V
verdantheart
Guest
[I might want to amend this, but I want to get it out . . . so here goes . . .]
In “Crossings” (3:12), several lines are drawn which cannot be subsequently erased. But more about those later--we must summarize, first. The episode begins as we see Sydney and Vaughn kiss before they are taken before the firing squad, Sydney giving a certain prisoner a significant look on her way out. Sydney and Vaughn exchange glances as the squad aims to fire.
Cut to 72 hours earlier during a briefing with Dixon. Dixon is discussing a certain phantom account that they’ve uncovered that contained an encoded message instead of assets. The message is from a Covenant official who wants to defect--someone with top-tier access. Dixon send sends Vaughn and Sydney to Gai-Li, North Korea to pick him up during the small 15-minute window he’s given them. After the meeting, Lauren invites Sydney to dinner during Vaughn’s hockey night.
Lauren meets with her Covenant handler, Mr Zisman, to discuss this turn of events. He says he will send an agent to intercept the defector and asks what airfield Sydney and Vaughn are leaving from because they are to be eliminated. Lauren hesitates, causing Zisman to request an explanation, but she tells him that there’s no problem, she’ll get the information.
Lauren nervously approaches Vaughn’s station to get the information. Vaughn interrupts, asking why she asked Sydney to dinner, but Lauren says she wants things to be less awkward. She gets the information on the airfield and relays it. The Covenant deploys men to shoot the pilots with an agent to sicken them.
Zisman tells Sark that the plane has been taken care of and sends him to intercept the defector. Sark wants to know who the mole in the CIA is. Zisman won’t tell him. Sark complains that after coughing up 800 million, the Covenant has proven to be ineffectual, disorganized, and disrespectful to its benefactors (namely him)--but he heads out on his mission.
In the plane, the pilots begin to get ill. Vaughn is distant toward Sydney, who finally confronts him, saying, “OK, this isn’t going to work . . . When we get back, one of us has to go.” At this point, the plane starts going down and as they get it back under control, missiles are fired on them. They turn off the engines, causing the heat-seeking missiles to find each other, but they can’t restart the engines in time and crash.
In the resulting chaos at CIA headquarters in LA, Marshall can’t bring himself to tell Lauren what happened, deferring to Jack, who calmly outlines what they know. The plane is down in North Korea and it looks like the Covenant fired missiles on the plane. Dixon calls them into his office and explains that they’ve been ordered to stand down and disavow the operation. Jack strides out of the room. Dixon continues, “Unofficially, I say screw ‘em.”
Jack contacts Irina in the parking garage asking for help. She says she might know someone and will contact him.
In North Korea, Sydney and Vaughn have emerged from the plane crash oddly unscathed. Sydney tries to contact the CIA without success. Vaughn’s arm is injured, but not seriously. The North Korean military appears and Vaughn blows up the plane as they make their escape.
As Jack continues to work feverishly, he receives an email:
SYDNEY’S APARTMENT. 8PM.
As he reads this, Jack takes a call from Sloane, who offers his help, citing OmniFam’s ties with the Premier of China. Jack tells him that he’s pursuing other options and that “If I need your help, I’ll let you know.”
In North Korea, Sydney wraps Vaughn’s arm, but she makes sure to give him a little twinge at the end. “That’s for being a jerk on the plane,” she says. Still anxious to make the meet, she heads out to look for transportation.
In Sydney’s apartment, Jack reads Sydney’s copy of Alice in Wonderland and awaits his meet. He answers the door and lets a dark-haired woman in who reports that Sydney and Vaughn are both alive. She won’t say who she is, but in exchange for the return of Sydney and Vaughn, she demands that Jack assassinate Sloane.
At LA CIA HQ, Weiss lets Lauren know that Sydney and Vaughn have survived. She must report to Zisman that they are still in play.
In North Korea, Sydney and Vaughn find a truck and repair it. As they do this, Vaughn admits that it’s been difficult for him to be around Sydney because it has always been so easy to be with her and now that’s gone. Sydney lets him know that she slept with Will and is moving on. The truck starts and they get moving.
In Koreatown, LA, Jack and his new acquaintance approach a building where a bodyguard blocks their way. Jack’s companion tells the bodyguard, “The Black Sparrow seeks an audience with Mr Cho.” She is allowed in, and insists upon entering unannounced. She explains the situation, but Mr Cho declines to offer assistance, saying that it is too dangerous. However, Ms Sparrow grabs a pair of chopsticks and impales Mr Cho’s hands with them. Meanwhile, Jack takes out Mr Cho’s bodyguards, taking a slice to the side in the process. Ms Sparrow convinces Mr Cho that he can help after all, warning him, “Don’t fail me.”
In Gai-Li, Sydney and Vaughn arrive to find that Sark is intercepting their package. Sydney puts a knife to Sark’s crotch to persuade him not to kill the defector. However, authorities arrive, upsetting the stand-off. The defector decides to bolt, Sark tries to shoot, Sydney deflects the shot, stabbing Sark in the process. The authorities manage to take Vaughn, Sydney, and the defector into custody, yet the stabbed Sark (aka Houdini) still manages to escape.
