ALIAS – SYDNEY – ICE
Episode 4
“Forgiveness is a tricky thing.”

This season is really making up for last season. So far I do not think any fan has been disappointed, other than the fact the writers killed Irina off …maybe or probably.

Anyway, the opening takes place in a bazaar somewhere in the Middle East I think. A man is wandering through the bazaar muttering, “My bird is missing.” Seconds later, Weiss steps up behind him saying, “You mean, I lost my canary,” then reminds him the woman who is his contact is upstairs.

The man who seems to be in his middle forties, dressed in shorts, shirt, and hat makes his way up the stairs. Vaughn and Dixon are also in the bazaar watching and soon spot a tail. They both notify Sydney as the man sits down. He complains of being cold. He wants his money for the ‘weapon’ and she want s the weapon. He says it might take a little while. Then she hears the warning and tells him he’s been tailed. She grabs his hand and pulls him along with her. The men following try to follow but Vaughn and Dixon delay most of them. The man we know later as Derek Modell is hit in the stomach. He looks sick almost immediately. Sydney pulls him down until his leg from mid-calf to foot drops off and he falls.

Stunned Sydney and Vaughn pick him up and literally drag him to the waiting van. As they try to help him up, he shatters! Ewwwww! What a way to go!

At APO, Sydney meets Vaughn coming in from work. He looks terrible. She wants to know if he’s all right. He makes the excuse that having someone shatter to pieces in front of you is not lightly forgotten. They have a staff meeting to discuss ICE-5 and the man behind the weapon, Fenton Keene, a former terrorist now supposedly ‘clean.’ Marshall explains that ICE-5 was not meant to be swallowed. He says Modell probably swallowed it and it ruptured when he was hit. He was quite literally freeze-dried.

Sloane tells Sydney that they need to get a sample. He’s sending her to Montenegro where Fenton is to get it. She’ll be a member of Unifam from the UK. Jack tells the rest of the team they have to locate any terrorist organization that might be planning to buy it from him.

After the meeting, Jack goes to see Vaughn. Vaughn tells him he’s not sleeping well and that he sees Lauren. He wonders if Jack was bothered with the same problem. Jack facetiously answers, “With Lauren?”)

“I mean to kill the woman who was your wife.”

Then with his patented stare he responds, “It did, now it doesn’t!” and leaves. (OH, JACK, Jack, is that true.) I love Victor Garber’s work in this scene.

At home, Sydney and Nadia talk and then Nadia spies some pictures. Sydney tells her the fire destroyed all her belongings and she asked Jack for some pictures. These were what he gave her. Among them, is a picture of Irina holding a baby? Nadia wants to know if it is Sydney. She answers she doesn’t know. Vaughn shows up and they leave after Nadia asks if she can have it.

In Montenegro Sydney joins the staff and it taken by Keira Mc Claine, a nurse at the hospital, around and shown some of her duties, which are not particularly glamorous. Sydney makes her way to a locked storage door. She’s picking the lock when Keira catches her, but quick Syd, turns around with a box in her hands. She explains she is looking for syringes. Just then, there is noise outside and Keira rushes out to find a man on a gurney. Sydney follows and notices that his left arm is separated from his shoulder. She knows he’s been involved with ICE-5 in an accidental way. Keira sends her back to the work she assigned.

Meanwhile back in LA, Nadia and Marshall are talking. He’s showing her pictures of his son Mitchell. Weiss informs the pair they need to put a list together of those organizations who are interested in obtaining bioweapons. Nadia is at her desk when Jack appears with a list of organizations they don’t have to worry about. Nadia shows him the picture of Irina and the baby. Although courteous, Jack wants to know where she got it. When she tells him, he tells her there “is nothing to tell.”

Information from the merry little band in Montenegro tells APO that there is a secure wing in the hospital. The code was secured, but they need the swipe card. They will get it.

Dixon hits Vaughn hard three times so as to open a bad cut over his eye. He goes to the hospital posing as a priest. Sydney is treating him in the hallway when Keira approaches. She takes over. Vaughn slips the card out of her pocket as she leans in and hands it unseen to Sydney who then passes it to Dixon. Dixon goes into a patient room and behind drawn curtains, copies it. He returns it to Sydney who in turn slips it back into Keira’s pocket. Vaughn sees Fenton approaching and wants to know if they are married, but finds out they are brother and sister.

Sydney, using the card, pad combination she saw Keira input, gains access and starts searching for ICE-5. She finds it, but also hears Fenton and his men approaching. She hides and watches him enter the room when someone is administering the ICE-5 by a spray to a human guinea pig who screams.

APO has found that a group in Damascus is after the weapon. Vaughn says he can turn the girl by taking her confession. He meets her in a bar and orders a drink for “my parishioner.”

I thought the scene was extremely powerful and for once Vaughn had something to say with raw emotional power. He told Keira she could escape from the hold her brother had on her. “He saved me. I owe him.” This was her excuse. Fenton has done some awful things.

At the same time, Sydney and Dixon are listening. They are about to hear some pretty emotional words. Vaughn tell Keira that he had been married for a short while and the woman he married had also done some awful things. He came to know she was evil and how he wanted her dead. Therefore, he killed her.

