S2 E13 – Phase One

Sydney has just run through the park so that she can get into the Rotunda covertly, which Vaughn is there to meet her once she arrives.  She asks about the new Intel, but he doesn’t know yet, Kendall wanted to wait on it until the meeting so she could be there as well.  They joke about how she just had to run through the park, and they wonder what all these people are doing in the park playing in the middle of a work day.   Kendall reaches them and tells them to move to the conference room, and apparently there will be some new recruits from Langley in the meeting.   Sydney goes towards the conference room, but as she passes Vaughn he, takes her shoulder and tells her to wait, before the meeting, but doesn’t finish his train of thought, he leads her to an area in the Rotunda that is meant for secret conversations. 

Once in the little room Sydney looks at him and wonders what is going on.  But he tells her, “Look, I’m going to say something, and it will either be obvious to you, or seem presumptuous.  Either way, I got to say it.  This isn’t working. I’ve been thinking about this for a while. I don’t know what the hell to do.”   Sydney is really confused, and with him being so vague I don’t blame her.  So she asks him what.  But he keeps being vague and tells her that he thinks she knows what he means.  Sydney is beginning to looks a little hot and bothered, but tells Vaughn that she needs him to tell her.  Good for you Sydney, we also want to hear what Vaughn thinks without him being so vague all the time.  Vaughn almost seems upset that he has to spell it out for her, but I think he’s just frustrated with the situation in general.  At least that is what I gather from what he says to her.  “You need me to tell you what?  That when you’re on operations, I can’t sleep at night? That when we’re in debrief I have to force myself to remember what the hell we’re supposed to be reviewing when all I want to do is kiss you?”  Finally!  When we look at Sydney she is definitely very hot and bothered at this point, and I think that kiss he just mentioned is very fresh on her mind. She blinks fast for a few moments and tries to regain her composure, because she is very happy about the truth finally coming out of his mouth and to her.  But she replies, “Sometimes it is hard to remember what we’re supposed to be talking about.”  He quickly replies, “That’s what I’m talking about. And the thing that makes me crazy every day is the people that would kill us if we were seen together… The Alliance, SD-6, Sloane… Are the very forces that brought you into my life to begin with.  What kind of sick joke is that?”  At this point Vaughn is getting a little hot and bothered too, I wonder if the air conditioning works in that little room?  But Sydney asks him, “So what are you thinking, that maybe we shouldn’t be working together?”  Vaughn looks down; this is the last thing that he really wants, but replies, “That’s what I was thinking, but then I thought, we are great together, and the more we work together, the sooner the Alliance gets destroyed.” 

During this speech, Sydney agrees and asks what he suggests?  Am I imagining things though, have they gotten closer together as they have been talking?  Before Vaughn can answer the door to the little room opens and Weiss knowing all and figures, screw it, I can say whatever I want, asks if this is now the flirting corner.  Vaughn tells him that they are talking and turns back to Sydney.  Weiss tells him, yeah, I figured that much out.  But there is this meeting, national security stuff, do they remember, it’s important to the people.  Sydney tells him that they will be right there; Weiss gives them a coy smile and walks away.  Vaughn smiles one of his great smiles at Sydney and she smiles back at him.  They stay like this for a moment, and then Vaughn leads the way to their meeting.  On her way out, Sydney takes another deep breath and wipes the hot and bothered stuff from her forehead.

Now I have to tell you, even with all that is to come in this episode, that scene is by far my favorite scene of the episode, and I love this episode!  But when thinking of the Sydney and Vaughn relationship, it is a pivotal moment.  Yes, in the last episode it was pretty clear how they felt for each other, but to have them finally talk about it to each other and vent all the frustrations out about how much they want to be together, but can’t.  It is the perfect build up to their relationship beginning.  If I am being completely honest here, I will have to say that it was watching this scene that made me think about how perfect their relationship really is.  How many obstacles they had to overcome, and the Alliance being the first big one, although there have been minor ones leading to this, Sydney making sure that Vaughn is a live for their relationship is another big one.  But from the beginning, SD-6 and the Alliance has been the number one thing getting in their way.  But as we move forward we will see that nothing can keep them apart, even if Vaughn loses faith in this fact for a little while.  But back to my original train of thought, these obstacles and how these two people are able to overcome them, how they are the perfect TV couple, and eventually made me start writing about them.

