Monday, January 09, 2006

Missing

Here is what I was able to piece together from season 3. This is a step by step account of all we know about Sydney’s missing 2 years. The red parts are questions or tidbits that came to mind while I was documenting all of this. Some of the happenings might be out of chronological order. It starts with the fight in Sydney’s apartment and goes through what Sydney learned from Kendall leading up to her return in Hong Kong. Then it goes on to what we learn later.

Missing Two Years:

-Sydney is taken by the Covenant from her apartment after a fight with Evil Francie (Allison Doran).
-Sydney was tortured and subjected to psychological conditioning by the Covenant. She was programmed to be Julia Thorne, a Covenant assassin, living in Rome. She escaped the Covenant long enough to contact Kendall. She wanted to come back but Kendall insisted she stay undercover in order for the CIA to learn more about the Covenant. Perhaps Kendall wanted the cube for himself or to turn over to P5, in the assumption that the DSR is one of the 12 government agencies infiltrated by P5.

-As Julia Thorne, Sydney came into contact with a group of high priced thieves, led by Simon Walker. Her association with Walker during the 2 years is unclear. What her relationship with Walker entailed is unclear, although it was obvious that they had a physical relationship. Was Sydney deep undercover or was she truly brainwashed? Was the Covenant successful in brainwashing Sydney despite her Project Christmas training? If so, did they “un-brainwash” her in order for her to go to Kendall? If Kendall was working for the Covenant and P5, was his story on the plane true?

-Sydney, as Julia Thorne, is hired to kill Russian Diplomat Andrian Lazarey (Sark’s father).
-Sydney fakes Lazarey’s death and together they go on a mission to find the Rambaldi cube.
-While searching for the DNA, Lazarey loses his hand. Sydney buries it in the desert? The Covenant buries it?
-Sydney must have learned that the Covenant extracted her eggs in order to create a child with the DNA of Rambaldi, which was inside the cube.
-Sydney has her memory erased, and instead of turning the cube over to Kendall and the CIA, she hides the cube in a safety deposit box in Gras. Supposedly Sydney gives Sloane an envelope with a key and a code. The key is to Julia Thorne’s apartment in Rome and the code is the address. Did she truly give Sloane the key and code or was it a plant in order to get Sydney to investigate her missing years?
-Sydney wakes in an alley in Hong Kong with no memory of the last two years.
-Jack is in prison for corresponding with Irina in regards to Sydney’s apparent death. Jack knew she was alive because he saw her on a surveillance tape “killing” Lazarey.
-Vaughn has left the CIA and is a French teacher, married to a NSC liaison. (During this time he is working with French criminal Renee Rienne, investigating Prophet 5).
-Viewed as a possible Covenant mole, Sydney has to prove her loyalty to the CIA by retrieving a chip from the Covenant that has plans for a spy drone, a weapons aircraft. Upon retrieving the chip, she asks that Jack be released from prison.
-Sark stands to inherit $800 million and the Covenant (Sanko) wants to enlist Sark as their benefactor. Sark is taken to a bank to retrieve his money. It is the same bank that Gordon Dean’s money was in, in the Cayman Islands.

