S2 E9 – The Passage: Part 2

As the episode begins, we rewind a few minutes and go back to the last few moments of the last episode, but this time we view it from both Sydney’s situation as well as Vaughn’s.   It starts with a CIA technician that is monitoring the tracking device that was placed in Irina’s necklace.  He sees something alarming and he goes running and reaches Vaughn's desk.  When the technician approaches him, he calls him Mr. Vaughn a few times.  Then after Vaughn motions for him to hold on while he finishes his phone call, the technician tells him that the necklace has been deactivated.  Vaughn immediately ends his call and asks for details.  Then the technician tells him that the satellite imagery detects combat.  Once Vaughn hears combat, he becomes worried and gets to the monitor, It switches over to Sydney shooting, and then the monitor shows a red explosion over the area and Vaughn asked what happened the technician tells him that it is over.  Vaughn asks if they can tell if there are any survivors, and he is told that they can’t with the bird they are using.  Vaughn is now very anxious and says that they need new satellites.  Vaughn is clearly worried, even if we don’t see much of his reaction.

When we see Vaughn next he is arguing with Kendall over sending in a team to find them.  Kendall explains why they can’t send in teams, and that he wants an options paper from Vaughn in two hours.  Vaughn isn’t happy, but agrees, and then tells Kendall that once that is done he wants to go himself to find the Bristow's.  Kendall reminds him that if he is sent out it would be to find the nuclear weapons, not the Bristow’s and that he needs to remember his priorities. Vaughn tells him that he understands, but he doesn’t think that cutting them lose and forgetting about them is an option.  Kendall explains to him that alive or dead, the mission failed, and that if the Bristow's are out there, they are on their own.  If looks could kill, Vaughn would have Kendall dead in a heartbeat. Then his friend hands him a sheet of paper that we can read, it states at the top of the sheet, Nuclear Weapons Activated and then at the bottom it reads, nukes are prepped. His friend pats his shoulder and tells him nothing like more bad news.  Vaughn doesn’t know how to deal with all of the news that he has been given. First Sydney is out there and may or may not be dead, and now the weapons they are going after have been activated. 

The Bristow's make it into a city where they find an old friend of Jacks that can help them with new alias’s and get them some of the equipment that they will need, but he doesn’t have access to some of the items they are requesting.  Seeing Vaughn hurrying through the Rotunda, you can tell he is anxious to here whatever news he is about to get from the phone call he was summoned to.  The relief that washes over his face as he hears Sydney’s voice is like he has just had the weight of the world lifted off of his shoulders.  He tells her that he saw the blast, and he wonders what happened.  Sydney tells him that she will fill him in later, but they were compromised.  He smiles as he tells her that he is so glad that she is okay, and asks about her parents.  She jokes that some people go miniature golfing with their parents, but they go to India and look for nukes.  Vaughn laughs with her for a moment before he has to tell her more bad news.   He tells her that they intercepted a message from the rebels that they are planning on activating the nukes tomorrow at 1700 hours.  She asks him what he means by activate, but he tells her that he isn’t sure, they used the word activate. But that they need to assume the worst since they got their codes from SD-6.  She tells him that she got the codes for SD-6 she still has them so she can deactivate them, then he tells her that she can if she can get there in time.  When she walks out to meet with her parents, she is distressed about the information that Vaughn just passed on to her.  When she starts to tell her parents they start arguing over what is the best way to operate, and finally she has had enough and tells them exactly how things will play out.  She does not like having to constantly babysit her parents and tell them to grow up and stop the fighting.

Back at the Rotunda, Kendall tells Vaughn that he needs to tell the Bristow's to get out, Vaughn tells him that he has no way of contacting them, and wonders why.  Kendall tells him that the Indians have found out that the rebels have the nukes and they will be launching air strikes in 24 hours.  Vaughn tells him that they need to tell them to stop the attacks that they are working on disarming the nukes.  Kendall tells him that they have tried, but the Indians are upset that they didn’t tell them in the first place.  Vaughn asks to make a personal appeal. Kendall tells him that everyone is working on it already, State, NSC, DOD, etc. Vaughn tells him that he knows he’s going to say no, but he wants to go to India, he was stationed there for two years, and he has relationships, and before he can finish his request Kendall tells him to go.  Vaughn is in shock, did Kendall really just tell him that his plan is okay, he can go save Sydney?  Kendall tells him that he will have an aircraft waiting for him, so Vaughn asks if he is trying to get rid of him.  Kendall just smiles at him and pats him on the shoulder and walks away.  Vaughn is speechless and can’t believe his luck but runs off to get ready. 