“Now I know that killing her was wrong.” Vaughn is talking about himself and Lauren. He tells Keira that she won’t leave him and he thinks he sees her everywhere. He can’t sleep. He tells her she deserves to get out from under her brother’s thumb.

At APO headquarters, Nadia gives Sloane the final list, which has been cut down to the buyers in Damascus. She hands him the book, turned to the picture of Irina. Sloane stares at it.

“Your mother was a very private person.” He doesn’t know who the baby is either. When Nadia holds out her hand, he is almost reluctant to give it back, even though he says he knew her only a short while. It’s as if he wants to keep the picture also. Nadia persists and he gives it to her.

Keira Mc Claine, who we now know is Meagan Keene, Fenton’s sister, returns to the hospital with Vaughn. He is reminding Meagan that Fenton is evil also. He wants to help her break free from his grasp…to get out. However, things are not what they seem to be. (What else is new on Alias?) Fenton steps forward and takes Vaughn prisoner.

When he recovers consciousness, Vaughn is strapped down to a gurney. Fenton is drawing some ICE-5 from a vial.

Leaning over Vaughn, he says, “Do you really think my sister would betray me.”

He plans to inject Vaughn with the liquid ICE-5 through his eye into the brain. He had not tried it before because it wasn’t cost effective. He decides Meagan can do it and hands her the syringe.

“I want him to be the last one he sees.”

However, Sydney to the rescue. She knocks Keira down and the syringe lands on the floor. She has a fight with Fenton, knocking him down. She unlocks Vaughn’s wrists and band across his chest. At that moment, Fenton begins to regain consciousness and grabs for the syringe. Meagan also is getting up. Just as Fenton is about to use it on Vaughn, Meagan steps in front and is stabbed. Sydney slams Fenton with a piece of equipment. Vaughn holds Meagan who is dying slowly.

She tells Vaughn “I forgive you,” and dies.

In LA, Jack approaches Nadia and asks to see the picture again.

“It is Irina holding her niece.” Jack says he proposed to Irina the very next day and when Sydney was born, Irina held her in the exact same way. He didn’t doubt that when Nadia was born, she too was held like that. Well, that nearly did me in…I had tears in my eyes also.

Vaughn and Sydney talk and she tells him that he can talk to her whenever he wants.

“Maybe you should spend the night with me,” she adds, but Vaughn is sound asleep.


REMARKS AND DISCUSSION

For someone who is supposed to be killed, Irina Derevko is still alive and kicking. JJ said she would be very important during the season and she sure is.

I know Alias is about Sydney and her relationship with her father, which had been on the upswing, until Season 4. Now it is in the trash again and worse off than before. There has to be some explanations forthcoming from someone. Jeffrey Bell wrote and directed this episode. I saw an interview with JJ in which he introduced JB as one of the new writers on the show. I swear to God the guy was 25…maybe 30.

Was it just me or did any of you have a heard time understanding the actress – Kelly McDonald’s Scottish accent? Her brother, Fenton, had very little if any.

This was the first time I really liked Vaughn. Mr. Bell wrote some emotionally powerful words for him and Mr. Vartan did not disappoint. He was superb.


“We had an agreement.” In Season 2, Irina in Truth Takes Time tells Arvin Sloane the same thing. That was never revealed EITHER! What agreement and why did it have to do with Sydney?

Has Nadia gotten closure when Jack tells her Irina is holding her niece?

Oh, oh, do we smell a possible new terrorist on the horizon…the niece? Whose child is it? Nieces and nephews come from siblings, so was Irina the oldest? Alternatively, did we just assume this? Jack confronted Katya with the fact he knew Irina had sisters.

Is Vaughn over Lauren after “I forgive you” from Meagan Keene?

Until next week….

damn that got to me too

REMARKS AND DISCUSSION

yeah pretty weird, maybe it was just part of her cover, who knows.

absolutly agree, but then again I always rather like Vaughn.

maybe just maybe, we'll find out someday.

I think so, more or less yes, maybe she'll think twice about killing him when she finds out the truth.

maybe it wasn't her niece at all, but I sure would like to find out who the baby belonged to.

I don't think Vaughn will ever really be over Lauren.

lovely column, lovely episode what more can I say.thanks for the pm.

I like that jack got a chance tob e both funny and emotional in this ep- without going over the top

vaughn also finally had a chance to show the human side of his heart regarding lauren - just how tired he is of all of the baggage and what he fears he has done to his own soul.

I noticed that when they talked about a niece the picture did a fli- baby went form one side of the photo to the other
was that editing or JJ???

Does this mean Katya or yelena will be partof this year> and who is that baby

if baby is about 5 years older than sydney could it be weiss or vaughn??

tnow that would be very very interesting- Vaughn and Sydney related by blood
maybe vaughn's mom is yelena derevko!!!

brenda

brenda_wood posted:

I didn't notice the change! I'm gonna have to look at it again.

Katya will be back. Isabella Rosellini signed for later in the season.

And I seriously doubt the baby could be either Weiss or Vaughn because that's an EWWWWWW...