-Vaughn comes back to the CIA. Did he come back because Sydney was back and needed her information for Prophet 5? Or did he come back because he wanted to protect her, to be close to her? Or was it Lauren’s influence?
-Javier Perez, a member of Simon Walker’s team, is apprehended in a Mexican jail. He says he knows that the killer of Lazarey is a CIA agent. Lauren and Vaughn are tasked to interrogate Javier, but Jack murders him in order to keep Sydney’s secret.
-Lauren Reed, has been sent to the CIA LA office in order to investigate the murder of Lazarey. Sark approaches Lauren and reveals that Sydney is in fact the killer. Lauren informs her superiors at the NSC (Director Lindsey).
-The NSC wants to subject Sydney to invasive memory therapy in order to find out what happened to her in her missing 2 years. They take Sydney into custody and Lauren is enlisted to write the White House brief of Sydney’s interrogation.
-Jack, Vaughn and Sloane create a plan to break Sydney out. When Lauren witnesses Sydney being mistreated by the NSC, she offers up her help.
-The break out is made to look like the work of the Covenant. It is made to seem that Sydney and Lauren have both been taken, when in fact they are in hiding, researching possible alternatives to finding out what happened to Sydney in those missing years.
-Sydney and Jack follow coordinates Sydney was able to decipher from a code. The code leads them to the desert and to Lazarey’s hand.
-Jack, Sydney and Vaughn go to visit a dream doctor, a doctor recommended by Sloane. The doctor is able to help Sydney retrieve some of her memories. In her dreams Will is there. Sydney asks that she contact him in Witness Protection.
-Meanwhile, Lauren is returned to the NSC and tells Lindsey that she was kidnapped by the Covenant. The “Covenant” is willing to trade Sydney for the Rambaldi device. Lindsey instead wants Sydney assassinated and he enlists Sloane to do it.
-Will is able to tell her that St. Aidan is the code name used by one of his informants when he worked for the CIA. St. Aidan is Andrian Lazarey and he is still alive.
-Sydney and Will are able to track down Lazarey and the location of the Rambaldi cube, in the safety deposit box in Gras. But the cube is snatched by Sark, who tortured his own father to find the location of the cube.
-Sydney is returned to the CIA, and instead of being killed by an assassin, Robert Lindsey is killed.
-Sydney is later “kidnapped” by Kendall and taken aboard a CIA jet. Kendall shares with her all that happened to her during her 2 missing years.
-With the cube in their possession, the Covenant can now harvest Sydney’s eggs and create a Rambaldi child. Sark is tracked and Sydney destroys the lab before the experiment can be concluded.
-Lazarey is taken to the hospital after Sark’s lab is torched. In the ambulance he tells Sydney about the Passenger. Before he can tell Sydney who or what the Passenger is, Lazarey is assassinated by Covenant mole, Vaughn’s wife, Lauren Reed.
-When it is discovered there may be a mole inside the CIA, Jack investigates and discovers that Lauren maybe a possible mole. He takes his findings to Senator Reed, Lauren’s father.
-Vaughn decides to leave Lauren, but she needs him for inside information on Rambaldi. Sark suggests that she kill her own father in order to get Vaughn to stay with her.
-Lauren goes to murder her father and he discovers that Jack’s investigation is valid. Lauren is unable to kill her father. Her mother then busts into the room and shoots him. Olivia Reed is also Covenant.
-Sydney believes she sees Lauren on a mission. When she brings it up to Vaughn, Vaughn thinks it’s outrageous. Jack confronts him and tells Vaughn to look for clues that Lauren could possibly be the Covenant mole. Vaughn follows Lauren and picks up on a phone call between Lauren and someone else. Vaughn is unaware that the person on the other end if Sark and he is warning Lauren that Bomani is after her. Lauren later explains to Vaughn that she was talking to her mother. But, Vaughn later finds a black wig and passport papers in a piece of Lauren’s luggage.
-The CIA stages a coupe. They leak faulty intel to Lauren and she relays it to the Covenant. When Lauren believes she is in possession of a Rambaldi code key, she passes it on to the Covenant. Her mother discovers that it’s a fake and Lauren knows she’s been made.
-Lauren and Sark join forces to bring down the leads of the Covenant cells in order to take control of the cells themselves. They are then on the search for the Passenger, steps ahead of the CIA.
-The Covenant gets their hands on Conrad, the monk in Napal. They kidnap him in order to get the location of the Passenger.
-At this point, Sloane has learned of his daughter, Nadia, the Passenger. He is on a mission towards redemption, heading a world relief organization called Omni-Fam. He uses Omni-Fam as a front to put additives in the water supply of hostile countries in order to alter human brain chemistry to make all who drink it more susceptible to empathy, sympathy and kindness. (This coincides with Rambaldi’s message from El Dire (The Telling). The message was “peace.”) This also explains why Sloane is drinking water in many of his scenes.
-Sydney and Vaughn go to rescue Conrad and Sydney discovers that the Passenger is her sister. Sydney confronts her father about a sister. It is revealed that Irina had an affair with Sloane and that their affair produced a daughter. It is said in Rambaldi’s prophecy that only the Passenger’s father can find her, but Sloane has been framed and is up for execution. Jack, due to Sloane’s affair with Irina, refuses to help stage his pardon. Sydney begs him. In the end Jack fakes Sloane’s death and together the group finds Nadia.
-Sloane appears to double cross Sydney and Jack, by escaping with Nadia.
-Lauren and Sark join Sloane in order to drug Nadia, to put her in a trance to relay Rambaldi’s message. Sloane is torn between saving his daughter and learning of Rambaldi’s message. Sydney and the gang storm Sloane’s safe house to save Nadia and Vaughn goes after Lauren. Sloane is able to escape, as are Sark and Lauren, and Nadia is taken to safety.

