SYDNEY BRISTOW
Episode 14 – Blowback
“I Do Eat You Know.”

I did not like this episode. Hey, I’m writing the column so I get to say what I feel. Whether or not you agree with me, you can add remarks at the end of the column, however, me first. The column will probably be shorter because I am writing this far away from my VCR, which affords me the luxury of going through the episode repeatedly to pick up the dialogue and nuances that I miss first time around. What you are reading are thoughts that I slept on and feelings I had while watching. So, bear with me as I try to make sense of what I saw last night.

The scene opens in Michael and Lauren’s bedroom. She awakens to see Michael looking at her. He’s holding THE WATCH, you know, the one belonging to his father that stopped running the day he met Sydney. He’s thinking about Sydney although Lauren doesn’t know it. Being in love with two women is tough on a guy and making a choice is rough. Syd, Lauren, Syd, Lauren…what’s a guy to do? Anyway, he’s off to run. The cell belonging to Lauren rings and she puts whoever it is on hold. Michael kisses her and says goodbye.

Next, we see Marshall who lets us know it was a boy and his name is Mitchell. In the briefing room, Lauren, Michael, Sydney, Jack and Marshall are discussing a group called the Shining Sword who have got their hands on a plasma bomb which will blow up everything in sight even though coming in a very small package. Sydney and Vaughn are heading to Vancouver to obtain the exact location of the bomb from the computer server company there. There IS a short scene as Vaughn talks to Weiss and watches as Sydney approaches Lauren to talk to her about something.

Meanwhile in Zurich, our favorite villain who has never lost that standing among Alias fans, Sloane is asking our favorite psychiatrist, Judy Barnett, out to dinner under the pretext that it’s easier to talk about secrets there then at the office.

Now back to Vancouver, as Syd and Vaughn, posing as radio signal astrologists (or something on that order), get to the room to download the information to Marshall. They are in the midst of that when compromised. Marshall instructs them to break contact as a virus is in the mix. Someone has intercepted the transmission. They do. When they step out of the room, the man running the server company shoots at them, but misses. Suddenly he falls to the floor also shot. Syd and Vaughn run out just in time to see someone dash around a hall to the exit stairway heading for the roof.

The chase is on as the killer jumps into a black car and Vaughn jumps into the cab of a Ford-150 truck, Syd beside him. The killers in the car escape, leaving Vaughn and Syd nose to nose with a SUV as big as they are in the truck.

Act two we are reminded again of the death of Vaughn’s father (shot by Irina Derevko) several years ago. Still the exact date was never revealed to us unless I slept through that revelation. There is a brief scene with Marshall, who tells them he got enough information to give them the location of the freighter carrying the bomb. The freighter is in Lisbon.

Switch to Zurich: to the dinner scene of Sloane and Barnett, who looks pretty darn good in a simple black dress, and Arvin pours her a glass of wine. As they talk, Judy is interested in the Rambaldi device, which, according to Sloane gave him the word ‘peace’ and that was when he had an epiphany. He felt he had to turn over a new leaf (yeah, right!) and go from terrorist to humanitarian. He tells her that there was 8 yards of blank parchment before the word appeared.

Judy asks him what he did with it. He tells her he threw it away. (Yeah, right!) She mildly chastises him for not studying it more closely. (Now she’s on the right track.) As the conversation continues, Arvin becomes belligerent and tells the psychiatrist “that there are some truths you will never learn from me.” Insulted by his tone, Judy leaves telling him it was a mistake.

The scene shifts to Lisbon. Vaughn and Sydney knock out a guard on board the ship. They are on the way to the bowels of the ship, when two more dressed-in-black, but masked, crooks follow. Who else could it be, but Sark and Lauren? Vaughn is shot and Sydney returns their fire, pulling Vaughn into a passageway and shutting the door.

Now for Act III: It’s a reprise of the first act opening with Michael and Lauren in the bedroom. At first, I thought they had made an editing mistake, and then I realized there were slight differences, since Michael left and Lauren answered the phone call she had put on hold. It was Sark.

So, we are led through the entire sequence of events in a shortened version, but as seen through the eyes of Lauren and Sark. Sydney’s talk with Lauren is revealed. She tells Lauren she does not intend to have anything to do with Vaughn in spite of having a history with him.

We see in the data storage company in Vancouver that Sark killed the guard on duty, took his place while Lauren headed for a room next to the one Syd and Vaughn were entering. She tells the director of the company to kill the two in the other room and he shoots at them with eyes closed, missing of course. Lauren kills him. She jumps into the car driven by Sark, being chased by Syd and Vaughn. They get away. She demands that he stop the car in the back alley and they ‘jump each other’s bones’. This is a euphemism for having hot sex.

