S3 E20 – Blood Ties

This episode contains very little contact between Sydney and Vaughn.   The time that they share on screen is less than 2 minutes in fact.  So I am hoping that I will be able to keep this semi short.  In past episodes we see Sydney with the A story line on her own most of the time, but usually Vaughn comes into the A story line at some point.  This episode seems almost as if there are two A story lines, and they don’t come together until the last few minutes of the episode.  And Sydney and Vaughn each have their own story.  As I said before this episode does change the course of the relationship though.  They still have feelings for each other and they still care for each other more than anything else.  But new information is gained as well as a new character that will affect them and their relationship.

So with the storylines being so different, I am going to try something a little different and write up the storylines separately rather than in the order that they appear in the episode.  So I will tell the Vaughn story then the Sydney storyline, ending with them finding each other.  Hopefully this will work out as I think it will.

Vaughn:

As the show opens we see Vaughn at the firing range, and Dixon approaches him.  Vaughn is complaining that his role of playing the loving husband was supposed to be over by now, and with how much he wants to be with Sydney and the anger he feels towards Lauren I believe that he has the right to be a little crabby about the situation.  But Dixon explains to him that with Sloane now dead, they have reached a dead end in searching for the passenger, and that they can still use Lauren as an asset.  Explaining that they can use her to feed incorrect information to the Covenant, and keep them off of Jack and Sydney’s investigation into the passenger, and they will take Lauren into custody.  Vaughn understands, but is not happy about it, so he takes out his frustrations with shooting a few more shots.  I wonder if he has placed a picture of Lauren on the target, if I were in his position, I think I would have.

After taking out his frustrations, Vaughn is surprised to find Lauren at the Rotunda since she had told him that she would be working from home.  He hates having to play the part, but does a good job of going along with the loving husband alias, knowing that he is ultimately doing it for Sydney.  While he is playing nice with Lauren, he receives a phone call from Brill. (Brill is the man that Vaughn and Jack went to for help in getting Sydney out of the NSC holding facility, who also knew Vaughn’s father.)  Brill tells Vaughn that he has some information that Vaughn needs to know about his father and tells Vaughn where to meet him.  During the conversation Vaughn works to not disclose who he really is talking with as Lauren watches.  When he hangs up and Lauren asks about the call, he tells her that it was just the dry cleaner.  They play the happy married couple for a moment longer and then Lauren goes to leave.   Once she is out of his immediate eye line, Vaughn’s fake smile disappears and he looks to Weiss to go and follow her.  Unfortunately while following her Weiss ends up losing her trail.  This part always makes me wonder, if they are able to track all these horrible terrorists with Marshall’s fun gadgets, why didn’t they stick something on Lauren, rather than depending on visual monitoring from one agent? 

Upon arriving at the location where Brill requested Vaughn to go, they get in an elevator and then stop the elevator to have their meeting.  Brill then goes on to tell Vaughn what he needs to know, saying; “I told you that I worked with your father. But what I didn’t tell you is I was with him on his final mission.”  Vaughn tells him that he knows how his father died, and by the look on Vaughn’s face it isn’t really a subject that he wants to talk about right now.  But Brill looks at him and tells him; “You don’t have a clue. Yeah, he was working on something. An operation that wasn’t sanctioned by the CIA.”  This does not make Vaughn happy in the least, and he tells Brill that his father wouldn’t ever go against the CIA.   Brill then tells Vaughn that Bill Vaughn was a follower of Rambaldi.  This just makes Vaughn even more upset, and tells Brill that it’s impossible.  Brill stays calm and tells him; “He died protecting the little girl. The followers knew she was the Passenger. He broke her out of KGB custody. But he didn’t trust the CIA, either, so he took her someplace where she would be safe with other followers.”  None of this makes any sense to Vaughn, (or to the overall viewers when we start comparing timelines, but I won’t go into that) and he tells Brill that the man he is describing is not his father.  By this point Brill is somewhat frustrated with Vaughn’s unwillingness to believe him, so he gets a little more adamant and tells him; “Your father was the best man I’ve ever known. And he gave his life to make sure that that little girl would be safe. Now if you don’t stop what’s happening, his sacrifice will be for nothing.”    Now we have to assume that they continue to talk because of the information that Vaughn has at the end of the episode, but we don’t know exactly what is said.

