I apologize to my readers. I was not as prompt with the column as I came down with ‘something’ and was sick for twenty-four hours. However am feeling much better so on with the column.

ALIAS – SEASON 5
EPISODE 1 – PROPHET I
SYDNEY
“You don’t know me very well.”
By Lenafan

I had a tough choice to make here. It was between Dean and Vaughn. Oh yes, I know we know Vaughn was a good guy, however he lived as someone else and lied to Sydney all these umpteen years they had been seeing each other. However, as it turned out, Dean was a much better choice.

The opening was a reprise of the actual accident. EMTs have removed Vaughn and are loading him into an ambulance. One EMT is tending to Sydney who has a cut or two on her face, nothing spectacular. She tells him she doesn’t need anything, but he persists in drawing fluid from a vial. She glances at his belt and sees a gun. Not the average standard equipment for an EMT. Something’s afoot she thinks. He turns to give her the shot and she jams the needle down into his leg. He’s out and she runs.

She starts toward the ambulance, but ducks when someone lifts a gun and fires. Diving toward a nearby cornfield, she runs pell mell down a row and moments later two men come after her. She is well down the row when she hears a helicopter and at the same time takes care of her two chasers. Running back to the edge, she sees Vaughn being loaded on board and the helicopter takes off.

Back at the CIA-run hospital, Sydney is examined, given a clean bill of health, but told to take it easy. Then a man enters the room telling her is Gordon Dean who is special investigator and flashes an ID at her. He asks her to fill in the spots, i.e. where were they going on vacation and how far were they when the accident occurred.

Sydney is upset when he seems to allude to the fact there is something suspicious about the whole affair. Just then, Jack enters and Dean addresses him as Director Bristow Jack tells Dean that Sydney needs rest and that she will be available when she returns to the office. When he leaves, Jack tells Sydney that Vaughn is being investigated as a possible double agent. He tells her that Langley has been investigating Vaughn and believes the accident might be an extraction. After her mother was extracted, he spent a year in prison because they thought he was an accomplice.

Meanwhile, somewhere, Vaughn is sitting at a table in stark room. A man enters the room and he is called ‘Mr. Micheaux’.

Sydney enters APO. She sees Dean in with her father. Sydney goes to her desk and sketches the picture of the man she saw flying the helicopter off with Vaughn inside.

Vaughn is being questioned and then given a package, which contains a radio. The other man takes the radio from him, opens it, and pulls out a battery, which isn’t one, but holds a tiny roll of paper. Vaughn is asked, “Where is Lehman?” He doesn’t answer, so the interrogator calls another man in to help Vaughn remember. Vaughn has a dislocated shoulder and the goon gives him a tough time. He doesn’t give in until the interrogator tells the other man to go down the hall and bring back Sydney’s ring finger. Vaughn tells him to stop. He’s asked to translate the scroll.

Vaughn says, “It’s in code. I need a pencil.” The other man hands one to him, but Vaughn continues, saying, “I can’t write. Set my shoulder.” When the pilot/interrogator does, Vaughn knocks him down as well as the goon, using his right arm. He escapes. He sees he’s in Mexico City.

Sydney questions Weiss about the time she walked into CIA and how come Vaughn was picked to interview her. Weiss says Vaughn picked her, because of her freaky red hair.
Meanwhile Marshall working his computer magic is getting Michael Vaughn’s file for Dean who makes the mistake of calling him “Blinkman.”

Dixon is talking to Sydney about Vaughn and she asks, “What if I was wrong about him?”

Dixon tells her that when he saw her enter an SD-6 secured facility that if he had had faith, he would have given her the benefit of the doubt and not have told Sloane about what he thought…that she might be a double agent.

Having escaped, Vaughn contacts Sydney and asks her to bring his father’s watch to him at a specific drop they both know in Mexico City. She’s hesitant. Dean accosts her saying he knows she just talked to Vaughn and demands to know where he is. Jack tells her she has to tell them, that if he is innocent, they need to bring him in safely. Although hesitant, Sydney tells them he’s in Mexico City. That sends Dean and a team to go after him.

