Alison Doran framed Will as the Covenant double. Jack murdered Javier Parez in order to keep Sydney’s identity as the Lazarey murderer a secret from the NSC. Elena set up Jack for the murder of Irina. Irina deceived the CIA when she joined alliances with Sloane. Sark blackmailed Sydney into rending Sloane to him in order to save Vaughn. Alias has spun many a web of blackmail and set-up, but I found the one true deceit to be in season 3.
Hidden deep in the mind of Sydney Bristow is what really happened to her during her two missing years, and now, as we reach the end of the Alias era, it seems as if we may never know what happened to her. As I re-watched episodes 3.07 “Prelude” and 3.08 “Breaking Point” I stumbled upon many questions; some we have discussed in detail and some we have not. But each question led me closer to the conclusion that Sloane and the Covenant (aka Elena) planned Sydney’s entire kidnapping and return to the CIA in order to achieve their goals.
It all starts with Sloane’s double agent status within the CIA, as a mole in the Covenant. He places himself in this situation in order to become an agent, an agent for the Covenant, who is called upon to retrieve the Maser, housed in a Chinese art museum. He asks that Sydney accompany him on this Covenant mission, in order to corrupt the data- but also to give her the key and code she supposedly gave him the day before she was recovered in Hong Kong. Simultaneously, Sark apprehends Lauren in the parking garage and reveals to her Lazarey’s killer. Sydney is then forced to hide, and I suppose Sloane knew that Sydney would want to research the code and key. While in Rome, at her apartment as Julia Thorne, Sydney is taken into custody by the NSC. Sloane needed Sydney in custody because he knew Jack would come to him for assistance in breaking her out, thus instilling some level of trust between Jack and Sloane. Sloane then takes a bullet for Jack. Jack says he can not imagine why Sloane would take a bullet for him unless Sloane needed Jack for some purpose. Sloane weaves some tale about Jack and Sydney being his redemption, his absolution. In fact, Sloane just needed a little trust- trust so that Jack and Sydney would take his advice and see the crazy dream doctor which would help Sydney remember some of her lost memory. Sydney remembers Will- which leads her to Lazarey and straight to the cube containing Rambaldi’s DNA.
Also, once Sydney is broken out of NSC custody, Sloane suggests that to convince the NSC that it was in fact the Covenant that took Sydney and Lauren, they ask for the Rambaldi device in exchange for Sydney. Sydney suspects foul play and ulterior motive, which she should, because once the device is released, it is stolen-by Elena no doubt.
Lauren’s Role
Though it would appear that the writers intended Lauren’s help in breaking Sydney out as a way for us, as an audience, to warm up to Lauren, I also saw it as perhaps a direct order from the Covenant.
Lauren comes to Vaughn after she discovers that Director Lindsey intended to apply invasive brain shock therapy to Sydney in order to learn more about her missing years. But perhaps Lauren was in on the plan- to prove Sloane trust worthy, to prove herself trust worthy, in order to get the information from Sydney without rendering her brain dead. It was not the Covenant’s motive to kill Sydney, as she is part of the prophecy, but it was their intent to extract information from her. Lindsey wanted Sydney dead, he ordered Sloane to have her killed. Sloane and Covenant needed Sydney alive, so Sloane had Lindsey killed.
With Lindsey dead, Kendall was able to “kidnap” Sydney to tell her the truth about her 2 years. The only stick in my wheel is the fact that Kendall’s information led Sydney to torch Sark’s lab, which rendered the Covenant’s efforts of a Rambaldi baby useless. Though it was my first thought that Kendall might have been in on the set-up, that idea has vanished. However, I still believe that the DSR might have been or perhaps still is infiltrated by a corrupt organization; as many of the Rambaldi artifacts have been stolen while in their custody.
Can you take this set-up further? Are there other indications in other season 3 episodes that support my Sloane set-up theory? Are you with me or against me?