As I have mentioned before, when I am watching the episodes for this rather than for my own entertainment, I have found that I notice more little of the details and I think more about how the characters must be feeling as some of these revelations come out.  And this is no exception.  As I looked at Vaughn’s face when Brill was telling him that that he was with his father on his last mission, his face looked pained.  Vaughn is always pained by the topic of his father’s death, but I think that it is affecting him more today than is shown.  Thinking about his father’s death, makes him think about Irina Derevko and ultimately Sydney.  But in this moment I think his thoughts may have gone deeper.  Maybe he was thinking of the last time he saw Irina, and the last time he saw Irina was only hours before his last moments with Sydney before her alleged death.  Also noting that he was being debriefed about Irina while Sydney was being taken, so he feels some guilt there, thinking that he should have been with Sydney protecting her.  Also it was after that last encounter with Irina that led him to meeting Lauren.  So now more than ever possibly, he realizes how much damage the Covenant has not only done to Sydney, but also to him.  Also in the coming episodes where the mission is to find the Passenger, Nadia, I can see where he has mixed feelings.  His instinct has always been to help Sydney in any way that he can, but finding the Passenger can’t be easy on Vaughn as his father gave up his life with Vaughn for her safety.  So I could easily see him having a bit of resentment towards her and not having her on the top of his priorities.  But this is all just theory once again, as well as a testament to Michael Vartan’s acting skills.  The way that I can get this much of a theory built up based off of a look on his face.

As they are ending their conversation, Brill tells Vaughn that he knows what he needs to do and to just make sure that they don’t get to her.  Vaughn asks him why he came to him and Brill tells him, because it’s what your father would’ve wanted me to do and then Brill exits the elevator.  Vaughn is left to think more about what he needs to do and possibly weigh that against what he wants to do and the elevator closes, inside he gets out his phone to call someone, I have to assume that it is Sydney, so she can know where to go and what their plan should be.  But before he has a chance to say anything he exits the elevator and then is attacked and knocked out.

The next time we see Vaughn, he is hanging by his arms in a warehouse somewhere and we hear Sark speaking to him.  We also see that Vaughn has been stripped down so his chest is fully visible, which normally I get excited about seeing that nicely chiseled chest, but since he is hanging and also covered in blood I don’t take as much pleasure in seeing it. Besides the blood running down one side of his body, seeing water raining down on him doesn’t bode well with me either.  Vaughn is coming to after being knocked out and that Sark is now telling him that the Covenant has known for a while that Vaughn’s father was a follower of Rambaldi.  Also that Brill eluded them, but Vaughn was not as lucky.  Sark tells Vaughn that there are three things he needs to know. The first being about the device he holds which can deliver up to 500,000 volts, which Sark tells him isn’t enough to kill him, but just enough to make Vaughn wish that it would. The second item being that Sark believes that Brill disclosed the location of the Passenger to Vaughn, which means that Sark won’t stop the torture until Vaughn tells him where she is. The third item being that Sark is going to enjoy the torture far more than he should.  After telling Vaughn of the three things he should know, Sark begins the torture by jabbing the highly charged baton into Vaughn’s side.  Making Vaughn scream in pain, and shake vigorously. 

On a quick side note, Weiss does return to the Rotunda and a task force is put together to find not only Lauren but also Vaughn since they believe he may have been compromised.

Sometime has passed before we see Vaughn again, only now he is covered in more of his own blood and we can see where he has been burned.  Sark remarks how impressed he is at Vaughn’s ability to withstand the torture, but then turns up the machine to a higher setting.  Coming from Sark who we have seen quickly bow to the pressure of torture; it’s not surprising that Sark is impressed.  But Sark tells Vaughn that he is done showing restrain and asks him again where the Passenger is.  Vaughn is in an extreme amount of pain and it shows in how hard it is to speak.  But Vaughn has been trained to withstand torture and we know that he will do anything to save Sydney, including dying.  So it is no surprise that in this moment of excruciating pain, Vaughn actually provokes Sark and tells him; “Holding that thing, you almost look like you’ve reached puberty.”  Sark does not take the insult well and takes it out on Vaughn by holding the baton to Vaughn’s chest for longer than the last time.  While Vaughn is shaking and screaming, Lauren emerges and sees Sark torturing Vaughn.  I believe that it is in this moment that Vaughn sees Lauren with Sark for the first time.