Vaughn however is in a different part of Mexico City and Sydney takes his father’s watch to him.

“I want the truth, start with your name.” Sydney stares at him coldly.
“My name is Andre Micheaux.”

Then he tells her about Prophet 5. His father worked on it with others, but after changing his identity, he joined the CIA in order to hide. The Prophet 5 was about breaking a code written in the 1500’s, which seemed unbreakable. It dealt with advanced genetics, five hundred years before its time. His father ran when the people involved in the Prophet 5 began dying in odd ways all too quick. Vaughn’s father called Lehman and warned him to go undercover; he did so, disappearing. He knows where the book was hidden and those after it will stop at nothing to get it.

Vaughn and Sydney in the same building they take an elevator down. When it stops, they see James Lehman who is the last man of the group. Lehman was once a cryptologist with the Pentagon. They were successful in translating the page. He tells Vaughn there is a book in a safe of a man in Cape Town with the translation as well as the rest of the book. He also tells them that Mueller who built the device Sydney destroyed three times was the one who originated the Prophet 5 investigation.

Meanwhile back in Los Angeles, Jack is informed by Dean that Vaughn is now listed as a fugitive and Sydney as an accomplice.

Sydney and Vaughn head for Capetown to go to a party, but we know differently when we see him doctor a drink. When one of the guests falls, everyone is distracted and Vaughn heads for the host’s office. Sydney calls Dixon to ask him to do for her what he didn’t do in Santa Barbara, have faith. She needs him to hack into a security office to find out how the safe was customized and how to override it. He does and gives her the information she needs.

In the office, Vaughn runs into the ‘daughter’ who makes a pass at him. She leaves, he gets back to opening the safe, and she suddenly returns and sets off the alarm. He runs. Sydney is out at the edge of the lawn talking to her doctor who informs her she is pregnant. Vaughn hurries up to her and she tells him, but he has nothing to say because of the goons running toward them. Vaughn pulls her over the cliff, and pulls the parachute cord.

Jack visits Sloane in prison. Sloane wants out to help his daughter. Sloane wants out of jail if they are not going to charge him with anything. Jack says he’ll see what he can do. He realizes that was not why Jack is there. Jack wants to know if Sloane authorized certain out of the country visits by Vaughn. Sloane looks over Vaughn’s travel sheet. He sees that Vaughn was seen in the company of “The Raven” a known female assassin who reportedly killed the Turkish Ambassador to Serbia as well as three CIA agents stationed in Serbia.

Back in Los Angeles (?), Dean has an agent checking Vaughns’ file, and even though Marshall encrypted it, she breaks it and tells him that Vaughn entered Italy the night before using one of his aliases. When we see her full face we gasp…it’s the supposed daughter of the man in Cape Town. Oh oh, do we have a mole in the CIA or has she been deluded and compromised by Dean?

Meanwhile Vaughn is driving with Sydney to meet Lehman to give him the book about Project 5 and his father. Sydney is with him and they talk about the baby. At first, you get the impression that he isn’t particularly eager to be a father, especially since they do the work they do and the world is in such a mess. Sydney wonders as he speaks if he’s thrilled or not. He tells her though in the next breath that she will be an amazing mother and that he can hardly wait to meet this new little person. He admits to have never changed a diaper and Sydney says they will ask Marshall to assist.

They go to railroad yards to meet Lehman and to give him the information Vaughn stole in Cape Town. Vaughn tells Sydney to stay in the car as he meets the man. Suddenly as a freight train goes by, Sydney watches in horror as Gordon Dean heads a group of men who first shoot down Lehman and then Vaughn.

Jack comes to the hospital in Italy where Vaughn is fighting for his life. He bawls Sydney out for jeopardizing herself and her career. She tells him that she and Vaughn are having a baby. He is stunned, but recovers to tell Sydney he will do everything he can to help her and Vaughn out of this mess. He calls Dixon who informs him he had spoken to Director Chase and that there was no special investigation of Vaughn authorized and that Gordon Dean supposedly died two years ago. Jack tells Sydney that Gordon Dean is a ghost who is well connected.

