ALIAS – Episode 15 – Sydney
Pandora
“It’s the least you can do for her.”

In this episode, we have three different stories running and two converge at the end. The other may lead to something more interesting later on this year. First we have Vaughn who has gone ‘rogue’, stealing the transformer coil, but is being protected somewhat by Jack and Sydney. This we have Nadia and Sydney talking to Aunt Katya and we learn (actually, we knew) that Sydney has it all wrong; Irina did not want her killed. She loved both her daughters. Who was behind it? Finally, Jack and Marshall have two encounters and learn, as expected that Jack took a hit with radiation saving Sydney. He has been exposed to genetic mutation. OMG, what possibilities there are in the weeks ahead?

Vaughn has the transformer coil and waits for Roberts to contact him. He is in Paris.

At APO, both Sydney and Jack are fighting for Vaughn. Sloane tells Sydney that Vaughn has 48 hours to return and explain (debrief) his actions.

In Paris, Roberts is a little late, which peeves Vaughn. Roberts tells him he has to do something else before they give him the information leading to his father. Vaughn isn’t going to play until he is given a cell phone call from Roberts’ boss. (Sounded like Jack as in Season 1, but it wasn’t) The boss tells him to look under the tabletop. There’s an envelope with pictures of his dad sitting at a table. Reluctantly, he follows Roberts to a meeting with hired independent contractors: two men and a woman, Sabina. They are planning to steal a cold laser with which they will open a safe with the object they are going to steal.

In Bordeaux, France (gives Michael Vartan to show off his French), Vaughn, and Sabina trick their way into hospital and subsequently, overpower the doctor and nurse. Wearing their clothes, they make their way to the lab where the cold laser is located. Vaughn dismantles the equipment pulling out the laser. As they are ready to leave, a guard enters and threatens them. Vaughn tries to bluff, but the guard pulls a gun, there is a fight, then the guard pulls a gun. Sabina shoots him. Vaughn is upset, even though wounded slightly. After all it was him or me.

Back at the gang’s hideout, Sabina bandages his arm. Vaughn is somewhat surly and still of up.

“I saved your life,” Sabina says.
“I don’t like being here…with you,” says Vaughn.

Roberts talks about the new job. They are going to steal a manual from the CIA and Vaughn realizes they needed him because he was CIA. He tells Roberts, “…if I do this, I can’t go back. Roberts reminds him that he wants to find his father. After all the man abandoned his wife and child, leaving them to think he was dead the past 25 years.

Vaughn comes to a decision. He will map out the job and he is in charge. Furthermore, he tells them NO Shooting. The job is in Darmstadt. The robbery goes as planned and Vaughn steals the manual…a Rambaldi manuscript. He and Sabina, in the ensuing melee, are chased and shot at by Dixon. In the chase, Sabina falls. She fires at Dixon who fires back at them. Sabina is hit or killed. He is hit, but Dixon takes two in the chest. However, we can see he is wearing a Kevlar vest. Vaughn, nonetheless, is horrified over the turn of events.

He catches Roberts back at the hideout and roughs him up. He makes Roberts tell him the truth about his father. Yes, he is dead and Irina Derevko shot him. Everything was false: the notebook included. They needed Vaughn’s help to steal the manuscript. Vaughn demands to know who was behind it all. Roberts says it was Mr. Sloane.

Vaughn returns to Los Angeles and goes to see Sydney. He tells her that his father is dead. They hold each other tightly. He says his father would never have left his mother and him. He says that Sloane was behind everything. Sydney pulls him into the house. She has something to tell him too.

The second storyline is the most dramatic. It’s about Sydney, Nadia, and Aunt Katya, who is in a women’s detention prison, probably the one in San Pedro where Irina was once held pending her trial.

Nadia comes home with Eric after they went shopping. She is unloading the bag and Eric spots the candy bar. Fancy chocolate he calls it, which she takes from him. She goes outside to find something she left in the car when she gets a cell phone call collect, from Katya. It is obvious from the conversation that Nadia was supposed to visit her the day before. She explains she could not get away, but come tomorrow.

“Your visits make this place bearable,” we hear Katya say.

There at the prison the two talk about Irina. Katya tells Nadia a story about Irina as a child. She used to go to St. Basil’s cathedral in Moscow and pickpocket tourists for money. She was in grade school at the time. She would take the money and buy candy with it. Her father caught her one day. Irina’s sisters thought he would hit her, but she maneuvered herself out of trouble by simply finishing the candy bar and smiling at him. He did not hit her, but laughed instead.

“Your mother can be quite stubborn, much like your sister,” says Katya. Then quietly, almost urgently, she says, “How is Sydney?” However, that evidently is off limits in their conversations. Katya takes a bite of the fancy chocolate; seconds later, she is going into anaphylactic shock. She tells the frantic Nadia that she is deathly allergic. Nadia screams for the guards as Katya comes close to the bars. Her last two words are…”tell Sydney…” She collapses.

Back at APO, Nadia tells Sydney she’s been visiting their Aunt Katya. Katya would like to see Sydney. Nadia explains all she wanted was more information about her mother whom she knew did bad things.

