SYDNEY BRISTOW
Episode 18 – Unveiled
“The Passenger may be your mother!”

What a rouser of an episode! It was the best one so far this season. Betrayal, denial, truth and lies were in full swing as our third season begins to run pell mell toward its climatic ending, which after watching the first two season finales, will probably surprise the hell out of all of us. I know we would like to see Irina in person, but “bloody hell” so far she’s dominated the storyline without showing her face once.

Our episode opened with Dixon confronting Sloane who sits in chains while Dixon wants to know about The Passenger. Sloane doesn’t know what, only that the item he placed in the box – the Di Regno heart—was locked and only keys that Rambaldi hid would open it. He tells Dixon he will need his, Sloane’s help, to find and locate The Passenger and he wants a deal. Dixon tells him that it won’t stop his execution. Ooh, steely-eye, steely- voiced Dixon who remembers all to well that Sloane ordered his wife murdered. Sloane tells him he’ll talk to Jack Bristow about the Passenger. Dixon says it won’t matter. No deal.

Now the Covenant had the keys. The two scenes were cutting back and forth as Sloane spoke. The scene switched to Florence, Italy (shades of Da Vinci and –er—Rambaldi.) Sark and Bomani are opening the box using the keys they stole from Sydney and Vaughn. Inside is the heart Sloane stole from the NSA. They take it and put into another open sided box and the ancient printing machine begins to write.

At the CIA, Sydney speaks to Weiss, telling him her father believes Lauren is the mole. They both go to the briefing that was called because of a cyber terrorist attack on computer systems all over the world. The worm attack is corrupting systems carrying medical records in doctors’ offices, hospitals, clinics, University centers, and research labs. It was designed by a hacker, who calls himself “Cypher” and the attack is being launched by The Covenant. Sydney and Vaughn will go to Berlin to find the hacker and find a way to shut it down.

In Marshall’s office, he provides Sydney with a pair of glasses that will find the hacker and send him a message. Marshall proudly announces he is well known in the underground hacker world, as “Black Kitty.” He is so funny.

Back at the Covenant’s Florence hideout, Sark gets a call from Lauren telling him the CIA has found the hacker, but that she will take care of him. Bomani warns Sark that if she doesn’t come though this time, “you both will endure the consequences.” Obviously, Bomani doesn’t think much of Lauren’s ability. Little does he know?

In Berlin, Vaughn with eyebrow and lip rings (too funny) and Sydney in a wig that looked as if it had dragged through oil sludge, make their way into the underground club searching for Cypher. They find him and send the message. He joins them and Sydney congratulates him on the worm he created. He denies it and starts to leave. Nearby Lauren, dressed as a cocktail waitress (terrible wig), has a gun equipped with silencer, watching for some indication the CIA has found Cypher. She spots Vaughn in his ring disguise. As the hacker tries to leave, Sydney pulls him down roughly and gives him the CIA identity. She tells him his worm is the precursor to a bioterrorist attack and he will be charged with murder if there are any deaths traceable to the work. He admits he designed the worm, that was capable of… He is about to tell them more, when he is shot. Sydney hurries off to find the shooter whom she thinks she saw and has identified in her mind as Lauren. Vaughn is helping Cypher who hands him a USB flash drive with the source code. Lauren sees this and disappears.

Whew, AND that was just the first act.

In the second act, Jack comes down to see Sloane, who admits he knows nothing more about The Passenger than he told Dixon. Instead, he reminds Jack that he took a bullet for him as well as helping Sydney regain her memory. All he wants is for Jack to find out if Senator Reed was telling him the truth—that he would negotiate the immunity pardon if Sloane would work for The Trust, a secret group within the US Government.

At a safe house somewhere in Berlin, Vaughn and Sydney are processing the source code. Sydney tells Vaughn about her suspicions regarding Lauren. Vaughn is upset with her and will not talk about it anymore. There is a knock at the door and Lauren appears. She says she had a hard time in London with the burial of her father and needs to be with Vaughn. Sydney slips outside to make a call, disguising her voice to emulate a British accent. She finds out from Mom that Lauren left England only hours ago. Lauren could not have been in the nightclub if that we so. Sydney is not sure now.

In Act Three, Jack makes a contact somewhere probably Washington, D.C. I say this because it’s raining heavily and the contact seems to know what’s going on in the area of intelligence funding. He wants to know if there is such an organization as “The Trust.” His contact says it is too dangerous to poke around. Jack says if he can find the information and proof, Jack will owe him and that it is worth more. His contact hints that the money for the organization comes from intelligence funding.

