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Alias: Reunion

Vaughn: "Capturing Sark, although it might put a smile on my face, will do nothing to shut down the Covenant."

Just so you all know I'm paying attention to the plot: In Phase One, Sark and Colonel Boris Oransky brought down Oransky's own satellite in Gorky Park in order to locate the Medusa project. Phase two was supposed to be stealing the Medusa project (an anti-satellite pulse weapon) from the Science Ministry at the Kremlin. Sydney and Vaughn managed to foil their evil scheme and fry Medusa as well as Oransky. I feel like I just studied for a test.

Asking Sloane for help was even more bizarre than the revelation that Lauren meets with him regularly. For the first time this season, Sloane gave us that patented Sloane smirk, that "I'm smarter than anyone else, and you don't know what I'm up to" look, right after he made that nasty comment to Vaughn about how "close" Vaughn and Sydney used to be.

Lauren has been successfully integrated into the story in a lot of ways. She's a good character, even though I desperately want her out of Sydney's way. I got a kick out of that all-out argument they had in front of everybody; Vaughn must have been squirming. Lauren does not have a good opinion of Sydney: "I hate her." "Self-righteous and arrogant." "Most condescending person I've ever met." While Vaughn thinks that they'll like each other someday. I think he's dreaming, but you never know.

Jack was his usual devious self, worming his way into Lauren's investigation and sabotaging the footage of Sydney, even at the cost of invading Dixon's office. Nothing fazes that man and his poker face.



Weiss makes a good friend for Sydney. He knows all her secrets, so she can relax and get totally smashed on tequila with him. He's Vaughn's friend, too, so he can be a buffer between the two of them. But what do you want to bet that he ends up falling for her?

In the tequila scene at the beginning of the episode, when she was talking about everything she owned being lost in the fire, Sydney referred to losing pictures and picture frames. That must have been a reference to a couple of years ago when Vaughn was Sydney's handler, and the first thing he ever did to show he cared about her was give her a silver picture frame.

Bits and pieces:

— The No Way Out photo-rendering subplot was cool to a point, but wouldn't Marshall and Lauren recognize Sydney even with the photo as blurry as it was?



— For what it's worth, we learned that Vaughn and Lauren's third date was in Prague, and that Lauren's father is a senator.

— Drunk Weiss to drunk Sydney: "There's gotta to be something that you had that you just loved that it kills you that you don't have it any more." (dead silence) "I mean, like a thing, like a thing... "

— Marshall's CD was so sweet. What a nice thing to do for Sydney, both professionally and personally.

— The music at the beginning was, "She's Got You." How appropriate.

This week's...

... itinerary: Satellites exploding in Moscow; hostage negotiations in Mexico City; and back to Moscow with exploding Medusas.

... hot look: That dark red evening gown Sydney wore was even hotter than Vaughn in that tux.

As far as "hot looks" go, how about the scene at the party where Vaughn was staring at Sydney, and she was staring right back? And the two of them stripped to the waist in the elevator as they were changing clothes, while carefully not looking at each other? How long can Vaughn and Sydney work together in life-and-death situations without succumbing to temptation? Vaughn is such a boy scout; he's not likely to cheat, no matter how much he wants to. But Sydney is in an emotional stew, and for her, the two of them were sleeping together only weeks ago.

This was a standard, really good Alias episode. Three out of four spies,

Billie
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Billie Doux loves good television and spends way too much time writing about it.

6 comments:

  1. A Mexican standoff. In Mexico!

    So far this season, Ron Rifkin, Michael Vartan, and now Victor Garber have all revealed themselves to be lefties. Lefties unite!

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  2. We've already seen the shorthand that Vaughn and Sydney have with each other; now we see how easily they slip back into working together. I agree; temptation is going to rear its very ugly head.

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  3. I found myself agreeing with Lauren - Sydney was being so annoying! Sloane killed Dixon's wife, but Dixon isn't yelling about it every five minutes (and I doubt the fact it was 2 years ago makes it any easier). Sydney and Weiss actually have nice chemistry though, as friends or potential love interests - more than her and Vaughn. But then, for some reason, I just can't get worked up about her and Vaughn. I'd ship her with Marshall or Lauren before Vaughn.

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  4. Ugh. I'm really struggling this season. I agree with Lauren - Sydney is being very annoying and condescending this season. Not that I like Lauren...her accent is fake and I don't understand how a Senator's daughter has an English accent anyway. The character has to be American by birth or she wouldn't be able to work for the US government. I find the neat slotting in or Weiss to replace Will and Francie very try hard, and very obvious. Here's hoping for improvements!

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  5. Obviously, Lauren and Sydney had to have it out at some point, but I found it a bit troubling that Vaughn was the one to stop it. Shouldn't Dixon have stepped in before it escalated?? This is going to be cozy. Vaughn and Syd used to be able to be able to work so well together and I agree that their circumstances are going to provide a lot of temptation, but that's not new for them. They've been in similar circumstances where there were other things keeping them apart. It'll be fun to watch the tension build again.

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  6. The Sydney vs Lauren argument during the briefing was good writing. On first watch, I thought that Sydney was the one being unnecessarily aggressive, annoying difficult and condescending.
    However, on my second viewing, I came to the realisation that their argument was not all Sydney’s fault; Lauren was giving attitude and made some subtle condescending remarks too.
    I thought the second time they all met for a briefing was the best part of the episode. When Dixon was explaining Medusa and Sarks/Oransky’s plan. Seeing Sydney pining look to Vaughn ( noticed by Lauren) then in return Lauren’s ‘stop looking at my husband’ look to Sydney, followed by Sydney’s retaliative look to Lauren of ‘I’m not intimated by you’ and the VERY best part Vaughn being caught staring longing at Sydney and, then him trying ( but failing) to cover it up by looking at Lauren.
    During their private conversation in the corridor, Vaughn really did not like Lauren speaking ill about Sydney. He obviously still loves Sydney very much and thinks she is best person ever!
    I thought it really interesting that Vaughn excuse Lauren of acting emotionally ( something he clearly was doing all through the episode).
    Also, interesting that Vaughn said to Lauren that he thought Lauren would end up respecting Sdyney. He didn’t say that they would end up respecting each other. More evidence that for Vaughn - it always has been and will always be Sydney- he thinks she is the best person ever and that everyone should be in awe of her.

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