When Sark is finished with Vaughn, at least for the time being, Lauren approaches Vaughn to clean him up a little.  She is the last person Vaughn wants to accept help from and he yells at her to not touch him.  She tells him that Sark is going to give him the Inferno protocol and that after all that he has been through, he wouldn’t survive.  He asks her why she cares, and she tells him that not everything was a lie.  As Sark’s men are taking Vaughn out of the restraints that are holding him up and take him to a cot, we see Lauren begging for Sark to wait, and not to do the Inferno Protocol, that he needs time to recover.  Sark asks her why she has this sudden concern for her husband now.  They go on talking and he eventually slaps her, and tells his men to take Lauren out of the room.  He then goes back to Vaughn and places and mask over his head to start the protocol.  We as watchers know (I hope) that this is all just show; they want to play on Vaughn’s sympathetic side and have him believe that she isn’t the callous bitch we know her to be. 

The mask is removed from Vaughn’s face and someone is there at his side assisting him to wake up. We find that it is Lauren, and Vaughn actually fell for Lauren and Sark’s manipulation and isn’t overly upset that Lauren is there with him.  He asked her what is going on, she tells him that the protocol worked and that he somehow survived.  He allows her to help him out of the bed, and he asks her if he told him.  Lauren tells Vaughn that he told Sark everything, but that he will be back any second and that Vaughn needs to get out of there.   He asks her why she is doing this, and she tells him that for her their marriage was real, and that it was the only real thing in her life.   She helps him dress and tells him to leave.  So Vaughn stumbles out of the warehouse and makes it to the street. 

Once out in the open Vaughn sees a car approach him and tries to flag them down, but has no success, but a truck quickly follows and does stop to help Vaughn.  Vaughn gets in and the driver is concerned with Vaughn’s appearance.  Vaughn just tells him that he needs to get to a phone, so the trucker quickly allows him to use his.   Vaughn, takes the phone hesitantly, thinking about making his call with a civilian near him, but decides that he will do it anyway.  He calls into the CIA dispatch and asks to speak to Dixon immediately.   When speaking with Dixon, Vaughn tells him that the Covenant knows the location of the Passenger and that Sark is moving on the lead.  Dixon asks him how they got the Intel, and Vaughn looks again to the driver, but dismisses his hesitations and tells Dixon that they got it from him.    Dixon then tells him that they will put together a tactical team and beat them to it, and asks where the Passenger is now.  Vaughn becomes suspicious now, I’m not sure if it is from the way Dixon worded his question or the truck drivers interest in Vaughn’s phone call, but Vaughn can see that something is not right.  He tells Dixon that he cut out and that there is bad reception.   We then see that Dixon isn’t Dixon, but Lauren typing the words that Dixon is saying into her laptop.  She has him ask Vaughn what is wrong, and in reply he asks if Sydney is back from Hong Kong.  With this statement, Lauren and Sark know that their rouse didn’t work, and Vaughn realizes that the truck driver is Covenant.  Vaughn goes to attack the driver at the same time that the driver goes in to attack Vaughn.  But even in Vaughn’s condition, Vaughn is still able to overpower the driver.  Eventually knocking him out and making the truck crash into some parked cars.  Vaughn quickly exits the truck as best he can after the crash, and as he is jogging away from the truck, the truck explodes.  Then a car pulls up to him and Sark and Lauren get out with their guns trained on him.   Vaughn finally realizes that Lauren played him once again.  She ends up knocking him out with a quick kick in the head after telling him that he is smarter than she thought. 

It is in this moment I believe that Vaughn truly begins his change.  He’s never been overly cynical or revenge driven.  But this latest betrayal at Lauren’s hand brings out a side of Vaughn that we have never seen before and his actions in the next episode are a result of this.  But I will go into that more later.

Back at the Rotunda, luckily Marshall has found a lead, he shows Dixon the footage that he found, Dixon instructs him to look at the surveillance from every camera within a five mile radius of where Sark and Lauren picked him up after the truck crashed.    With Marshall being this close, you know that Vaughn will be found, it’s just a question of the condition that he will be in.

Back at the warehouse, the game playing is over, they tried to trick Vaughn into thinking that they had run the Inferno protocol on him, when they really hadn’t.  But this time, Lauren is more than happy to help with the set up.   After the setup is complete and Vaughn is fully emerged in the Inferno protocol, Sark begins his questions.  What I find amazing is Vaughn’s strength even here.  The questions that Sark asks that would ultimately have no effect on Sydney or the Passenger, Vaughn answers, but any question that would affect Sydney, or the Passenger, Vaughn is able to still refrain from answering.  Showing that even under the worst conditions, even his subconscious is unwilling to hurt Sydney in anyway.  Proving that Vaughn will go to any extreme for her, including dying, which is good for Lauren to watch.  As  Sark instructs Lauren to increase the dosage, Sark receive a phone call, after hanging up he tells Lauren that they are done that they have the location of the Passenger.  Lauren asks Sark about Vaughn to which Sark tells her to kill him.  She hesitates for a small moment, before turning the wheel on the medication up allowing the medication to kill him for her and she walks away.

