Lauren Reed. Just typing her name makes me cringe. Though the British-American, deceitfully married to our Vaughn has been dead and buried for sometime, there are a few questions her death has left unanswered. At the finale of season 3, Lauren’s last words were the vault numbers for the safety deposit box in Wittenberg. She and Sydney battled it out, and there at the Covenant dig site, Lauren opened a can of worms before she became worm food. The can of worms is still open, and this is just one of the many instances where Alias writers have dropped a storyline (i.e. Vaughn's mom, his sick uncle, etc. ) or have moved on to more intense and detailed storylines. But for those of us who partake in Alias each week to chip away at the mystery that is Rambaldi, the Covenant and Sloane’s agenda, those clues or questions demand answers, a connection, and a conclusion. I am hoping here we can pick apart Lauren’s final words in season 3 and make a conclusion of our own.As they fought hand to hand, Lauren stated: “Do you think the CIA couldn’t find you when you went missing or that you learned what happened to you by chance?”
-Sydney’s missing two years where found once Sloane handed her the key to Julia’s apartment in Rome. It can be concluded that Sloane knew Sydney had hidden the Rambaldi fluid and he needed to spark her interest in her missing two years in order to find it. If what happened to Sydney, as relayed to her by Kendall, was false or fabricated in order to manipulate the CIA and Sydney, who was involved in this and why? And what really happened to her?
“If your mother’s really been trying to help you since she left, why haven’t you spoken to her?” It is our understanding, as relayed in 4.02, that Irina was killed by Jack in order to spare Sydney from assassination. But, there were several instances in season 3 where Jack spoke with Irina via instant message. For instance, when Sydney and Vaughn were stranded in North Korea he contacted her for help. Was Jack talking to Irina then? How did Lauren learn about Irina’s death? And if Lauren was working for the Covenant, headed by Elena, did Lauren know that Irina was being held captive by her sister?
“You can’t believe that you and your sister just happen to be agents.” This is very interesting. What is the relevance? Didn’t we all find it odd, as Sydney did, that Nadia was also with intelligence? How and why? Was it a manipulation by both Elena and Irina? Jack ran Sydney through Project Christmas, so we can conclude that he influenced her decision to be in the CIA. Who influenced Nadia and was this person working with Jack?
“We’re both pawns in the same game. The difference between us is I know who controls me.” We can piece together that Lauren was working for the Covenant, possible Sloane and Elena, they control her. But who controls Sydney? If we want to put it in the context of who she is working for, that would be the CIA and Dixon, who was made Director. What doesn’t Sydney know about Dixon and could that be a connection to the Dixon mystery that may be in store for us this season? Or has Sydney been working for Sloane, or has she been manipulated by Sloane to help him meet his end-game?
“There is a bank in Wittenberg, a numbered vault-proof.” We know the documents proved that Jack killed Irina. Aside from knowing proof existed, how did Lauren learn of its whereabouts?
Aside from Lauren’s last words, another loose end in the Covenant story is Olivia Reed, Lauren’s mother. We were shocked to discover that Olivia, too, is an agent for the Covenant. She shot her own husband to protect her and Lauren’s involvement with the group and she tranqued Conrad, the monk at the mission in Napal, to help with the quest for the Passenger. We haven’t seen her since. Where is Olivia Reed? What is her role now if the Covenant was taken down with the death of Elena? Will she want revenge against the man that killed her daughter? Will she go after Sydney?
Lauren and her mother played such a large part in a large storyline. How could Alias drop these characters, as well as the storyline without proper “burial?” Was the break between seasons supposed to lessen our curiosity, cloud our memory? What can you make of the information given? Is there an end in sight?
Thanks to Uncle111 for his research. Much appreciated!
9 comments:
AWESOME questions GS, so many unanswered mysteries!! Jack's "killing" of the double-Irena must have happened timewise about 3/4 of the way through the 3rd season. He obviously believed he was talking to her through IM earlier in the season. Lauren must have known that Irena was being held captive and Jack had been manipulated into thinking he killed her. She was probably trying to egg Sydney into finding that proof so everyone would believe Irena to be dead, which was Elena's intent.
Interesting how both Syd and Nadia became agents the same way...recruited by the "government" who turned out to be mercinary groups. We know Sloane was behind Syd's recruitment, but was Elena behind Nadia's? Did she have some connection to Robert Fox?
Yes I've been wondering about Olivia Reed for a while, I wish they would tie up that loose end sometime soon, we'll see though. :)
Dignan, When I first watched the premiere this season I said, "wait a minute, this is the same scene from when Vaughn was sick!" It could very well be a clue or sign that Vaughn is alive. Either way, Alias loves to reuse scenes and even exact lines. We'll have to see.
Hey GS - another interesting topic. Thanks for getting us through the delay. Save some ideas for the extended hiatus.
RE: the blog. I think SRG answered many of those questions you posed and I believe she is right on the button. Nevertheless, I'd like to make my own comments too.
