Friday, September 15, 2006

Ariana Kane Frame By Paul

Thanks to Blogger Paul for the article.

Many of you may remember the introduction of Ariana Kane, the woman who Sloane requested to investigate the blackmailing of Sloane over his failure to kill his wife, Emily. As the story progresses, Ariana finds that Jack has secrets, and although she cannot prove Jack was behind the blackmail, eventually captures him and has him strapped down to a chair, minutes away from revealing that he and Sydney are double agents.Now Jack, through his own investigation, finds that Ariana Kane was the lover of Jean Briault, which gave her the necessary motive to blackmail Sloane. Jack finds that Ariana opened an account and deposited the $100 million in bonds just long enough to convert them to cash, and believes that she is framing him to cover her tracks. Jack is able to alert Sloane in time, Sloane intervenes, and Ariana Kane is presumably killed.There was a scene right after this where Jack and Irina are talking to each other, and they both have come up with the same theory...that Ariana Kane would have been easy to frame, and Sloane had specifically requested her. Jack finished off this conversation with the words, "Interesting theory...or not."

Now, at that point, we did not have enough information to ascertain whether or not Ariana WAS behind the blackmail scheme or if she had been set up. However, with all of the information given to us by the end of season 2, I believe we have enough to draw a conclusion.It has always been my thought that Sloane knew Jean Briault and Ariana Kane were lovers, after all Sloane and Briault were close friends. It was made clear that Sloane requested Ariana Kane specifically to come to SD-6 in the mole hunt...then after Sloane followed up Jack's leads (or maybe he didn't!), Sloane revealed to Jack that he had killed Jean Briault and gave that to him as a lead!

This of course then led Jack and Irina to the hotel tapes in Peru where they found Ariana Kane! Then, at the end of the very next episode, we see that Emily is still alive and Sloane maneuvered the entire situation! The blackmailer supposedly killed Emily. Ariana would not have faked Emily's death had she been the blackmailer...she would have killed Emily as an act of revenge. Everything about the clues that were left 'torturing' Sloane would have been very difficult for Ariana to leave, and very easy for Sloane to fake! It now seems clear that Sloane maneuvered that entire situation to set up Ariana Kane as a sacrificial lamb, just as Jack maneuvered the frame of Russek to protect Sydney in season 1.Now this raises another daunting question...WHY? What was the purpose? As Irina mentioned during their investigation, there must have been many other ways to blackmail the Alliance, all far less elaborate. Nobody knew Emily was alive hiding out in the small beach bungalow, so why go through this complicated plan and have Emily chop off her ring finger? This bugged me for a while until I remembered the "blackmailer's" demands...$100 million! That's quite a chunk of change for anyone, and don't forget Sloane is only a few episodes away at this point from maneuvering the destruction of the Alliance. The Alliance refused to give the blackmailer the money, it was Sloane who convinced them to pay the money and place a tracker on it.

Now let's go to the scene where Sloane was to drop off the money in Season 2: Episode 9. Sloane received a phone call to leave the briefcase on the bench and walk away. Sloane gets up and walks away...we see the briefcase in the shot as Sloane gets up and begins walking, and then less than 10 seconds later, the shot pans down and the briefcase is already gone! We don't see anyone in the shot walk by, so the odds are that as soon as Sloane turned his back, somene grabs it from behind! Just a few more seconds later, and we see Marshall dancing around excitedly about his invisible liquid tracer and then panicking as he loses the signal. Marshall placed a tracker on the Rambaldi tissue in season 3 that the DSR and then the Covenant didn't find! Who else other than Sloane would have known about Marshall's liquid tracer and how to disable it so quickly? We never see Sloane upset about losing the money, do we? :)I believe Sloane decided that having to kill Emily was the final straw and so he hid her away and came up with this plan to extort $100 million from the Alliance and frame Ariana Kane for it. Later on, he had the Alliance destroyed. I also believe that this was preemptive strike on Sloane's part. Ariana Kane was the head of Alliance Counter-Intelligence, but she was not a partner. Therefore, she probably was unaware of Sloane's murdering Jean Briault.

