superintelligentone
Cadet
Season 5: Episode 5.16 & 5.17 - Reprisal & All The Time In The World
5/22/2006
Summary by superintelligentone aka SIO
I was posting play-by-play at the SD-1. I've only had time to do a medium size recap. Discussion to follow.
Recap
Sydney is in Sydney, Australia to infiltrate a party. In Italy, Dixon is posing as a cab driver. A man wants to get a ride from him but Marcus refuses. He is waiting to photograph someone. Dixon sees a group of people walking towards a building, but the aren't facing him. He honks the horn to get the people to turn around, the takes a photo of them.
In Thailand, Marshall is in a sauna to photograph some Japanese men. He babbles nervously at them and then photographs them with a mini camera concealed in his watch.
Thomas poses as a Russian soldier at a checkpoint. He asks a man for his ID card and then gets a scan of the photo. Sydney knocks out a waitress to get her uniform. She apologizes.
Jack is at the capitol Building in Washington. He acts like a tourist and asks to have his photo taken near some men.
At the party, the head waiter notices Syd doesn't belong. She says that she is a substitute. A security guard finds the real waitress and radios an alert. Sydney sees a security guard react to a call, so she knows that she is about to get discovered. She hits he man with her tray and heads to the roof. As she descends from the roof on a cable, she gets to photograph someone through the window.
At the APO, we see the team assemble their photographs of the Twelve heads of Prophet-5. Now they know who they are dealing with. Sloane and Sark have Peyton to convince her work for them rather than P5. Arvin says that after she serves her purpose at P-5, she will be killed, so she should work for him instead.
Syd and Naughn are reviewing Page 47 and the Prophesy. He thinks that they disproved her as the Chosen One because she saw the skies of Mt. Subasio.
Nice moment of Marshall cuddling with his wife. Carrie just wants to sleep. He leaves the bedroom to check on little Mitchell.
Thomas Grace arrives at Rachel's place and apologizes for coming announced. He needs to talk about his dead wife. Tom leans forward and they kiss. She pulls away and is flustered. He apologizes and wants to leave. Rachel wants him to stay and leaves to get him some coffee. He leaves without telling her. Carrie goes looking for Marshall but he is nowhere to be found. The window is wide open. Rachel returns with the coffee but finds that Tom is gone. When she hears a soft knocking on the front door she thinks it is him. She opens the door and sees that it is Mr. Sark. He quickly overcomes her. Marshall and Rachel have been kidnaped!
Marshall finds that he is strapped to a chair by Kelly Peyton and Sloane. Arvin orders Marshall to find a location, but he refuses. He says that he doesn't work for him and he knows that he is up to something really bad. Arvin tells Peyton to persuade him. She gets out some pliers and then pull his fingernail off.
Sydney and Jack are at Carrie's and tell her that Marshall has been working for them. Carrie suggests that she help out. When Jack refuses, she points out that she can fill in for Marshall. Syd nods, so he agrees.
Sark has Rachel hooked up to electrodes. He offers her a chance to cooperate, but she won’t. So he tortures her with electricity.
Jack apologizes to Marcus for why he trusted Sloane, explaining that he hoped that he was the same man that he chose take care of Syd while he was jailed by the CIA after his wife’s “demise”.
Marshall resists the torture and tells Sloane that he'll never do what he wants. He wants his son to be able to look up to his daddy. Assuming that he is going to be killed anyway, Marshall decides to tell Arvin that he never liked him but tolerated him because he was afraid.
Afterwards, Nadia's ghost tells Arvin that he'll never get Marshall to give in through torture. Sloane says he has another way. As Sydney goes to her car carrying Isabelle, she is surprised to see Arvin waiting for her. Sloane tells her if she tries anything things will go bad. She won’t risk the baby. He gives her a cellphone to talk to Marshall. If she can convince him to cooperate, she save their lives. Marshall tells Syd that she has to make sure that Carrie and Mitchell are safe. She assures that they are fine. He bravely says that if anything happens to him, to tell Mitchell he was brave and for Carrie to move on. Sydney says to do what ever they want, his life (and Rachel’s) is/are more important. Then she asks Marshall there is anything else that he wants Carrie to know. He understands and says to tell Carrie that he loves her and that he finish reading the children's book Littlest Fish when he gets back. Arvin tells Syd that she did the right thing and then leaves in his car.