Vaughn is up-linking the source code material to Marshall when Lauren enters with a cup of coffee. She has a magnification ring, which corrupts the uplink. Back at CIA task force, Marshall tells them the data was corrupted but he has been able to save the most important part of the transmission through electron microscopy. He knows now the Covenant was searching for something in the files. The worm was actually doing some intelligence gathering. He has tweaked the worm’s source code so that the CIA will now get the information.
Meanwhile in Florence, Bomani learns the CIA cut the feed. He tells Sark that Lauren usefulness is not as powerful. Sark tells him she will get the information for them and then he will eliminate her. Bomani says if she doesn’t, they both will pay.

Sydney has told Jack that Vaughn won’t listen to her about Lauren. Jack says he’ll talk. This was a great scene between the two men as Jack relates his love affair with his wife, Irina, and then of his suspicions (professional paranoia as he refers), followed by her inability to answer some of his questions except with a kiss to deflect him. Later as the answers were not forthcoming, he chose to ignore the signs. Vaughn is defiant when he says—
“You never respected me, never thought I was worthy of your daughter, so I’m not surprised you’re so quick to think Lauren is betraying me. But whether or not you or Sydney believe me, I know the life I’m living, and I know the woman I am married to. Lauren is not Irina and I am definitely not you.”

In Act IV Marshall tells Sydney that the Covenant was looking for a specific DNA and that the worm had discovered ten that matched. Sydney was surprised because no one had the same DNA. The person must have been using aliases. (Surprise, surprise) Marshall goes on to tell her that the DNA is that of a female. They leave to brief Dixon.

Meanwhile Lauren knows she has to get a copy of the transmission Marshall retrieved. She makes her way into his office and starts to download it. Weiss notices her leaving. Vaughn appears a minute later, looking for her. Weiss points the way. As Vaughn approaches Marshall’s office, the download continues. Lauren gets it all and as she leaves, runs into Vaughn. They make an appointment for lunch. She tells him she has a few errands first.

He follows her into a mall. (So Jack got through to him after all.) She gets a phone call. He has Weiss run check on her cell. Meanwhile she is talking to Sark who tells her not to do the dead drop, but instead find him on the third level parking lot where he is waiting. Lauren is suspicious (she isn’t a complete dunce). She warns him to be careful not to break protocol. They keep talking and finally Weiss is able to break through the encryption and they hear only her last few words, which include “I’ll never forgive you for this.” Now Vaughn or Weiss have no idea what the phone call was about. At lunch, he questions her and she tells him she had an argument with her mother on her cell phone while wandering in the mall.

Dixon evaluates Marshall’s findings. It seems the woman whose DNA marker they found, had only one doctor who resides in Milan, a Dr. Robert Viadro. He sends Vaughn and Sydney to question him as to the identity of The Passenger. However, Lauren arrives first threatening the doctor with a gun.

Act IV starts where III ended, with Lauren pushing her way into the house. The doctor fends her off, throwing a vase at her and escaping up the stairs into his bedroom, into the closet and then into a secret room with her hot on his heels. She gets thru the secret door before he can close it. She hits him with the butt end of her gun.

Sydney and Vaughn drive up. They go in different directions. He goes upstairs, and she goes through the first floor. Up in the secret room, Lauren is torturing the doctor for information about the whereabouts of The Passenger. Suddenly on a monitor, she sees Vaughn trying to get into the door and Sydney downstairs in a fight with three men. She turns to the doctor for one last try. Sydney is in one of the best fights so far this season using her CIA and Krav maga training to take all three. Vaughn hurries through the door only to find the room empty except for the bloody doctor. Vaughn lets him loose.

The doctor mutters, “The Passenger, I have betrayed her…years spent protecting her, and now she’s alone.”

Just then, Sydney enters the room, telling Vaughn that the guards she fought were from order of Rambaldi.

“You’re the one, the one from the prophecy,” says the doctor, he grabs Sydney’s gun. “You will not hurt her.” Vaughn kills him. Damn it, he’s too quick on the trigger! I thought the CIA always used tranqs (ha ha ha).

Lauren goes to Florence to deliver the information on the Passenger. She hands the disc to Bomani, who tells her she’s outlived her usefulness. Just as he is about to kill her, Sark kills him. He tells Lauren that in the future she should try trusting him a little more. Oh yeah, the way this guy changes allegiances, that might be dangerous.

