In On It

She watched him die. She buried him and now she is ready to give birth to his child. Sydney Bristow has lost two fiancés in her battle against evil; Danny to the clutches of SD-6 and Arvin Sloane and Vaughn to the gophers of the mega power, Prophet 5. Though it may seem obvious to us that Michael Vaughn is still alive- (the word of SpyDaddy to “help,” the cup of mysterious liquid and the foreshadowing of a Sleeping Beauty ballad), it might not seem so obvious to Sydney.

Though there have been some instances that would maintain that she is in-the-know when it comes to Vaughn’s whereabouts (her lack of emotion, the look on her face after Vaughn’s body is carted away, and the keeping of the hockey magazine), there have been several moments when it would seem that Sydney is in actual anguish and believes her love to be dead.

When Sydney was assumed dead and then returned, she lectured Vaughn about having faith, about finding the truth and “not giving up on us.” She told him, “If it had been me, I would have waited.” After all she has seen and experienced in her line of work- the false deaths of Irina, Emily and Sloane, and the rejuvenating Evil Francie - it would be conceivable that Sydney would take death with a grain of salt. In the season premiere, in Vaughn’s hospital room, Jack informs them that Gordon Dean was a well-placed plant and Sydney asks, “What are we going to do?” SpyDaddy then gets on the horn, asking APO for passports and plane tickets, a transport, etc. Ten minutes later, Vaughn goes into cardiac arrest and apparently bites the big one. The stare down between Sydney and Jack after Vaughn is taken away (and at the funeral) would suggest that both Sydney and Jack are in on the plot to conceal Vaughn from P5 in order to track down the baddies that threaten his life.

In the last episode, "Vaughn" (Sydney's subconscious) insists that as long as he is around, Sydney is in danger, that the bad guys win. He repeats that he must go away, he must leave, and in the end Sydney lets him go. Though most of the scenes were rather ambiguous in regards to whether or not Vaughn is still alive, the memory scene of him in the hospital caught my eye. The doctor places a cup on the table and instructs Sydney to have Vaughn drink it slowly. She remembers that once she gave him the water he flat-lined. This would suggest that she didn’t know the contents of the cup would render Vaughn “dead.” Perhaps she didn’t know by what means Jack would “help” and in that dream she was able to piece together Jack’s plot to save Vaughn.

In episode 5.02, Sydney tells Jack that she heard the baby’s heart beat for the first time today and that Vaughn-“he should have been there.” Yes, he should have been there, but due to the investigation into P5 and the threat to his life and Sydney’s, he could not be. But perhaps this phrase could also mean that he should have been there, but he’s dead, so he could not.

Fans have argued that Sydney’s lack of emotion at the funeral would tell us that she knows Vaughn is still alive. I related her reaction to how accustom Sydney has come to losing people in her life. Her reaction to Danny’s death was highly emotional, full on screaming and crying for weeks, even months. She was young then, naive and angry that she had been deceived by Arvin and SD-6 and that the man she trusted could kill someone she loved. All she has seen and experienced over the years since Danny’s death would render anyone emotionally hard, so the absence of full-on tears doesn’t strike me as odd. Personally, I don’t think her lack of emotion tells us anything about what she knows related to Vaughn’s “death.”

What is the verdict on this? Does she know? Is she in the dark? What conclusions have you come to? Why?