-Vaughn tracks down Lauren and kidnaps her. As he is about to torture her, Vaughn is stabbed by Katya. (Would it not have made more sense that Olivia Reed was the one to stab Vaughn? Why would Katya stab Vaughn?)

There are some extra questions I had while watching:

-Sloane’s kidnapping by Bomani; was it staged? Did he plan it with Sark in order to become a double agent between the CIA and Covenant? Did Sloane have Sydney brought back in order to get Sark’s money to help Elena run the Covenant? And did he and Sark use Bomani to acquire Rambaldi artifacts? Did they use him as a pawn to take the blame for Sloane’s abduction?
-When Sydney returns from her two missing years she still thinks that Sloane is a baddie. Lauren brokered his deal in return for information on other terrorist cells. Sydney says, “yes, he used you to get rid of his competition.” This connects back to the idea that P5 has been using APO and the CIA to rid them of competition.

So, what have I missed? Do you have any ideas about the red pieces? Have I helped or hurt?

17 comments:

ry said...

Hi--
Great blog! Although I haven't seen any of the episodes of S5 (and am still desperately trying to find a way I can catch up before they start airing new eps...), I wanted to comment on your question about Katya stabbing Vaughn. My thought is that it may relate to Lauren's comment about knowing "who" is controlling her. That, along with some other pieces of info seem to lead to the conclusion that Lauren was in a position to get/give more info directly to the Derevko sisters (or at least K & E), so maybe they had a reason to protect her? Or, given that Katya herself attempted to shoot Sydney (in the S4 finale), maybe she was just trying to get rid of Vaughn b/c she knew he would try to protect Syd later down the line?

Girlscout said...

Thanks and good point Ry. Katya is still a mystery to us. We don't know who she is working for or for what purpose. I am hoping we will see her later this season.

ry said...

I think maybe the rings symbolize the things/people that Sloan loves best. In S2, there are 2: Emily & Rambaldi. In S3 (after he finds out that he has a daughter): Emily, Rambaldi & his daughter(s) (at that point he only knows about Nadia's existence, but it might also be for Jacqueline)?

Girlscout said...

I was thinking the rings definitely have something to do with who Sloane loves (Nadia, Emily, Jacqueline, Sydney). Also, perhaps one of the rings is a communicator or an easedropping device like the Alliance had injected into Sloane in the second season. Perhaps, Sloane knows someone is listening and that is why all of his actions as of late are very ambiguous?

ry said...

One quick comment about "The Telling"- the message "Peace," was also later related to Irina, right? If I remember correctly, it was related to a root syllable in Ancient Greek... which was also how Sloan was led to Nadia. What if the message was meant to connect Irina & peace? (ie. that Irinia would ultimately be the one to bring about peace?) I haven't completely worked out how that relates to the prophecy, though. I just have a feeling that in the end, Irina will end up being more good than bad, even when it comes to Rambaldi.
Just my 2 cents. :)

ry said...

Quick update: Thanks to my sister (who is apparently faster at finding an English to Greek translator online than I am), the word "peace" in ancient Greek is "Irini".

SRM said...

Great s3 summary GS! The idea of Kendall being a baddie could be possible. Did anyone else see (and love) The Usual Suspects? If you didn't don't read my idea below cuz it might spoil some things...


****
In Full Disclosure, Syd learns about everything she went through in the missing 2 years from Kendall. Supposedly, he tells it in her own words, and we see it play out according to what he says. BUT, it just ocurred to me the similarity between that and how the story of The Usual Suspects is told from the viewpoint of Kevin Spacey's character, who we ultimately learn is telling a skewed version of the truth since he's the bad guy. Just a thought, could be completely off though since we saw Syd in the video telling Kendall she was going to erase her memory and he was a good friend...
*******

Ok, onto answering a couple questions. Syd did not bury Lazaray's hand, the Covenant found his hand after Syd cut it off in the cave, buried it and planted the coordinates in Julia Thorne's apartment to lead Syd to it, eventually tricking her into revealing the location of the Cube. Also, Sark did snatch the cube but Syd got it back by kicking butt. The "Jerks" from the DSR were taking it to their lab when it was stolen by the Covenant, yet another security breach.

I don't think Sloane's kidnapping was staged, it really seemed like Bomani was going to torture him, didn't seem "all for show" IMO.

Anonymous said...

Now this is just an inquiry/observation that I have made from starting back at the beginning of season three. I just rewatched the first four episodes and wrote down what might be of use and any question that I have.

