S3 E10 – Remnants

So the episode starts back where the last one left off, in Sydney’s memory dream, but we now get to see what is making her look so shocked.  Inside of room 47 is Will in her old apartment holding completely still, but has a cereal box in front of him and it is St. Aiden’s flakes.  She tries to talk to him, but he is unresponsive.  We then see some bright flashing lights and she opens her eyes back on the table being woken up.  She is asking what happened, and Vaughn is standing right above her saying that they are pulling her out.   Sydney is telling them that she has to go back, and Vaughn is almost upset at the idea, he tells her; “You were going to flat-line again.  You are not going back.”   He’s even holding on to her hand as he says this and he says it to her with authority.  Sydney is trying to tell them about her dream and Jack is asking questions, but Vaughn is completely set on getting her out of there.  He is taking off the leads and doing everything as fast as he can to get her off that table.  Brezzell is trying to get them to stay, saying that the drug cocktail needs to be corrected and is asking Vaughn to stop touching the leads for the monitors.  But Vaughn just tells him; “We’re out of here. We’re not going to put her through this again.”  At this point, Vaughn has taken off the leads and has even taken hold of Sydney’s feet and turned her so she can come off of the table.  He even lifts her off the table and to the ground.  Sydney finally gets out what she has been trying to say, she tells them that Will knows something.  Jack then tells her that he will contact the witness protection division.   When Jack starts to make the phone call, we see that Vaughn has his arm around Sydney’s waist and is holding her hand as well supporting her.  He sees her move and he even adjusts his grip around her a little tighter.  Even though she was only moving to tell Jack to wait, he was there holding her up.

 Seeing Vaughn’s movements, as well as his few words, really say a lot.  He has gone into protection mode again, but seeing him telling her that he’s not going to let her risk her life again, and seeing him physically take her off the table and keep holding on to her.  I almost see it as a rescue.   He really does care about her and still love her.  I think it truly pains him to not be able to be with her. In Vaughn’s dream he dreams of her telling him how much she misses him, and when Sydney thinks she is dreaming she tells him how much she misses him.  But he also loves Lauren, although he is beginning to question it more and more. 

On the plane, Jack and Sydney argue about pulling Will out of witness protection and ultimately decide that contacting him won’t do any harm that she isn’t pulling him back into the CIA life, but simply going to contact him and see if he can shed some light on what happened that night.  As well as on St. Aiden and what she saw in her dream.  I do find it interesting that Vaughn is incredibly quiet and doesn’t look happy about the whole Will discussion.  As I said in the second season, Vaughn liked Will; however, he knew that if he ever screwed up.  Will would be there waiting to take care of Sydney.  There was an extreme amount of jealousy towards Will.  Even during the awkward bar scene, we always assume that it must’ve been the hardest on Sydney seeing Vaughn with Alice, but Vaughn has been jealous of Will ever since Sydney took him to the dinner at Sloane’s house to retrieve page 47. So the fact that he has to send Sydney off to go see Will, especially knowing that she is vulnerable, is scary to Vaughn.  Even though he is married, he still wants Sydney for himself.  The jealousy is still very much there and present. But because of his situation, he can’t say anything and it frustrates him.

Seeing Vaughn change the subject off of Will is not surprising, especially when he turns it to a point that he was concerned about.  He says to Sydney; “You looked like you were struggling near the end.  What was happening?”  This is what is so great about Vaughn though, he saw her struggle in her dream and of course wanted to protect her, but since he couldn’t at the time, he wants to see what it was that caused the struggle to try and ease that pain.  Then to see his look of concern when she tells him that she fought herself and then killed herself, you can see this upsets him, and he doesn’t know how to help with this one which is just frustrating.  But once again, he looks at Jack to see his response and to seek help on how to help Sydney, but Jack is doing the same to Vaughn.  This experience, not even being over yet, has really brought the two of them closer.  She goes on to say that her other self did tell her that it was the covenant and that it wasn’t an accident that she doesn’t remember anything.  Jack then tells Sydney that Dr. Brezzell had commented that based off of the data that he saw, he believes that the memory of the missing time has been removed. Also that however the memories were removed, the precision with how they were removed indicates that she was a willing participant.  With this, Sydney looks at Vaughn and tells him that she doesn’t understand.  Vaughn then shakes his head, and tells her that Brezzell didn’t either.

