One Small Moment - Vaughn's unconditional love

I swear I can’t catch a break when it comes to this blog. 

The latest casualty, my laptop; It wasn’t exactly easy trying to work, watch the episode on my phone, and typing up the episode breakdown. But it was kinda working. But now my laptop and everything I have ever written, every picture I’ve ever screenshot and saved could be lost because my fan is dead and my laptop refuses to turn on without it. We are working on it, but you know the story about needing money, well that’s this story too.

So I am writing and posting this on my phone. I wasn’t going to post anything, because I feel like I’ve been telling you I’m working on it in multiple posts, but not posting anything real for three years.

Admit it, I have.

But today is a little different.  I am actually going to talk about Sydney & Vaughn and a scene that they share in season 4. I watched a moment go through in a YouTube video, and I really started thinking about that moment.  I went back and re-watched the scene, and I realized something huge about myself and about why I love Sydney & Vaughn so much.  It’s all about Vaughn and his unconditional love for Sydney.  Let me repeat that…

Vaughn’s UNCONDITIONAL love and support for Sydney is what makes their love story the best love story. Don’t get me wrong, Sydney loves Vaughn, but it takes her a little more time to get to the unconditional part, especially in season 4.

People may argue, “Vaughn married Lauren less than two years after Sydney died. That’s not unconditional love.” But I will argue that point, and I will win. I’ve written way too much on why Vaughn did what he did. Go back and read the non-episode posts that were written during season 3. Vaughn had to survive; he had to find a way to move on. He created a new personality for himself that repressed the Vaughn that we love and adore, and Michael came out of it. Just trust me here; I know what I’m talking about. 

Okay, sorry, rant over.

The scene that I want to talk about is in APO Part 2; right near the beginning. Sydney is pissed; Jack had just stopped by to see if Sydney had told Nadia “what she knows”. We don’t know what she knows, but Jack is the primary target of her rage, Vaughn walks in (with what sounds like a key, but more later). Vaughn has no idea as to what “it” is, but he knows that the tension is, and has been strong for weeks now. 

Jack has now left; Sydney has to stop cooking dinner, apologizes to Vaughn and walks away. We get a great look from Vaughn, you can see the worry in his face, but he has no idea what’s going on. I imagine that he’s tried to understand the reason for the tension for some time now. Remember, I strongly believe that after the end of season 3 Vaughn is a fan of Jack’s, they now have a similar history, although Vaughn doesn’t know how similar, but another similarity is about to be added, and he knows from experience that Sydney is much happier when she is on good terms with Jack. I don’t think that Vaughn immediately went to her. I think he took a few moments, did a few grown up things, turn off the oven and stove, etc, etc, and let Sydney have a few moments. He knows Sydney better than he knows himself at this point. So he knows that Sydney needs time sometimes.

So when he does go into the bedroom, and asks the same question that he has asked in various ways, Sydney has been waiting for him. Finally deciding to break down some of the walls she formed since waking up in Hong Kong, and the four months since Vaughn killed Lauren. I don’t think that Vaughn was expecting her to answer, but she did.

She tells him, “It was Lauren that told me.” Anything that has to do with Lauren is still not on his list of topics he wants to cover, but he doesn’t judge, doesn’t jump in with a “you can’t believe her” statement, a simple “what?” is all he asks. She starts her story, and he doesn’t rush her, and she says all the things that would be on the top of my list of things to say when talking about the Ice Bitch. I digress.

She tells him it was a safety deposit box in Wittenberg, he has this look that I love, but that could be my Michael Vartan thing though, but the look almost says, “A safety deposit box, in a foreign city, I understand why you had to check it out.” Like he knows her and her affinity for hiding things in safety deposit boxes and knows that she has to investigate one if brought to her attention. In season 5, at a safety deposit box, she gets sucked in again and it’s to her detriment there too. My point, he knows that she can’t resist that temptation. 

But seeing that he’s going to finally get to the real reason behind the tension, ignoring that the info came from Lauren, and all of the issues he’s going through with that, he still goes in and sits next to her and listens. Did I explain that well enough, he listened! Nothing else, he doesn’t touch her, nothing more than a sigh and a smile when she says out loud that the temptation was just too strong, like I knew it, but said nothing. Said nothing; just plain sat down near her and listened. 

That right there shows so much unconditional love towards Sydney. Not interrupting, no personal thoughts about how Lauren has ruined something else, even being out of her eye line allowing her to look away from him while telling the story. He doesn’t coax her; he is just there for her. Right here, even if it didn’t go any further, I would still love this scene. Just seeing how well he knows her, her needs and how much she needs Jack back in her life. He knows that she needs Jack, more than he needs to rage against all that is and was Lauren. I love it.

Here’s where it gets good though, (or more precisely, even better) Sydney tells him that the box contained files, and that she knew before she even knew, then asking him if that made sense. It is only when prompted that Vaughn speaks, and it’s said simply, not rushing her, “what was it?” Once again not mentioning Lauren or the fact that maybe it was planted by Lauren just to cause issues like the one here. But simple, helping her get where she needed to go.

Sydney then says that the files were about Irina and all the horrible stuff that she had done. Nothing that was new information and Vaughn simply nods his head. Now to recap; Sydney, the woman Vaughn loves more than anything is taking to him about his dead wife, who was a traitor and betrayed everything he believed in and ruined everything else. The same woman, he had to kill to make sure that Sydney wouldn’t get shot by her, and he now can’t officially divorce because she is dead, so he burned their house down. Now add to that the only other person that could even come close in the contest of who he hates more, Irina Derevko. Sydney’s mother and the person who took his father from him when he was eight years old, I think that it’s fair to assume that Vaughn is just happy that Lauren and Irina (or Laura) never met in real life. (Even though, I’m pretty sure that Irina was watching Lauren very, very carefully.)

She continues on with her story, all the while Vaughn is trying to process everything, especially since it deals with these three women. Then the story gets interesting, Jack had put in a request to terminate Irina. There is a moment where it looked like Vaughn wanted to jump from the rooftop, the woman who murdered his dad is dead, the two worst women ever created, as far as he’s concerned, are both dead. But instead, he’s seeing the ramifications that it is having on her. He’s seeing someone he loves, who had reunited with their parent who was also ripped from their life at a young age, albeit in a strange and far from ideal circumstance, being ripped away again. Only this time, by the one person that had finally become the ally that she really needed, but didn’t have growing up, her own father. 

Vaughn doesn’t see this as a personal gain, in this moment; he finally touches her shoulder to remind her that he was there. No pushes, no words, just a simple hand and then letting her go where she wanted, and needed. He simply listened and showed her once again, that no matter what happened, he would be there for her, in whatever way he could. But he wasn’t going to lose her again. She simply folded into his arms, him just holding her, and comforting her as she breaks down. He gives her a simple kiss on her arm as a reminder that he loves her. But that’s all. He listened, and in that moment loved her more than he has ever loved anyone.

Anyway, there it is. A way too lengthy breakdown of a one minute scene, accomplished with my thumbs on my phone. So any and all errors are blamed on that, and not my random thoughts crashing into each other and not making sense half the time. 

But it’s my blog and I can ramble if I want to. 

I hope you enjoyed, and hopefully I will be back soon(ish).