At the Rotunda, Marshall calls Dixon and Weiss into his office and shows them the footage that he found.  After Marshall’s usual over talking, Weiss finally gets the location of where Vaughn is now out of him and races off to save his best friend.  This is something that we rarely get to see, but is nice to see.  Weiss and Vaughn have been friends for a long time, and since the downfall of the Alliance, Weiss and Vaughn haven’t worked together as partners much.  But seeing Weiss show his own strengths as an agent to find Vaughn shows another side to their friendship. Then seeing the actual rescue of Vaughn and the fear on Weiss’s face as he finds Vaughn shows how much he really cares for his friend.  I know it’s not part of the Sydney and Vaughn relationship, per say, but in any relationship the closest friends of each side of the couple do affect the couple.  And seeing how good of a friend is to Vaughn here as well as how much Sydney has depended on him this year, shows that he would do anything for them.

Sydney:

We know that Sydney is not happy with Jack over him letting Sloane die, knowing that Jack had the information that would exonerate him.  If you have only watched the episode, you can see her anger at Jack.  But I love how she was able to expound upon her true feelings about Sloane’s death with Vaughn in the deleted scene that I posted in the last episode recap.  But before anything is said, you can tell that she is still not happy with Jack and hates being in his presence.   But the situation quickly changes as jack explains that yes he did have the information to exonerate Sloane, but as he was going to hand over the evidence to Bell, the guy from Justice who came to oversee Sloane’s execution, when he quickly realized that Bell was part of the Trust.   With Bell being part of the Trust jack knew that he couldn’t turn over the information that he had to him. Sydney then sees Sloane and they begin their search for the passenger.  I know that I could go into a lot more detail about the details of finding the Passenger, but I don’t find them overly relevant right now.  So this storyline will be kept short.  I will say that Sloane tells Sydney and Vaughn why the Passenger is so important, and why everyone is searching for her.  Rambaldi told of a Passenger that would serve as a conduit to Rambaldi himself and that when given an elixir she would be able to pass a message that would show Rambaldi’s ultimate end game.

While on the search for the Passenger, Sydney and Jack do share a nice moment.  While it isn’t relevant to the relationship, I am a sucker for a good Sydney and Jack moment. They are in the van ready for surveillance and Jack tells her; “Sydney, there’s something you should know. When I first learned of Sloane’s affair with your mother, I was forced to consider the possibility that I wasn’t in fact your biological father. It’s not the case. I had our medical files examined. Our relationship is clear. But I wanted you to know during that brief time before I was reassured, my feelings for you never changed.”  Sydney says a simple Dad in return and then they share a smile before going back to their work.  It’s one of those moments that are few and far between for Jack to open up to Sydney.

After a trip to Washington DC to see the Trust and retrieve a Rambaldi artifact, they use the substance that was in the Hourglass to power the new artifact and it prints out what appears to be brain waves.  The brain waves are from the Passenger, and with the help form some contacts, they are able to find her using her brain waves and the equipment that the DOD uses to search brainwaves from orbit.  She is in a women’s labor camp in Chechnya.  Jack reminds Sydney that Sydney needs to make sure that her expectations for her new sister are not the same as she had for her mother.  Sydney reassures him that after meeting Irina, she won’t be making the same mistake twice.

In Chechnya, Sydney has managed to break in to the women’s labor camp and is searching for her sister, when she finds her she is in the hospital infirmary in a catatonic state.  Upon seeing her new found sister like this Sydney’s empathetic side immediately comes out.  Sydney sits down next to her, and starts to release her from the restraints.  As she does this she introduces herself and tells her that she is her sister, and that she is there to help her and she will make her safe.  You can see that even though Sydney promised that she would not fall into the trap of believing that her sister was innocent and trustworthy, she has already come to love this sister of hers.