Back in LA, Jack’s guest examines his wound. Jack tells her that he needs her to check his liver to make sure that it’s intact. He then inquires which of Irina’s sisters she is, Elena or Ykaterina. She tells him that she is Katya, and that obviously Irina didn’t tell him about her. She goes on to remind him that he has a job to do for her: assassinate Arvin Sloane--and that she can “call off Mr Quan.”
In North Korea, the defector gives up Sydney and Vaughn as CIA. Sydney and Vaughn are then beaten with rifle butts.
Jack arrives at OmniFam in Zurich, game face on. Katya has a security feed and can see Jack standing in the lobby. She calls Sloane and warns him, then she calls Jack and aborts the hit. Jack is forced to cover by telling Sloane that he has a meeting locally and stopped by to let Sloane know that he is making progress in extracting Sydney and Vaughn. Sloane tells him a story about narrowly avoiding assassination by K-Directorate forces, saying, “You never forget what that feels like--to barely escape with your life”--a message to Jack that he realizes what has happened.
In the North Korean prison, Vaughn admits to Sydney that she is the “only . . . person” in his life and tries to explain why he pushed her away, but Sydney won’t let him finish. As the guards approach, she affirms, “We’ll find each other--We always find each other.” They kiss, and with that, the guards enter and take them past the defector’s cell to the firing squad. They take a last look at each other and face the guns.
But instead of the squad firing upon Sydney and Vaughn, Quan fires upon the squad and commander, taking them out. They collect the defector, whom Sydney punches out amidst his apologies.
They enter HQ in LA with their defector, greeted by handshakes and pats on the shoulder from a smiling Dixon, and a double hug from Marshall. Vaughn catches sight of Lauren and strides over to embrace her. Sydney seems a little saddened as she chats with Marshall, but when she sees Jack enter, she runs into his arms for a tight hug. Jack lets her know that he got assistance from her mother (but doesn’t tell her about the price tag).
Jack meets with Katya and complains that her maneuver with Sloane served to destroy the trust he was building up with him. They chat about Irina’s and Katya’s possible motives for this without (of course) resolve. Jack thanks her for helping Sydney and Katya responds, “Isn’t that what family’s for?” She then gives Jack a chaste kiss, telling him it’s from Irina. Immediately, she follows this up with a passionate kiss (which Jack returns). Jack, surprised, asks whom that was from, but Katya simply says, “Too many questions.”
Analysis . . .
Well, the most obvious answer, that Lauren is working for the Covenant appears to be the correct one. However, we still have a significant problem in the department of her competence. If she was a Covenant spy from day one, it doesn’t make sense. Why not? It doesn’t make sense because she is incredibly nervous. Look at the jumpy way she approaches Vaughn’s workstation. She is terrified that she might be caught. She thinks she is caught when Vaughn says, “What are you doing . . .” only to be relieved when he continued “inviting Sydney to dinner?” Then look at her expressions--she shouldn’t have the disappointment and worry written all over her face where others might be able to see her in the office--even if Weiss can’t. This does not jibe well with the woman who responded with dismay when she came upon Sydney’s foiled escape in detention. She could not have been acting then because she is not that good an actress--she is not doing a good job now. She could not have been acting as a spy when she was at ease before because she is nervous now.
Yet her Covenant handler, Zisman, appears to expect her to suffer no emotional consequences from betraying her CIA colleagues. So what’s going on here? The nerves would tend to rule out sleeper, Project Christmas (!), or brainwash, which leaves what? Very little. Extortion, perhaps, but not much else. Do they have something on her father, perhaps? They will have to come up with something that explains her mien as well as her actions.
The Covenant is now willing to kill Sydney, which means either 1) they have everything they need, eggs and Rambaldi DNA to bring about the “second coming” or 2) the Rambaldi DNA was destroyed, so Sydney is no longer of any use to them.
Moving on to the other person who needs to explain himself. You know of whom I’m speaking. Vaughn. First, Sydney explains that she’s moving on:
Sydney: I slept with Will.
Vaughn: How am I supposed to react to that? . . . Bad enough being a fugitive in North Korea, now I have to find out that you slept with Will?
S: I-I want you to know that I’m moving on. Not with Will, just generally--if it helps.
But it doesn’t help, as they both know. As they face death, admissions start to surface:
V: In my life there is only one person. The only reason I pushed you away--
. . . (Sydney stops him . . .)
S: We’ll find each other--We always find each other.
Sydney’s admission to Vaughn that she slept with Will is expected. She has always been honest with him and I, for one, expected to hear her let him know this sooner rather than later. But she’s not telling him this to make him jealous--although that is the result--but to let him know that she will be OK and will be able to move on despite how she feels about him. But Vaughn crosses the line in prison. Facing death, he admits his love for Sydney and only her. Sydney, in return, pledges the beyond-death sort of love poets wax, well, poetical over (yes, I can hear the romanticists fainting right now . . .). If I sound just a little less than fully impressed, it’s because Vaughn draws a line that can’t be erased (yes, one of the ones that I mentioned up top) and then immediately attempts to rub his foot over it by hurrying into Lauren’s arms as soon as he sees her in LA.