Jack gets a phone call from his contact and he confirms there is a group called The Trust. He will leave him the information in the agreed upon drop.

Dixon calls him into the office where he (gasp) tells Jack that Sloane admitted to Dr. Barnett he had had an affair with Irina. Bad move. Jack goes to see Sloane and tells him he found no evidence of The Trust and that he will have to take some of his secrets to his grave.

Sloane tells Jack, “If I die, I won’t be able to help you find the Passenger before the Covenant does, Jack. You have no idea how that will affect you…you and Sydney.”

After Sydney returns, she meets her father and tells him that The Passenger is not a weapon, but a person. She tells him the doctor’s reaction when he saw her and that he was trying to protect The Passenger from her.

Jack tells her that Sloane told him after Il Dire said “peace”, he searched for the meaning and found in Greek it was Irine, also the derivation of the name Irina. He thinks The Passenger might be her mother.

The final scene is between Lauren and Vaughn. (Shades of Jack’s prediction.) She gives him a kiss rather than answer to what she’s been doing? Aha, thinks Vaughn, and he starts searching through her clothes and purse frantically. Finding the suitcase in the closet, he finds the false bottom and inside, the awful wig, a gun and passport. Oh well, Mr Goodytwoshoes wouldn’t listen.


RANDOMIZING

Yeah I made up the word. Another squishy way of wondering whazzup with the Alias writers.

At the beginning of the episode, the “previous on Alias” items, the last one shown was Kishell telling Syd and Vaughn the Rambaldi box had never been opened; that it held a bioweapon of some kind. Then in the opening scene between Dixon and Sloane, Sloane tells him he put the Di Regno heart in it. Say what? Something’s afoot my readers or something’s rotten in Demark. (Shakespeare). We see Sark load the heart into some kind of open box and the printing machine starts to write. Sloane says it’s a machine. Yet in the second season, the heart was ripped out of the body of a man! Confusion reigns.

Randoms on “I think the Passenger may be your mother.” At first I thought by God, he’s on to something. Then I started to think about all that went on before in season one, two and in this one so far. In The Telling, Irina tells Sydney that Sloane thought he was the chosen, but “you have been chosen—you are the one in the Prophecy, not me” Then she takes a high dive and disappears not to be seen yet all year. She’s in hiding? Still Jack can reach her through email. Then Dr. Viadro says he’s been protecting the Passenger and now she’s alone. What did that mean? Irina unprotected, alone, scared and in hiding? That does not seem to be the Irina Derevko we know. Questions continue to begat questions. I have a sudden thought, but I’m going to post it later.

Jack says he questioned Irina about what she did during the days he was gone. I had the distinct impression in the first season that Laura Bristow was a professor of English Literature at UCLA. It is another inconsistency present. She certainly would have been busy at her job.

DISCUSS
What an episode? It was one of the best this season. So this one set up a lot of questions for us to think about and hopefully you’ll get your two cents down. Considering the episode did not have one scene with Irina, she was there in various forms: The Passenger. Lauren vs Irina comparison. The alledged affair with Sloane.

By the end of this episode, do you still think Irina is the head of the Covenant? If so, explain if you can.

In the previous episode, Bomani told Sydney she looked like her mother. So if she is not the head of the Covenant, how does he know Irina?

Do you think Irina Derevko is The Passenger, or is it someone else? If not Irina, who do you think it is?

Here’s something to mull on also. Why would Dixon tell Jack about the affair Sloane says he had with Irina while she was married to Jack? I have an idea. Do you?

Sloane tells Jack there will be serious consequences to both him and to Sydney if Sloane isn’t allowed to help find The Passenger. What consequences could he mean?

Is the Passenger someone whose like a Typhoid Mary? She carries the virus without being effected? How many years has the doctor been “protecting” her? He had a vase with the sign of the Magnificent Order of Rambaldi on it. Is he one of them? Probably and no doubt the keeper of Rambaldi’s most precious invention/formula.