While escaping the prison with her sister, Sydney has to fight with some guards.  While she is fighting her way out, her sister suddenly begins helping Sydney fight off the guards. After the guards are taken down, Sydney escapes with her sister.  They stop for a moment to allow for resting, with some questioning, Sydney realizes why the Passenger had so many Aliases’.  It is the same reason that Sydney does herself, she is an agent from Argentina, and her name is Nadia.   Sydney shows that she has already fallen for the idea of having a sister.  Sydney also tells Nadia that it wasn’t just her there to rescue her, but her father helped and that he is waiting for her.

 Later after escaping Jack, Sydney, Sloane and Nadia are at a CIA safe house.  Nadia wakes up and sees Sloane holding her; she tells him that she knows who he is.  He tells her that the reason that he changed his criminal behavior was to become worthy of her love and respect.  After a nice moment between Sloane and Nadia we hear an explosion, Sydney and Jack jump into action while Sloane stays behind to cover Nadia.  We hear Sark instructing others that the Passenger is to remain unharmed.  Sydney and Jack take out some of Sark’s men, but then have to retreat back into the room where Sloane and Nadia are, only to find them gone.  Sydney and Jack hide in the rafters and watch Sark and Lauren search the room.  Lauren finds a wall that opens up to an escape tunnel, and tells Sark that Sloane set them up.  Jack tells Sydney that they are in a Chechen safe house that Sloane suggested that they take refuge in.  They deduct that Sloane knew about the escape route and was the only other person that knew where they were.  Sloane set them up again, he called the Covenant to come and act as a distraction giving Sloane time to escape with Nadia.  This was part of his ultimate end game, I wonder if Lindsay had seen this far into the plan, or if Lindsay only saw a part of the end game that we discover next season.  But Sloane never truly reformed.

Sydney and Vaughn:

As far as a timeline given for how long Vaughn was held by Sark and Lauren before Weiss was able to rescue him is fairly unknown, but we can speculate that it was a good amount of time since we can infer that he was taken around the same time that Sydney met with Jack and found that Sloane had not been executed.  So judging by what Sydney was able to do, spend a good amount of time in Washington DC, as well as rescuing Nadia from the labor camp in Chechnya, we have to guess that Vaughn was held for at least two days.  However that is never fully confirmed.  What we do know is that he is in pretty bad shape after all of his torture.  Sydney and Vaughn’s stories finally come together after Sydney has returned from Chechnya, so Vaughn has been in the hospital for at least a day since we have to give time for Sark and Lauren to make it to Chechnya and Sydney to make it back.  In the actual episode shown we see them for the first time as Sydney first enters Vaughn’s room.  However there is a deleted scene that took place immediately before her entering. I really wish that they had left this scene in place, because while they don’t directly refer to it, the knowledge gained in that scene makes other comments in the next episode make more sense in the long run. So before I continue with the actual episode, I think that I need to go over the deleted scene first.

The beginning of the scene, at least for me doesn’t add much to the plot and I can see why it was cut, it contains Dixon and Sydney discussing Sloane and why Jack did what he did.  Also that they are working with the DOD to try and find her brainwave pattern again, but they aren’t having much luck; Sydney suspects that Sloane has done something to her.  But Dixon reassures her that they will do all that they can to get her sister back to her. 

 This conversation takes place outside of Vaughn’s hospital room and as much as Sydney now cares about the status of her newfound sister, she didn’t come to the hospital to talk shop with Dixon.  When she first comes into the scene you could see the immediate concern in her face.  She talked shop as much as she could, but now she can’t wait any longer.  She needs to check on Vaughn.  She starts walking to his room to go greet him.  But before she can get too close, Dixon stops her.  He tells her; “Syd, before you go in there, there’s something you need to know about Vaughn. The doctors ran tests to see if there were any permanent affects from the Inferno protocol, there were none. But… they discovered something else; signs of Psychological conditioning. We believe that Lauren is responsible.”   Sydney has this mixed look of absolute concern for Vaughn mixed with a look of revenge for Lauren.  I can imagine that after hearing this, she wants nothing more than to kill Lauren herself, but she first needs to check on Vaughn.  She asks Dixon if Vaughn has been told, and he tells her that he thought that it would be better if he regained his strength before hearing the news.   Sydney nods in agreement and the deleted scene ends.  

