Wednesday, February 15, 2006

Connect the Dots

Rambaldi. Rambaldi is the one common thread linking all of Sydney’s arch nemesis’. There was the fashionable faction of the Alliance. The group had 12 terrorist cells posing as the CIA to gather intel and firearms and the works of Rambaldi. Then there was the Covenant- the group deeply devoted (almost religiously) to Rambaldi and his work. Behind the scenes, Elena Derevko was manipulating Sydney to meet the needs of her ultimate endgame. Now, we got P5- essentially based on deciphering documents of Rambaldi. The group involves Sloane, DiSantis, Bill Vaughn, Irina, Vaughn, Renee and now Sydney and her baby.

So, aside from Rambaldi, what other connections can be made between these groups? SD-6 and the Alliance, the Covenant and P5 all seemed to have or have had the same agenda- get Sydney (The Chosen One) and collect all of Rambaldi’s artifacts. How are these groups born? What can their leaders (the Alliance members and Sloane, Elena, and the Benefactors) tell us about their operations? All groups have been able to infiltrate the CIA and the US Government, how is that? The Alliance posed as CIA, Lauren played both sides and I am fairly sure there is a P5 mole sitting at the APO table.

Let’s make some connections, let’s discuss these groups- because now we know the Horizon connects SD-6 and P5, so the next couple of episodes will no doubt reveal some secrets that have been haunting Sydney and causing Rambaldi to turn over in his grave.

PS. An article posted on www.alias-media.com has confirmed that JJ Abrams will NOT be directing the last episode of Alias. He has MI:3 conflicts, though he said he will be involved in the production as much as possible. Sad pandas!!

14 comments:

SKlaft said...

Alliance: had twelve major cells; SD-6, the central branch in the story

Covenant: had nine major cells until their heads were murdered by Sark and Lauren, after which, they became the North American cell leaders. How many others there might have been is anyone's guess.

Prophet 5: 12 major divisions; each one legitimized by thier government's intelligence agency. The Shed was the temporary location from which Dean oversaw the transference of Substance 32 (or whatever the number was). Thwarted, he moved on and centralized elsewhere; we are never told a name. Now murdered, Kelly Payton ran his organization, butshe seems to answer to Irena Derevco.

Irena Derevco enabled Sloane to bring down the Alliance. Irena Derevco was the deciding force that halted Elena and her "straw-man," the Covenant. Irena Derevco was complicit in the most recent interogation of Sydney for information on behalf of P-5. Irena Derevco did all of this to advance her own Rambaldi-obsessed agenda.

Irena and Rambaldi seem to be the two central figures in it all. How does this fit together? Does it give us any clues? I'm not certain.

SKlaft said...

I have a few other dots I'd like to connect, but I am afraid I would ruin the thread, plus display a major gaff in the story of season three.

SRM said...

I'm with phoenix, I definitely should never be a detective because I'm no help in figuring out the Rambaldi/bad guy agency mystery. :( I see all the clues and all of the points but there are always more questions left over than answers. I'm hoping they help tie up some lose ends before the end of the series, there are quite a few. In a perfect world all of the lose ends were created on purpose because the writers knew what they were doing from day 1, but I think all of us prob doubt that is the case. I'd hate to think some of the Rambaldi plot was written by the seat of their pants but it's possible. I think one of the biggest possible plot holes is the question of Syd being the Chosen One but still seeing Mt. Seb... I'll be highly disappointed if they don't clear that up.

But I digress, I'm getting OT. :) Irena does seem to be a major player in all of these organizations, whether for good or bad. We've never known what started her obsession w/ Rambaldi like we do for Sloane (the loss of Jacqueline), I'd love to find that out someday.

Anonymous said...

We know that the Russians have been studying Rambaldi since at least the 50's, may be the KGB hired Irina because of her connection to Rambaldi,(remember the box with her name on it) Can Elena Deervko's obsession with Rambaldi have been a coincidence ? I don't think so.

Irina is part of the Rambaldi stuff, her children are involved as well, and their involvment might prove fatal,Irina can't have become interested in Rambaldi only to find out later on that she was a part of it, and that her kids were as well, it would be too much of a coincidence, the logical explanation is that she is obsessed because she wants to free her family from the Rambaldi curse

Girlscout said...

I agree Anonymous, I think Irina is the head honcho. hmmm. Let me dog a little deeper and do some research...stay tuned.

uncle111 said...

Rambaldi is certainly the unifying factor in all the bad guy organizations. It seems their common, yet competing goal is to bring in Rambaldi's endgame, whatever that is. He has become their religion. They are willing be sacrificed on his endgame's alter.

It is obvious that Irina, Syd, Nadia, and Sloane are specifically mentioned by Rambaldi in one way or another. Who else might be? Jack, Vaughn, Sark?

As far as the interrelatedness of the primary characters, Irina is the unifying factor.

Does Irina hold the key to Rambaldi's true endgame and is that her goal? Has that always been her goal?

uncle111 said...

