ALIAS – Episode 20 – Sydney
In Descent
“To make the world a better place.”


This was a terrific episode. Written and Directed by Jeffrey Bell who also did, ICE, In Descent was fast moving with action driven scenes. One could barely catch his or her breath before descending into a well-written and directed plot. Kudos again to Mr. Bell.

The action opens as CIA’s DSR facility in Nevada, where Elena’s men are robbing the facility of its Rambaldi artifacts including the Sphere of Life that Sloane gave to the CIA, allowing him to become the director of APO.

Sophia takes leave of Nadia, telling her that she and her sister are two beautiful and smart women. Nadia wants her to promise to come back and Sophia says, “If you want me.”
Just wait.

Vaughn at APO stares at Jack. Finally, he makes up his mind and gets up to enter Jack’s office. Marshall interrupts wanting Weiss’s papers signed. His grandfather died. Vaughn tells him he will do it later. Marshall starts to follow him to Jack’s office, but Vaughn says it is personal and shows him the ring.

Jack is busy on the phone, but waves Vaughn in. Hanging up he tells him any interruption is welcomed after two hours on the phone to a Chechnyan official. Vaughn tells him that he would like his permission to marry Sydney and his blessing. Jack is about to verbalize something on the order that Danny might have heard (Season 1), but they are interrupted by CIA agents in a lockdown.

Meanwhile at Sydney and Nadia’s home, Director Chase and two men enter. They want to know where Nadia is and Sydney says she’s in the shower. Nadia is brought out and questioned about her laptop. No one she says had access to it but herself. As they are talking, one of the agents is searching the house where he finds a cache of guns and drawer full of knives. (Sounds like a Derevko, doesn’t it) He also finds a necklace that emits a signal. Aha…not Nadia, but good old Sophia Vargas.

Jack and Sloane arrive and Jack says he believes Sophia Vargas is really Yelena Derevko. They learn that she entered an override signal using Nadia’s laptop so her men could enter the DSR headquarters in Nevada.

Back at APO, they learn Elena did everything in order to steal the Rambaldi artifacts. Jack compares her singled-minded purpose with that of Irina’s. They learn Sophia left the taxi a few blocks away from the house and disappeared. Lazlo Drake knows how to put the device together. They have to find him.

Sloane takes the blame as he talks to Nadia. “We will find her and I will end this.”

Next is a flashback to the time Sloane and Nadia disappeared. First, they went to find Lazlo who was in China. There he is introduced to Nadia whom he equates as the Virgin Mary, much to her surprise. However, he will not give the instruction manual to him until he has the Sphere of Life.

Sloane and Nadia fly to Siena and there in the countryside near by, they enter a cave and from inside find steps leading down to room. Sloane lights the light and soon the room is ablaze with light as gas burns. (or kerosene) Anyway, they see the Sphere of Life sitting on a pedestal. It rests on a what looks like a sheet of mosaic glass and center is the sign of Rambaldi <o>

Sloane tells Nadia she has to get the box and bring it to him. He demands she go. She does, very carefully because even as she goes, the glass creaks beneath her weight. She opens the box even though Sloane says not to do it. In a brief glimpse of the future, she sees fire, riots, and explosion. She shuts the box and returns to Sloane telling him he lied to her. It is not about peace.

“Let’s walk away.”

However having come this far, he won’t go back. He moves across the glass and gets the box. But the extra weight has stressed the glass. It breaks and he falls into a room or cavern below. Nadia hurries to him. He is wounded and a piece of glass is embedded in his chest.

“You’re still here,” he says marveling.
“You’re my father,” she retorts. “I have to pull out the glass.”

Back in the present, Sloane at APO briefing tells them that everything is in Yelena’s hands and will most likely end in an apocalypse. Lazlo Drake is the man to find. He is the gatekeeper and only he knows how to unlock the key to the secret. However, he keeps on the move, never staying in one place long. Sloane wants to talk to him, but Dixon objects. Sloane signed an agreement to recuse him from everything Rambaldi. Sydney is on point to find Lazlo’s contact.

She enters a jewelry shop wearing real fur coat. The manager comes over and she tells him “Don’t touch the fur.” She is hilarious as a self-indulged dilettante. However, she does get the information. Lazlo was in Mexico. She calls Sloane and tells him to meet her in a town and he flies into the area in a small engine plane

He says, “to put an end to this nightmare, once and for all.”
Sydney snorts, “I wish I could believe you.”

