ALIAS – SEASON 5 – Episode 9 – SYDNEY
THE HORIZON
“I didn’t know you could cook.”

What an amazing episode. Loved it and everything about it. It does set us up for the final episodes of the series.

The episode starts with Sydney at home. The door opens behind her and Vaughn appears. Now I know this is not true because there’s too much ‘fuzziness’ around the edges. OK…a dream…or something else. He’s brought in groceries and he starts fixing dinner. Suddenly he cuts his finger. Sydney gets a band-aid and applies it. She says she is worried whether she’ll be a good Mom.

Vaughn says, “You’ll make a great Mom.”
Sydney says, “My Mom wasn’t the greatest role model.”
Vaughn retorts, “But the good news is you’re nothing like your mother!” Well, we all know that!

She hears someone else’s voice. Vaughn says it’s the radio and turns it off. Things fade and suddenly she is facing herself. She has been placed in an upright position on a plank or in an open-face tube. (We don’t get much of a look.) A man looks at her. We see him touching wires that have been affixed to Sydney’s temples. She is stunned by some kind of electronic shock. I thought oh my God protect the baby. Then a distorted voice is heard asking if this will hurt the baby. The doctor states it definitely would not.

Sydney stares at him saying coldly, “if you hurt my baby, I swear to you, I will kill you.”

We’re taken back two days and placed in San Francisco. It’s raining. It’s Chinatown and oh oh, Kelly Peyton is eating noodles. Leaving her seat, she accosts a man who she kills taking his watch. Minutes later, she enters an office, which we soon learn is a CIA facility. She has used the watch to gain entrance. The server obviously contains the information she wants. While the other agent who has his back to her works and talks, thinking its his partner who entered, she walks back, locates server 4, slot 29 and extracts it. It contains Vaughn’s CIA file.

The agent, disturbed by the lack of conversation from his co-worker, starts back after he notes the computer had been asked for certain information. Kelly slips to the other side of the computer and as he turns to look for whoever entered the office, Kelly throttles the agent with a cord.

Meanwhile, outside the other agent is discovered lying dead on the street. Kelly calls Ardo Desantis. She identifies herself and tells him she will run an analysis on the information she obtained about Vaughn. Desantis says he will let his benefactors know.

In the next scene Sydney and Jack are at the hospital, shown around by Sydney’s obstetrician, who tells her that she could deliver anytime and the baby would be healthy even though her due date is in two weeks. Oh my, hint, hint…something’s up. Jack pulls out a package and gives it to Sydney. It looks like a rattle. Jack tells her that he and her mother bought it before she was born for her. She kept it with her all the time until she was about three.

Next Marshall is talking to Tom about his personnel file. Tom is a bit upset but tells Marshall that he was married, but it didn’t work out. Suddenly Marshall gets a message stating the CIA facility was breached. Video pictures show it to be Kelly Peyton and she has Vaughn’s file.

Kelly talks to her boss who says they will have to kidnap Sydney Bristow. They are looking for something called The Horizon. Damn! Okay, title of episode. Kelly tells Desantis that Vaughn spoke to Sydney when he first interrogated her after her walk in. He talked to her about the scope of the SD-6 operation.

In Madrid, Sydney meets with Renee Rienne. They talk briefly about Prophet 5 accessing Vaughn’s files. Renee doesn’t remember him saying anything to her about Prophet 5. Sydney thinks they have to look for whatever ‘they’ are looking for and then she spots two goons heading their way. Sydney warns Renee to walk with her, but Renee pauses, takes out two guns, and drops both men. However, Sydney continues on not realizing there is danger ahead of her. A van pulls up and two men get out, pulling her inside.

Turning in time to see that, Renee fires at the van as it pulls away. The driver is killed and his van runs into another car. As soon as she gets to the van, Renee fires into the rear portion. When she pulls the door open, one man is dead and the other, Aldo Desantis who said he was her father, but wasn’t, lies wounded against the panel. She demands to know where Sydney Bristow is.

Next we see that Sydney is being given a hypnotic. He tells someone behind one-way glass how the procedure works. A distorted voice demands proof of that. The man whose name is Dr. Gonzalo Burris, nods, turning to Sydney.


“Tell me your name?” No answer from Sydney and he says again softly, “tell me your name.”
“Sydney Bristow,” she answers.

He instructs her to find Vaughn and a time when she was most happy and that was meaningful to them. She is taken back to the plane when he proposed to her. She tells Vaughn that it is a trick to get her to tell them about Prophet 5.

Renee calls Jack at APO to tell him what happened and he decides to join her in Madrid to see what they can learn from the wounded Desantis.

On top of a building somewhere in Los Angeles, Sloane, who has been tasked by Jack to learn what he can from his underworld contacts, makes a cell phone call to the man who has taken Dean’s place. Sloane mentions Sydney as a pregnant woman whose life may be in danger. He wants her released. The man hangs up.

Jack joins Renee. She hasn’t learned anything. Desantis refuses to talk. Looking at Jack, we know something awful is about to happen to him. Again, he refuses to talk and Jack says:

“What should scare you is that I’m a very concerned father.” He lops off the guy’s ear.

Meanwhile back in the ‘torture’ room for want of calling anything else, Dr. Burris is getting Sydney to regress to the very last time she was with Vaughn.

She enters Vaughn’s room at the hospital in Italy after Dean’s men shot him. They talk about the baby. He says, “I wish she were here already. I want to meet her.” A doctor comes in with a glass and tells Sydney that if he is thirsty, just to give him a sip from the plastic glass. He leaves. Sydney leans toward Vaughn who has asked for something to drink, saying:

“I gave you this and then you crashed.”

Vaughn brings her closer and says they are trying to find something. They are using him to get to her. He says he needs to go away. Sydney doesn’t care. She wants to stay with him.

Again, she has resisted going any further. The doctor makes her go back to the time in North Korea when she and Vaughn had been captured. He feels the baby kicking and then the troops come in and start to beat him. He fights back and disappears after throwing her a small walkie-talkie.

Dr. Burris whispers to her to stay with Vaughn. “Don’t let him go.”

Sydney cries out, “Don’t leave me!” But his voice fades out.

Burris whispers at her, “Don’t let him go. Where is Vaughn?”

Then she is back at the beginning of the episode and Vaughn comes back…

Jack confronts Desantis, but he still won’t talk. Jack goes into the other room, Renee shows him an appointment book, and there is a place in Hungary. It is mentioned three times. He takes the book from her and looks back at the Desantis. “See if he means it,” says Jack.

He leaves the apartment hearing two shots.

Burris prods Sydney, causing her to wince. Sydney is now standing on the Santa Monica pier with Vaughn who is staring out at the ocean. She gets a call. It seems to be from the doctor asking her to “Draw me a map! How far it reaches.” She throws the cell into the ocean. It rings again and she throws it again after the same demand is made.

Vaughn says, “Listen to me; you’ve got to let me go.”
Sydney says, “I’m losing my mind.”
“Don’t allow the darkness to swallow you.” He tells her
She seems to be fighting the process according to Dr. Burris who is watching and listening.
“I’m going to go. You are going to take these guys down.”
The doctor keeps after her.
“This isn’t real,” says Vaughn.
Sydney cries, “None of this is real. I don’t want to save the world. I want out.”

The doctor persists. “Return to the time you first met Vaughn,” and we are drawn back to the opening show…Truth Be Told.

At the CIA, Sydney is prodded by Vaughn to tell him how big she thinks SD-6 is. She draws him a map showing very little in the way of organization. Then he brings down the big map that the CIA has, rolling it out for her to see.

“This isn’t about cutting off the arm of the monster. This is about killing the monster!”
In the background, we hear Dr. Burris asking what the name is at the top of the right hand corner. Sydney is fighting hard. He persists, using Vaughn’s image and his voice. She fights, but finally gives in…She gives him the answer. X23Norte

Then we see a reflection in the glass facing Sydney. Oh my God, it’s Irina Derevko. She tells Kelly that Sydney must be kept comfortable and she’s going after The Horizon.

Sydney and Vaughn meet again on a beach of some island. She wants to stay here with him forever. He tells her that they will figure out she gave them the wrong name.

“We’ll find each other. We always find each other.” He kisses her and leaves again.

In Hungary, Jack and Renee find the address that was in Desantis’ book. They enter the building whose windows are barricaded. It looks abandoned.

Meanwhile Kelly is taking off the electric wires and unbuckling the padded wrist cuffs holding Sydney in place. Sydney looks as though she is still under. Kelly turns and Sydney reaches down, stabbing her with a hypodermic, perhaps still with the hallucinatory drug in it. Kelly falls to the floor.

Jack and Renee come to a closed door. Jack opens it and stares incredulously at what appears to be a fully equipped nursery. “Good Lord,” is all he can say and in that moment knows who must have Sydney.

Sydney runs awkwardly along narrow hallways. She opens a final door and steps out onto a deck of an oil tanker just as a helicopter leaves.


REMARKS:

I KNEW IT! Readers, the original Prophecy was not, I repeat, was not fulfilled. To save you looking it up here it is again:

THIS WOMAN HERE DEPICTED WILL POSSESS UNSEEN MARKS; THE SIGNS THAT SHE WILL BE THE ONE TO BRING FORTH MY WORKS. BIND THEM WITH FURY. A BURNING ANGER. UNLESS PREVENTED, AT VULGAR COSTS, THIS WOMAN WILL RENDER THE GREATEST POWER UNTO UTTER DESOLATION

As I remember, Sydney is the one with the anomalies. It was her picture drawn by Rambaldi four centuries or so ago, not Yelena’s. However, now we are nearing the end of the Prophecy’s fulfillment. The second half of the prophecy, which had Sydney and Nadia fighting, leaving one dead. Being in a coma, as Nadia is, could be considered ‘dead’. So that part is complete.

Sydney is now on an oil tanker. Well she certainly is safe there in the middle of the ocean, especially if Irina owns the tanker, which I wouldn’t doubt. No one can find her except the one who kidnapped her. No bad other guys will find her. She couldn’t even be run over by a taxi or shot from a building.

In the kidnap scene, there were not as many screams or people ‘ducking’ from the sound of gunshots. Come on people, we’re fans and as I live just a hoot n a holler from the big city and know about the ins and outs of production, I think someone slipped up.

I got to thinking about the sight of Irina who was behind the abduction. Her endgame I’m not sure about yet. However, I remember Klaus Richter from Season 1 who told Jack and Sloane that and I quote, “Derevko is a great woman.” Now that has never been explained. Richter was ready to die for her and so were the men she infected with the virus developed by the Mueller device.

Finally, the actual view of Derevko needs some explaining because she was not listed on the credits. They took a head shot of her from Season 2, Episode 2 or 3. I think Lena Olin recorded the only words she said. She did not need to be present on the set. Hopefully, she will be back during the final episodes. The woman has some serious explaining to do to Sydney and Jack.


DISCUSS:

Why was the little segment about Tom Grace being married shown to us? It does not seem to be relevant to the rest of the storyline.

Do you think Sydney saw her mother on the helicopter?

Is Irina good or bad here? Explain.

What is The Horizon? Is it a simple answer…or complex? Take a guess.

lenafan I so wanted to call you when I saw irina on the tv screen here in eastern time

but I knew when she was not listed in any spoilers or credits that I could not wreck that moment for you!

I am feeling like dervko is a baddie here and I am peeved as I really wanted the whole spyfamily thing to work out

but this is alias and who knows what any of it means

I think Thomas was married to peyton or perhaps even good old lauren reed....

as for the horizon I think its complex becaus isn't sran near everything on this show designed to be a roller coaster ride


I hope they wrap it up in a way that is therapeutic for fans


how long till its back on tv??- is it the two week holiday break or will we have to wait until february?


Bren - who thought Jack was amazing this week!