, the team meets to discuss the explosive. Sloane tells them they need to recover the vial which is now in the hands of a Russian playboy, Boris Tambor. He has the information in his computer and PDA, which he carries with him. He is in Monte Carlo where he gambles every night at 9:00 p.m. Sloane sends Sydney, Nadia, Weiss, and Vaughn to get the information.

Back at her desk, Sydney sits staring at her computer. Dixon notices and comes over to ask what is wrong. She tells him she doesn’t think she can do this any more…seeing Sloane all the time, knowing what he did to Francie and Danny. Dixon explains how he can deal with it, knowing he ordered Diane’s death. He relates how he dreams about Diane every night and knows she is disappointed in him. However, she seems to understand. He tells Sydney that Diane loves him and knows he will do the right thing. To get past the idea he is working with Sloane every day, he says, “I transmute it. I know you can do the same.”

Nadia and Sydney are taking target practice and both are damn good. Sydney apologizes to her about asking Sloane to leave. He is Nadia’s father, who has done terrible things. She tells Nadia their mother also did bad things, but “I needed to know her.” Thus, explaining her interaction with Irina Derevko. (Ah yes, inevitably she has been mentioned in each episode so far.)

In Monte Carlo, Nadia dressed as a hotel maid, runs a vacuum down the hall, creating enough noise so the sound of the drill is not heard by the two guards standing in front of the door. Vaughn is drilling and then Sydney feeds a small minicam into the Russian Tambor’s room.

The audiovisual can be seen not only by them, but also by Marshall, Jack, and Sloane back at APO headquarters. As she vacuums, she notices a woman going into her room with several packages. However, the mission plan is not going to work, because the playboy is watching a soccer game instead of leaving to gamble. It seems he owns the team. Sydney figures out a way she and Nadia can get inside the room by using his girlfriend who evidently is bored and probably downstairs at the bar. Sloane doesn’t want them to deviate, but they talk their way into doing it. Nadia leaves and returns almost immediately with the bags of clothes the hotel guest had taken into her room.

“I borrowed them,” she says to the two men.
“She stole it,” grins Weiss. He is loving every minute being with or close to her.

Dressed in some hot clothes, the two women connect with the girlfriend at the bar and after a few drinks, the three of them enter Tambor’s suite. The girlfriend wants to change clothes and leaves the room. Nadia plunks herself down to watch the soccer game with him. In the meantime, back at LA’s APO, Marshall is telling Sloane and Jack that the two sisters are working well together, “they’re good.”

Nadia makes some very cool observations, showing her companion she knows her ‘futbol’ as Weiss says. Next door, Vaughn and Weiss watch Sydney coolly download the information from the computer. Then Nadia, using a trick Weiss taught her, lifts the PDA. Sydney keeps it, handing another to Nadia. However, the girlfriend comes back and the Russian gets up. He misses the PDA, but Nadia ‘finds’ it on the sofa where he ‘dropped’ it from his pocket. The two leave in a huff.

When the team returns, Sloane rips the two for deviating from the plan. They took a terrible risk. Nadia apologizes, but Sydney tells Sloane off telling him she hates him for killing Francie and Danny.

Marshall interrupts to say he broke the code and that the sale of the explosive is set for 16 hours from now on board the yacht. As the team meets, Marshall explains how they will get into the safe. Sloane wants Vaughn and Dixon to go, but the girls insist they finish the job.

Jack tells Sloane, “sometime the nuances of fatherhood escape me, but I know this you will not forge any bond with Nadia if you attempt to keep her from working with her sister.”

They come aboard the yacht in the rear, wearing scuba suits and tanks. They take those off. Armed, they head to the place where the safe is located. Marshall has told them there is a safe within a safe and they need burglary tools. In a room close by, Tambor is talking with the buyers—a Russian mobster named Orissa that Sloane recognizes as someone he dealt with while head of SD-6.

Tambor wants to know what the mobster is going to do with the explosive and he answers “Take control of your entire operation.”

There is a shoot out and Sydney and Nadia hide, watching. They had opened the safe to see there were 10 canisters of the explosive not one small vial. Closing the safe, they manage to make their escape, while Tambor is killed by the girlfriend, who obviously is with the gangster. Syd and Nadia have jumped back into the sea by the boat. Tambor’s body drops by them under the water.

Sydney and Nadia climb back on board. Nadia says she can get the canisters. Sloane tells Sydney she has to keep the gangster busy, but “you’re going to have to trust me.” (Sydney will have too in this sequence, but she wouldn't in any other circumstance at this stage of the game.)