“There’s more to than in her file,” she says.
“And you believed her,” answers Sydney. Then she goes to the last resort. To tell why Sydney won’t have anything to do with Katya and not tell anything to Nadia.”

“My mother put a hit on me. My mother tried to have me killed.” Says Sydney and Nadia is horrified.

Sydney wants to know where Katya is and goes to pay her a visit. She is angry, almost out of control. They have words. “Consider this visit a warning. Leave Nadia alone or “

“You think you have it all figured out,” says Katya. “Irina loved you very much. She would never have put out a contract on you. You didn’t find a reason WHY, did you?”

This snaps Sydney back into reality. Based on talks with Jack much earlier when he told her Irina had put out a contract on Sydney life and he killed her. He didn’t know why either. Katya tells Sydney that Irina believed she was being set up for some reason. Before she died, she was trying to get a message to Katya. She wants Sydney to get a hold of that message, saying, “that’s the least you can do for her.”

Meanwhile at APO, Nadia approaches Sloane to tell him up front that she had been visiting Katya to learn more about her mother. She realizes she was a criminal and a murderer. She knows she did bad things. No one was willing to tell her anything. Sloane asks what Katya told her. He goes to her telling Nadia that he and Irina both did bad things.

“But no one is a single thing. Irina had a great capacity for love. When she held Sydney, you could see that. She must have done the same thing when you were born. She searched for you. Know that your mother loved you.” They hug.

At a small repair shop, Sydney enters and asks for a box. She doesn’t have a ticket, but the number is 11042. The man behind the counter brings out a box and inside it is a music box. The tune playing sounds like the one Katya hummed when Nadia came to visit her. She wants to pay, but the man says it was already paid for. On her way out, her cell phone rings. It’s Vaughn but he says nothing.

At home, she opens the music box. However, Nadia enters. She wants to apologize for bringing Sydney back into contact with Katya. Sydney tells her it’s okay. Nadia and Weiss go to lunch and Sydney hangs out. As soon as the door closes, Sydney turns on the music box, which turns a light code of something. 001-897456864 is an brokerage account. She pulls it up at APO and it belongs to A. Sloane, account value unknown.

Sydney goes back to the prison. Katya knows Sydney found the answer. “We have to make them pay.”
“Before I tell you, you have to promise Nadia can never know.”

The third storyline has to do with Jack and Marshall. Marshall brings some papers to Jack to sign. Leaving him, he returns to his lab and begins a procedure to test Jack’s DNA. He is certain Jack received a dose of radiation. Later Sloane accosts Marshall about the test. Marshall flimflams him with Marshall-speak and gets away with it. Marshall asks what the test results showed and Sloane says the subject received a large-scale genetic mutation.

Marshal goes back to Jack, who is stubbornly resists going to a doctor. Marshall tells Jack he did get a high dose of genetic mutation radiation. He asks did he take into consideration how it would affect those around him, especially Sydney. He is arguing with him when Sloane interrupts. Jack sloughs off Marshall again and he leaves, not looking at Sloane when he does.

Later Jack meets with Sloane. He tells him about the attempted robbery and that though Dixon was shot; he wore a Kevlar vest and was all right. The manuscript is safe at DSR. Vaughn has returned. He will be debriefed by Jack tomorrow. Sloane has an unreadable look on his face, perhaps understandable, especially when Jack talks about the manuscript and Dixon’s recovery.

The last scene takes place in Santiago, Chile where we meet another Mr. Sloane. The plot thickens.

REMARKS:The pictures we got a glimpse of Bill Vaughn, did not look like the same picture we were shown in Season One.

In the story, Katya told about Irina, I would say it had to be 1956 to 60. Russia was still the USSR and, if caught, Irina would have been severely penalized. Who knows, her entire family might have been sent to Siberia. Those were not the best of times for Russians then, especially for criminals.

DISCUSS:
Did Katya eat the chocolate deliberately, knowing Nadia might tell Sydney and get her to see her?

Do you think Sloane was lying when he told Nadia about Irina’s love for Sydney and her?

Katya says, “Your mother can be quite stubborn…” Can??? Does this mean Katya believes Irina may still alive? Was this a slip of the lip, or a slip of the writers’ computer?

Another Mr. Sloane…well, well, well. We have a new player in the game. Tell me, do you think Arvin is being set up by someone? Who? Is the new Mr. Sloane related to Arvin or someone hired for the job. Could he be after Sloane for another reason? So many questions…so many answers.

Katya says Sydney believes she tried to shoot her and that Irina put out a contract on her. Is she telling the truth, especially about her own actions in Resurrection? She doesn’t explain those actions either.

After talking with Katya and finding the message, how will Sydney's attitude change toward her mother?

B)

katya requested and ate the chocolate on purpose I am sure

she wanted to see sydney and she did

i think it was slip of the lip the way anyone would use presetn tense when thinking of a loved ones character traits

but yes I know irina has to be alive and I suspect more people know about that then we are lead to believe

this new mr sloane has me wondering - no theories on him yet

I wonder if dixon will remember it was vaughn who shot him....



bren