However, they find Drake and his guards dead. Sydney spots a camera. Inside she finds the television screen and the tape. She reverses the tape while Sloane stands next to her watching. Yelena comes onto the screen and she talks to Lazlo, telling him she has the Sphere of Life. She also confirms she has a secure facility to assemble everything. Before they reach the vital part, Sloane whips out a syringe filled with knockout drops of some kind and shoves it via the needle into her neck.

When she wakes up, Sydney reports to Jack that Sloane is gone with the tape. Jack asks her if she is all right. Sydney then tells him he won’t like it, but he should go to see Aunt Katya. She might know where Yelena is hiding.

AT APO, Director Chase and Dixon are talking outside the main APO rooms. They kiss and oh boy a chance at romance for him…and for her. “Weekends are not enough,” she says.

At the Federal Prison, Katya watches Jack enter her cell. “Lock the door behind me.”
If she helps him, she wants a full pardon and release. He says he’ll do his best.

“I’m sure you’ll find a way,” she says smirking.

She tells Jack that Yelena has been collecting Rambaldi artifacts for years and some of them right under his nose…He guessed the Covenant and she confirms it. He wants to know how to stop her.

“You’re asking the wrong sister,” she retorts. “Irina spent the last few years of her life tracking Elena to stop her. You had to go and put a bullet in her head.”

He explains how he was set up by Yelena. Katya doesn’t believe that he would fall for this. He is too good at what he does. “Only Irina knows how to stop her, and she’s dead thanks to you.”

Jack tells Sydney that Yelena is in Prague, using a decommissioned chemical plant as her headquarters.

Meanwhile Sloane meets Yelena at the plant.

He tells her, “there’s no one in the world that knows more about Rambaldi than I do.”
“I heard you reformed,” she says.
“I’ve been born again,” he answers.

Nadia, Sydney, and Dixon are at the chemical plant. They need to secure three areas. There, they separate. Dixon is on his way to the area he’s assigned when he hears something. Crouching down out of sight, he sees three men and a prisoner get into a van and leave. He is astounded. Sloane comes into the area holding a gun on Dixon.

“Yes, I saw it.” Sloane won’t put the gun down. “I warned Sydney. You can’t stop this, only I can.”

Before Dixon can do anything, he is shot in the back by Yelena who tells Sloane they must go. They do and the girls finally find Dixon. They order extraction.

At the hospital, Director Chase is by his bedside. Outside, Jack and Sydney watch and then look at one another surprised. Chase tells them to let her know the instant moment that he awakens.

As they speak about events leading up to the moment, Sydney comments that he is the master of details.

Jack shakes his head. “I lost sight of the one thing I know to be true. Your mother would never hurt you. I killed our only hope.”

Meanwhile Sloane and Yelena are on their way some place and she comments, “I want to know if you have what it takes to complete the journey.”

Back at the elevator, Jack finds Vaughn and he gives his blessing to the marriage. He wants his daughter to be happy.

Nadia and Sydney are waiting outside Dixon’s room when a nurse/doctor tells them Dixon wants to see them. They hover over him as he struggles to tell them, “before Sloane, I saw a prisoner—shackled—Syd…it’s your mother. She’s alive.”

REMARKS:

Now I ask you, isn’t that a humdinger of a way to end a show? Then, the next episode almost on top of this one, Search and Rescue. However, I’m reviewing them separately for reasons you can imagine.

DISCUSS:

Do you think Sloane is on the up and up—trying to be good? The only reason, I’m asking is that he seemed to regret Dixon’s being shot and prior to that he did say: “I warned Sydney. You can’t stop this, only I can.” Do you think he might be going along with Yelena to keep his promise to Nadia?

Katya said, “Irina spent the last few years of her life tracking Yelena to stop her.” How long do you think Irina had been at this? I mean was it after she left Jack and Sydney? When? Was it before or after she turned herself into the CIA?

How about in Season 2 when we saw the red ball destroyed (actually the end of Season 1) but Vaughn and Sydney were thought to be infected. Did Irina really infect her men with the virus to find a cure or to see what it would do to them so she could use the knowledge?

What has made Irina change the direction of her life? Has she really changed? You can hazard a guess.