20 comments:
well it certainly all fits together doesn't it? Regarding Kendall and the Cube, really the only reason why Syd found it and Sark's lab was because Marshall had bugged it. Kendall's info told Syd why she had the scar on her stomach, but if not for Marshall, the Rambaldi fertilization might have gone forward. It wouldn't surprise me if the DSR was part of p5 just because they've been "compromised" SO many times and have lost SO many valuable artifacts to thieves.
Lauren's decision to help Syd out of custody seemed out of sympathy and possible friendship at first, but once her true loyalty was revealed, it was obvious that she only did that to keep Syd's mind in tact so she could eventually lead the Covenant to the Cube (and not give the location away to the government).
GS I like your connections between Sloane and Jack. Manufacturing events to lead Jack and Syd to trust him, even a little bit, definitely seems like his style.
I know some of you, especially SRG, are hoping that Sloane isn't behind all of this, for Nadia's sake, but the turn of events past and present seem so fitting of his SD-6 personae. The more I uncover, the more I want Sloane to be the most evil dude ever. He's so good when he's bad!!!
if it was, Sloane did a hell of a job acting like he knew nothing about the cloane and pissed someone was using his identity... HOWEVER, it's a good theory. GS is right, for some reason I want to believe Sloane turned good for Nadia, but I realize that's a very very slim chance of being true.
What if Sloane simply saved Jack's life because he needed him to be present when he broke the hourglass to find the passenger ?
No, you're right Jenn. I said I thought that Sloane created the Clone (by helping McCollough evade CIA capture) so the Clone could do all his dirty and make him look innocent.
-I mean, did we not believe that Sloane killed Emily with that pill in her wine and it turned out it was all a set up to get rid of the Alliance? We is capable of deceiving everyone, even Jack.
GS- You are dead on.
First, about your sticking point. Do we really think Rambaldi would make provision for his DNA to survive all these centuries unless he knew it was going to be successfully used?
Remember when Elena told Jack and Irina that when they brought down the Covenant that they brought down a straw man? That began when Syd torched the Covenant fertility "clinic" and I think Elena had set that up to make CIA think they had brought down Covenant. I don't think they would put the real eggs and DNA out there to get destroyed in the process- they are too valuable. I think they still have them.
As for Sloane, I've posted this before:
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 by Lindsay:
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 based on the intel Sark gave to Lauren, Sloane helps break her out. Syd had found a coded message in the Rome apt. whhich leads her to Lazaray's buried hand, and she ends up finding Lazaray. Sloane ends up working with Syd and Jack again as he had predicted, and he/Elena 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). I think someone (Sloane/Covenant) 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 employee Sark certainly were. And once again Sloane ends up on top. If Covenant was involved, then Sloane was working with them.
Also, about Kendall, except for the few sentences Syd recorded on the DVD Kendall showed her on the plane, 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.
Syd could have made the tape while she was still under the influence of the Covenant.
Also, how did the NSC find Sydney if Sloane didn't tell Lauren. Sloane must have known where the apartment in Rome was or staged it as Julia's apartment, and then tipped Lauren and the NSC off. But if that is true, how does it explain that Sydney knew where the light switches were and that the apartment felt familiar. Oopps, answered my own question-because if Sloane knew about her kidnapping and the Covenant's attempts to turn her, he must have known where Julia Thorne was living and perhaps Sydney was actually living there in Rome.
Hey Mike, I heard that too! I am so excited. I was so excited to see JJ on the Globes. It gave me goosebumps for the possibilities!!
GS- Lauren had learned that Julia Thorne had rented space in Rome, which must have included the apartment. Once Sark told her that Syd was JT she and Lindsay were able to put it together.
As your friendly neighborhood contrarian, I'd like to take up for present-season Sloane.