The "Do you think the CIA couldn't find you..." comment continues to plague me. This implies that the CIA did indeed know, and by not seeking to save her, they were complicit in the torture. They either jailed Jack because he was getting somewhere in his search, or Jack was part of the manipulation. (He was the one who brought the video to Sydney that led her to Lazeray, which led her... etc., etc.) This is very tangled, but if the ALIAS writers are as good as we hope, all five seasons can still be resolved very neatly.
"If your mother has been trying to help..." How she knew is irrelevant; whether she knew the truth may pique out interest, but it is not likely that Elena let anyone but her closest agents know that Irena was still alive. My curiosity was, why did she let her live in the first place? Irena spilled her guts after torture (uncharacteristic) and Elena had no more need of her. Sisterly love? Ha.
Jack was probably talking to the Irena clone when speaking to her over the internet, and when he intended to kill her, he made contact with her using their usual protocols. I believe Kendall's information was recounted just as he knew it. Remember, what he said was, "in your own words." He simply repeated things as Sydney saw it.
Nadia's agent-hood, as SRG mentioned, was revealed to us in "Orphin" in S-4. The similarities to Syd's expereince (and now Rachel's) are a little hard to swallow as a coincidence. Anyway, it was Elena that had been manipulating Nadia since childhood (yet another element of the traggedy called her life). It is very likely that Elena had been watching her from afar and, when the time was right, sent Fox to train her. There are few other explanations that will suffice. The strange coincidence is that Jack preped Syd. It makes you wonder about Jack...again.
"...the difference between us is, I know who controls me." This cannot be anything more complicated that a snide accusation that somehow Sydney isn't smart. Lauren says they were both being controled by someone else, obviously Elena (with a mild posibility of Jack & Arvin having thier own agendas).
Someone else mentioned subtle clues from earlier seasons. I believe that, if the writers really try, they can resolve everything, draw it all together and answer every question. Here's to hoping they will.
-R.
Robetron! You're alive! I haven't seen ya around! Welcome back and as always, thanks for clearing a few things up! I am hoping the writers will wrap it up neatly for us, but as Alias goes, we can never be sure.
As much as I love hacking away at old Alias, I can't wait for the new eppy this week. It will help us get back on track.
Alias tonight, I'm pumped, who's with me?!? Robetron, nice analysis, and thanks for the "on the button" comment. :)
I am with ya SRG! I need some new Alias to dig me out of all the old seasons I've been watching. I get so wrapped up in the old, but it's all about the new!
About the line "... learned what happened to you by chance?"... there were several factors that lead to her finding out about her missing 2 years... jack showing her the video, sloan giving her the key, and then of course kendal revealing all on the plane. Don't forget that Dixon also knew about all of this... now, based on last season we know that Jack & Arvin are in cahoots on some unknown agenda... also, we know that Dixon is being sneaky about something... is it by chance that all three of them (plus Kendal, but obviously he isn't coming back to the show)are up to the same thing having to do with those 2 missing years? Maybe Dixon gave up his director position to get closer to Syd for a more nefarious reason?? And if any of this is true, how would Lauren know... which leads me to believe that Elena (and the Covenant - who kidnapped her in the first place!) and Sloan were working together before the whole Slovogda incident. This begs the question, how does Jack play into this whole equation, especially because he was in jail... I think it was a cover... I think he got himself into jail because he needed something from someone there... who/what, I have no clue!!
About the sisters both being drafted as agents in the same way... didn't one of Elena's safehouse's have photos and files on *both* sisters throughout their entire lives... if this is the case, then maybe Nadia's and Sydney's fates were both controlled by Elena?
Thoughts????
Nice M! I agree with your Elena theory and her controlling both Syd and Nadia into being agents.
This Post has me asking a whole bunch of questions. Sorry if some of them might be silly. Okay here it goes...
1. Do we know that Syd's baby is a girl? Or is it an assumption because Vaughn said he liked the name Isabella. What happens if it is a boy?
2. In regards to dropped plotlines...I wonder if some things had to be dropped because of Syd's pregnancy. JJ had said in the extras on a DVD that he had the whole concept figured out when Alias first came out but, obviously had to rethink some things because of changes in characters. Maybe we will never see a proper burial for some plots. I don't know...just an idea.
3. Something I was wondering about, Sydney when she was young went through that agent training with all of the puzzles and whatnot and I thought that that was one of the reasons she was recruited for "serving her country".So how did Nadia get recruited so easily...Did she go through that trainig too? Also if Rachels life is paralleling Syd's, did she go through training of some sort when she was young? Maybe I am just expecting too much from the writers.
4. If the Covenant was resposible for syd being gone for two years...here is a crazy thought...what if she helped in the masterminding the Svogda deal but just doesn't remember it? She obviously has been capable of doing other things. She just isn't able to remember. Just stuff I've thought about...Which brings me to my final thought...When Laura tells Syd,"at least I know who I work for," that is something I have thought about. It just seems that Syd has become a pawn in someone else's game. I must say that it is a little disheartening for those who, at the beginning of Alias, were totally for the woman-kickin-butt plot. It is starting to get a little tiring of the "she is working for everyone" idea. Oh well, now I have my thoughts out. Thanks for the outlet. PHEW!
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