*Ep 1, 2, and 4 have mission center on biological interactions such as spy-drone and Ebola virus. Was this meant for a foreshadowing of Sloane's ventures with Rambaldi's water-drug?

*The Rambaldi device, the machine designed 500 years ago by a prophet. All Sloane did was bring all the pieces together and have it assembled. It delivered a message (as Sloane suspected it would--though in Ep4 they say suspected a weapon). The message was just one word: Peace. This word "motivated" Sloane to change. He gave the CIA information that helped to dismantle over 2 dozen terriorist cells. However, later on we find out that Sloane was drugging people and using his position to locate Nadia. He lied to both Jack and Syd, the people he "supposedly" has left. What does that mean? Is his agenda deeper than Nadia and the drug? Was his loyalities with Elena? Or was he with P5? We know that he worked to decipher the Prophet Five code, we know he didn't die when all the others died. So does that mean that he knew Bill Vaughn and the S4 dude?

*Love Syd in red dress with Limp Biscutt's "Rollin'" playing in the background of episode one.

*Syd "killed" Lazarey about a year after being taken by the Covenant...Jack knew she was alive before he spent a year in solitary (Ep 1). But in episode 2, we learn that eight months after Lazarey's "death," Sark is released. Well, which is it? Did Lazarey die a year ago from Syd's resurfacing? Or was it eight months ago?

*Syd's "body" was creamated, the ashes spread at sea. Man that was easy enough to rid the evidence of who was in Syd's house and who the CIA thought was Syd.

*In Ep2, Sloane gives Jack a disc about his search into Syd's death/missing years. Do we ever see that disc again? Do you think that it was a communication between Jack and Sloane? Why do I ask? Well, Jack tells Syd that they have to keep up pretenses. Maybe he meant, not just with Syd, but with whatever he and Sloane seemed to be up with in S4. Did we ever figure out what that was? I don't seem to remember if we did.

*Weiss's nice gift (3rd ed. of Alice's Adventures in Wonderland) makes me flash back to Jack's books to Irina. Do you think it was just a book, or was there some hidden message in the book?

*What else did the Covenant have Syd do during those lost two years? We really don't know what happend, except for what Kendall revealed and from her undercover assignment.

Vixen said...

Great questions...so much that the writers have to finish up. I don't think half a season is enough to do it. I really don't.

SRM said...

Dignan, interesting theory. I don't want to "rain on your parade" per se, but I would be really disappointed if they brought Danny back. That would be too many people to bring back from the dead IMO, just seems really unrealistic (which is funny since it IS Alias we're talking about here...) In the s5 premiere, Vaughn told Syd why it was no accident he was her handler. In her statement she wrote to the CIA, she mentioned the Meuller Device. Vaughn knew the name Meuller from his Prophet 5 research, so he requested to be her handler to see what she knew. Also, when we saw the Rambaldi tatoo, it was on Anna's hand as she was stealing the key to the box.

Girlscout said...

Hello all new posters, especially Vixen! Nice to see you perusing the blogs.

I personally don't think they can wrap up all the mysteries of Alias in the remaining 12 episodes. It's impossible, unless they pack each eppy with so much info. our heads will be spinning for months. This is why I am holding out hope that a spin-off will be in the works. I don't know if I mentioned it, but rumor has it JJ is looking for a new network, that's he's not exactly happy at ABC. And I have heard of a few other networks that woud love to sink their claws into Alias. Who wouldn't? PS. Jennifer Garner will be presenting an award tonight on the People's Choice Awards. It's her first public appears since Violet's arrival. Jen is also up for favorite female action star, along with Jolie and Zeta-Jones. (She could take both of them!!)

Girlscout said...

PSS. I also don't want to step on the toes of theory, but I doubt Danny is dead. Alas, I heard rumors that the character maybe back, perhaps for flash back. But it's all up in the air.

uncle111 said...

Well, to quote Eloise, "I'm out of my head with fever and pain," in bed trying to recover. So, it seemed like a good time to respond to such a great article.
Was Sydney deep undercover or was she truly brainwashed? Was the Covenant successful in brainwashing Sydney despite her Project Christmas training? If so, did they “un-brainwash” her in order for her to go to Kendall? If Kendall was working for the Covenant and P5, was his story on the plane true? A truely great mystery, and one they shuold capitalize on if they didn't plan on it. Except for the few sentences Syd recorded on the DVD Kendall showed her on the plan, all we know from that episode about Syd's time inside the Covenant is what Kendall told her on the plane. If he was lieing to her then they can easily toss the salad and change everything! We do know that she worked a deal with Lazaray, just as Kendall told her, and that she and Lazaray found the cube, just as Kendall reported. If he was using her to do that for Covenant then I would expect Covenant to have followed them and intercept the cube to make sure they ended up with it. But, if Kendall was playing her for his own purpose he would most likely have worked it just the way it happened, except for Syd hiding the Cube.