Sydney should ask herself, “What is wrong with this picture?” Vaughn doesn’t love Lauren--certainly not as he loves Sydney. The Vaughn-moved-on theory is washing less and less and less. Which would mean that Vaughn is keeping something from Sydney--he’d d--n well better have a better reason than last time (as you recall, his reason for keeping his investigation of Irina from Sydney was basically that Sydney wouldn’t like it and would be angry with him and give him a hard time). Well, this wouldn’t be a surprise--I’ve been suggesting this possibility for weeks now--but just what would he be keeping from her?
If Vaughn didn’t marry Lauren for love and she isn’t a cold-blooded agent, how does this equation balance? If Lauren is being blackmailed--say, her father’s dirty or part of the Covenant--perhaps Vaughn married her to investigate them (perhaps even as a way of investigating Sydney’s death). But as he adjusted to this extreme compromise, he came to be fond of Lauren, albeit not in love with her as he is with Sydney.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know if this was something that Kendall--or Dixon--knew about or was running? Clearly, if this is the shape of the weirdness surrounding Vaughn, Jack is unaware of it, as his warnings to Vaughn clearly demonstrate. But would Jack act so very differently if this were indeed the case and he were aware of it? He would definitely want Vaughn to back off for the duration--and in my estimation, he’d have the most severe reservations about the level of trust between Sydney and Vaughn that Vaughn is both willing and able to withhold this information from her.
And we can look to Jack’s own behavior to back this opinion up. Katya gives form to a question that’s been nagging at the back of my mind for some time--that Jack might well have known about Irina’s status well before things blew up and she disappeared. “As observant as you are, you were married to my sister for five years [until 1976, after Sydney was born] without suspecting who she really was. Her love must have been intoxicating.” So, did Irina, realizing that Jack was catching on, do the one thing she knew that would keep him from acting on his knowledge--become pregnant? Irina, knowing the type of man that Jack is, would know that he’d put his child first, before country. Or was that simply a happy circumstance for her? For Jack could not stand to take Sydney’s mother away from her in appalling circumstances, as a reviled foreign spy--an assassin. He could not be responsible for that. So there was, in fact, solid basis for the government’s suspecting Jack of conspiring with the enemy.
One wonders if Jack found out about Irina before he confronted her (longer than the five years). However, I doubt he could have found out before Sydney’s conception because in that case Jack would have been compelled to turn Irina in. What Irina was doing was too damaging and the betrayal was too great. Without Sydney, I don’t see how Jack could live with it, as much as he loves Irina. He might give her a running start, but that is all.
So Jack’s torment began far earlier than we had imagined. For more about how I think this might have affected Jack and his marriage, please see the Spy dad column, which I hope will come soon.
Meanwhile, Katya uses this opportunity to send Sloane a message: “Back off Irina.” This suggests that Sloane is applying some sort of pressure on Irina. Or is it something else? A message to Irina through Sloane to back off of her (Katya)? Or to stop working with Irina? No matter how you read it, it’s problematic. (If the message is ambiguous, one can understand why Sloane would respond, “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take that.”) If the message comes from Irina, you have a mother threatening her daughter’s life to coerce the father of her child into assassinating a “friend”; if not (Katya working as her own agent to send a message back through Sloane), you have the mixed message of Katya telling Irina to back off by threatening Sloane’s life--how does this make sense? Either way, the message is more than that. By sending Jack as the assassin, she says, “No matter how protected you think you are, you’re not--even from your friends--even from [Jack]. Your continuing life is a favor from me [either Irina or Katya, likely Katya].” It is another line--one that Jack crosses and cannot erase. Jack assumes the likely conclusion that Irina and Katya are working more or less together (how will this play to Irina’s advantage--or your own?).
The problem is, the kind of opportunity to coerce a man like Jack (extreme danger to Sydney that he depends on you to save her from), doesn’t exactly come along every day. Katya can’t just call up Jack and say, “Could you go shoot Sloane for me today, honey? There’s a good boy.”
But just what is the relationship between Sloane and Irina right now? There are teasing hints that there must be something (see last week). Yet there are few clues indeed. Let’s set that aside.
Katya sends Jack to show Sloane how easy it would be to send someone close to him to kill him. And Sloane tips Jack off that Katya tipped him off. Sloane wants Jack to know how he’s been used. Jack is upset that the trust that he’s built up with Sloane has been compromised and wonders how this works to Irina’s--or Katya’s--advantage.
So what was the primary purpose of this exercise? Showing Sloane that he can be reached? Or undermining Jack’s level of trust with Sloane? Sloane is depending on Jack to partner with him, so the aim might well be to undermine Jack’s plans of regaining some of Sloane’s trust.
Meanwhile, just what is family for? Only a Derevko would demand a murder in exchange for her daughter’s--or even her niece’s life. Is it Irina or Katya who makes this demand? Note that Jack only hesitates to ask a question or two before heading to Zurich--he doesn’t dare assume that blood is thicker than water with the Derevko sisters. And who knows what--or how much--he knows about Katya.
Examining Jack’s own motives, why exactly does he turn to Irina and not Sloane? Jack earlier turned to Sloane for help in rescuing Sydney as we saw. He now turns to Irina, although, as Sloane points out, Sloane has connections that could save both Sydney and Vaughn as well--potentially without the price that Katya eventually binds Jack to. We cannot be certain, of course, that Jack wouldn’t have attempted to stage Sloane’s death--although at that stage of events Jack might have been unwilling to gamble with his daughter’s life--but he certainly plays it straight on his way into the lobby where he could have been watched.