So essentially Dixon just told Sydney that Vaughn has been going thru similar conditioning that Allison Doren put Will through at the end of Season two.  Although the one thing that we do know, or at least can infer from seeing Vaughn being tortured, he has been somewhat conditioned by the CIA to withstand some brainwashing techniques, but within his own subconscious he won’t disclose anything that would ultimately affect Sydney.  The only time that she could’ve gained information that would’ve affected Sydney would’ve taken place before she returned from the dead.  Once Vaughn knew she was alive his priorities, at least subconsciously at first if not outwardly shown, were to protect Sydney.  So I could also infer that Lauren may have gained the knowledge that ultimately put Jack in prison from Vaughn when they first started dating.  But I can’t believe that she would be able to get much info that would hurt Sydney.  But where Sydney was not involved, I can see him divulging some of that information.  But knowing that this conditioning took place lets us be able to understand some upcoming statements that Vaughn says that originally had me very confused.

 In the episode itself, the scene opens with Sydney walking into Vaughn’s hospital room immediately following this conversation with Dixon.  So it is at the forefront of her mind when she approaches Vaughn.  You can tell that she is thinking about something, but knowing what Dixon just told her gives us more insight.  She approaches Vaughn’s bed and softly speaks his name.  He wakes up and you can see that he is in very bad shape overall, so Sydney’s train of thought does change to his overall condition rather than what Lauren did to him.  Vaughn looks up at her and says her name, and you can tell that she is the only person on his mind.  He reaches out his hand to her; she looks down and then takes his hand in hers.  With all of Vaughn bruises and scars, he shows nothing but concern in his eyes and then asks her if she is alright.  Typical Vaughn, no matter what type of pain he is in, his first concern is for Sydney and her wellbeing.  This somewhat reminds me of when Vaughn was dying from being contaminated by the water from the red ball and he is lying in the hospital bed asking Sydney how dangerous getting his cure will be.  No matter what the situation has been, Vaughn always wants to protect Sydney, and it’s killing him in situations like this that he can’t be with her to protect her.   But with his question, Sydney looks a little surprised and looks him over before telling him that she is fine.   By the look that Sydney has, you can tell that Vaughn is starting to alarm her, because she has nothing but concern for him in her face.  He then asks her; “The Passenger… Did you find her?”   She has a look of wonder at this question, but she tells him that yes, she found her, but that she is already gone and missing.   You can see that Vaughn is actually scared for Sydney here, his breaths quicken and her tells her; “You can’t go after her.”  Sydney questions him, wondering what he is talking about.  He goes on to tell her; “Your sister. You have to let her go.”  Unsure of what is going on, Sydney tells Vaughn that he is tired and that she should let him sleep.  It looks like Sydney may have attempted to release his hand, but he held hers tight and pulled her closer.  Once again his concern for Sydney is showing and it is his main concern above any type of pain that he may be in, he tells her; “No. My father was killed because he took her from the KGB. He hid her from your mother. That’s why she murdered him. I met someone who told me the prophecy…”   While Vaughn is talking Sydney can’t quite wrap her head around what he is telling her and she is very confused, but he goes on and tells her the prophecy of The Passenger. “The Passenger and the Chosen One shall battle. Neither will survive.”  Vaughn and Sydney have never been big believers of the Rambaldi stuff, but they have seen too much to not have a little fear when it comes to the prophecies.  Vaughn looks up at Sydney and goes on; “Sydney… You can’t see her again.”   While Vaughn says this, Sydney looks down at him wondering what to do, but she can’t ignore the concern that Vaughn has for her. 

The last thing we see is Nadia being held somewhere by Sloane and she is chained to a chair.  Sloane injects her with the green elixir that he made from the Rambaldi manuscripts, so that she can become the conduit to Rambaldi’s end game.  She goes into convulsions and Sloane places a mask over her face to put her to sleep.

So overall, while Sydney and Vaughn have very little contact in the episode, what happened to them will definitely affect their overall relationship.  Sydney has gained a new sister, who is prophesied to end up killing her, but Sydney having met her has a hard time believing this, but she will always have it at the back of her mind knowing what prophecies have come true.  For Vaughn, he was originally angry at Lauren for her betrayal in marrying him as well as betraying the country, but after what she and Sark put him through and falling for her last manipulation over him.  He becomes very bitter and angry, plus he is told about the psychological conditioning.  So he has two things on his mind, bringing Lauren to justice and making her pay for what she has done not only to him but to Sydney as well.  Because in his mind, he sees Lauren being responsible for Sydney’s disappearance and all the agony that he and Sydney went through during those two years, as well as the pain that he has had to inflict on Sydney over the last year, trying to be a good husband.   But his second concern and his main overall concern although at times, it doesn’t show as his number one concern is gaining Sydney’s trust and love back.  He wants nothing more than to be back with Sydney and for them to be happy together once again.