She heads for the upper deck where the girl and mobster are celebrating. Meanwhile, Nadia goes around the other side of the yacht to remove the canisters from the safes, putting them into two cases. The gangster’s lieutenant jumps her, but she puts him down.

Upstairs Sydney without a weapon accosts the pair, telling Orissa she is from Arvin Sloane, whom he recognizes. He, Arvin, wants 50% of the profits as well as the profits from the future sales and as insurance wants to know where the laboratory is located. She warns him that Sloane won’t take no for an answer. The girl objects. Orissa smacks her down.

Sydney, listening to Sloane, tells Orissa that if he doesn’t agree, he will end up like Dr. Holub, who is now a living corpse. Orissa is hesitating. Therefore, Sydney launches into her own version of how evil Sloane is… how cruel he is and that he will get what he wants. He will destroy Orissa, kill his friends, his family, and, if generous, leave him alive to remember what it cost him. In LA, Jack is horrified to hear Sydney’s insidious tirade while watching Sloane who also hears what she is saying. Jack realizes the danger of her words.

“You did what you had to do.”

“I imagine this is the last time I’ll be working with your daughter!” Sloan answers.

On the yacht, Tambor’s ex-girlfriend kills Orissa. Sydney and she have a fight, even falling to the deck below. Sydney is stunned, but Nadia enters the fray. Sydney kills the girlfriend who has found a gun.

Minutes later, while waiting for a pickup, Nadia tells Sydney a little about herself. She was recruited from Juvenile Detention home (Sounds a little like ‘Nikita’) where she had been sent by a judge. Because she had no family, she thought that was what made her a good spy. “I might have been wrong.”

In L.A. Weiss shows Nadia a card trick as Sydney goes to see Sloane. He informs her he has talked with Director Chase and she is expecting Sydney’s call to request a transfer. Sydney meets him eye to eye saying she will never forgive him. She turns saying she will see him tomorrow. Obviously, she does not plan to call Director Chase.

REMARKS

After watching this week’s episode, I’ve had a most uncomfortable feeling descend on me. Two things: first Sloane is at Sydney’s home talking with Nadia. He knows how Sydney feels, so why did he go there. He obviously knew she was back from the mission.
Secondly, Nadia tells Sydney she was recruited from a juvenile detention center to be an agent because she had no family. She did not say exactly what crime put her into the facility.
Wild supposition: Sloane and Nadia are working together (after all she is her mother’s daughter) for a purpose that will lead to the sisters opposing each other, just as the second prophecy said. Vaughn was definitely horrified to learn Sydney had met her sister. (3rd season) God, I hope I'm wrong.

Mia Maestro has a dazzling smile. No wonder Weiss is falling.

DISCUSS

Do you think Sydney is going to do what Dixon does: transmute it? Is this the interaction she must go through in order to work with Sloane? What did Dixon mean by “I transmute it.”

How do you think Weiss and Nadia’s relationship is going to go?

Was Sydney right in telling Sloane off? How will that affect their working relationship?

Have you any ideas about Sloane’s ultimate goal this season with Sydney and Jack and, of course, Rambaldi?

Lenafan

i agree that all is not right in the state of sisterhood

who and what is nadia and what does her background mean- this puzzled me

I think yelena derevko and irina and katya will somehow impact the finale

and I think there is another player in this game one we have yet to meet

maybe jack has a son or a brother----

we know nothing of jack's backstory before 1970

We know everything about Sydney.
Jack is the most complex player in the game now, although Irina certainly was until he 'killed' her.
Nadia is Sydney's sister and I'm sure we'll hear more about her as the season wears on week after week.
Although he hasn't said so, I believe JJ has Yelena somewhere up his sleeve. We know Katya will be showing up near the end of the season. Then there's the child we saw in a young Irina's arms...And the Sentinel? how about him/her/whoever? He/she is supposed to be dead, but since Jack said so...is he/she??

This is what I love about this show...so many ways to go and no one can really know.

lenafan

great column, loved it naturally

DISCUSS

it seems they've got a good relationship, it's kinda cute really, but I don't see them get married or anything.

I actually kinda think Sloane deserved it, especially after showing up her house out of the blue, but by telling Sloane off she also made her working relationship a whole lot messier, I think i see a lot more fights coming up in the future.

no idea, but if he does have an endgame(which is likely) he's hiding it pretty well, yet everyone is still suspicious of him somewhat.