Does Jack need to maintain trust with Irina for the same reasons that he does with Sloane? Jack clearly wants to maintain ties with both of them, creating a triangle between Sloane, Jack, and Irina. It almost looks as though Jack were the prize in some sort of interesting war between Sloane and Irina. Do they want Jack to get to Sydney? Or does he hold a key of his own?
To Jack’s credit, he tells Sydney that he obtained her mother’s help in getting them out. However, you note that he did not tell her about the price tag. Is this because he wants to protect Sydney from knowing yet another bad thing about her mother (a potentially dangerous course) or because he cannot know whether the price was applied by Irina or by Katya? Jack seems to believe that he still must attempt to shield Sydney from dealings with her mother--and why not? In his previous experience, Sydney proved anything but capable of handling the task of coping with her mother’s manipulative prowess in the face of Sydney’s own deep need for a loving mother--based on a tissue of happy memories that we now know were propped up by the brute will of Jack himself, determined not to allow his own tragedy to spill over into the life of his daughter--apparently a tragedy of loss and betrayal that he could forestall, but not erase--lines long ago crossed, bridges forever burned.
Again, we see all kinds of parallels with and echoes from episodes past . . . Katya demands that Jack assassinate Sloane in exchange for Sydney and Vaughn’s lives and aborts the mission; in “Counteragent” (2:07), Sark demands that Sydney assassinate Sloane in exchange for Vaughn’s life and revives Sloane. “Crossings” has resonance with “Passage” (2:08-09) in that both involved family ties and difficulties in foreign territory (and in the names of the episodes themselves). Further, the scene in which Katya examines Jack has an odd resonance with “A Dark Turn” (2:17) as the two almost seem to use examining Jack’s wound (vs removing Irina’s tracking chip) as a peculiar way of flirting--and, of course, that was the last time that Jack seems to have received a romantic kiss.
Random thoughts . . .
Our little family has been enlarged by one (Katya, Irina’s sister), and another possible character (Elena, another sister) has been mentioned. Too bad Jack doesn’t seem to have any family. He could use a couple of brothers to even up the teams . . .
To those who guess that Katya is Irina: Please, give Jack a little credit! If he can guess that this woman is one of Irina's sisters, don’t you think he could guess that she’s the woman that he spent all that time with? Especially after that final kiss? Plus, with a lack of helix technology, there's a bit of a height difference . . . (Besides, I don’t think that the production team is quite ready to give up on Ms Olin yet. They are going to let the fans work on her a little . . .)
Yes, I noticed that Jack was reading Sydney’s copy of Alice in Wonderland all by myself.
Yes, it was nice to see Mr Vosloo as Mr Zisman. And Sark? Can we say “petulant”?
OK, loving the fact that Sydney ran to her father’s arms as soon as she saw him. At last he knows some of the joy of feeling that his love is returned--that Sydney is beginning to understand that he does, in fact, love her--that Sydney can now begin turning to him for some comfort in times of sadness. And now Jack can hold his daughter instead of forever holding back.
Discuss . . .
Why do you think the Covenant is willing to kill Sydney? Do you think they still have Rambaldi DNA and her eggs on ice, or do you think Rambaldi’s DNA was destroyed in the raid?
Why do you think Jack turns to Irina for help rather than Sloane? He has turned to Sloane in the past.
What do you think Irina’s agenda is? Do you think Katya’s is the same?
Do you think the order to assassinate Sloane came from Irina or Katya? What do you think of Irina’s/Katya’s placing a price tag on saving her own daughter/niece?
Do you think Katya’s more important agenda was to 1) deliver the message to back off; 2) tell Sloane that they can reach him with whomever they want whenever they want; or 3) drive a wedge between Jack and Sloane?
Do you think the case is that Irina is working more closely with Sloane or more closely with Katya--that is, is the message “Sloane, back off of Irina,” or “Sloane, tell Irina to back off [of me]”?
Why do you think Sloane let Jack know that he was tipped off to the assassination attempt?
Do you think Irina and Sloane are vying for Jack’s loyalties? (Although Jack’s loyalty is expected to lie steadfastly with Sydney and only tentatively with either of these two.)
Compare Sydney’s policy of honesty with Vaughn (telling him about her interlude with Will for example) with his history of withholding from her. Do you agree that she was right to let him know about this as a way of letting him know she’s moving on?
Do you agree that Vaughn is withholding something (something that he began to explain)? If so, what? Do you think he cares for Lauren? How much?
In a related question, do you really think that Lauren has been a Covenant spy all along? If so, how do you explain her nerves and incompetence? Do you think she cares for Vaughn?
Do you think that Sydney and Vaughn are, indeed, soul mates? If so, how do you account for Vaughn’s tendency to break trust with Sydney? (To really put an edge on the point, let me tease you with this: Is he playing Irina to Sydney’s Jack?) Going on from my hypothetical thought, do you think Jack and Irina are soul mates? Which union do you think is most tragic?
