ALIAS – Episode 17 – SYDNEY
A CLEAR CONSCIENCE
“Apples and oranges, Jack.”

This episode seemed dull because Sydney was not in the field doing her thing, but then we have to remember the actor playing the part injured her back doing a stunt and I’m sure that was the reason we haven’t seen her take a real swing at the bad guys. Then things shifted and off it went in a high action thriller ending with a great Alias shocker.
So if any of you have been following the action, you must have been as surprised as I was. High marks to the writer J Orci, who no doubt had JJ behind him.

The action started with a bomb going off in the Indonesian Embassy located in Copenhagen. It killed fifteen people. We note that a guard saw the bomb as it went through the X ray machine, but instead of reporting it, the guard took a smoke break. I guess he was paid off.

At APO, Langley has sent word they want to know more about the suspected gang who set off the bomb. Sydney says no one has claimed responsibility nor posted an ideology nor given any reason. Milosch Kravic is the leader of the gang. A CIA operative by the name of Tom Raimes has been working under cover. He hasn’t been heard from since Langley received a report telling them Kravic was going to set off a bomb somewhere. Sloane sends Dixon and Vaughn to Amsterdam to monitor the meeting Kravic is having with a hacker. Sydney is to run the operation with Jack.

The meeting breaks up and Nadia receives a phone call from an old friend, Sophia Vargas. She is coming to Los Angeles and wants to see her. Nadia agrees to meet her at the airport.

Sydney accompanies Nadia and Nadia tells her it has been ten years since she saw Sophia. The last time, Nadia was in jail. They see Sophia being pushed in a wheelchair. It’s obvious when she takes off her glasses that she had an encounter with some fists.

At the hospital, Sloane joins the sisters and asks Sophia what happened. She tells them she thought she had been watched and then one day when she came home she was attacked. Her house was ransacked. She decided to come to Los Angeles. Sloane says she’s part of the family now and that he will take care of her. He takes her hand in his and pats it. Unknowing to her and the sisters, he had lifted a fingerprint.

Jack is at Dr. Liddell’s office having his blood ‘washed’. Jack says he’s been checking on articles from Prague’s Institute of Radiology. Dr. Liddell says,

“Apples and oranges, Jack,” and goes on to tell him the radiation he received was different. “A different type of fruit,” he says.

The doctor warns Jack in so many words that he is going to die and a clean conscience is the best way. He wants him to come clean with Sydney and tell her about the sickness. That she would be better off knowing.

In Amsterdam, Dixon and Vaughn talk about Raimes. Just then, Kravic drives up with Raimes at the wheel. They leave the car and enter the nightclub with Papadakis, Kravic’s second in command. Dixon is surprised to see his friend alive. Vaughn also thought that when CIA didn’t hear from Raimes that he was either dead or captured. Vaughn wonders if Raimes has gone rogue.

Nadia visits Sophia in the hospital and is ready to leave when Sophia gives her a pendant stating it is her way of thanking her.

In the lab, Sloane stops Marshall, wearing a virtual reality helmet, and gives him the latent print he took from Sophia. He tells him he wants to know everything about it.

Jack is picking at his palm as though it itches. Sydney tells him about Vaughn’s report. He tells her they are to shadow Raimes and see what they can learn. He looks as though he were about to tell Sydney something—maybe about himself, but he backs down as says something else leaving Sydney slightly off balance.

Vaughn and Dixon run an op on Raimes, spiking his drink so he has to run to the bathroom and vomit. They accost him there and demand information regarding his lack of reports. He admits he knew about the bomb, but he let it go off because of bigger stakes. Kravic is after a secret weapon built by the Indonesian government. The fifteen lives sacrificed at the Embassy, were only a drop in the bucket if the CIA cannot retrieve the weapon. They want to know why they are at the nightclub. Raimes tells them they are waiting for a hacker…Lucas Halsey, a graduate of MIT.

Dixon wants to do a switch-out, meaning one of them will take his place, but they need to know where Halsey is staying. Nadia runs him down at Hotel Russo. Sydney gives the go ahead and Vaughn goes after Halsey. He catches him after a chase with Dixon’s help.

Marshal gives Sloane the report. Soon Sloane enters Sophia’s room and wants to know about the gardener who was found murdered. According to the police report, only one print was found and no clues as to whom it belonged. Sophia tells him that she was the one who hired the man and felt responsible. All she ever wanted to do was protect the child who was given to her as a baby. She even gave her a new name. She admits that her attackers in Portugal were not after her, but after Nadia.

“She deserves the happiness she has with her sister and you.”
Sloane nods saying, “I know who’s after my child.”

In the lab, Marshall shows Sydney what the Hydrosec weapon will do. Nanogram, which is one millionth of a gram, turns a jar of water into sludge. One gram will turn Lake Michigan into the same. Marshal thinks its cool “in a Dr. Evil sort of way.”
Sydney looks down to see the report he prepared for Sloane on Sophia. Confronting him with it, Sloane says he was just being careful. Sydney says that “somehow you’ve earned her trust, but every time you like, you break that trust just a little more.”