Jenn,
This may be a little over kill,
but it gives some perspective on several issues your question raises:

Prior to 1969- Sloane is in the Army Corps of Engineers. They had him study a Rambaldi manuscript with the Mueller Device transformer coil on it.
1969- Sloane's first White House CIA briefing. He had to have come to CIA before then to be briefing the President (LBJ; Viet Nam War) on intellegence matters.
1970 (approximately)- Sloane begins collection Rambaldi machines. Sloane clone, working from Sloane's memories, states at the end of S4 (2005) that he has been collecting Rambaldi prototype or replica devices for 35 years.
- Jack recruited to CIA (source?)
- Irina recruited by KGB to marry Jack (already a ranking officer) and find out about Project
Christmas, a mind conditioning method. Kasinow is her superior. FBI counter intellegence officer Caulder (who worked for KGB starting in 1973) was her handler or partner.
1971- Jack and Sloane meet at CIA and become friends. Sloane is Jack's boss and oversees his work on Project Christmas. Syd said that Sloane was friends with her parents years before she was born, so Jack and Irina must have met between 1970 and 1972.
1972- Prophet 5 project begins when a private company hires "Bill Vaughn"(a brilliant mathematician)and others to decode a book written in the 15th century. Once the book is deciphered members of the team start "dieing off." After at least 2 years our mathematician changes his name to Bill Vaughn and takes his 18 month old son to a different life, and eventually joins the CIA. Vaughn would have to have been born no sooner than the middle of 1972.
1972-1973 (approximately)- Emily and Arvin Sloane meet and/or marry. In season 3 Emily Sloane tells Syd that Arvin has been her life for 30 years.
1974- Approximate year the organization Gordon Dean works for is formed.
- Sloane and Irina have an affair
1974- (According to Conrad at the end of S3- 2004) Conrad told Sloane something 30 years ago (1974)about Rambaldi that set him on his quest and eventually led him to abandon the CIA and lose everything dear to him.
1974 or 1975 (not accounting for 2 year Syd missing glitch, which could make it 1976 or 1978) - Jaquelyn born.
- Elena Derevko has a falling out with her sister Irina and dissappears (Jack and Sloane tell Syd this in S4, that it was about 30 years ago). If this is so, Elena would not have been Sentinal after this time.
1974, April 17- Sydney born.
1975, April 17- the date that Jack Bristow's S.A.B.47 Project began
1975- Prophet 5 begins searching for Horizon.
1979- B. Vaughn is supposedly killed by Irina. This means BV work for CIA for 5 years at the most.
1980 or 1981- Sloane and Irina have another affair.
1981- Irina fakes her death
- Nadia is born.

SKlaft said...

Not bad Uncle. That's a very intriguing outline. It really makes me think Sloane may have had something to do with Mueller beginning P-5 way back then.

Only two small notes.
1. Dean was working for P-5. he just didn't know anything about who they are or what their agenda truly was. He headed up a series of satalite cells, but was basically a puppet.

2. The expression "30 years" is often used as an approximation. For instance, we might talk about someone who lived in the first century by saying "Two thousand years ago..." when it may be more or less if we were being precise. This makes trying to chronologically list events very difficult to be accurate within a 12 month span.

Overall, though, I think you got it just about as close as anyone could. Well done.

uncle111 said...

Thanks Rob.,
Further on in my expanded timeline I give a range of a couple of years or so whenever someone says 30 years, or about 12 years, etc. I even did that some in the timeline here. But, even so, you can see how closely many of the events are chronologically, and how they may be related. It's also helpful in following Irina's early activities.

SRM said...

great timeline Uncle, it just brings up the question about how Bill Vaughn could have been the one to rescue Nadia from the KGB if she was born after he supposedly was killed.

RUDY said...

Yep. Rambaldi and Irina Derevko have been the underlining force throughtout these agencies, but so has our Sydney. She has not been apart of the agencies herself, but she has been the constant opposing force against them. Plus, another thing that the agencies have in common is their process of revealing to Sydney someone important...usually a family member. SD-6 revealed her father for the true man that he is (though, we've never really been about to decifer his true nature); The Covenant revealed her sister, Nadia, who've we yet to really unravel; and then there is P-5...who has revealed...??? Well, they haven't given us anything about a family member. They did take a potential family member...Vaughn... as a husband and let slip who he is. Guess that could count. But what this might mean I don't know. Any guesses?

uncle111 said...

Jenn,
No. Like Jack, I think there is a lot left to their stories we don't yet know.

uncle111 said...

After rewatching Season 2's The Passage, I am changing part of my timeline. Here is the change- from:
1970- Irina recruited by KGB to marry Jack (already a ranking officer) and find out about Project Christmas, a mind conditioning method. Kasinow is her superior.
to:
1970- Irina recruited by KGB at age 18. She was to go to US and get involved with a CIA agent. Jack (already a ranking officer) was only one of the agents under consideration for her to seduce. Gerard Cuvee and Alexander Kasinow were her superiors.

With this change, it seems that the Russians might have not known about Project Christmas yet and they may have had another goal for Irina. Cuvee was her superior. Cuvee is also the one who headed up a project in The Passege part 2 to crank up a Rambaldi device using the plutonium core of 6 nuclear weapons. For all their effort they succeeded in reviving a 400-600 year old flower. If this flower was the orchid from season 4, then were Cuvee and his young agent, Irina Derevko, really after Rambaldi information from the CIA all along?

RUDY said...

From the information gathered, it's a total possibility. Irina could have stumbled on project christmas after she arrived and snuggled up to Jack.