Since the next scene only has Jack and Vaughn, and they tell Sloane that she is pursuing another lead, I have to believe that the plane dropped her off where Will is and they headed back to LA to work on their cover story for why they have been gone.  But they do meet with Sloane and Sloane asks if the doctor was helpful.  You can see that Vaughn still doesn’t trust Sloane and hates that he has had to work with him on this.  But Vaughn replies, very bitterly; “Despite the fact that he almost killed her, yeah, the doctor was great.”  Vaughn even glares at Sloane.  And honestly when you look at the experience with Brezzell from Vaughn’s point of view; he saw her almost die, her almost death being caused by his wife killing Sydney in her dream, finding out that the memory was actually removed and that Will is involved possibly.  The only good thing he got out of it, which he can’t even think positively without feeling guilty, is that he and Sydney kissed.  Also now she is off to be alone with Will.  She can tell him pretty much everything, he can be the listening board for her, the position that Vaughn held for so long, and longs to be again.

Jack and Sloane go over more of the details of their plan including the fact that Jack has instructed Sydney to contact Sloane when she is ready to return.  Jack then turns and goes back to the car; Vaughn nods at him, but stays behind.  Vaughn then takes a step closer to Sloane and he does not look happy, in fact he looks as if he could kill if he needed to.  But he looks right at Sloane and tells him; “I just wanted to say for the record concerning this exchange, Sydney’s life is in your hands. If you betray her, I swear to you, no matter what it costs me, I will kill you.”   Right there you can see once again, Vaughn is willing to sacrifice everything he has, including himself to protect Sydney.  You can see how much he hates this part of the plan, but he does trust Jack as far as what is best for Sydney and that is why he is willing to go along with it.  Slone though isn’t fazed by this threat, especially considering the fact that Lindsay is blackmailing him to have Sydney assassinated when she is exchanged.  He is calm, and simply tells Vaughn; “No need to worry, Agent Vaughn. I love her too.”  I have to admit that I actually believe him too.  He has always regarded Sydney very highly, even saying on multiple occasions that he views her as his own child.  While hearing this doesn’t thrill Vaughn, he knows how sick this statement would make Sydney, Vaughn is a bit comforted, not completely, but a little.

Now I love this episode, and I love seeing Will back and how happy they are to see each other, but very little of their plot of the episode has to do with Sydney and Vaughn’s relationship, besides Vaughn’s jealousy.  So I am skipping over most of it.  Sorry!  What I will say is that St. Aiden was a contact of Will’s that happens to be Lazarey.  Sydney and Will go to meet with St. Aiden and Sydney realizes that it is Lazarey, when Will tells him that Julia Thorne sent him,  Lazarey asks if they found it and if they have been to Graz?  Immediately after Sark shows up and shots Lazarey with a tranquillizer and shots at Will with a real gun.

So here is my one question, who told Sark about Dr. Brezzell?  Only five people knew about where Sydney was going to go to recover her memories.  Jack, Vaughn, and Sydney being three of them, so we can automatically eliminate them, so that leaves Sloane and Lauren; I have reasons to believe that it could be either of them.  But considering that Sark was questioning what Sydney said and where she was going, I am more inclined to believe that Lauren is to blame.  Sloane was friends with Dr. Brezzell and easily could’ve made a phone call to him to ask how everything went.  While Lauren, on the other hand was probably instructed to keep an eye on Sydney and report her whereabouts’; even if she wasn’t given all the details yet.  Because Lauren’s only other source being Vaughn wouldn’t be inclined to tell Lauren about Sydney’s dreams. 

Back in LA, Jack and Vaughn are meeting with Lindsey to go over what they found while tracking down Sydney’s disappearance. Lindsey isn’t buying it, and goes into a line of questioning that Jack didn’t approve of.  Jack warned Lindsey not to go there, but he kept going so Jack punched Lindsey, Vaughn tried to pull Jack off of Lindsey, but both Vaughn and Jack were still arrested.

