SYDNEY BRISTOW
Reunion – Episode 3
“You have to do your job.”

Opening scene shows a nice sunny day in Gorky Park, Moscow. Suddenly, a fiery object comes hurtling out of the sky. It explodes on impact sending a fiery ball of destruction in all directions.
Next, we see Sydney and Weiss in a drinking bout, killing a bottle of Vodka. Syd tells him that the only good thing was losing all her stuff: sweaters she never wore, pictures, picture frame (the one Vaughn gave her). Weiss consoles her and asks her what is the one thing she really is going to miss?
“I had a first edition ‘Alice in Wonderland’. My mother gave it to me on my fifth birthday. Despite my roller coaster relationship with her, wherever she is, that was one of the things I sort of loved.” In the background, we hear Patsy Cline singing one of her truly great ballads, ‘You walk by and I fall to pieces.’
The next day, Dixon gives a briefing on what happened in Russia. One of their satellites fell from the sky. They initiated their early warning retaliation but two minutes before it went into effect, they identified the satellite and stopped the red alert. Then ten minutes later, Echelon heard a conversation between Sark and a Boris Oransky who was the man who developed Medusa for the military. He hadn’t finished the project when they discharged him. He is working for a French satellite company when Sark contacts him.
Sydney tells Dixon she wants to be on the team that captures Sark. Dixon and Lauren tell an ever increasingly angry Sydney that they only want surveillance, not his capture, because they want him to lead them to the Covenant. It gets louder, especially when they talk about Sloane and SD-6.
“Don’t revise history I lived through!” Snaps Sydney.
Vaughn jumps in before the two women come to blows, saying he’d like nothing better than to capture Sark himself, but doing that “will do nothing to shut down the Covenant.”
Dixon orders Sydney and Weiss to implement standard observation procedures in Mexico City.
Lauren tells Vaughn that she hates Sydney who, she feels, is condescending and rude. Vaughn tells her to cut Sydney some slack. She’s lost two years out of her life and this was her first briefing.
After the briefing, Sydney runs into Jack who takes her to a quiet corner of the center. He wants to know how it went. He wants to know if Lauren was aggressive toward her. Sydney says she was, as she was to her. He tells her that NSC has found a security surveillance tape of the scene in Lazarey’s office. Sydney wants to tell them she committed the murder. Jack reminds her they would instantly take her into custody. “They will not hesitate to subject you to every available procedure in order to recapture your memory.”
Sydney wants to know what happened to her and suggests maybe its better that way. Jack tells her that they will use procedures, including invasive surgery, which meant she could be left with permanent brain damage.
“That is not happening to you as long as I am alive.” He goes on to tell her she has got to get on with giving the CIA every reason to trust her. “You have to do your job.”
He is going to view the tape with Lauren who is in charge of investigating the murder of Lazarey. He has offered to help her. The two agents watch the tape with Marshall, who in his wonderful nerdy way, tells them he can clean up the fuzzy pictures and identify this woman in 72 hours.
The scene shifts to an open-air market in Mexico City. Sydney is the observer with camera eyeglasses. She finds Sark, who meets with Boris Oransky. The Russian shows Sark photos and when Sydney gets too close, he spots her. Sark tells him if she is CIA, they need to get out. Oransky runs into the street as Sydney tries to make her escape. He takes a young girl as a hostage. He shouts “gringo with the poncho” a couple of times, then tells her he will kill the girl if she doesn’t give herself up. She does and then he demands to know if she has a camera, wants it, gets it. Sydney has already kicked her gun to him while two of his back ups hold guns on her. His ComLink suddenly comes alive with a horrible squeal generated by Vaughn and Marshall who have been watching the proceedings from the Ops Center. Sydney grabs the gun of one man, fires, hitting Oransky in the leg. The hostage escapes. While she beats up the other man, Oransky escapes.
Back home in L.A., Sydney and Weiss are fixing food. Sydney tells Weiss that Sloane once mentioned a project Medusa at SD-6. All she knew about Medusa was the myth that if someone looked at her, he turned to stone. She asks Weiss how Vaughn and Lauren met. He says that Lauren was the NSC agent who deposed everyone in wrapping up the case on ‘your Mom’. They met and they hit it off. Lauren is Senator Reed’s daughter. They were married in Virginia at her parent’s farm. Everyone was there. (I’m betting Jack wasn’t!)
“Syd, she’s a good person,” says Weiss.
At CIA headquarters, Marshall tells Lauren and Jack he has developed the new program that will definitely resolve the face of Lazarey’s killer by tomorrow noon. He has designed the program faster than anticipated.
Jack then goes to see someone about stopping Marshall’s program. The man is brilliant in his field and Jack helped get him paroled. (Now, how did he do that?) Working on computers (The nerd must have been a hacker) is against the conditions of his parole. Jack gives him an envelope filled with money. He tells him he needs whatever he can design by noon the next day.