Vaughn is fighting for his life and does tell Sydney he approves of the name Isabel Bristow-Vaughn and tells her he loves her. Vaughn goes into cardiac arrest and the nurses and doctors rush in to help him.

Sydney is at Vaughn’s bedside, crying. A nurse comes in and covers his face, indicating he’s dead. There is a funeral with everyone at APO attending.

In London, four months later, Sydney is in a black wig. She sits at a bar. There is a blond waitress behind it. Her name is Renee. At first, she doesn’t want to talk to Sydney, but then Sydney says “Michael Vaughn. You’re a hard person to find, Renee, but if I can, so can they.” Renee tells her she shouldn’t be here. Sydney stares at her, responding, “You don’t know me very well.”


REMARKS

If it had been me, I’d want to see more of that ID when Gordon Dean flashed it at Sydney. A little too quick, I thought.

Jack is the Director of APO now. Hooray, we knew he’d be headman some day, even though he professed once he was not cut out to be management.

Two women, Shapker and Breen, wrote the opening episode, but I think they did not go over previous scripts, especially those written in Season 1. A lot of bits of information were given to us about Jack and I distinctly remember that Jack was in prison for six months until he was released. The investigation came up negative in his being his wife’s accomplice.


Dixon thought Sydney was being disloyal…a traitor to the United States. Of course, one has to remember he thought then he was in the CIA, so we might give him the benefit of the doubt.

Prophet 5 and I immediately thought about Rambaldi. There seems to be many theories now abounding about the internet regarding it. Was the Friends of Rambaldi a group that ‘Bill Vaughn’ supposedly belonged to? FOR kept Nadia from her mother and supposedly that’s why Irina killed him. MOR, the Magnificent Order of Rambaldi, was those who wanted to exploit Rambaldi’s theories and inventions. They were the ones behind the Mueller Device, the red ball. They were the ones who had the tattooed symbol <o> somewhere on their body.

The so-called coded book that took years to decode was written by whom and about what. Genetics? Wasn’t it Rambaldi who was interested in prolonging life. Didn’t he prolong the life of the orchid floor found by the Bristows in Passage II? So, therefore, doesn’t it make sense that he wrote the book? In the 15th century, he was considered a dangerous heretic, so it was probable he coded the book so that only someone in the future could decode it.

Irina Derevko was not mentioned in this episode except once by Jack, who said “your mother.” Still, I’m sorry, but she has to be very involved in this year’s season five. She made her way back to Moscow. She was/is The Man. No reason for her not to go back to her criminal ways…what else is there. She can’t go back to the U.S. to see Nadia or Sydney. She could be involved in the Prophet 5, especially since the original prophecy has not been fulfilled. The second about the sisters has—Sydney and Nadia.

Satellite phones: I thought it wasn’t possible to call on a cell phone from extra long distances. I thought that one had to use satellite phones. Of course, I realize this is Alias, so no doubt Marshall has equipped all APO agents with cell phones that can.

That parachute Vaughn used to escape with Sydney was no doubt one of Marshall’s gadgets as we’ve seen him wear in previous episodes. Guess APO paid him to make them for all the agents…even those on the run.

Finally, Jack gives a tiny nod, barely perceptible, to Sydney when Vaughn’s face is covered by the nurse. I’m betting he’s not dead, not yet.

I agree :ph43r:

I do not think vaughn is dead and if you look at some mueller device pictures and also at aerial shots of the vatican they look very much the same

perhaps mueller and rambaldi are one and the same...

its good to see this column back

looking forward to having an alias filled fall and lots of time to read and write

Brenda

I wondered about that but couldn't bring myself to look at the spoilers, knowing I would regret it after words. It's not fun to be all knowing, but it's hard to be left wondering.