Next:
Good question. We have another long wait. * heavy sigh *
In “Crossings” (3:12), several lines are drawn which cannot be subsequently erased. But more about those later--we must summarize, first. The episode begins as we see Sydney and Vaughn kiss before they are taken before the firing squad, Sydney giving a certain prisoner a significant look on her way out. Sydney and Vaughn exchange glances as the squad aims to fire.
Cut to 72 hours earlier during a briefing with Dixon. Dixon is discussing a certain phantom account that they’ve uncovered that contained an encoded message instead of assets. The message is from a Covenant official who wants to defect--someone with top-tier access. Dixon send sends Vaughn and Sydney to Gai-Li, North Korea to pick him up during the small 15-minute window he’s given them. After the meeting, Lauren invites Sydney to dinner during Vaughn’s hockey night.
Lauren meets with her Covenant handler, Mr Zisman, to discuss this turn of events. He says he will send an agent to intercept the defector and asks what airfield Sydney and Vaughn are leaving from because they are to be eliminated. Lauren hesitates, causing Zisman to request an explanation, but she tells him that there’s no problem, she’ll get the information.
Lauren nervously approaches Vaughn’s station to get the information. Vaughn interrupts, asking why she asked Sydney to dinner, but Lauren says she wants things to be less awkward. She gets the information on the airfield and relays it. The Covenant deploys men to shoot the pilots with an agent to sicken them.
Zisman tells Sark that the plane has been taken care of and sends him to intercept the defector. Sark wants to know who the mole in the CIA is. Zisman won’t tell him. Sark complains that after coughing up 800 million, the Covenant has proven to be ineffectual, disorganized, and disrespectful to its benefactors (namely him)--but he heads out on his mission.
In the plane, the pilots begin to get ill. Vaughn is distant toward Sydney, who finally confronts him, saying, “OK, this isn’t going to work . . . When we get back, one of us has to go.” At this point, the plane starts going down and as they get it back under control, missiles are fired on them. They turn off the engines, causing the heat-seeking missiles to find each other, but they can’t restart the engines in time and crash.
In the resulting chaos at CIA headquarters in LA, Marshall can’t bring himself to tell Lauren what happened, deferring to Jack, who calmly outlines what they know. The plane is down in North Korea and it looks like the Covenant fired missiles on the plane. Dixon calls them into his office and explains that they’ve been ordered to stand down and disavow the operation. Jack strides out of the room. Dixon continues, “Unofficially, I say screw ‘em.”
Jack contacts Irina in the parking garage asking for help. She says she might know someone and will contact him.
In North Korea, Sydney and Vaughn have emerged from the plane crash oddly unscathed. Sydney tries to contact the CIA without success. Vaughn’s arm is injured, but not seriously. The North Korean military appears and Vaughn blows up the plane as they make their escape.
As Jack continues to work feverishly, he receives an email:
SYDNEY’S APARTMENT. 8PM.
As he reads this, Jack takes a call from Sloane, who offers his help, citing OmniFam’s ties with the Premier of China. Jack tells him that he’s pursuing other options and that “If I need your help, I’ll let you know.”
In North Korea, Sydney wraps Vaughn’s arm, but she makes sure to give him a little twinge at the end. “That’s for being a jerk on the plane,” she says. Still anxious to make the meet, she heads out to look for transportation.
In Sydney’s apartment, Jack reads Sydney’s copy of Alice in Wonderland and awaits his meet. He answers the door and lets a dark-haired woman in who reports that Sydney and Vaughn are both alive. She won’t say who she is, but in exchange for the return of Sydney and Vaughn, she demands that Jack assassinate Sloane.
At LA CIA HQ, Weiss lets Lauren know that Sydney and Vaughn have survived. She must report to Zisman that they are still in play.
In North Korea, Sydney and Vaughn find a truck and repair it. As they do this, Vaughn admits that it’s been difficult for him to be around Sydney because it has always been so easy to be with her and now that’s gone. Sydney lets him know that she slept with Will and is moving on. The truck starts and they get moving.
In Koreatown, LA, Jack and his new acquaintance approach a building where a bodyguard blocks their way. Jack’s companion tells the bodyguard, “The Black Sparrow seeks an audience with Mr Cho.” She is allowed in, and insists upon entering unannounced. She explains the situation, but Mr Cho declines to offer assistance, saying that it is too dangerous. However, Ms Sparrow grabs a pair of chopsticks and impales Mr Cho’s hands with them. Meanwhile, Jack takes out Mr Cho’s bodyguards, taking a slice to the side in the process. Ms Sparrow convinces Mr Cho that he can help after all, warning him, “Don’t fail me.”
In Gai-Li, Sydney and Vaughn arrive to find that Sark is intercepting their package. Sydney puts a knife to Sark’s crotch to persuade him not to kill the defector. However, authorities arrive, upsetting the stand-off. The defector decides to bolt, Sark tries to shoot, Sydney deflects the shot, stabbing Sark in the process. The authorities manage to take Vaughn, Sydney, and the defector into custody, yet the stabbed Sark (aka Houdini) still manages to escape.