Act IV opens with Lauren and Sark completing their sex on a bed somewhere. Lauren calls Michael, apologizing for having to be away.

Judy has gone to the restaurant’s hostess and asked for her coat. Sloane walks up and again apologizes for his rudeness. He tells her that he had a short affair with Irina Derevko. Judy then asks him if he believes Sydney is his daughter. He tells her he has no proof, just that Sydney has the same inner strength as he does. Is he out of his mind? Two people involved in Sydney’s life, Irina Derevko and Jack Bristow, both have more inner strength than he does, especially Jack. So, since he has no proof and it’s only his belief, we can just about discard that notion. Besides, would he, if he were her father, do the things he’s done to make her hate him: namely, kill Danny, kill Francie and cause her best friend, Will to disappear into a witness protection program. Jack’s goal at this time in his life is to protect his daughter as only a father would. Even Irina protected Sydney whenever possible. The man is an arrogant son of a bit*ch, who has no conscience at all. (Now here's a piece of good writing and the actor's acting is superb...I really get angry which I hope is the intention of Rifkin and the writers.)

Now the scene switches to the freighter as we see Lauren and Sark follow Syd and Vaughn across the deck. They fire on the CIA agents and Vaughn is brought down. Syd pulls him inside and he gets up. He was wearing a Kevlar vest. Yeah, sure, kill Vaughn? Anyway, there are two chases. Michael catches up with the masked Lauren and demands “take off your mask” while holding his gun on her. Below him, Sydney has found the bomb and is trying to extricate it from its holding place.

Final act shows Vaughn demanding “whoever” to take off the mask. Suddenly Sark appears from out of nowhere and tells Vaughn “if you love her, put down the gun.” He has a gun pointed at Sydney’s head. This goes back and forth a couple of times. Sydney tells Vaughn “don’t” and wanting to protect Sydney and wanting to know who is behind the mask tear at Vaughn. Finally, he puts down the gun.

There is a scuffle and Vaughn chases Sark, while Sydney chases his still masked companion. Sark is caught. Vaughn demands the bomb. Sark triggers it to go off in sixty seconds. He tosses it to Vaughn and disappears. Vaughn tells Marshall on his Com link that the bomb was activated. Marshall tells him how to stop the action. Vaughn does it with two seconds to spare.

Lauren meets Vaughn at a bar. They have a drink. Sark calls, but she shuts him down. At the same time, Sydney is back at CIA headquarters when Jack approaches her and asks her out to dinner. She joins him walking out, his arm around her shoulder.

I did not like the presentation of the episode. The back and forth cut of showing scenes from one point of view to the other was confusion rampant. There was no clear demarcation of what exactly was going on from Act One to Act Three, which seemed to be a repeat. There was too much of Sark and Lauren as well as Sydney and Vaughn. Somehow, I felt cheated and was not well done. The writer (s), I think, didn’t do their job. I waited three weeks for this?

I understand others did like it. However, since Irina Derevko left, Francie is dead, and Will is nowhere near, who has Sydney to talk to about anything? She and Jack seem closer, but there wasn’t enough of him. This was the second episode in which Jack was a minor character. I would like to see more of Jack and Sydney AND more of Katya. I’d like Jack to tell Sydney she has two aunts. I mean the family dynamics are stagnant without Irina, who seems to be lurking around.

The episode did not move the episodic storyline in a way that revealed anything new, other than Sloane’s belief that he is Sydney’s father. Ah, now that explains the scene in Truth Takes Time when Irina tells Sloane she knows the truth about his being a good husband. “Do not speak of your love for Sydney to me again. We have an agreement!” Earlier in Season Two, elsewhere on the boards, another columnist expressed the idea that perhaps Sloane did have an affair with Irina. He could have even blackmailed her, discovering her secret: namely, she was a KGB agent sent to marry Jack to spy on him. We know Arvin Sloane was disenchanted with the U. S. Government and was not, by a long shot, the patriot that Jack was and is. So maybe he didn’t care. He used Irina’s secret to get what he wanted—sex.

Of everything that we were shown in Blowback, this was the most interesting.

No one has done nothing to answer questions that we’ve brought up during the season and about what’s happened previously for which we’ve been left open-mouthed, thinking or saying, “Huh?” For example, who or what is the passenger that Lazeray asked Sydney about before being killed?


DISCUSS:

Give me your ideas about Sloane’s belief. Do you think he’s Sydney’s father? Why or why not?

Do you think Sloane is lying to Judy; is he “playing” her? If so, why?

Sex between Lauren and Sark: was it necessary to the plot?

Did Lauren marry Vaughn for the same reason as Irina married Jack? Are the two women the same?

Do you like Marshall and Carrie’s baby’s name?



Sorry about my discussion questions, but being disenchanted with the episode, I was not able to come up with many good ones.

first of all, really great column.

