S3 E16 - Taken

So there are very times that I feel that an episode is rather useless, but in the case of this particular episode, to put it kindly, let’s just say that it isn’t one of my favorites. Especially when you look at the one before it and the one after it, this episode is pure filler.  Since Sydney and Vaughn barely have a scene together, unless you count the conference room, and the episode does nothing for the overall relationship, at least not that we see during this episode, this post should be fairly small.

We do see a small scene where Vaughn is trying to be a good and supportive husband, but you can see by his reactions that he is putting up a front and that he really isn’t happy with being with her.  It takes all of his energy to be the loving, involved husband that he wants to be and she is shutting him out.  This is good news for us.  This means that after his experience last week with Sydney, even though they weren’t together for a portion of time, they still depended on the other.  Having Lauren back in the Rotunda this week isn’t that great of news to Vaughn.  He is just playing his par to see if he can make it work. 

I do find it interesting that in the conference room, while going over the latest threat, that Sydney and Vaughn are seated next to each other, and that Lauren is across the table.  Granted this isn’t out of the ordinary, but when Lauren is supposedly have a tough time with her father being there, I do like that Vaughn still sits next to his work partner.  

There is one section of the storyline that doesn’t necessarily affect Sydney and Vaughn right now, but it definitely will soon, so I will go into some detail.  After Vaughn caught Sark on the plane last week, Lauren managed to leak enough information out to other Covenant members to make it so Sark could escape.  He made his escape while his plane was still in the air.  After finding only dead guards and pilots, Sydney and Weiss brought back the flight recorders.  Marshall analyzed them and found that Sark made a personal call before his escape.  At the end of the call he said; “Not if I see you first, Love.”  Having that be an unusual goodbye, Jack takes notice of it.  Nothing is said, but knowing Jack he is thinking of who Sark would be romantically involved with that is also working for the Covenant. 

In an attempt to rescue his children, whom Sark kidnapped, Dixon joins Weiss, Sydney and Vaughn on a tactical mission.  However, Dixon and Sydney are paired up together and Weiss become Vaughn’s partner again.  So while they are on a mission together, there isn’t much that moves the relationship closer.  Vaughn and Weiss do see a explosive device and let the others know, soon after Sydney and Dixon see one as well.  The location that they believed Dixon’s children to be at was a ruse and they had been sent into a trap.  On their way out of the building, all four are exiting together; you do see that Sydney was the first one out, closely followed by Vaughn.  So once again you see his need to protect her, he even tries to cover her from the blast.  But that is the extent of them working together here.  As well as the last time we see them together in the episode.

Another item to note is that when Lauren was looking up Sark’s flight data, she logged in under Dr. Barnett’s login, and having it trace back to Sloane.  So Sloane is arrested, the CIA assuming that he was the leak from the CIA. This is something that I honestly don’t understand since he doesn’t really get operational information from the Rotunda anyway, out of everyone, why set up Sloane?  Is it because they can easily believe that Sloane would go back to his evil ways, an easy scape goat?  But you know that while Sloane has been taken into custody, Jack is still looking for the real leak, because he knows that all the things that the Covenant has found out about, Sloane didn’t have access to all of it.  So Jack hasn’t given up.

After giving false demands in a briefing Dixon tells Sydney what the Covenant really is demanding and she agrees to help him.  The two of them go and steal a Rambaldi artifact from the DSR, but when Jack finds out what they have done, he is concerned because Sloane has told him the Covenant is looking for a box, one that Sloane believes will put Sydney’s life at risk if in the Covenant’s hands, so Jack is hesitant to let them make the exchange with Sark.  Sydney tells Jack that she chose this life, and Dixon’s 13 year old daughter didn’t.  So Jack agrees to go with them.  Sydney does tell Jack that the Rambaldi box had an engraving on it, Irina’s name.  When Lauren’s father sees that Dixon visited project black hole, he puts Dixon on a watch list.  Lauren hears this and knowing that it is her job to keep Sark from being found, she uses Vaughn and tells him that they need to help Dixon.  So Vaughn and Lauren ask Marshall for his help, and they manage to divert the GPS signal so that a tactical unit isn’t sent to the exchange.  Now overall not a big deal to the overall relationship of Sydney and Vaughn, but once again here we see the problems with Vaughn's relationship with Lauren.  We see how easily Lauren is able to manipulate help with a situation, by saying that it is to help someone else.  While it is true that a tactical unit not being able to find Dixon make the exchange is helpful to Dixon, as well as Sydney.  Lauren is more concerned that Sark is not captured again and that the Covenant gains the artifact.  While Vaughn and Lauren are in Marshall’s office, you can see a glint of annoyance with Lauren over the way she acts, or says something that just isn’t sitting right with Vaughn.  But you can see his defenses breaking down on attempting to be the good husband.  He knows what he really wants and really is thinking of when will be a good time to end the marriage.

As the episode is wrapping up, Lauren approaches Vaughn’s desk and tells him that she is going home.  I like the fact that he immediately changes the subject.  His Home is not with Lauren, it may have been for a short while, but his Home is being with Sydney.  But as they are talking Jack approaches them and tells them that it has come to his attention that Lauren’s father’s attempts to recover lot 45 were thwarted.   Lauren becomes very concerned, but Vaughn just looks up at Jack and smiles, knowing Jack as he does, Vaughn knows where Jack’s concerns are.  Vaughn tells him that the senator is probably getting ready to inquire further, but Vaughn doubts he’ll be able to find any concrete evidence of wrongdoing.  Jack smiles back at Vaughn, and tells him that whoever intervened to save Dixon’s daughter, as well as Sydney’s has his deepest thanks.  You can see that Jack and Vaughn are sharing a moment here.  Jack really does like and respect Vaughn even though Vaughn may believe otherwise. 

 As Jack walks away, Vaughn just looks up at Lauren, and tells her that he will see her later.  She goes down to kiss, him although he doesn’t move in for a kiss at all.  After they kiss Lauren tells Vaughn; “Not if I see you first, Love.” Jack is still within earshot of this.  Jack then becomes very aware, and you can see him putting together different clues in his mind and with that unusual goodbye, he knows that Lauren is the mole and that she is working with Sark.

So once again not a great episode for Sydney and Vaughn, however Vaughn is clearly seeing that Lauren and he do not fit well together.  The main reason for this episode, at least in my mind was for Jack to be clued into the fact that Lauren is the mole.  The secondary pieces of the episode, we needed to meet Lauren’s father to get ready for the next storyline, and Sloane had to be set up as the scapegoat.