At the next briefing, we hear that the Medusa is an anti-satellite pulse weapon, which could cripple our system. Oransky was in Russia’s satellite program and had almost finished it when he was discharged. He went to work for a French satellite company and it was their satellite crashed into Gorky Park. It then disappeared and photos show a caravan of high-ranking Russian officials going to the Science Ministry building. Dixon thinks that it is hidden in a sub-basement there. They need entrance. He instructs Sydney and Vaughn to go see Sloane. Sydney objects, Vaughn says his Intel led to the end of terrorists groups. Sydney snaps that he used the CIA to wipe out his competition. (She’s no dummy!)
On the way to see Sloane, Lauren and Sydney talk. Sydney says quietly. “I don’t hate you – or Vaughn, that’s what makes it so difficult.”
At Sloane’s office in Zurich, the three confront him and ask for help. At first, he refuses. Then Sydney says if he doesn’t and breaks his parole, she will be obliged to torture him. “Personally,” she coldly states, “I hope you don’t help us out.”
He smiles at her, “I’ve really missed you, Sydney, I really have.” He tells them he will get them access to the Science Ministry building in Moscow. As they are about to leave, he addresses Vaughn.
“Mr. Vaughn, you know I remember how close you were with Sydney. I’m sure you share my relief in having her back.” Ooooh, the evil one is slyly trying to cause trouble. His evil smile was so ‘snarky’! Excuse me, but how did he know? Well, this is Alias and anything’s possible.
Now there is a set of scenes cutting back and forth from Sydney and Vaughn to Jack, then to Marshall and Dixon. Therefore, rather than cause a lot of cutting back and forth, I put them together in one scene for each. However, the technique used for the show was excellent and made for great drama.
First: Jack takes the polymorphic worm designed by his nerdy friend to Dixon’s office. He tells the secretary he simply is going to leave reports on Dixon’s desk. He puts the CD with the worm into the computer for the upload. It seems to take forever, but finally it is loaded into the system.
Meanwhile in Marshall’s office, his program is working to reveal the picture of the woman who killed Lazarey. However, all he and Dixon ever see is an eye, some hair and a patch of skin on the face when the worm kicks into the program. Eureka! Sydney is still safe.
Finally, in Moscow, Vaughn dresses for the event. Sloane has arranged for their names to be on the party guest list. Lauren fixes his tie and kisses him as Sydney arrives wearing a stunning burgundy evening gown. Lauren tells Vaughn she’ll see him back in L. A. If I were she, I’d stick around to see if my man gets out of trouble. Sydney and Vaughn go to the opening.
“Good evening.” Sydney greets the Science Minister, taking his fingerprints on a very thin latex glove she is wearing.
Vaughn cuts the lights and the two disappear into an elevator that leads down to the sublevel. Vaughn uses the latex print of the minister’s thumb to gain access to the elevator. They change clothes. (Sydney turns her back to him as she changes – snicker.) They cut into the visual camera covering the sublevel, see soldiers down, and watch as Sark and Oransky kill more men. They get into the elevator only to see another soldier there. The doors close. The soldier turns his head to look at Sydney and seems surprised. I’m not sure if it’s because he saw that she was a woman (probably) or if he actually recognized her (a dim possibility).
Talk about déjà vu! In the basement where the Medusa is kept, Sark sees the elevator doors open and the soldier slumped to the floor. Sydney and Vaughn jump out and kill his men, but Sark leaps into the control room. Oransky is busy making adjustments on an operational board. Sark steps to the window and Sydney fires up at him. (Reminds you of the scene in Counteragent, doesn’t it?) Sark tells Sydney he’s locked them in and when the Russians find them, he’s sure they’ll be most hospitable hosts.
Sydney knows they can’t steal Medusa, but they can destroy it. Vaughn wonders if they can get out. Looking up he sees air ducts. Sydney thinks they can get out in time. She sets about destroying the generator that will spark off the Medusa. Up in the control room, the board Oransky is working at suddenly erupts in flame and sparks. Sark knows he won’t get Medusa now and tells Oransky they need to go. Oransky tells Sark he has a score to settle with the bitch and runs into the room below shouting “Sydney Bristow! Sydney Bristow!” He is consumed in a huge fiery explosion. Sydney and Vaughn are scrambling thru the air duct. They jump to the ground as the fireball explodes out the end of the duct.
Returning to CIA, Vaughn finds Lauren who hugs him tightly. Meanwhile, Jack tells Sydney, “I took care of it.”
Sydney walks to her desk. On it, she sees a copy of ‘Alice in Wonderland’. Weiss comes up to her and tells her that it isn’t a first edition, that it is only a third. He mumbles something to the effect that a first edition costs over forty thousand dollars. Sydney doesn’t care; she grabs him around the neck, hugging him tightly.
It was a very emotional scene.