Back in LA, Jack’s guest examines his wound. Jack tells her that he needs her to check his liver to make sure that it’s intact. He then inquires which of Irina’s sisters she is, Elena or Ykaterina. She tells him that she is Katya, and that obviously Irina didn’t tell him about her. She goes on to remind him that he has a job to do for her: assassinate Arvin Sloane--and that she can “call off Mr Quan.”
In North Korea, the defector gives up Sydney and Vaughn as CIA. Sydney and Vaughn are then beaten with rifle butts.
Jack arrives at OmniFam in Zurich, game face on. Katya has a security feed and can see Jack standing in the lobby. She calls Sloane and warns him, then she calls Jack and aborts the hit. Jack is forced to cover by telling Sloane that he has a meeting locally and stopped by to let Sloane know that he is making progress in extracting Sydney and Vaughn. Sloane tells him a story about narrowly avoiding assassination by K-Directorate forces, saying, “You never forget what that feels like--to barely escape with your life”--a message to Jack that he realizes what has happened.
In the North Korean prison, Vaughn admits to Sydney that she is the “only . . . person” in his life and tries to explain why he pushed her away, but Sydney won’t let him finish. As the guards approach, she affirms, “We’ll find each other--We always find each other.” They kiss, and with that, the guards enter and take them past the defector’s cell to the firing squad. They take a last look at each other and face the guns.
But instead of the squad firing upon Sydney and Vaughn, Quan fires upon the squad and commander, taking them out. They collect the defector, whom Sydney punches out amidst his apologies.
They enter HQ in LA with their defector, greeted by handshakes and pats on the shoulder from a smiling Dixon, and a double hug from Marshall. Vaughn catches sight of Lauren and strides over to embrace her. Sydney seems a little saddened as she chats with Marshall, but when she sees Jack enter, she runs into his arms for a tight hug. Jack lets her know that he got assistance from her mother (but doesn’t tell her about the price tag).
Jack meets with Katya and complains that her maneuver with Sloane served to destroy the trust he was building up with him. They chat about Irina’s and Katya’s possible motives for this without (of course) resolve. Jack thanks her for helping Sydney and Katya responds, “Isn’t that what family’s for?” She then gives Jack a chaste kiss, telling him it’s from Irina. Immediately, she follows this up with a passionate kiss (which Jack returns). Jack, surprised, asks whom that was from, but Katya simply says, “Too many questions.”
Analysis . . .
Well, the most obvious answer, that Lauren is working for the Covenant appears to be the correct one. However, we still have a significant problem in the department of her competence. If she was a Covenant spy from day one, it doesn’t make sense. Why not? It doesn’t make sense because she is incredibly nervous. Look at the jumpy way she approaches Vaughn’s workstation. She is terrified that she might be caught. She thinks she is caught when Vaughn says, “What are you doing . . .” only to be relieved when he continued “inviting Sydney to dinner?” Then look at her expressions--she shouldn’t have the disappointment and worry written all over her face where others might be able to see her in the office--even if Weiss can’t. This does not jibe well with the woman who responded with dismay when she came upon Sydney’s foiled escape in detention. She could not have been acting then because she is not that good an actress--she is not doing a good job now. She could not have been acting as a spy when she was at ease before because she is nervous now.
Yet her Covenant handler, Zisman, appears to expect her to suffer no emotional consequences from betraying her CIA colleagues. So what’s going on here? The nerves would tend to rule out sleeper, Project Christmas (!), or brainwash, which leaves what? Very little. Extortion, perhaps, but not much else. Do they have something on her father, perhaps? They will have to come up with something that explains her mien as well as her actions.
The Covenant is now willing to kill Sydney, which means either 1) they have everything they need, eggs and Rambaldi DNA to bring about the “second coming” or 2) the Rambaldi DNA was destroyed, so Sydney is no longer of any use to them.
Moving on to the other person who needs to explain himself. You know of whom I’m speaking. Vaughn. First, Sydney explains that she’s moving on:
Sydney: I slept with Will.
Vaughn: How am I supposed to react to that? . . . Bad enough being a fugitive in North Korea, now I have to find out that you slept with Will?
S: I-I want you to know that I’m moving on. Not with Will, just generally--if it helps.
But it doesn’t help, as they both know. As they face death, admissions start to surface:
V: In my life there is only one person. The only reason I pushed you away--
. . . (Sydney stops him . . .)
S: We’ll find each other--We always find each other.
Sydney’s admission to Vaughn that she slept with Will is expected. She has always been honest with him and I, for one, expected to hear her let him know this sooner rather than later. But she’s not telling him this to make him jealous--although that is the result--but to let him know that she will be OK and will be able to move on despite how she feels about him. But Vaughn crosses the line in prison. Facing death, he admits his love for Sydney and only her. Sydney, in return, pledges the beyond-death sort of love poets wax, well, poetical over (yes, I can hear the romanticists fainting right now . . .). If I sound just a little less than fully impressed, it’s because Vaughn draws a line that can’t be erased (yes, one of the ones that I mentioned up top) and then immediately attempts to rub his foot over it by hurrying into Lauren’s arms as soon as he sees her in LA.