In the meeting they learn that Sloane is MIA from the Alliance and all other Intel.   The Alliance has chosen Anthony Geiger to replace Sloane at SD-6.  This is not happy news for Sydney; she turns to Jack and tells him that the one person that she wants brought to Justice has now disappeared.  Jack tells her that he has been doing this for a long time and that there is rarely an end to the story.  As far as Sydney’s new mission, it is to gain Geiger’s trust and get back into the inner circle of SD-6.

When Sydney gets to SD-6, preparing to gain Geiger’s trust and get back in the inner sanctum of SD-6, her first meeting with Geiger leaves her a little unhinged.  His first questions for her were all about Danny and why was she still working for the people that killed her fiancé.  So she is visibly upset upon leaving and Sark takes this moment to try and become buddies with her.  His attempts fail as always.  He tells her that they all have secrets and from what he has heard about Geiger, he will uncover them. He also tells her that his meeting with Geiger also didn’t go well, and that Geiger told him that he has already unlocked Sloane’s files on server 47, since Geiger believe Sloane to be a traitor.  This throws Sydney off for a moment, because there are only 46 servers, and Sark is curious, because Geiger announced it to him as if it were some sort of victory, telling him, “I’ve already hacked Sloane’s files on Server 47.”   Sydney thinks about this for a few moments and you can see the wheels turning in her head.

Sydney meets with Jack at the storage unit, and tells him what Sark just told her.  She thinks that Server 47 might be a central computer for the entire Alliance.   It could have all the information that they would ever need to bring down the Alliance if this was the case.  She wants to find this server. She thinks that this could be the silver bullet that brings down the Alliance.  Jack thinks about this for a moment and then tells her that he will get the CIA to sanction looking into it.

Back at the Rotunda, Vaughn tells her the good news that they were able to track down Server 47.   But the reason she couldn’t get info on it was because it doesn’t really exist on earth, it’s in the sky.  The Alliance purchased a 747 aircraft a few years back and it has been retrofitted to contain a secure server and a satellite link.  Sydney is surprised that they keep the aircraft airborne all the time.  Vaughn tells her that it only lands for refueling. He also tells Sydney about the man in charge of the server, apparently, he spends his life aboard this aircraft with the computer and a few bodyguards.  Weiss is quick to chime in that it is a really nice airplane.  Vaughn tells Sydney how they were able to convince him to do this job, twice a week an upper end escort service provides him a new friend to be with, the only other reason why the plane will land apparently.  Sydney is quick to realize that she has to be his new friend, Vaughn is very quick to tell her that no, she doesn’t have to be his friend; she just has to get him alone.  The main computer is in the belly of the plane, but there are access points in the main cabin.  The three of them are all going to Barcelona where a team is already working on ambushing his latest date so they can switch Sydney out.  Basically her assignment is to get on the plane, get the creep alone, access the terminal, and then transmit the data to them.  They will be flying in another jet that will be within 5000 feet of the jet she is on.  Weiss tells them they need to get to their plane, and before they go, Vaughn and Sydney share another quick gaze and smile moment.

 

So this explains the first scene of the episode that started out so colorful because this episode aired right after the super bowl, so they wanted to bring in extra fans.  I figured I didn’t need to cover it at the beginning since we would come back to it here.

So next thing we see is that somewhere over the Atlantic, Weiss and Vaughn are in a cargo plane and are getting their equipment ready to monitor Sydney and to receive her transmission from Server 47. Weiss makes the comment that he’s ready to have that talk whenever, Vaughn is very confused by this and wants to know what talk he’s talking about.  Then Weiss tells him the talk about his cologne or whatever he’s wearing.  Vaughn tells him that he isn’t wearing any cologne.  Then Weiss tells him something is going on, because no man naturally smells as good as Vaughn does right now, but before the conversation can continue, Sydney’s transmitter earrings are coming online.  Oh how cute, did Vaughn make sure he smelled nice for Sydney?