Afterwards, Marshall is disturbed to see Rachel is being brought in with electrode burns on her forehead and neck. He tells her that Syd says that it is okay for them to cooperate. Marshall mentions that they need to "Leapfrog" the system, and Rachel reacts as if it has meaning.
At the APO, Naughn tells Carrie about Marshall leaving a message for her, mentioning a book that he read Mitchell recently. Carrie says that it wasn’t recent, then recalls out that the story involves a boy named Noah. She then realizes that it sounds like the NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration agency. He concludes that he means they are hacking in on a NOAA weather satellite! Carrie figures if she can trace the hack, she can pinpoint their location.
Rachel shows Sloane a satellite view of Italy and says that he should have known. He leaves and tells Marshall that he’s done good work as usual. Carrie traces the hack to Ixtapa, Mexico. Jack tells her that he is sending a rescue team there.
Sloane tells Sark and Peyton that he has arranged a meeting of the Twelve. Sark wants Arvin to reconsider their plan for their prisoners, wanting Marshall & Rachel released for cooperating. Peyton sneers that he is being sentimental for blonds. Sloane says that it isn’t open for discussion. He wants them eliminated.
Rachel uses the underwire from her bra as a lock pick. As a henchman comes to kill them, Marshall distracts him by saying that he has a family and he wants to live to have more. That annoys the henchman, who cocks his pistol and points it Marshall. Rachel attacks while still wearing her handcuffs, takes his handgun and shoots him as he rushes at her. She takes his keys and frees herself and Marshall. As they escape down a corridor, they are chased by two henchmen. Syd emerges from around the corner and tells her friends to get down, then fires killing the bad guys. Marshall hugs Sydney and thanks her repeatedly. Thomas helps Rachel back to her feet and she looks at him with gratitude. Marshall asks how they found them, so Syd explains Carrie found them. Dixon arrives with Naughn and tells that Sloane is gone.
Carrie tells Jack that Marshall’s program to track the Twelve has detected that they are gathering for a meeting. Sydney phones to tell that Marshall and Rachel have been saved, but Sloane, Sark and Peyton have got away. Jack tells her that they must be going to Zurich to meet the Twelve with the information that Marshall and Rachel acquired. Syd thinks this is their chance at bringing them all down.
Marshall boasts about how he was brave in the face of having his fingernails removed. Syd notes that they were looking at caves in Italy. Marshall replies that Sloane was cryptic, saying I should have known. When Rachel says that it was in Umbria region, Syd concludes that he means Mt. Subasio. Syd says that she’ll leave her father to take care of the Twelve in Zurich. She needs to head for Mt. Subasio and beat them to whatever the Twelve are after. Michael says that he’ll accompany her.
On the mountain, Sydney asks to be lowered into a crevasse. He gives her a tracker to carry. She and Naughn give each other a goodluck/farewell kiss. Syd descends to the bottom and finds a hidden passage that emerges into a cave. Sloane is there looking at the amulet. He seems to expect her, saying "Sydney you came." He needs her to fulfill the Prophesy!
Sydney draws her pistol, but Sloane tells her that a gunshot will create an avalanche. Arvin reminds her that she lived with Emily an him while Jack was in jail and her mother presumed killed! He tells her that she was so withdrawn then. They tried to reach out but she wouldn’t respond. So they lined the shelves of her room with stuffed animals, hoping that it would comfort her. Syd lowers her handgun. Sloane tells her that every morning he would come to her room to wake her and find that she had them all with her under her blanket. Syd would explain that there was a storm in the middle of the night that knocked them down. They were drowning, so she had to save them one by one. Arvin says that even then, he wondered when she would learn that she couldn’t rescue everyone.
Mr. Sark sets a timebomb for 10 minutes. Tom interrupt Jack’s briefing to show that Sloane had schematics for the entire Los Angeles subway system. Rachel determines that Arvin has mapped architectural weaknesses of the tunnels around APO. She concludes Sloane has targeted them. Jack orders the facility evacuated and the subway too. Sark is seen leaving the subway.