I agree that Sloane was involved with "the Covenant" through all of Season 3. I am especially convinced of this from Elena's comments when Sloane was trying to gain her trust in S-4 and she was certain that he had "returned to the fold." During the entire third season, he was after his broader agenda, which Elena very nearly realized for him in S-4. It was after Nadia saved his life at the bottom of the cave that Sloane began to seek forgiveness and absolution. The "big secret" between Jack and Sloane was that Elena had been stalking the sisters. All of the other hints we saw, like the Index, was just the writer's way of misleading us into think Sloane may still be a bad-guy so we would believe he betrayed the CIA in the end.
He may yet play a more significant part in the next ten or twelve episodes, but, like Sydney and Dixon, I believe he has been opperating in the best interest of Nadia, and maybe even Syd.
I would also agree that Lauren's generosity and friendliness was all aruse, acting on orders from the Covenant's higher-ups. As she and Sark promoted themselves into the higher levels of the Covenant, I believe she came to know about Elena and how she had been puppet-mastering scenarios all along.
I do not agree that Sydney was ever "under the influence" of the Covenant. She was captured and tortured, but even as the doctor who administered the brainwashing techniques said, she "never broke." Sydney may have fooled the Covenant (or maybe P-5) into believing she had become Julia Thorne, but her Project Christmas training prevented and protected her.
That's my two-cents. I believe it's worth more.
-R.
I agree with you, Robetron, I don't think Sydney was ever "under the influence" of the Covenant.
rob,
I must differ with you one one point. The secret between Jack and Sloane was that Sloane had worked to infect the world in preperation for use of the Mueller device. Sloane says he was doing it to make a more passive humanity, but they discovered that Elena was going to piggyback on his work to do the opposite. That is whay they needed to find Elena- to stop her from destroying the world.
well of course we can always guess that sloane could be up to no good - and his capacity for pure evil was made pretty clear early on.
i thought the whole theory on sloanes motives was awesome. i, like GS, like arvin best as a bad guy. it is a great plotline to watch because they do so much back and forth and its hard to know for sure...but i think there is no telling what he is capable of (we pretty much got no explanation after he went psycho and killed that guy and had blood everywhere)
ps. anyone else really like the camera work on alias? i am watching "bob" right now and some of the shots are awesome. i love listening to the commentaries to learn about how they set certain shots up....
oh and who knows where all the easter eggs on the dvds are??? i really want to find them (: i have all the dvd's (of course) but haven't found them yet.
another question....does anyone else get Alias magazine? it is AWESOME. (i want to work for them! gs - you should write in and try to get your blog mentioned in the magazine!!!!) anyways in one of the back issues it mentions an "APO" site where you can enter a secret password and get to this cool site...?? anyone know anything about this?
ok who else loves when jg does the virginia southern accent? fits her so well!!!
Let me say also, I have written many times my belief that Sloane is all the way bad. He does not seek redemption. He seeks to be the man who brings in Rambaldi's endgame. That is his only morality and all it will ever be. The footprints are everywhere if you look for them. He is and always will be a genius psycho. All bad things lead to Sloane.
I don't think I've overstated it.
very good points everyone! uncle111 - we know for sure that Syd did not bury Lazaray's hand, it was buried by the Covenant as a setup to lead her (and them) to the cube. Your idea about Kendall skewing the events as he told them to Syd about her 2 missing ideas is very similar to what I posted in another thread, relating that to how the story of The Usual Suspects movie is told.
don't you guys think it's weird that Sloane beat that guy to death w/ blood everywhere, Nadia found him covered in blood, and then we heard nothing more about it? No explanation like amy said, no punishment...nothing...
I agree the camera work on Alias is phoenominal, it's been said before but every episode is like a little mini-movie, really well done. I don't get the magazine but I've heard it's cool, I think it would be great if GS could get this blog mentioned! The only DVD easter eggs I know of are on seasons 3 and 4. s3 is on the 5th DVD, I think under bonus features you just need to keep pressing the up arrow a few times and the Rambaldi symbol will appear. I've seen the s4 easter egg which is hilarious, but I don't remember how to get there, anyone else remember??