I have to say that as far as a scene that Vaughn and Sydney are not actually together; this one is up there on my list.  Weiss and Vaughn watch as Sydney enters Nacor’s (the guy in charge of the server) room in her black lingerie, I think Vaughn may partly wish that he wasn’t just viewing this from her perspective, but Nacor tells her, No she needs to put on the red one. Vaughn is not happy with the situation and gets a little upset, “That son-of- a-bitch!”  Weiss has to tell him to calm down.  When Sydney comes back in wearing the red one, Vaughn watches, and still not happy, “I swear I’m gonna kill this guy.”  Weiss is looking at Vaughn like, you knew he was a creep and you knew what we were sending her into.  But I love how overprotective Vaughn is of Sydney right now.  I think that it is fantastic. 

They watch Sydney some more and watch as Nacor, or the creep, approaches Sydney ready to get to know his new friend.  Vaughn is still not happy, but Weiss tries to lighten the mood by telling Vaughn that there is no way that the creep smells as good as Vaughn does.  Vaughn finally admits to having a new aftershave.  Weiss tells him to lighten up on it, to the point of non-use in fact.    They do smile and cheer as Sydney is at a point where she starts beating the guy up to find out where Server 47 is, and once he does tell her and she knocks him out, they are really happy, you can see Vaughn almost jump out of his seat. 

Once Sydney has completed the transmission and is now dressed, she tells them that she is going to go take out the guard, they watch as she check in closets and other places.  Unfortunately the guard finds her first, and puts his gun to her head.  Vaughn is kinda freaking out about this, but tries to stay calm so he can help her and talk her through a plan.  And he tells her that she should throw her gun and make him reach for it.  She is quick to take his advice.  And once the guard looks at her gun and away from her, she is able to do what she does best and kick him down every time he tries to get back up until he can’t get back up.  But unfortunately the creep wakes back up and has his gun ready for Sydney when she thinks she is done, Vaughn is having a really hard time only being able to watch and not help.  Luckily Sydney is able to duck behind the seats and grab her own gun.  She looks around debating her options and sees that shooting out the window is an option for her, so she starts shooting out the window so the Jet will depressurize.  Once Vaughn sees what she is planning, all he can say is, no, no, no, no, no, no…  Sydney works her way back to one of the closets after she sees the two men get sucked out of the plane and into the engine which makes the plane start to go down, and gets a parachute from it.  Weiss and Vaughn watch with bated breath as she attempts this.  Vaughn doesn’t even want to think about it, but he is watching what could be his worst nightmare, losing Sydney.   But she straps herself into the parachute and allows herself be pulled out by the pressure as well, luckily she doesn’t go in the engine.  As she flies out, all Vaughn just stares and says, “Oh my God!”     Once Vaughn and Weiss realize that she is safely off of the plane, they remove their headsets. Vaughn is barely able to remove his but he finally does then licks his lips and breaths for the first time in a minute, or at least it seems that way.  Weiss just shakes his head and tells Vaughn, “She’s all yours…”

Back at the Rotunda, Sydney is walking towards Vaughn, and he has a big stack of papers in his hands, he tells her that the analysis team just got done with the hard drive.  Then he hands her the stack of papers.  She skims through them and then gives Vaughn a knowing look.

Then for some reason, which I can’t figure out, they go to the storage unit to meet with Kendall and Jack.  Sydney is telling Kendall, almost yelling, that now is their chance to bring down the Alliance.  Kendall is being very condescending with her and tells her thank you, he understands what the paper suggests.  Then he continues to tell her that they can’t rush an operation like this.  Vaughn starts to get angry, he sees the end of the alliance near and the hope for starting something with Sydney that close as well, he is going to fight for this.  He tells Kendall that once the Alliance realizes that server 47 has had a breach the information that is on the papers will no longer be good, they have to act fast. Kendall reminds him of the C-4 in the basement of SD-6, and suggests that the other cells most likely also have something similar, that if they are wrong about the Intel, they could be risking the lives of hundreds of civilians.  But Jack is the one who is looking at the document and the big picture, and tells them that the answer is in the document.  Each cell has a code that operates the security system and it changes weekly, they have the codes in the document.  Vaughn follows the train of thought, saying that they need to get into SD-6, and Sydney finishes his sentence with and find out what the actual code is right now. Then she continues saying that if that matches, then the rest of the Intel is correct and they can move in on the Alliance.  Kendall agrees that if they can confirm the Intel then he will talk to Langley about raiding all Alliance cells.  Vaughn asks if they have the current code for SD-6, Jack tells him no, but he can get it.