I really hope he's not, but then again there's always that possibility. and if it's true do you think Irina might've told Katya, cause I think she did. anyways,

I think he might be, seeing as he did want her to stay, he had only an option of giving her a reason to.

not really, but it does add to her character's personality.

they'll never be the same, but their intentions might be.

Mitchell, yeah it's cute.

Fine then...me next...I thought it rocked! But man! I sorta like Lauren again :unsure:

What else would he do :rolleyes:

I loved the voice Syd had going for this Alias...it was funny :P

It wasn't ANY black car...it was a sweet Mustang with the WORKS!!!! *drools over car*

Do you know why they chose this one? It would have been harder to handle (as it is a bigger vehicle) and it would be different to what they are used to? Can you shed some light for me?

She only wants a proffessional dinner, and she shows up in THAT!!!! Not bloody likely the way her boobs were hanging out! :lol:

I was totally hoping for the revelation that it was Lauren that did the shooting, but to no avail *sigh*

Haha! I thought my idiotic TV network had rewound the tape :P They've done it before!!! :lol:

Hahahahahahahaha!!!! That's one way of putting it! :lol: You know, I loved that scene...shows us how bad Lauren really is...and she TOTALLY has Sark whipped! *growwwrr!* Kinky car sex! Woohoo!!!

Boooooo!!! Beds are boring!!! Bring us the black Mustang! It has a back seat dammit!!!

Grrrrr...*snarl *spit* THAT BASTARD TRIED TO KILL MY WILBERT!!! LEME ATEM LEME ATIM!!!!

Cheating the system again ;)

Well, if it isn't, then they have no measure of their fanbase whatsoever!!! It really is some awesome stuff!!!

Audience: ***Awwwwwwwww!!!!!*** :wub:

I agree to some extent, but it was a nice change from the usual *let's-show-what-will-happen-and-then-drag-you-backwards-and-make-you-wait-an-hour-for-the-good-stuff*

I see where you are coming from...I would have been disappointed if I had waited three weeks, but I didn't *nya-nya-nya-nya-nya*

Bring him back then dammit, make them bring him back! *sobs*

Honestly, it shouldn't be us working these things out, it should be the show. I have become EXTREMELY disenchanted with Alias, and JJ (and the writers) really seem to have lost the plot. It irritates the crap out of me that I can know what is going on if I have missed an episode, I want to see some continuity dammit!!!! I want people to follow up leads, and keep going on an 'ultimate' mission. Not this 'episode-by-episode crap they are feeding us :angry:

I think Sloane can shove it up his ass! There is no way he can be Syds father, and if he is, I will stop watching Alias, because that is the final straw. And you wanna know something else, fatherhood isn't biological, it is emotional, so Syd has only had a father for 3 (technically 5) years, if my estimate on time is right. I hope Sloane drops dead and then we don't have to worry about all this stupid *paternity* junk.

Sloane=Shifty...he ALWAYS has an alterior motive, maybe he wants her to form her own opinions on the situation, and if she does, maybe she will impart some of this onto him. But you know what, and I digress a few episodes, because I have just thought of something, but there must be a reason that Katya (under Irina's 'orders' probably) shattered the trust Jack was building up with Sloane...she knows something about our 'favourite' SOB...now I want the writers to play on this angle a bit more.

Honestly, probably not. But was it necessary to add some excitement to what is becoming fairly boring? Totally. It also added a new dimension to the "Lauren/Vaughn" angle. And you wanna know something, indirectly it could shed light on the "Irina/Sloane" angle. I mean, legally Irina was married to Jack. In her own head, in the beginning, no, she probably didn't love him. And the Lauren/Sark angle gives Sark a bit of depth, and a new reason for the S/V shippers to hate Lauren, and a reason for the writers (who seem to be thriving on a teenage girl fanbase) to give us some Stark Sark ;) It also shows us that Lauren isn't going to let the illusion of her marriage to Vaughn overpower her in the way Irina's did. She isn't living as Vaughn's wife, she is covering as Vaughn's wife. Anyways, I hope you understood my ramblings, because it all spewed forth from beyond.

Yes, and no. I think answered most of that up there ^, but like I said, Irina was/is Jack's wife, but Lauren is only fronting that, and her cover is much more 'shallow', I think she is going to get her ass burned very quick.

Hahaha! Whatever happened to Frank? :lol: (Or phrank with a 'ph' if it's a girl) :lol: I like it...they should have chosen something which is further away from Michael though...Mitchell, Michael...how about William :D :D :D

Great column, it's a pity you didn't like the episode though, because I think you could have thrown many more points into it, and given us lots more depth on it...or is that your (lack of) VCR's fault? Anyways, great stuff and can't wait for next week!!!