Sloane says that he realized that Marshall was leaving her a message, but he knew that it didn’t matter because had already accounted for everyone. Arvin explains that he targeted Prophet-5 and APO, removing all obstacles. Syd threatens him, but he explains that the time for threats has passed and then he couldn’t stop what is about to happen even if he wanted to. He is making sure that he’ll see this plans through to the end. Peyton explains to a guard that she is going to meet with Prophet-5 in Sloane’s place because he can’t make it. Arvin tells Sydney that she should understand that there is no stopping fate. When she says that she doesn’t believe in fate, he says regardless, he is glad that she is there with him because he doesn’t want her to be at APO when it happens.
APO is being evacuated, while Dixon and Grace search the subway for explosives. Tom spots a suspicious subway car parked in a tunnel, so he inspects it. He reports finding a big bomb. Sloane continues to explain that he never wanted Sydney to suffer like she did as a child. Or the way she suffered when she lost Danny. Or when she lost Naughn.
Thomas com-links Dixon about how long they need to complete evacuation. Marcus replies Rachel says they need five more minutes. Tom says that he can’t disable it, but he can buy some more time by constantly spraying the timer with liquid nitrogen. Dixon says to do it until there is only one minute left, then evacuate. Grace says that he will.
Peyton arrives at P5 headquarters on the pretext of giving them the locket. She draws two submachine guns and kills the Twelve heads of P5.
Tom can't do anything about the bomb, so he tells that he wants to talk with Rachel. They know he is going to die. She says that if Tom would have asked her out, she would have said yes. Tom is blown up along with the APO headquarters.
The amulet starts some 3-d prism thing spinning in the air. Sloane's shoots the ice in front of Syd -says she can't see this. Syd falls through floor of crevasse. Dreams of being asked in school, when she was six?, what she wanted to be when she grew up. Vaughn finds Syd and tries to rescue/revive Syd.
Syd goes back again. Jack telling little Syd Laura's dead.
Sloane holds the amulet up to the sunlight and then Rambaldi symbols appear on the cave wall. Arvin apologises and then shoots out the floor below Syd. She falls to the cave below.
Syd gets recollections of her as a child. Jack tells her that her mother was killed in an auto accident.
Naughn comes down of a rope and revives Syd.
Slaone rendezvous with Sark and Peyton, telling them they did a good job. They are to meet a "her" (Irina, no doubt!). Sloane and Sark look at two nuclear missile launcher trucks.
Vaughn tells Jack they're okay.
Syd flashes back to past. Syd found a xmas project puzzle on Jack's desk in a box with family pictures (she looked at a pic of Laura), and puts it together. Jack comes in and is amazed
Naughn tells Jack that he and Syd are okay. Jack tells that APO headquarters was destroy and Tom didn't make it.
Syd is having a flashback to assembling a 3-d puzzle as a child. He says that it is an indicator for 3-D skill. He can't do it. He says that she is a speical girl.
Syd thinks that they can trace Sloane through records, or someone that is working with him. Peyton is captured by Naughn and bought back to APO’s temporary headquarters. Rachel uses knowledge Peyton's of fear of snakes to get her to talk.
In Mongolia, Sloane is in a remote location. He is led to an archeological building with the sign of Rambaldi on the roof.
Syd has a flashback to her college years. Francie is there! Francie finds Syd studying outside at a picnic table. Francie wants to go have fun. Syd wants to go to a job fair. She thinks of teaching, as a fall back job. Francie said her boyfriend is bringing someone for Syd named Danny. Francie leaves.
She tells about the party tonight and a guy named Danny will be there. After Francie leaves, Syd is a man who presents her with a CIA card with no other identification. He is a SD-6 agent there to recruit her
Back in Mongolia they blow into a tunnel. Sark complains of the dust to his $500 shoes, says Rambaldi could have warned them. Sloane and the group are descending, deep chamber. Sloane says the next step (going into the chamber) is for him alone.
Sloane is going down some sort of mine shaft. He sees a stone marker that says Rambaldi. The ghost of Nadia appears and he is happy to share the experience with her.
He takes out the Sphere of Life which glows and rotates in the frame of the Horizon.
A red sphere like the circumference appears and Nadia asks if that is what he wants.
Outside, an assault team attacks the site. Syd is in the tomb to tell Sloane that it is over. Naughn has his gun on Sark who points back at him. Jack comes into back up Mike. But a henchman has Jack covered from behind.