At SD-6 Geiger is reviewing Sloane’s work and asks McCullough to review something for him.  They pull up a draft of an email that Sloane had been writing and see that he wrote something and then erased it.  It said that he believes that Jack and Sydney Bristow are both double agents; start with the father to get to the daughter.  It is at that point that we see Jack enter SD-6, and go to the conference room and start looking something up.  But Geiger immediately comes in the room and introduces himself.  Right after introductions, the doors to the conference room are closed.

At the Rotunda Sydney’s phone rings and she hurriedly answers expecting Jack to confirm the codes.   But instead it is Jack telling her that he is with Mr. Geiger and that Geiger would like her to come in right away.  Vaughn is watching Sydney intently as she is on the phone, I think he can see from her face that something is up, but we can’t quite see yet.   But Jack continues to tell her that she needs to take surface streets to get there, they are doing work on the freeway.    At these words, Sydney’s face falls, and she stumbles to get her words as she tells him that she will.  Vaughn is watching her and asks if she got the code, but can tell that something is definitely wrong as she stands up and is almost in tears.  He immediately stands up and goes to her, saying her name.  She is having hard time breathing, and then she tells him that her father was compromised, Vaughn wants some clarification; this is not what he was expecting.  She tells him that Jack told her, “take the surface streets; they’re doing work on the freeway.”  Vaughn tells her that he still doesn’t understand.  Then she tells him that it’s the phrase that they came up with last year to let the other know if the other was ever discovered.  Vaughn now fully understands what is going on, and he is in pain for Sydney. She then tells Vaughn that Jack is with Geiger now.  Vaughn doesn’t know what to do, but Sydney has turned away from him to start crying. So he caresses her arms in an attempt to make her feel better.

In non-relationship news, Geiger has begun the torture on Jack, which we could have guessed, but Geiger seems to really enjoy that part of his job, based off of the way he smiled as he began.   Sydney knowing that SD-6 would be looking for her, contacts Will and tells him to take Francie and get out of town.  She doesn’t care where, but they need to disappear. Too bad he didn’t take her advice.

Vaughn and Sydney have a quick chat about Kendall not being willing to make a move until he knows that the Intel is correct, even with her dad being found out and captured there.  She tells him that they have to get the code from SD-6, to which he immediately and vehemently tells her that she cannot go back there.  She tells him that she knows and I’m sure that they come up with the next plan together; we just don’t see the planning. 

 

In a remote location Sydney waits for Dixon to arrive and then tells him that she wishes that she had the time to tell him the right way and to better explain everything.  But SD-6 isn’t part of the CIA, she would take him there if there was time, but there isn’t.  SD-6 is part of the Alliance.  He thinks she is insane, and tells her so.  So she continues, telling him that he had suspicions about her, they were right, she is a double agent, but for the real good guys, he’s been working for the enemy that he thought he was fighting.  She tells him that it’s going to take time to understand time that they don’t have.  That Geiger has her dad, and that she’s afraid that Geiger is going to kill him.  She is in tears trying to explain this to Dixon.  She tries to tell him about the real CIA’s plan, but he interrupts telling her that she is crazy and telling her to listen to herself, but she keeps telling him that the CIA is going to take down the Alliance.  She finally gets his attention, or at least him to listen for a moment, when she tells him that if she goes in, they will kill her too. She tells him that they need him to hack into the system and make visible a hidden file.  One that normally he would never see, and never know was there.  She hands him a paper telling him that it’s a code, a number that the CIA needs.  If it matches one that they already have the CIA will then raid SD-6 and every Alliance office.  Finally she tells him that if he follows the instructions, and gets the code, he will be in the core of the SD-6 computer network and he will see that it is not CIA, but the Alliance.  Dixon really isn’t sure what to do, Sydney finally looks at him and tells him that she will wait for his email, but he needs to hurry.  You can see how conflicted he is, he’s smart enough to know that Sydney wouldn’t lie to him about something this important, and with her tears, he knows that she believes what she is saying.  But he doesn’t want to believe that he has been working for a terrorist group for all this time

Dixon goes back to SD-6 and you can tell he is looking at everything, everyone, a little different.  He goes to his computer and follows Sydney’s instructions, and see’s that she was right.  Back at the CIA, everyone from the task force is gathered around Sydney’s computer waiting for Dixon’s email.  At SD-6 Dixon makes a call to his wife knowing that once he send the email to Sydney, he won’t be home for a while, and tells her that he love s her.  He finally hits send, and the team at the Rotunda sees the email come through.  Sydney reads through it and confirms that it is a match.  Once she says that, everyone scatters to go and get ready.

Kendall briefs the taskforce in the conference room, and there are more agents involved with this mission than ever before. He tells them, that due to some exceptional work, they have gathered and confirmed the Intel about every Alliance cell.  He goes on saying that that night along with other intelligence agencies from around the world will be raiding all the SD cells and the homes of Alliance partners and major players.  And if they succeed, by tomorrow morning the Alliance will no longer exist.  Sydney is happy to hear this news, but is still worried about her dad.  Out in the bigger area he explains exactly what their agents will be doing.

Sydney, Vaughn, Weiss and the rest of the team begin infiltrating the SD-6 office.  They get through to where the main entrance to the office is, they have already disabled all security to get there, now they are just preparing to deal with taking down those who know and not killing those that don’t.  Vaughn once again is concerned with Sydney before they begin and asks if she is okay.  But l love that about Vaughn, his main concern is with Sydney.  He knows that he can’t take care of her all the time, and that she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself. But it is still sweet to see his concern.  The team puts on their face masks and they are given the order to move in.  Inside SD-6 everyone is acting normally, except Dixon who knows what is coming and is just waiting.  But the CIA goes in full force shooting at anyone who acts hostile towards them.  Sydney makes a run for the conversation/torture room, gets in right as Geiger is going to give Jack a huge shock.  Before Geiger has a chance to pull out his own weapon Sydney shoots him multiple times and then goes in to release her dad from the torture chair.  Then a medic comes in and takes over for her, so she can go back to the raid.

As Sydney is coming back into the main office you see Dixon and Marshall being cuffed and taken away for debrief, Marshall looks to Dixon for guidance, but Dixon has nothing to offer.  Sydney sees Dixon as he is being led out, and tells him that it will be over soon, and she thanks him.  he just looks at her with contempt and tells her not to talk to him.

The report has come in from all the task forces, the details are still a little sketchy, but the report form all team leaders indicate that they have control of all Alliance facilities.

Back at SD-6 when things have calmed down a bit, Sydney is looking around at what they have accomplished.  Vaughn appears and takes off his mask and also takes a look around at the place that has caused Sydney so much pain and has been the reason that they can’t be together, now all destroyed and in pieces.    With all this looking around at everything, they finally notice each other.  Vaughn becomes very serious, he has a very specific mission in mind and starts moving forward.  Keeping his eyes fully locked on Sydney. Sydney seems to have the same mission in mind and without looking at anything else, also start moving towards Vaughn.  And without a single word, they grab each other and finally have the kiss that we have been waiting 35 episodes to see.  And I will tell you this is the kiss to beat all other kisses.  It goes on and on, and on some more, even with Weiss coming over to tell them the good news of talking to base and they kicked the Alliances asses.  They don’t stop for anything, even the sparks that are flying off of lighting fixtures don’t stop what is to be one of the best first kisses for a TV couple. They have finally made it, only two small obstacle to come over at this point, Alice needs to go away for real, and Sydney has to break the news to Will.

Now it would’ve been nice to end the episode on this nice happy note, but this is Alias, it hardly ever ends on a happy note.  Sark is in an office away from SD-6 headquarter talking with someone over the phone,  he tells them that the plan went perfectly, Sydney leaked the information he fed her about Server 47 to the CIA, and the rest played out as he had predicted.  He wishes the man on the phone congratulations, the Alliance is gone.   On a beach, Sloane is on the other end of the phone, and tells Sark that it is good, but they aren’t done yet, that it is time to move to phase two.  Also Sark needs to check in on their newest asset.  Back in Francie’s restaurant you hear a phone call from Sark to Francie, asking if everything is in position.  She tells him that it is, then the camera pans over and we see Francie has been shot in the head and blood is all over the walls, she even has her eyes still open.  I told you that Will should’ve taken Sydney’s advice.  And honestly that stupid blood test the other day.  Francie has been doubled.   So not cool!