Aw, have fun at Disney Jenn, I'm 25 and still love that place!! :)
This is from my review of S1's first episode concerning Sloane:
"Head of SD-6. Obviously an enemy. But without rhyme or reason, Sloane accepts Sydney’s trade of her life and job for the Muller proto-type. Weird? He doesn’t hesitate to kill Danny when there’s been a security breach, but he gives in so easily when Syd returns with something he wants. Seems, and we all know from other episodes, that the Muller proto-type is of importance. But it’s still a little weird. He’s a man all about rules, always enforcing those rules. Nothing seems to important enough for him to break, bend or erase those rules, until the proto-type. Hmmmm...it appears Sloane isn’t as stiff as SD-6 thinks. Maybe this is the first hint to viewers that Sloane isn’t as simple as he seems, and as it appears later on in the seasons Sloane is never pin-pointed and never readable."
So I guess that I'm on the side that Sloane is evil and always will be. He's up for nothing unless it suits him and his concerns...working with P5 for Nadia's sake. Now with my "He's up for nothing unless it suits him and his concerns" idea, I'd like to state that I think he has a heart, i.e. his love for Nadia sure tells us that. But I don't think for a sec. that he ever gave up his endgame or changed his focus, whatever that might be. For one, he's always had something up his sleeve. (a) Alliance bring down, (b) Rambaldi obsession [something plain to see], (c) secret affair with Irina [that's been a huge secret that's been kept along time, until s3], (d) Emily's death, (e) Emily's pregnancy, and I'm sure there's many more.
Very very interesting!
A couple comments, up a ways uncle111, you said, "It doesn't make sense for Syd to have buried Lazarey's hand. There's no purpose in it." I thought this was cleared up in the episode where Kendall kidnapped Sydney. He asked her why she went straight for the cube, and she figured it out in her mind. She realized the Covenant must have found the hand later and buried it, then planting the coordinates in her apartment in Rome to lead her to it, making her realize Lazarey was still alive, leading her to Lazarey, then to the cube.
A few more questions:
1) That code containing the coordinates to Lazarey's hand was in a cipher method that IRINA had created and taught Jack! Is it possible Irina was involved in this? Worse yet, Jack?
2) Was Sloane's purpose in stopping Elena to save the world? Or simply to stop someone else from enacting THEIR interpretation of Rambaldi's work instead of HIS own interpretation??? I firmly believe there's something still evil rattling around in that brain of his that will yet reveal itself!
3) I think I wrote an article that GirlScout posted originally that mentioned my suspicion of Kendall. I DO believe that someone in the DSR is leaking information, but I can't successfully pin it on Kendall yet. I hope we see him again!!! Wait a second though, as was mentioned by srg, the only reason they got to the cube to stop the fertilization was because of Marshall's tracker!!! Could it be that Kendall had another motive for revealing to Sydney what had happened, and his plan backfired when Marshall was able to track it??? I think I see an article forming in my head....:)
pkrm- yeah, that was part of my chain thought while I was watching some episodes. Before I got to the part where Syd realizes the Covenant buried the hand to eventually lead her to Lazaray, but I wondered if it was Sloane who did it, and I still do.
Some think the note with Irina's cipher may have been written by Elena since she had Irina as prisoner and had broken her. The theory is that Elena got the cipher and used it to lead Syd. I think it is just as likely that Irina or Jack did it (Irina was free for a lot of the time Syd was with Covenant), or that Sloane, who had worked with Irina and might have learned her cipher, did it. I think he is the one who set her up to get arrested in the Rome apt.
Yes, I think he stopped Elena because he thinks he has the true endgame and is the one that was to bring it in.
I think Kendall could be dirty. I've wondered if he was working Syd while she was with Covenant for his own purposes. But, what do you mean Syd got the cube to stop the fertilization. Covenant had the cube and was using it for the fertilization. Syd thought she destroyed it all, but I think that was a set up to make CIA think they destroyed it.
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