Sydney arrives at Rabaldi's tomb and when she touches the Sphere of Life, the Circumference collapses as a puddle of red fluid. She picks up the ball and asks why she shouldn't smash it. Sark comes in and says that he has two reasons. He shows that he has Jack and Naughn as his prisoners.
Marshall and Rachel find that Sloane/Irina infected the defense satellites with a virus. They are sent burning back toward the earth.
Sloane tries to negotiate with Sydney. He tells her to give him the Sphere and to go live her life with Naughn.
She refuses so Sloane says what is about to happen is her fault, then shoots Jack several times in the chest. Syd drops the sphere to rush to Jack's side. Arvin picks up the ball. Naughn and Jack overcome the henchmen. Syd then shoot Sloane in the chest several times. He collapses into the pool of red fluid. Sark grabs the sphere and escapes. He contacts Irina to tell her that he has the artifact. She tells him good and to bring it to her intact.
Syd has a flashback to telling Jack that she is working for Credit Dauphine. He tells her to quit and to just concentrate on her studies. She refuses and runs off.
Back outside on the surface, Naughn says that he is going to radio for a medivac helicopter. It will take a half an hour. Marshall report that Sark is going to meet with Irina. Mike comes back and tells Sydney that he’s learned that says Irina is ready to launch the nuclear missiles. Jack tells Sydney that she must stop Irina and that she's not one to make idle threats. Jack says he can hold out by himself, until medivac comes. Syd and he say they love each other. She and Naughn drive away. Jack stands up to show her that he is fine. But she knows he isn't. After the SUV drives away, Jack collapses.
Sark presents the sphere to Irina and talks about why he is so highly paid. Irina tell him to target atomic missiles on London and Washington. Shortly afterwards, Sydney shows up to confronts Irina for harming Naughn and the baby. Irina says she learned early that only power matters. Irina tells Syd that Irina is life. Sloane who is lying in the red fluid of the Circumference, has his wounds disappears. He sits up revived and cured.
Irina tells Sydney she gave her a way out of the business, giving her a daughter. Irina was hoping that Syd would settle down and leave her to her business. Sydney mocks that she doesn't know her very well. Irina says that she does know, since she is her mother. Syd says that doesn't mean anything to her anymore. She is through being disappointed with her. Irina says that she is disappointed that it has had to come to this, but Syd says that she supposes that it had to be. Irina says that she's come too far to let anything get in her way. Sydney replies that she'll have to get through her first to do it.
Sydney has a flashback to her promotion to be a SD-6 agent. Arvin complements her on her evaluation. and tells her that he is considering promoting her to field officer, but warns her that she has a romantic notion espionage of brush passes and dead drops. He warns that she'll be facing life or death choices regularly and they will haunt her for the rest of her life. Syd assures that she can, explaining that for as lonmg as she can remember, she has been searching for what she is supposed to do. She says this is her purpose and that it is in her blood. She has never been so sure of anything.
Back in the present, Irina's attacks sends Sydney flying against the wall. She pulls the cord from the lamp and strangles Syd with it. After slamming against a mirror, Sydney grabs a shard of glass and stabs her mother in the leg. Irina throws her through a glass table and then tries to stab Syd in the throat with it. She strikes her mother in the head with the Sphere to get free. They struggle and fall through the window to the rooftop patio. As they both lay stunned, Irina asks why she is fighting her, the defense satellites are already destroyed. Syd realizes that the prophesy of "The stars falling from the sky" are the defense satellites! Irina points out that even if Syd defeats her, it is too late for her to stop the missiles from launching.
Vaughn finds Sark and attacks him, knocking him to the floor.
In the cave, Arvin marvels at his reflection at being healed thanks to Rambaldi. The ghost of Nadia complements him for being right all along. He smiles and says that he'll never forget her sacrifice for him. He says the Horizon is gone, probably in her mother's hands. She says they should get moving. He tells her that they don't have to hurry. They have all of the time in the world now that he has been cured. Jack arrives to confront him.
Naughn wants the codes to stop the missiles, but Julian swears that he doesn't know them. So Naughn shoots him in the leg. Sark explains he never wanted mass extermination, but he wanted to be on the winning side as a businessman. He offers to give up the codes in exchange for being set free. Naughn demands the code first. He com-links the code to Marshall who stops the countdown 5 seconds from launch.
Jack has Sloane at gunpoint and is surprised that Arvin was correct about Rambaldi’s being able to overcome death, going against nature. Sloane wants to help stop Jack from dying. But Jack doesn't want help. He regrets the pain Sloane has caused Syd. Thinking that Arvin can’t be killed, Jack blows-up the cavern to keep Sloane in.
Sydney and Irina continue fighting. Irina is winning. She tells Syd that "For what it's worth, I really do love you" but she can’t let her stop her. Sydney fights back and Irina falls on the middle of a glass skylight. It creaks under her weight. Rambaldi’s sphere is just out of her reach. Sydney begs her mother to come reach for her hand, but Irina apologizes that she has to get the sphere. She goes after it and the window collapses. Irina falls to her death. She lies on the floor with a huge puddle of blood pour out of her body. Her eyes are open, but dead.
Sloane awakens in the cave, but is trapped under tons of rock. The ghost of Nadia comes, so Arvin finds minor consolation that he has her to keep him company. But she says that she is leaving him.
Roughly 5 or 7 years in the future, we see a little girl, a pregnant Sydney and Naughn walking on a beach. Young Isabelle rushes forward to greet her Uncle Marcus. Mike calls him Deputy Director and asks if him had a hard time finding where they lived. When Dixon says that it was nearly impossible, Naughn says that was the point of their location. They enter their beachfront home to have dinner. Marcus explains that he needs to ask Syd to come on a mission, saying that she probably misses the fun. When she says that she doesn’t want to, Dixon says that her incentive is to find Julian Sark. Little Isabelle heads to the bedroom and plays with the same 3D puzzle that Jack had called The Indicator. She assembles it, then knocks it down. She has the same skill that her mother has.
END
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A nearly perfect finale!
Though I didn't get my anti-Naughn wishes, I knew that the writers wouldn't dare have such a major twist. So this was nearly perfect. I rounded up to 10 even with some flaws.
I like the sad ending for Thomas, but he died knowing that Rachel would have said yes to him. He died a hero rather than through a senseless death like Nadia or as a victim like Renee.
I liked that we learned that Sydney was raised by Arvin and Emily after Jack went to jail and her mother was assumed dead. It explains Sloane's attachment to Syd. So why did it seem like Sydney never knew that/never mention that? If Syd had affection for Emily, she should have had some for Arvin. The scene where Syd was summoned by Arvin to tell her that she was under consideration for SD-6 field agent status, seemed strangely impersonal if he raised her until Jack was released.
Jack apologizing to Dixon about why he trusted Arvin made sense since he said that he trusted him with raising Sydney.
I can see how the Pro-Irina fans were disappointed that their belief in her was unjustified.
Many of the Jack fans have been saying for a long time that Irina was evil. I agreed. I said that Irina was more evil that Sloane because he regretted the bad things that he did, while she didn't. I posted somewhere that even evil people love their children, so Irina's love for Sydney wasn't enough to excuse her.
Sloane accidentally killed Nadia. Irina chose to try to kill Sydney.
I have a problem with Arvin shooting Jack. That was out of character of his lifelong friendship. I was hoping that we would learn that he was Jack's brother of some kind.
The writers threw logic out the window to satisfy fan desire for Sloane to be evil. Sydney threatened to destroy the ball. So how was shooting Jack supposed to help? There was no way to predict that Syd would drop the ball out of concern for Jack, so that he could get it. Merely shooting Jack in the leg would have had the same effect. Sloane merely gave her the incentive to shoot him in cold blood out of revenge. A mastermind like Arvin should have seen that outcome. Shooting Sydney directly would have achieved getting the sphere better for him.
I figured out that Sloane falling into that red fluid was going to heal him, but I didn't know that it would grant him near immortality/prolonged life. Fans hinted that Rambaldi, the clockmaker and the old prisoner had each gotten life extention, but that wasn't revealled in any episode, so it was jarring for Jack to conclude that Arvin couldn't be killed.
I was expecting Jack to revive and crawl into the fluid, but that didn't happen. I suppose that it was consistent with him not wanting anything to do with Rambaldi. The idea of Jack sacrificing himself in order to protect the world from Sloane and punishing him is consisent with his character.