In the transport vehicle to whatever prison Jack and Vaughn are being sent to, Vaughn asks Jack if he really thinks that punching Lindsey in the face was the best move.  Jack tells him that based off of the comments Lindsey was making, it was obvious that they would both end up there anyway, so he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity. Vaughn laughs a little, but becomes somber, and tells Jack that they shouldn’t have let Sydney go.  Jack then says Vaughn’s name to get his attention back, seeing that Vaughn is going to a fairly dark place thinking about Sydney right now.  Jack is probably acting friendlier to Vaughn right now, than he ever has, but tells Vaughn that Sydney can no longer be his primary concern.  Vaughn gets a bit irritated at jack’s statement and asks; “What the hell’s that supposed to mean?”    Jack remains calm, and tells him that he didn’t bring it up to start a petty fight, but then continues by telling Vaughn; “The fact is, you and I have something in common. We’ve both suffered through the death of the woman we loved, only to discover she was still alive. I know it’s hard, but this isn’t about you, and I will not allow my daughter to become your mistress.”   The entire time that Jack is saying this, Jack remains calm and fairly friendly.  You can see that he really does sympathize with Vaughn.  He understands that Vaughn does still love Sydney, and that he is saying this as a fatherly figure for both of them.  Vaughn however doesn’t see it that way, although it looked like he was agreeing with Jack through most of the speech.  But Vaughn looks up at him and glares at him and replies; “If that’s where you think my concern for Sydney is headed, then you are even more cynical than I thought.”   Even though Jack’s statement upsets Vaughn, he isn’t overly aggressive with his speech pattern, maybe he had more to say but I think he can see where Jack’s perspective is coming from, and is willing to stop talking when Jack starts talking again.  Once again though, where in the past if this conversation had come up, there would be a lot more emotional outbursts, but both of them remain respectful towards each other, and for the most part, they will continue to have a good relationship through the end of the series.  But Jack does go on saying; “If lightning strikes, Mr. Vaughn, and you and I get to walk free again, if you care about my daughter, as you claim to, then push her away. Be cruel if you have to. Make her despise you. Because your kindness tortures her… I can see it, what it does to her… and I won’t have it.”  At this Vaughn becomes silent; he can see that Jack might be right.  He realizes that he may be causing Sydney pain, and that is the last thing that he ever wants to do to Sydney.  It is something that he will definitely consider, even if it pains him to do it.

We have reached the one part of Sydney and Will’s plot line that I will discuss.  At the safe house in Warsaw, Sydney and Will are getting very drunk and Sydney has told him more about what she has been going through.  Will asks her how it worked out that she now is working with Vaughn and Vaughn’s wife. Sydney playfully pushes his leg and then tells him that she doesn’t want to talk about that, she wants to talk about him.  She asks him why he hasn’t asked out this woman that he has talked about.  He tells her that his own alias in witness protection, Jonah, is still recovering from his last dumping him by stabbing him in his lungs.   But he immediately wants to go back to Sydney’s life.  He looks at her and says; “Okay, you and Vaughn’s wife…”  Implying a question for Sydney, she closes her eyes and says; ”Yeah, I hate her… I mean I don’t. She’s nice…”  But Will doesn’t buy it and says, you hate her, and then Sydney agrees with him and smiles up at him.  He laughs and tells her that it’s okay.  Sydney then becomes sullen and says; “But not ‘cause of her. It’s just… I still love him.”  Will looks down at her and sympathizes with her, telling her that it sucks.  Sydney gets up and tells him that with everything that goes on in her life, she thinks she is pretty normal and that she’s never been a depressed person until now.  She goes on telling him how this nothing feels the same this year, and that it isn’t just Vaughn, but that she misses him and Francie.  Sydney is now full on crying to Will.  She tells him that she just feels all alone.  Will can’t take seeing her be this sad, so he kisses her forehead and pulls her in close to him and they embrace and he tells her that it’s okay.  Then Vaughn’s worst fear of sending Sydney out to visit Will in her condition comes true and Sydney attacks Will, and he doesn’t put up much of a fight.  The next time we see them they are in bed, and Will tells her that he’s wanted to do that for the last eight years.