Sydney should ask herself, “What is wrong with this picture?” Vaughn doesn’t love Lauren--certainly not as he loves Sydney. The Vaughn-moved-on theory is washing less and less and less. Which would mean that Vaughn is keeping something from Sydney--he’d d--n well better have a better reason than last time (as you recall, his reason for keeping his investigation of Irina from Sydney was basically that Sydney wouldn’t like it and would be angry with him and give him a hard time). Well, this wouldn’t be a surprise--I’ve been suggesting this possibility for weeks now--but just what would he be keeping from her?
If Vaughn didn’t marry Lauren for love and she isn’t a cold-blooded agent, how does this equation balance? If Lauren is being blackmailed--say, her father’s dirty or part of the Covenant--perhaps Vaughn married her to investigate them (perhaps even as a way of investigating Sydney’s death). But as he adjusted to this extreme compromise, he came to be fond of Lauren, albeit not in love with her as he is with Sydney.
Wouldn’t it be nice to know if this was something that Kendall--or Dixon--knew about or was running? Clearly, if this is the shape of the weirdness surrounding Vaughn, Jack is unaware of it, as his warnings to Vaughn clearly demonstrate. But would Jack act so very differently if this were indeed the case and he were aware of it? He would definitely want Vaughn to back off for the duration--and in my estimation, he’d have the most severe reservations about the level of trust between Sydney and Vaughn that Vaughn is both willing and able to withhold this information from her.
And we can look to Jack’s own behavior to back this opinion up. Katya gives form to a question that’s been nagging at the back of my mind for some time--that Jack might well have known about Irina’s status well before things blew up and she disappeared. “As observant as you are, you were married to my sister for five years [until 1976, after Sydney was born] without suspecting who she really was. Her love must have been intoxicating.” So, did Irina, realizing that Jack was catching on, do the one thing she knew that would keep him from acting on his knowledge--become pregnant? Irina, knowing the type of man that Jack is, would know that he’d put his child first, before country. Or was that simply a happy circumstance for her? For Jack could not stand to take Sydney’s mother away from her in appalling circumstances, as a reviled foreign spy--an assassin. He could not be responsible for that. So there was, in fact, solid basis for the government’s suspecting Jack of conspiring with the enemy.
One wonders if Jack found out about Irina before he confronted her (longer than the five years). However, I doubt he could have found out before Sydney’s conception because in that case Jack would have been compelled to turn Irina in. What Irina was doing was too damaging and the betrayal was too great. Without Sydney, I don’t see how Jack could live with it, as much as he loves Irina. He might give her a running start, but that is all.
So Jack’s torment began far earlier than we had imagined. For more about how I think this might have affected Jack and his marriage, please see the Spy dad column, which I hope will come soon.
Meanwhile, Katya uses this opportunity to send Sloane a message: “Back off Irina.” This suggests that Sloane is applying some sort of pressure on Irina. Or is it something else? A message to Irina through Sloane to back off of her (Katya)? Or to stop working with Irina? No matter how you read it, it’s problematic. (If the message is ambiguous, one can understand why Sloane would respond, “I’m not sure how I’m supposed to take that.”) If the message comes from Irina, you have a mother threatening her daughter’s life to coerce the father of her child into assassinating a “friend”; if not (Katya working as her own agent to send a message back through Sloane), you have the mixed message of Katya telling Irina to back off by threatening Sloane’s life--how does this make sense? Either way, the message is more than that. By sending Jack as the assassin, she says, “No matter how protected you think you are, you’re not--even from your friends--even from [Jack]. Your continuing life is a favor from me [either Irina or Katya, likely Katya].” It is another line--one that Jack crosses and cannot erase. Jack assumes the likely conclusion that Irina and Katya are working more or less together (how will this play to Irina’s advantage--or your own?).
The problem is, the kind of opportunity to coerce a man like Jack (extreme danger to Sydney that he depends on you to save her from), doesn’t exactly come along every day. Katya can’t just call up Jack and say, “Could you go shoot Sloane for me today, honey? There’s a good boy.”
But just what is the relationship between Sloane and Irina right now? There are teasing hints that there must be something (see last week). Yet there are few clues indeed. Let’s set that aside.
Katya sends Jack to show Sloane how easy it would be to send someone close to him to kill him. And Sloane tips Jack off that Katya tipped him off. Sloane wants Jack to know how he’s been used. Jack is upset that the trust that he’s built up with Sloane has been compromised and wonders how this works to Irina’s--or Katya’s--advantage.
So what was the primary purpose of this exercise? Showing Sloane that he can be reached? Or undermining Jack’s level of trust with Sloane? Sloane is depending on Jack to partner with him, so the aim might well be to undermine Jack’s plans of regaining some of Sloane’s trust.
Meanwhile, just what is family for? Only a Derevko would demand a murder in exchange for her daughter’s--or even her niece’s life. Is it Irina or Katya who makes this demand? Note that Jack only hesitates to ask a question or two before heading to Zurich--he doesn’t dare assume that blood is thicker than water with the Derevko sisters. And who knows what--or how much--he knows about Katya.
Examining Jack’s own motives, why exactly does he turn to Irina and not Sloane? Jack earlier turned to Sloane for help in rescuing Sydney as we saw. He now turns to Irina, although, as Sloane points out, Sloane has connections that could save both Sydney and Vaughn as well--potentially without the price that Katya eventually binds Jack to. We cannot be certain, of course, that Jack wouldn’t have attempted to stage Sloane’s death--although at that stage of events Jack might have been unwilling to gamble with his daughter’s life--but he certainly plays it straight on his way into the lobby where he could have been watched.