However, he may have been concerned she would find out and concerned about potential revenge on Ariana Kane's part. Even for Sloane, she would have been a powerful enemy. I believe this may have been his motivation to get rid of her. This plan seems outrageously elaborate, but at the end of the day, he eliminated a potential enemy, kept his wife, and walked away from the Alliance with a nice little nest egg to continue his pursuit of Rambaldi!

Now it's your turn! What do you think?

9 comments:

blah said...

good theory. But i have a question: was 100 million dollars worth the risk of getting Jack exposed to ariana? Sloane knew that jack and sydney where double agents, Irina told him. And he was planing on using jack and sydney to bring down server 47. He planed the whole thing. But was getting this money worth the risk of getting either bristows exposed. Because if Kane had found out about jack and sydney, like she almost did, his plan wouldn't have work. do i make sense.

blah said...

not theory, article. sorry.

Kellie said...

I love this theory and totally agree with it. I look at it as part of Sloane's grand plan to take down the alliance. Ariana allowed Sloane to show loyalty to the Alliance (he's working hard to figure out who is making it look like Emily is alive in their eyes). At the same time he is framing Ariana, he has that guy figuring out how to disable that big brother tracker in his body which he needed 90 days for. After that 90 days, he is ready for SD6 to be taken down which leads to the next step (Server 47, revealing Jack and Syd to Geiger, and then the CIA takedown).

Without the Alliance, only the CIA is left to hunt Sloane down and he has a plan for that too (to become an informant and get a pardon somehow). I think the only people in the world Sloane cares for are Emily, Jack, Syd, and later Nadia. His plan allowed for them all to have the opportunity to live if they did everything right. So a win-win for all (in his eyes).

Also regarding the 100 million - we know from the finale that Irina and Sloane wanted world domination and to control enormous amounts of money, companies, governments, etc., so the 100 million would bankroll Sloane for the foreseeable future until the next phases of his plans could be carried out, so I totally concur with your theory.

Page48 said...

OT: Just watched 2.12 "The Getaway" again today. I love the deja vu scene where, in an hilarious bit of role reversal, Jack and Sydney recreate the "getaway" scene from the parking garage in Truth be Told, this time with Jack pointing his gun at the car and saying "Sydney?". Of course, neither of them mentions it as if they didn't even notice this was a mirror image of their earlier getaway.

For the writers and actors, inserting this kind of scene (and playing it straight) has to be such a hoot.

I'll have more Alias, please!

Eliza said...

DID Irina tell Sloane about Jack and Sydney being doubles?

Anonymous said...

Irina telling Sloane that Jack and Sydney were CIA agents surprises me too. As I remember, in the message Sark gave Sloane, she told him that she was going to get the artefacts stored by the CIA and she offered a partnership

blah said...

well then maybe it was sark that told him. But either way, he found out and used them in his evil plan to bring down the alliance.

Page48 said...

Hey, lhaaheim:

One thing I have to clear up right away. You can't be too intense about your passion for Alias. If only JJ had maintained that intensity instead of trying to peddle his idea about some wanker named Brian. (sorry GS, sorrrry)

I work with a young woman who agrees with me that Alias enjoys "Best Show EVER" status. The only thing we argue about is who is hotter, Sark or Syd. For the record, I go with Syd. I try to tune out the TV talk at work because it tends to center around drivel like American Idol. Frankly, I just don't give a rat's about Idol.

Think about your future great grandchildren, lhaaheim, as they visit your gravesite, reading the beautifully etched stone with the words they know by heart, "here lies lhaaheim, she was intense about Alias". It'll be their proudest moment.

uncle111 said...

I'm shocked at how many people I know and meet who have never, or seldom watched Alias. What is wrong with this world?!!

And then there is the Alias fan (sorry, I know I'm stepping on at least a couple of toes here) who will say something like, "I liked Alias alot, but what was the deal with this Rambaldi guy. There was way too much of him in there. It would have been a better show without Rambaldi." Ever feel like killing someone who claims to be an Alias fan?