Interesting comments, but even after reading this, I can't bring myself to appreciate that first episode. I was disappointed, after reading all those fanfics over the summer. But only about the Vaughn explanation.

I loved the fight at the scene of the accident and Dean's role (never saw it coming), and Sydney being told she's pregnant. About that, am I the only one surprised that she didn't know? That she didn't feel it or something? And how did it happen, I mean, were she and Vaughn trying? It didn't seem so, by the way their conversation started. They're spies, you'd expect them to be careful, I'm just curious.

I do hope Vaughn's not dead, cause I don't see where the show can go without him. Interesting to note that the blond woman DeaN brought in beat Marshall about his encryption of Syd and Vaughn's files.

Loved your review, and the comments about Jack. Thanks for pm'ing me. Looking forward to next episode, and next review.

eyghon posted:

I know, but it's quite possible that she was only a month along and that she had not missed a period. Tests in the hospital would have told them long before she suspected. Taking care... well, (tongue in cheek here) they said in Search and Rescue they both liked rough...humm, maybe they got carried away and forgot protection...oh well, they had to write something in because Jennifer is definitely preggars. :rolleyes: B)

About Sydney's pregnancy - like lenafan said, the character could be early in her pregnancy and may not have yet missed her period or something. When Jennifer's pregnancy shows, the producers can write it in the plot as Sydney's pregnancy progresses, as I assume, she is about at least four months along after the premiere.

I missed Jack's nod to the nurse before Vaughn is declared dead. The fact that there was a subtle nod makes me think that there wasn't an acutal death ... I read that Vartan will be appearing on an episode of Kitchen Confidential, the new comedy that is starring Bradley Cooper (ex-Will). Maybe Vaughn will resurface later in Season 5 since JJ left room for doubt about the character's alleged hospital room death. The final scene in the SEason 5 premiere was set 4 months after the funeral for Vaughn ... which means that most people would have considered Vaughn dead within that time period.

I was shocked when Dixon revealed that Dean was a ghost .... kind of made me wonder who his connections are that allowed him access to CIA facilities. After seeing the 'daughter' in Cape Town who was also helping Dean in the CIA ... it made me wonder about her, but Dean didn't clue in until I saw Jack talk to Dixon.


I'll be very disappointed if I don't see Lena Olin at some point in Season 5, because the original prophecy has been fulfilled, and she has some 'connection' to Rambaldi as well as being the mother of the Passenger and the Chosen One.

Does this mean YELENA or Sydney? The picture with the prophecy was Sydney and therefore she did not complete the prophecy, only the second part that Vaughn related to her: that she and the Passenger would fight and one would 'die'.
So as far as I can tell, this part of the prophecy has not be fulfilled yet. Sydney is pregnant and has hormones to burn. We have a secret group (prophet 5) which was brought together to translate page from a book that a 15th Century scientist who wrote some genetic codes 500 years before its time. Then they were killed?
By who, what: a country, group of evil people...that hasn't been answered. Remember that flower that Jack Irina and Sydney liberated from Kashmir...the one reportedly over 400 to 600 years old? No...the prophecy which is linked to Sydney has not be fulfilled...yet.

Well...I'm guessing I'm a little late to speculate, but honestly, I think they covered Vaughns death quite well. We watched him get shot, lie in bed, go through surgery, saw him flatline, watched his face get covered and watched him get buried. If he's still alive then I'll be ticked off, because that was a 20minute long montage I endured.

Honestly, I didnt think this first episode was particularly good. All it really served to do was fill in the back story for what is going to happen this season. So this time the bad guys have something to do woth Prophet 5. I agree with lenafan and the rest of you though...this is sounding like a little bit of misguided rambaldi.

For all we know rambaldi is actually jack and he did find the elixir of life...it would explain Irinas attraction to him and the fact that he seems completely ageless!

:P

(Also, I loved the beach scene of camps bay, and the house was certainly designed in the right money bracket....but where they found a cliff like that in cape town I'd love to know!)