Sydney realizes that whatever Lazarey was talking about, she must have had it at some point, and that even though she doesn’t remember doing it, it was still her making the decisions.  So she asks herself where she would hide something herself now.  She looks up locations in Graz, and decides that she would’ve placed whatever it is, in a safety deposit box at a hotel there.  Right after Sydney figures it out Sark gets Lazarey to admit what he told Will, as well as what he knows, he gets Allison and tells her that they are going to Graz and to the same hotel that Sydney decided she would’ve hidden whatever it is.  Once at the hotel, Sydney breaks into their system and finds that she does have a safety deposit box there under the name of Julia Thorne, so Sydney and Will go and break into it.  When they go to grab the object Sark is on the other side taking it as well. Once out in the hallway Will and Sydney separate to look for Sark, even though Sydney is hesitant since Will hasn’t been trained.  Will ends up running into Allison and they end up fighting it out, but we see that Will has gained some fighting skills since we last saw him.  He ends up stabbing Allison in the heart; luckily she actually stays dead this time.  Sydney catches up to Sark and knocks him out and takes the container that was hidden inside the safety deposit box.

The next thing we know, Sydney calls Weiss to make sure that Sloane doesn’t take off with the Rambaldi device, and she goes to meet Lindsey as part of the trade, and Lindsey is shot instead of her.  Are we surprised that Sloane choose to not be blackmailed and shot the blackmailer instead of Sydney, absolutely not? Sydney goes to get the Rambaldi device from Sloane and Lindsey packs the boxes with assorted crap and not the Rambaldi device and Sloane tells Sydney that he doesn’t know what she’s talking about in regards to Lindsey being shot. 

Luckily Lindsey’s death allows for Jack and Vaughn to be released and Dixon to regain control of the Rotunda.  Back at the CIA, Sydney approaches jack and Vaughn who are talking at Vaughn’s desk.  She tells them that it looks like everything is falling back into place.  She then looks at Vaughn and tells him; “Thank you by the way, for everything.”  Vaughn smiles up at her, and then decides to take Jack’s advice, brings down his smile looks up at Jack and tells her; “Yeah. I got to go. I’m meeting Lauren.”   He says it as if he really wants nothing to do with her, and that meeting Lauren is now his top priority and walks away.  You can see how upset that this makes Sydney, as well as confused.  She looks to Jack for answers, but doesn’t get one.

 We then see Marshall with the container, it has been opened and we discover that the container held a vile filled with human tissue, which is still vital and active. Also there was a name etched inside the container, the name was Milo Rambaldi.

The episode ends with Sydney telling Will goodbye and sending him back to Witness Protection, but not without him telling her that he loves her.

·         Items that I found noteworthy…

o   So I actually kind of love the fact that Lindsey essentially pays for his own assassination.

o   While Sark is torturing Lazarey, Lazarey learns that this man who kidnapped him, is his long lost son, and Sark finally gets a first name, Julian.

****A Note About Vaughn with Spoilers****
Above anything else though, Vaughn is a true gentleman. As much as he wants to be with Sydney, and knowing how much Sydney wants to be with him. He won’t have an affair, and he knows that Sydney will not be part of an affair. If we look back at their first kiss back in season two, yes, they did have a great first kiss, but the next time that Sydney saw him, she immediately asked about what was going on with Alice. She wasn’t going to start anything while he was dating Alice. As much as he wanted to kiss her as she was leaving for Rome, he didn’t. And when Sydney thought that she was dreaming and kissed Vaughn, yes he did kiss her back, but he stopped the kiss, even with how badly he wanted to keep it going. In addition looking forward two episodes from now, they will have an encounter that will alter this season’s tension even more. But they only allow it to happen when they believe that they are about to be executed, and afterward when they make it, they clarify that an affair will not happen. They remain professional, or as much as they can, until Vaughn finds out Lauren’s secret. But even after that, they don’t actually kiss again until after Vaughn’s marriage is over.