Does Jack need to maintain trust with Irina for the same reasons that he does with Sloane? Jack clearly wants to maintain ties with both of them, creating a triangle between Sloane, Jack, and Irina. It almost looks as though Jack were the prize in some sort of interesting war between Sloane and Irina. Do they want Jack to get to Sydney? Or does he hold a key of his own?
To Jack’s credit, he tells Sydney that he obtained her mother’s help in getting them out. However, you note that he did not tell her about the price tag. Is this because he wants to protect Sydney from knowing yet another bad thing about her mother (a potentially dangerous course) or because he cannot know whether the price was applied by Irina or by Katya? Jack seems to believe that he still must attempt to shield Sydney from dealings with her mother--and why not? In his previous experience, Sydney proved anything but capable of handling the task of coping with her mother’s manipulative prowess in the face of Sydney’s own deep need for a loving mother--based on a tissue of happy memories that we now know were propped up by the brute will of Jack himself, determined not to allow his own tragedy to spill over into the life of his daughter--apparently a tragedy of loss and betrayal that he could forestall, but not erase--lines long ago crossed, bridges forever burned.
Again, we see all kinds of parallels with and echoes from episodes past . . . Katya demands that Jack assassinate Sloane in exchange for Sydney and Vaughn’s lives and aborts the mission; in “Counteragent” (2:07), Sark demands that Sydney assassinate Sloane in exchange for Vaughn’s life and revives Sloane. “Crossings” has resonance with “Passage” (2:08-09) in that both involved family ties and difficulties in foreign territory (and in the names of the episodes themselves). Further, the scene in which Katya examines Jack has an odd resonance with “A Dark Turn” (2:17) as the two almost seem to use examining Jack’s wound (vs removing Irina’s tracking chip) as a peculiar way of flirting--and, of course, that was the last time that Jack seems to have received a romantic kiss.
Random thoughts . . .
Our little family has been enlarged by one (Katya, Irina’s sister), and another possible character (Elena, another sister) has been mentioned. Too bad Jack doesn’t seem to have any family. He could use a couple of brothers to even up the teams . . .
To those who guess that Katya is Irina: Please, give Jack a little credit! If he can guess that this woman is one of Irina's sisters, don’t you think he could guess that she’s the woman that he spent all that time with? Especially after that final kiss? Plus, with a lack of helix technology, there's a bit of a height difference . . . (Besides, I don’t think that the production team is quite ready to give up on Ms Olin yet. They are going to let the fans work on her a little . . .)
Yes, I noticed that Jack was reading Sydney’s copy of Alice in Wonderland all by myself.
Yes, it was nice to see Mr Vosloo as Mr Zisman. And Sark? Can we say “petulant”?
OK, loving the fact that Sydney ran to her father’s arms as soon as she saw him. At last he knows some of the joy of feeling that his love is returned--that Sydney is beginning to understand that he does, in fact, love her--that Sydney can now begin turning to him for some comfort in times of sadness. And now Jack can hold his daughter instead of forever holding back.
Discuss . . .
Why do you think the Covenant is willing to kill Sydney? Do you think they still have Rambaldi DNA and her eggs on ice, or do you think Rambaldi’s DNA was destroyed in the raid?
Why do you think Jack turns to Irina for help rather than Sloane? He has turned to Sloane in the past.
What do you think Irina’s agenda is? Do you think Katya’s is the same?
Do you think the order to assassinate Sloane came from Irina or Katya? What do you think of Irina’s/Katya’s placing a price tag on saving her own daughter/niece?
Do you think Katya’s more important agenda was to 1) deliver the message to back off; 2) tell Sloane that they can reach him with whomever they want whenever they want; or 3) drive a wedge between Jack and Sloane?
Do you think the case is that Irina is working more closely with Sloane or more closely with Katya--that is, is the message “Sloane, back off of Irina,” or “Sloane, tell Irina to back off [of me]”?
Why do you think Sloane let Jack know that he was tipped off to the assassination attempt?
Do you think Irina and Sloane are vying for Jack’s loyalties? (Although Jack’s loyalty is expected to lie steadfastly with Sydney and only tentatively with either of these two.)
Compare Sydney’s policy of honesty with Vaughn (telling him about her interlude with Will for example) with his history of withholding from her. Do you agree that she was right to let him know about this as a way of letting him know she’s moving on?
Do you agree that Vaughn is withholding something (something that he began to explain)? If so, what? Do you think he cares for Lauren? How much?
In a related question, do you really think that Lauren has been a Covenant spy all along? If so, how do you explain her nerves and incompetence? Do you think she cares for Vaughn?
Do you think that Sydney and Vaughn are, indeed, soul mates? If so, how do you account for Vaughn’s tendency to break trust with Sydney? (To really put an edge on the point, let me tease you with this: Is he playing Irina to Sydney’s Jack?) Going on from my hypothetical thought, do you think Jack and Irina are soul mates? Which union do you think is most tragic?
Next:
Good question. We have another long wait. * heavy sigh *