Couldn't he have tested if Sloane was immune to gunshots before blowing himself up? Jack could have blown up the cave without dying in the process. He could have blown Arvin up to pieces with the explosive directly. I suppose that he intended Sloane to be trapped forever with the cave-in. But that also allows the possibility for Sark to find him (in a future Alias movie).
Jack went out a hero trapping Sloane and not giving in to the temptation bathing in the fluid as Arvin did. I would have preferred Jack taking the cure and then trapping himself in the cave with Sloane to guard him for eternity. That would have allowed the possibility of a future Alias movie too.
Irina's death scene. I like how it mirrored Sloane's falling through the stain glass floor when Nadia refused to retrieve the Sphere of Life for him. Nadia begged for her father to give up the sphere and come back to her. Sydney begged Irina to give up on the sphere and give her hand. Both loved their children, but they put their own needs first.
So Irina never had an explanation as to why she had the affair with Sloane. Arvin had said to Jack that Irina used the both of them. Arvin was telling the truth. Irina didn't have an excuse. Her saying that she hated Sloane was probably a lie.
The scene with little Isabelle going to her/Sydney's room was obvious. I could tell that she was going to assemble the 3D puzzle. Syd already said being an agent was in her blood.
5/22/2006
Summary by superintelligentone aka SIO
I was posting play-by-play at the SD-1. I've only had time to do a medium size recap. Discussion to follow.
Recap
Sydney is in Sydney, Australia to infiltrate a party. In Italy, Dixon is posing as a cab driver. A man wants to get a ride from him but Marcus refuses. He is waiting to photograph someone. Dixon sees a group of people walking towards a building, but the aren't facing him. He honks the horn to get the people to turn around, the takes a photo of them.
In Thailand, Marshall is in a sauna to photograph some Japanese men. He babbles nervously at them and then photographs them with a mini camera concealed in his watch.
Thomas poses as a Russian soldier at a checkpoint. He asks a man for his ID card and then gets a scan of the photo. Sydney knocks out a waitress to get her uniform. She apologizes.
Jack is at the capitol Building in Washington. He acts like a tourist and asks to have his photo taken near some men.
At the party, the head waiter notices Syd doesn't belong. She says that she is a substitute. A security guard finds the real waitress and radios an alert. Sydney sees a security guard react to a call, so she knows that she is about to get discovered. She hits he man with her tray and heads to the roof. As she descends from the roof on a cable, she gets to photograph someone through the window.
At the APO, we see the team assemble their photographs of the Twelve heads of Prophet-5. Now they know who they are dealing with. Sloane and Sark have Peyton to convince her work for them rather than P5. Arvin says that after she serves her purpose at P-5, she will be killed, so she should work for him instead.
Syd and Naughn are reviewing Page 47 and the Prophesy. He thinks that they disproved her as the Chosen One because she saw the skies of Mt. Subasio.
Nice moment of Marshall cuddling with his wife. Carrie just wants to sleep. He leaves the bedroom to check on little Mitchell.
Thomas Grace arrives at Rachel's place and apologizes for coming announced. He needs to talk about his dead wife. Tom leans forward and they kiss. She pulls away and is flustered. He apologizes and wants to leave. Rachel wants him to stay and leaves to get him some coffee. He leaves without telling her. Carrie goes looking for Marshall but he is nowhere to be found. The window is wide open. Rachel returns with the coffee but finds that Tom is gone. When she hears a soft knocking on the front door she thinks it is him. She opens the door and sees that it is Mr. Sark. He quickly overcomes her. Marshall and Rachel have been kidnaped!
Marshall finds that he is strapped to a chair by Kelly Peyton and Sloane. Arvin orders Marshall to find a location, but he refuses. He says that he doesn't work for him and he knows that he is up to something really bad. Arvin tells Peyton to persuade him. She gets out some pliers and then pull his fingernail off.
Sydney and Jack are at Carrie's and tell her that Marshall has been working for them. Carrie suggests that she help out. When Jack refuses, she points out that she can fill in for Marshall. Syd nods, so he agrees.
Sark has Rachel hooked up to electrodes. He offers her a chance to cooperate, but she won’t. So he tortures her with electricity.