Dixon enters the club as Halsey. He is hired after some persuasive torture by Vaughn of the real Halsey relaying the information to Dixon. They are to leave from Tegue airfield.

At APO, Jack is digging frantically at his palm. He finds a capsule. Sydney enters his office and she tells him about the Hydrosec weapon. They tracked it to Peru and that the Kravic gang have already been to the plant and raided it.

Jack goes to see Dr. Liddell, who tells him he planted it and there was one in the calf of his leg. Jack doesn’t remember any of it and the doctor says that one of the side effects of the medication is memory loss. Jack tells him it’s unacceptable in his job. His condition is worsening says Liddell and he wants him to talk to Sydney. Jack says it isn’t fair to burden her as she has put up with so much in her young life.

“Honesty, that’s fair,” answers the doctor.

Riding in the back of a van, Raimes and Dixon discuss Raime’s decision not to warn Langley of the impending bomb. Raimes says it eventually would mean hundreds of thousands of lives would be saved. He has to get the weapon. He remembers that Dixon would have done the same thing, but Dixon replies that he married and had two children and his circumstances changed. They leave the van.

They are walking to the airplane, when Papadakis overhears a transmission to Agent Dixon. He whispers the news in Kravic’s ear, who pulls a gun, stopping Raimes and Dixon. He wants to know which one of them is Dixon. Both deny it. Then Kravic tells Papadakis to keep both. Raimes pulls his gun and shoots down two of Kravic’s men. Kravic shoots him. Dixon grabs Raimes gun. Vaughn tells him over the Comlink that Raimes is giving himself up so Dixon can fulfill the mission. “Shoot him,” orders Vaughn.

Sydney and Nadia tell Sloane the status of the mission—that Raimes sacrificed himself in order that Dixon could continue. They leave and Jack tells Sloane that it is time, for personal reasons, to tell them the truth.

The sisters enter and Jack and Sloane tell them that Elena Derevko, an assassin and killer of many men in Eastern Europe was known to be the cruelest of the Derevko. Then she disappeared thirty years ago and no one, not the KGB, nor Irina could find her. She had severed all ties to the KGB and her family.

Then a year ago, Jack received information from an informant that led him to Elena’s safe house in Warsaw. There, they found two books. The girls are given them. Each opens one to find details and pictures about them. Jack tells them that they believe Elena has them both under surveillance for at least a decade if not longer. Furthermore, he believes Elena Derevko is responsible for the attack on Sophia Vargas.

Holy shit everyone says as the camera focuses on the pendant. The scene switches and as Arvin talks, we see Sophia Vargas (not her real name). Her underling calls her “Elena.”

REMARKS

Okay, readers, I didn’t see that one coming. Sophia is really Yelena Derevko. Oh boy!
I doubt many of you saw it either. Clever JJ, very clever.

I don’t believe Yelena and Irina were in touch when she was under cover as Laura. Irina was with Jack about 4 years before Syd was born (Katya mentioned to Jack that he was with Irina for 10 years during a scene in "Crossings" Season 3). Each sister had different assignment and it would have been disastrous for the sisters to contact each other.

Since Irina was looking for Yelena and Nadia, I don’t think she connected them as being together.

There is another contradiction also: Sophia says she was brought Nadia as a baby. However, the KGB was testing Nadia when she was six and that, according to Katya, was when Bill Vaughn supposedly stole her and took her to Argentina.

Yeah, I know…everybody’s lying.


DISCUSS:

Did Dr. Liddell really tell Jack he put those capsules in his hand and calf? On the other hand, was he lying about that, because he’s been Sophia/Yelena’s agent/spy. The reason I think he might be the one is because he states he has known Jack thirty years. Ummm, I’m suspicious.

Was it Elena who took Nadia from the KGB and not William Vaughn, as we were told in Season 3? She says Nadia was brought to her by Vaughn’s father. However, all the stuff Vaughn learned about his Dad was supposedly bogus. Originally, it was Katya who told Sydney that, so is she in on the plot as well.

Why is all this happening? Yelena disappearing for thirty years. That is a long time to live under cover.

Timeline of the story really needs fixing. Yelena disappeared around the time Sydney was born because, at the moment, Sydney is thirty. She cut off all ties with the KGB and the family. Why?

Was the nice looking young guy who seemed to be shadowing Dixon and Vaughn, Yelena’s ‘Sark’?

Is it possible that the two sisters who fight each other be Yelena and Irina and NOT Sydney and Nadia?

Do you think Arvin Sloane will be Mr. Nice Guy still by the end of this season?

Is it possible Sydney will succumb to the dark side of her profession? (I can’t help myself—Star Wars is coming. Personally, I would love to see Sydney go rogue for a half a season. I have a hunch Jennifer would love doing it.)

I enjoyed reading this week's review, though it brought me more questions than answers. Loved the idea of the guy being 'Elena's Sark'.
Yelena seems evil, manipulative. I can't wait to see what she wants. And why she bothered monitoring Syd and Nadia like that...