Vaughn arrives in India and the general is happy to see him again, but tells him that he came all that way for nothing.  Vaughn tells him that he has people at the headquarters of the rebels right now disarming the nukes, the general asks what will happen if they fail, Vaughn knows that Sydney will do everything in her power to not fail, so he says that he they won’t.  But the general tells him that he can’t guarantee that and that they will be the first target, so they will be launching the airstrikes.   Vaughn then goes for the only argument he has left, which is the number one for him.  He tells him that some of the CIA’s best people are in there, and begs him to at least delay the strike until they can get them out.    The general tells him that he’s sorry, but the airstrike will go as planned.  At these words, Vaughn is incredibly deflated.  All he wants is to be able to save Sydney like she has saved him over the last few weeks.  The general continues telling Vaughn that he looks more and more like Vaughn’s father every time he sees him.  It is at that point that Vaughn remembers that he has one last card that he can play.  He tells the general that his father wrote about him in his journals and that he had trusted him and respected him.  Vaughn continues with telling him that that is the reason he came such a long way.  At this the general tells Vaughn that he is still going to go ahead with the strike but will him a head start, with a chopper and a pilot, but that if he is going to rescue his friends, he is doing so at his own risk.  Vaughn finally sees a little bit of hope with this situation.

Sydney and Jack had been captured in the rebel base, as well as Irina, but she convinced the rebels that she is still bad news, so that she could help Sydney and Jack escape.  She did find out that the nukes are being used for their core energy to activate a Rambaldi artifact.  While appearing to torture Jack, Irina slipped him the keys to their cells.  Jack came in and told Sydney what was going on, and they run off to contact the CIA. She talks gets in contact with Kendall since Vaughn is unavailable and she tells him that they almost have them, but Kendall tells them to abort and that the airstrike will happen soon, the fighter jets are already in the air.  Jack then grabs the phone and tells him that they will either hear from them or he won’t and hangs up.  They are going to try and get Irina back before they leave. Jack and Sydney watch from afar as they activate the Rambaldi artifact.  Irina and the rebels are closer by.    The artifact opens and inside it is a live flower.  But it is then that they hear the jets and the first missiles start hitting the building.   Irina tries to knock out the rebel leader Couvet, and take the flower, but he fights her back.  But jack is there to finish him off.  The three of them run out of the building as it is being attacked, they don’t know where they will go, but they have to get out of the building.  Then Sydney looks up and sees a chopper landing nearby, and then she sees the face of the person hanging out the side motioning for them to come.  A huge smile comes across her face as she yells Vaughn’s name and they all start running to the chopper.  As jack gets in he tells Vaughn that they have the cores and that they can call off the airstrikes.  Vaughn is incredibly happy as he makes the call and sits next to Sydney. 

Back at the command center, Irina is back in her cell and she tells Sydney about the night in Taipei when she shot her.  It turns out that the rebel leader, Couvet was watching her from the other room to see if she would betray him or Sydney. And for Irina, shooting Sydney in the shoulder and giving her time to escape was the only way she could think of to keep his trust and keep him from killing both of them.  Then Irina tells her to get some rest.

After meeting with her mother, Sydney goes to Vaughn’s desk, and when she greets him, he looks up and sees her and his face immediately glows with his smile.  He can’t help it when he sees her, but to become happy.  But I love that he stands up to greet her as well.  She smiles at him, and asks if there is any word on the flower.  He tells her that the preliminary reports show that it is anywhere from four to six hundred years old.  She looks at him skeptically and he shakes his head and tells her that they are only preliminary reports.    Then he reaches into his desk and pulls out some tickets and hands them to her, she asks what it is, then she looks down at them and they smile at each other.   The next thing we see is Sydney playing miniature golf with Will and Francie.  They are having a great time, then the camera moves away from them and we see that Vaughn is at the gate watching her play.  He smiles as he watches her and then he walks away.  I think it is really cute, I have seen some people comment on that part that it is creepy for him to watch her play.  But I think that all he really wants is to make her happy and to see her happy.  Granted he would also like to be happy with her, but since that can’t happen with SD-6, he is just trying to make it work any way he can.