Reunion ends with Sydney and Vaughn working together. A further reunion of sorts comes with Sark and Sydney confronting each other as they did in Counteragent. Sorry everyone, as much as her fans wanted her, Irina was not reunited with her daughter – yet.
It was a very tension filled episode with Sydney, Lauren and Vaughn in two particularly tense scenes, which were mentioned above. Another rather poignant scene was when Sydney went to the waiter and picked up two glasses of champagne and stared at him with such longing.

I’d like to end with a slightly different take on the shows ending. Personally, I think J.J. missed an opportunity for another reunion of sorts.

Sydney walks to her desk and sees the copy of Alice in Wonderland. She looks around and sees no one looking at her as though to anticipate her surprise. She opens the book. There is an inscription on the flyleaf in a strong handwriting she recognizes.
“To Sydney, on her fifth birthday. With Love, Mom.”

Dude!! I'd would have LOVED it if the ending ended with that!!! :reallyexcited: With a first addition book from her moma!! :wub:
And,...seriously, is a first addition 'Alice in Wonderland' worth that much, or was Weiss just being dramatic?? :blink:
'Cause...like...I believe I have one. :huh:
Seriously, for real. :huh: Cool, I have a jack pot sitting on my shelf!! :reallyexcited:
LOVED that episode, but boy I miss the Spy Moms. :unsure: Wish that she'd make SOME kind of contact with Sydney. :rolleyes: Like in that book way you suggested. :innocent:
Next weeks is going to be WEIRD seeing her with someone else!! :reallyexcited:
See y'all after next weeks eppy!!!
Colly E. :bunny:

no Irina, tear, anyhow I absolutely love the alice in wonderland thing, so touching, and I must say i would have loved your ending lenafan. I actually thought for a moment when syd found the book that Irina really had it put there, somehow found out, but no. anyways still nice of weiss to give her that. as always great job and thanks for the pm.

Uh, no. NOT A CHANCE! Goodness, Jack REALLY hates Vaughn. . .

Definitely reminiscent of that scene in The Counteragent. . . I was thinking, "You already tried that, Syd!" :lol:

I appreciated your analysis of what the title meant. My first thought was - as with every episode these days - WHERE IS IRINA? Of course, I've heard Lena Olin's not coming back, and then I heard she possibly was, so now I have no idea. But I was disappointed - I guess I was expecting a reunion in the more traditional sense - meeting someone she hasn't seen in a while or something like that. Oh, well.

:omg: IF ONLY that HAD been the ending. I know, it was a perfect opportunity, so I was really annoyed with this episode in general, because I had totally been expecting Irina to appear. Or, at least, some SIGN that she WOULD APPEAR at some distant moment in the future! (like you added scene :)). *sigh* I guess I'll just have to be patient and learn to love Alias without Irina. . . :(

Great column! Thanks for the PM!

Ciara32, thanks for the reminder about Counteragent. I meant to fix it (did it now) and forgot. I'm busy with last night's episode. Will be posting it later.

BTW I have the Alias Magazine and JJ said that Lena Olin will definitely be back this season, but he doesn't know for how many episodes. So be cool.

No, because it has become such a great classic, it's worth that especially if it's a clean in good condition edition.
And what's with the Dude? I've called other names before but never Dude. That's kinda cool.
B)

I like your alternate ending...just because it was From Irina didn't mean that she had to be back...but it would've added more mystery, and woulda added a whole new aspect to the thing...like where did she get the book? Was it even her? Did she kidnap Syd???????? That woulda been more like Alias...I think JJ has lost his touch, but he is getting it back!!! I don't like Vaughn, but after seeing him with Lauren, I wanted to kill her! Even though she made some good points about Syd...