Your thoughts are always appreciated. B)

Thanks for the PM, lenafan.
Wow! I'm so out of it...when did this episode air? I haven't seen Alias in two weeks. My TV guide showed something else in Alias' place last Sunday. Or maybe I'm just losing it?? :wacko:
But reading your run down on the espisode has helped greatly...I'm just a tad miffed for missing it on TV! :angry:
EspionageFan :ph43r:

Hey
Sorry you missed it. It was great. Have you really missed two weeks?
They showed Facade and then Unveiled came on at 10 p.m. instead of 9. They had that Variety show on at that time. B)

Ok

Don't laugh

I have some thoughts

I think that the passenger is sydneys new little sis - and that she is also vaughn's sister

I think bill vaughn is alive and that he heads the covenant

I think slaone knows all of this

I am also wondering if the di regno heart was a human heart but once removed it probably had instructions of some sort as to how to preserve it and use it as a machine

I think vaughn is a carrier of the disease and perhaps he needs to commit some action or be activated in some way in order to contaminate people- the whole my watch stopped on october 1st business that was said in such a way that we are supposed to remember it

10 01 2001- 01 10 01 some sort of binary code perhaps???

I don't have all my ducks in a row but this is sort of where I am headed with my theories

Katya, Yelena and Irina need to appear and or reveal more of what they know

brenda

WOW brenda...WOW!!! :blink:
I'm SOO blown away by your observations that first off...
Sydney has a little sis....but I understand that point though! I have a ficclette I submitted at SD-1 as a poss. story to post and was denied cause in it is about Sydney's long lost sister!! :reallyexcited:
But the fact that it is ALSO Vaughn's sister...gosh, please no!!! :unsure: And that Bill Vaughn isn't really dead??? :blink: That would be AWESOME!!! :reallyexcited:

k...for lenafan's Q's:
I don't think SpyMoma is the head of Covenent still....it's just too easy to say she is and they've done that storyline once already haven't they with The Man?? :huh:

Ahh..I think that the three Derevko sisters run some kind of organization together and Bomani is from there...sent to the Covenent to gather info and keep the sister's aware of what the Covenent is doing....if anything to know what they did/going to do/doing to Sydney....the only offspring of the Derevko line, so far that we know about anyways. :unsure:

I don't think SpyMoma is the Passenger....I think it's one of her sisters....poss. Elena cause we haven't seen her yet and don't know anything about her..... :blink: <~that idear is a bit far fetched...*shrug*

And as for Dixon telling Jack about Sloane's affair with Irina.....I don't think there is much to read into on that one.....I think he saw the report from Barnett cause it's his job to look over those things.....and he felt out of friendship that he should tell Jack.....he wouldn't have been able to look at either Jack or Sydney, who is like his own daughter anyways, without them seeing that something was obviously really wrong.......but I could be way off here...I mean, he kept it from Vaughn and everyone that Sydney was alive all that time.........but it was for Sydney's safety...I think he'd do and be able to do anything for his "girl". :)

Jesus..you just wrote ME! I have a disease that I carry that I'm not effected by but if anyone got my blood mixed with there blood, they can get sick!! :huh:
Not sure on this point of view....I don't think it's Sydney that's a carrier....or Vaughn like you mentioned before...they both were put under scrutiny when: Sydney was thought to be the prophecy in Season 1 and both of them when they were infected by the "red ball" in Season 2...especially Vaughn cause he did become sick.
I think the protecter dude was a member of Rambaldi....it seems that Rambaldi wasn't set out to put this stuff all together....he just wrote about it to warn people about it and protect the people that need to be protected....ie The Passenger being protected from The Prophecy...who, I STILL don't believe is Sydney.... :huh:

This was one helluva eppy.....LOVE that Vaughn finally opened his eyes and all thanks to the FANTABULOUSITIC scene with the SpyDada....thank you Victor, bravo!! :P

Till next time!!
Colly E. :bunny:

great recap as always, and you completely lost me at the randimonizing thing, but hey it's probably just wine(kidding)*grins*(not kidding,really)

there's always that possibility, but I'm having doubts, there's no possible way for one person to manage such complicating tasks, but then again it is Irina.

well seeing as Irina did work with Sloane at one point in time and Sloane did know Bomani after all, he probably met Irina too.

actually, I don't think it's Irina, it seems too easy, maybe it's Lauren or her mom? hey you never know.

he secretly wants to destroy Jack's life? I really don't know I just thought they couldn't get barnett to guest star in that episode. wait maybe Dixon works for Irina and she told him to tell Jack, that's kinda weird though.

maybe the finding out of Sydney not being Jack's daughter, which I still think is a lie, that should shock them I guess, but it wouldn't really cause any consequences.

hmmm*ponders* is that a trick question? *giggles again*


and thanks for the pm of course

LightTraveller Posted on Apr 15 2004, 06:33 PM

[QUOTE]he secretly wants to destroy Jack's life? I really don't know I just thought they couldn't get barnett to guest star in that episode[/QUOTE]
Actually, I think Dixon did it deliberately to end any friendship or trust Jack and Sloane had. He wants Sloane's dead body!! :angry:


QUOTE
Is the Passenger someone whose like a Typhoid Mary? She carries the virus without being effected? How many years has the doctor been “protecting” her? He had a vase with the sign of the Magnificent Order of Rambaldi on it. Is he one of them? Probably and no doubt the keeper of Rambaldi’s most precious invention/formula.

hmmm*ponders* is that a trick question? *giggles again* [/QUOTE]

Not a trick question...consider this possibility, the doctor 'created' the Passenger from DNA and maybe Rambaldi tissue? Eeeek! :reallyexcited:
The way this series is going WHO KNOWs what random weirdness will be thrust upon us? :innocent:

B)

Confusion always reigns in Alias. And alas, the excuse that it is 'Alias' is starting to be less effective. And nt just any Shakespeare, that my friends is my favourite of all the plays...one Hamlet! Horatio!! Woohoo!

I know what you mean, but come on, all Jack did was CIA stuff...he would have asked how her day was as something to talk about. "So what did you do today?" "Well, there was this one student who..." or "I had to set an exam paper..." or whaetever, y'know???

It was a good one in it's own specially way, but Vaughn took his bloody time!!!! That kinda gets to me when things drag on for too long. However, I digress...

No...but I never really thought it was Irina...perhaps the idea was something she started...but I don't think the covenant would need to kill (who I think is Irina) if she was covenant head.

Once upon a time, not so long ago...Irina had amazing connections. Or, perhaps K-directorate or something like that???

I'm not sure if it is her, but I'll be damned if she doesn't have something to do with it somewhere along the way...

Umm??? Did he tell Jack? But Jack deserves to know...Irina was his wife...

Whole world go ***POOF!*** in a cloud of dust *meep* *hides behind couch*

K
Thanks for the information. (Groan) Of course, we're thru Ep #21 and waiting until May 23rd for the finale. Saw JG on Ellen a couple of weeks ago. She is :wub: adorable in person. She told Ellen that day, she had worked from 5 p.m. to 7:00 a.m. in the morning (the day of the show) and was scheduled for one more night's shooting of a fight scene. And we think their lives are so glamourous.

So why didn't she give him answers? She certainly didn't have to fudge on that! :( You know sometimes I think the writers forget that the fans KNOW ALL THE FACTS! :lol:
In my creative writing class, you have to do a profile on your characters. Know them backward and forward. That means if they had done their homework, we wouldn't be so fussy about the dialogue they put into their characters' mouths. :angry:

I know how that is...but I want to say something else, and it may or may not make sense, but here it goes (and I'm trying to defend the writers here...)

Okay, Jack and Laura, married for...I can't remember how long. Now in some or other episode she told him that the illusion of their marriage was a big one. Basically, everyone took that as "I love you" and hey, I think she said that too. Anyhows. She loved him, she married him, she gave birth to his child. So when he asked her what she was doing all day, sure, she could have lied and told him whatever...but then she would have had to remember everything she told him. It would have been easier to just give him a kiss, and not have to answer. And you know, I get the feeling that she is one of those people who doesn't feel bad about the big things (cheating, killing) but about the whole lying thing. She didn't want to lie to him if she didn't have to. Same with Lauren, it is easier to give him a kiss and change the subject than to fabricate a story. And if Vaughn or Jack became suspicious and wanted to see if that is what they were really up to...big problems...

However...the whole give'm a kiss instead of a story would have kept them out of their men's lives, and distanced them...so they didn't feel obliged to the marriage so much.

Just my theory :D

And with the inconsistancies...I think Alias should keep the same set of writers...I think they have been chopping and changing them.

K. Ackles posted on May 9, 2004

Actually the team of writers has stayed the same. I've been watching. (It's a writer thing.)
The kiss thing was a ploy by the writers...Laura (IRina) only had to tell him what went on at school; now Lauren, was a whole different ballgame since she was actively engaged in evil doings (no school). Laura/Irina simply went to meet her handler. The killings? Well, I don't think she would have been stupid enough to do them in L.A....so
I guess I'm too picky.
Good luck on mock mock exams, mock exams and then the real thing...study hard.
I'll tell you about my creative writing final later.
B)

Well, then there is no excuse for inconsistancies!!! :lol: Thanks for the luck! Can't wait for the finale, saw hourglass on tuesday, reading your column now :D