It doesn't make sense for Syd to have buried Lazaray's hand. There's no purpose in it. Here's what I see as the pertinent sequence of events surrounding Lazaray's hand:
Syd and Lazaray find the cube. Lazaray gets his hand caught in the Rambaldi vault. Syd has to cut it off to get Lazaray out of the cave before the cave in kills them. After the cave in, could they have even retrieved the hand from the cave, and if they could why bury it somewhere? Syd suspects after she is freed from Lndsay's clutches that the Covenant place the coded note under the desk in the Rome apt. where they capture her in order to lead her to the hand, which would lead her to Lazaray, which would lead her to the cube that she had hidden. But, look at this sequence leading to Syd's capture :
Sloane gives Syd the key and coded address of the apt. in Rome. Sark gives Lauren "proof" that Syd killed Lazaray. Syd finds out that Lindsay is after her and she flees to the apt in Rome that Sloane had just made available to her. Lindsay captures her, Sloane helps break her out. Syd ends up finding Lazaray. Sloane ends up working with Syd and Jack again as he had predicted, and ends up with the Rambaldi device that Lindsay bated what he thought was the Covenant with to return Syd (so he could have her killed). Someone found the Rambaldi vault after Syd and Lazaray had been there, excevated it and found the hand. Whether the Covenant was involved in burying the hand, as Syd speculates afterward, or not, Sloane and his former emplyee Sark certainly were. And once again Sloane ends up on top. If Covenant was involved, then Sloane was working with them.

Sark is taken to a bank to retrieve his money. It is the same bank that Gordon Dean’s money was in, in the Cayman Islands.
So, was Lazaray part of the same group as Lazaray, whether that is P5 or not?

-At this point, Sloane has learned of his daughter, Nadia, the Passenger. He is on a mission towards redemption, heading a world relief organization called Omni-Fam.- I think he learned about a daughter when he read the document Conrad gave him. I also think there was something in it that led him to believe he would work with Jack and Syd again. And, one of the things he did through OmniFam was do a world wide search of DNA data bases to locate that duaghter, whose DNA sequence was revealed by El Dire. Also, El Dire spit out several yards of "blank" paper before writing one word- Peace? I don't think so. There are sevral yards of text from Rambaldi that they haven't shown us yet, but which Sloane has seen.

Would it not have made more sense that Olivia Reed was the one to stab Vaughn? Why would Katya stab Vaughn?- Katya was also standing guard over the Covenant's dig where Vaughn kills Lauren. She was either working for Covenant was a mole in Covenant for Irina, or more likely was there for herself or Irina the way Syd was there for CIA.

Sloane is the great puppet master/manipulator. He has used several organizations and then brought them down when it suited him- all in his pursuit of Rambaldi. I harp on this so often because I belive it is a key to much of what happens on Alias.

Now for more coughing and nose blowing.

Anonymous said...

I think this has to do with the missing two years. I was rewatching Season 3. In Episode 6, The Nemeis, Sloane meets Sark and Allison under Syd's direction. She makes Sloane ask them about her missing two years. Allison says the Covenant ordered her not to kill Sydney in their most recent meeting because they want to RETREIVE SOMETHING IN HER MEMORY. Sloane says, "something she saw?" I nearly fell off the couch. This was a throw-away line as the story line began to pursue the hidden cube. But with the recent epi, The Horizon, I am thinking Covenant and P5 are definetely related. Any thoughts, anybody.

uncle111 said...

I asked the same thing in another post after watching the same episode. Were they after the Cube or Horizon?

amy said...

hmmmm - i wonder what happened with walker and what their relationship was like - apparently she doesn't remember any of it but if she wasn't really brainwashed i find it really hard to believe she would be "with him" while knowing vaughn was still alive (although he was with lauren at the time, it just doesn't seem like a syd thing to do)

amy said...

girl scout you said you doubt danny is dead? did you mean to say you doubt he is alive? i think it is pretty unlikely that they will bring danny back....i hope they don't. too much confusion for the end of the series...they need to tie up much more pressing loose ends in my opinion....(: