S1 E11 – The Confession

Sydney and Jack are able to get out of their precarious situation by Jack using Morse code in blinking at her to relay his plan.  They fake the terrorists (Hassan) death and Sydney patches up Jack’s bullet wound.  While doing this she asks him why he never told her that she was working for the bad guys.  He told her that if he told her what she was doing, that he would have to tell her what he was doing, and he couldn’t do that to her at the time.

Sydney and Vaughn are back in the storage unit and Sydney tells him that everything went great and thanked him, for getting her into Cuba.  Even though he said that he didn’t do anything.  During this scene you can see that Vaughn has something on his mind that is occupying most of his thoughts, he is somewhat more distant than how we usually see him, he isn’t responding to Sydney’s happiness the way he normally would. Her admitting that he was right about what happens to you when someone you love is in trouble, and that you would do anything to save them.  She goes on to say how great her father was in the field, she had heard stories from everyone, including Vaughn, about what a great agent he was, but seeing him in action was unbelievable.  By this time, you know that Vaughn is very conflicted, and it has something to do with Jack.  He still looks very troubled and withdrawn, very much not his usual self when talking with Sydney.  But every time she mentions him, that is when he looks up or gets involved with the conversation. It takes him a few moments to decide if he is going to tell Sydney what is going on, but he does, and tells her that had the codes from the books Jack gave to Sydney’s mother had been deciphered.  She becomes very hesitant, especially after the way that he looks.  He goes over to his briefcase, and pulls out some files.  He hands them to her and tells her that they are official KGB orders.  The orders include the deciphered text from the books.  All of the codes were Alias’s, code names of CIA operatives, people that were all killed 25 years ago.  And that it has been a mystery to the CIA all these years as to who killed them. Although they suspected the KGB was behind it.  He says that know they know that it was her father who had them killed. She tells him that they don’t know that for sure.  He apologizes, but tells her that it was her father and that he is going to report him.  This is moment that Vaughn hates, you can see that these murders are troublesome to him, but he hates doing this to Sydney.  But you can tell that there is something personal there.  He hasn’t said what it is, but something from these murders bothers him so much that where he wasn’t willing to risk everything that they are working on to report Jack earlier has made him change his mind.  

When Sydney and Vaughn meet again, you can see the tension between them.  They go over the basic mission stuff and you can see that once that is completed Sydney is aching over the right decision to make, especially after just having a nice conversation with her father with thanked her for coming to his rescue as well as telling her that he’s sorry for lacking in doing many of the things that a father should say or do. So when Vaughn brings up her father as she is about to open up her car door to go, she is hesitant to talk about it.  But they talk anyway.  He tells her that they have to report him, she tells him that she’s been thinking about it, but he cuts her off telling her how he needs her since they were her books and her testimony would go a long way.  She tries to tell him that they don’t know what role her father played in the murders, maybe he was part of the KGB, but it was 25 years ago and they need him right now.  He tells her that there is not a statute of limitations on murder, but she interrupts him and tells him that they won’t be able to take down SD-6 without him.  You can see that they are both fighting a personal battle, although we don’t know why Vaughn is fighting so hard for it.  Vaughn goes to his car and gives her a file with pictures of all the agents that were murdered because of the orders in those books.  He tells her that they were people and that their deaths affected the lives of others, that she is just thinking of herself right now and not of them.  He tells her that he knows that for the first time in her life, she has made a connection with her father, and that turning him in would sacrifice that.  But they know who the victims are and who killed them; she knows what the right thing to do is. She tells him that yes he may have done all of those things, but she needs a little bit of time, not much, just a little and begs him not to do anything without her, but to just wait a little while.  As she drives off this is the first time that he is not watching her leave with a smile on his face but determination.  He almost looks mad, but then he takes a recorder out of his pocket and plays back the portion of their conversation where she is admitting that her father was probably responsible.  He at least looks conflicted when it ends.  But I think that this is one of the few times in the series that I want to strangle him. (There are moments in season three as well, but for a whole different reason.)  At this point you know that it is personal for him, I remember the first time watching the series and wondering why he was so determined about this when two episodes ago, he told Sydney that she needed to calm down and that the CIA has cleared him.  It didn’t make sense to me that first time through, and writing this without putting it perspective is harder than I thought, so I’m moving on so we can get to the good stuff of this episode.  So far this episode hasn’t had much positive energy going towards their relationship, and I need to get back to the stuff that makes me grin from ear to ear.

Sydney’s mission in Athens did not go well, she was held up with a pervert while Dixon got to the info so she couldn’t switch it out and give SD-6 fake info and the real stuff to the CIA.  When she meets up with Vaughn her biggest concern is that the pervert licked her face, he tells her that he understands, but she continues to tell him again, and how upset she is over not getting herself.  She tells him that since she screwed up, she wants to go get the weapon that Hassan told Vaughn about.  He is concerned about sending her on another mission after Cuba that SD-6 doesn’t know about.  She suggests bringing in her father to make it an SD-6 mission.  He goes quiet and says that the mission isn’t why he called her, which she knew.  She starts to rationalize why they shouldn’t turn in her father at this point, but while she is talking he pulled out the tape recorder and played back her admitting that her father probably did it.  He told her that he was going to use because he didn’t think that she would be able to go thru with turning him in. But he couldn’t bring himself to do that to her, and he hands her the tape. He told her that he thought he owed it to her to be truthful to her about it.  He goes on to say that he knows it’s personal for her, that the idea of turning in your own father is a horrible position to be in.  But he explains that it is personal for him as well, the files that he showed her the other day were missing one file, and it was his father.  He tells her that he’s made an appointment for him to meet with Devlin, his supervisor, on Monday and asks her to come with him, and she agrees.  After finding out that her father killed his father made her realize that she had to do it.  

Sydney did ask for her father’s help in getting her to go to get Hassan’s weapons, and he was able to pull through and we get to see Sydney go on a mission with Vaughn in her head, as she words it in season five. We saw an earlier mission where he was on coms with her, when she was on the football field with Anna, but this is the first mission that we get to see the majority of the mission with both of them active participants.  Last time the most we saw was them talking about guardian angels. But seeing him give her instructions and watching her on the monitors is a lot of fun.  When she is trapped inside of the bunker because Hassan gave Vaughn a code that would lock her in; watching how both of them react shows immediately how much she depends on him as well as how much he cares for her.  She is calling out for Vaughn to tell her what is going on and is begging him to help her.  Vaughn pulls out his gun and aims it at Hassan and tells him that if she dies, so will he.  Vaughn even agrees to negotiate with Hassan which he has been refusing to do throughout the whole episode.  Once she gets freed, she immediately thanks Vaughn.  She knew that he saved her life.

The next time they see each other, he tells her that she is amazing, which she denies.  But then he asks her if she really wants to go through with meeting with Devlin to turn in her father, which she says she does and he explains how she will covertly get into CIA headquarters.  Once there, they sit together at a large table, he keeps double checking to make sure that she is alright.  He knows how hard this must be for her and what she is sacrificing for him to bring justice to his father’s killer.  Then they are both surprised by how many people are coming into the room for this meeting and even more surprised when Jack enters the room.  Jack actually opens the meeting and makes introductions, he goes on to tell them that he brought all these people with him because they already know what he is about to tell them.  He knew that his files had been pulled and that they were suspicious about his activity 25 years ago. Also telling them that he’s sorry that he is making it so public, but he feared that he wouldn’t be believed if he told her otherwise.  He confirms that the books were orders from the KGB, and that yes they were orders given to a KGB officer to kill CIA agents including Vaughn’s father, but that he wasn’t that agent, Sydney’s mother was the one who carried out those orders.  The look on both Sydney and Vaughn’s face was that of confusion.  Vaughn didn’t know where to let his emotions take him, and Sydney went from surprised to hurt.  They definitely have an obstacle to overcome personally to get to be together.  How many people will ever end up in a relationship with someone, where one parent killed the others parent?  I think in the end, it eventually will bring them closer together sharing this odd, yet personal connection.

• Items that I found noteworthy… 
• When Sydney has no one else to turn to, she will go to Will.  We saw it in the pilot, and again here, and we’ll see it happen a few more times throughout the series. He is deeply in love with Sydney and always has been.  But has never had the right timing.  But when she needs something, she goes to him for comfort or help. 
• Vaughn is very protective over anything that involves his father. And it is subjects that involve his father that will impact his life.  His father is the one thing that he will sacrifice anything for. Even a potential relationship in this episode.  It’s what made him open up to Sydney and show her a more personal side of himself.  And will influence decisions coming up.