Jack apologizes to Marcus for why he trusted Sloane, explaining that he hoped that he was the same man that he chose take care of Syd while he was jailed by the CIA after his wife’s “demise”.
Marshall resists the torture and tells Sloane that he'll never do what he wants. He wants his son to be able to look up to his daddy. Assuming that he is going to be killed anyway, Marshall decides to tell Arvin that he never liked him but tolerated him because he was afraid.
Afterwards, Nadia's ghost tells Arvin that he'll never get Marshall to give in through torture. Sloane says he has another way. As Sydney goes to her car carrying Isabelle, she is surprised to see Arvin waiting for her. Sloane tells her if she tries anything things will go bad. She won’t risk the baby. He gives her a cellphone to talk to Marshall. If she can convince him to cooperate, she save their lives. Marshall tells Syd that she has to make sure that Carrie and Mitchell are safe. She assures that they are fine. He bravely says that if anything happens to him, to tell Mitchell he was brave and for Carrie to move on. Sydney says to do what ever they want, his life (and Rachel’s) is/are more important. Then she asks Marshall there is anything else that he wants Carrie to know. He understands and says to tell Carrie that he loves her and that he finish reading the children's book Littlest Fish when he gets back. Arvin tells Syd that she did the right thing and then leaves in his car.
Afterwards, Marshall is disturbed to see Rachel is being brought in with electrode burns on her forehead and neck. He tells her that Syd says that it is okay for them to cooperate. Marshall mentions that they need to "Leapfrog" the system, and Rachel reacts as if it has meaning.
At the APO, Naughn tells Carrie about Marshall leaving a message for her, mentioning a book that he read Mitchell recently. Carrie says that it wasn’t recent, then recalls out that the story involves a boy named Noah. She then realizes that it sounds like the NOAA, the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration agency. He concludes that he means they are hacking in on a NOAA weather satellite! Carrie figures if she can trace the hack, she can pinpoint their location.
Rachel shows Sloane a satellite view of Italy and says that he should have known. He leaves and tells Marshall that he’s done good work as usual. Carrie traces the hack to Ixtapa, Mexico. Jack tells her that he is sending a rescue team there.
Sloane tells Sark and Peyton that he has arranged a meeting of the Twelve. Sark wants Arvin to reconsider their plan for their prisoners, wanting Marshall & Rachel released for cooperating. Peyton sneers that he is being sentimental for blonds. Sloane says that it isn’t open for discussion. He wants them eliminated.
Rachel uses the underwire from her bra as a lock pick. As a henchman comes to kill them, Marshall distracts him by saying that he has a family and he wants to live to have more. That annoys the henchman, who cocks his pistol and points it Marshall. Rachel attacks while still wearing her handcuffs, takes his handgun and shoots him as he rushes at her. She takes his keys and frees herself and Marshall. As they escape down a corridor, they are chased by two henchmen. Syd emerges from around the corner and tells her friends to get down, then fires killing the bad guys. Marshall hugs Sydney and thanks her repeatedly. Thomas helps Rachel back to her feet and she looks at him with gratitude. Marshall asks how they found them, so Syd explains Carrie found them. Dixon arrives with Naughn and tells that Sloane is gone.
Carrie tells Jack that Marshall’s program to track the Twelve has detected that they are gathering for a meeting. Sydney phones to tell that Marshall and Rachel have been saved, but Sloane, Sark and Peyton have got away. Jack tells her that they must be going to Zurich to meet the Twelve with the information that Marshall and Rachel acquired. Syd thinks this is their chance at bringing them all down.
Marshall boasts about how he was brave in the face of having his fingernails removed. Syd notes that they were looking at caves in Italy. Marshall replies that Sloane was cryptic, saying I should have known. When Rachel says that it was in Umbria region, Syd concludes that he means Mt. Subasio. Syd says that she’ll leave her father to take care of the Twelve in Zurich. She needs to head for Mt. Subasio and beat them to whatever the Twelve are after. Michael says that he’ll accompany her.
On the mountain, Sydney asks to be lowered into a crevasse. He gives her a tracker to carry. She and Naughn give each other a goodluck/farewell kiss. Syd descends to the bottom and finds a hidden passage that emerges into a cave. Sloane is there looking at the amulet. He seems to expect her, saying "Sydney you came." He needs her to fulfill the Prophesy!
Sydney draws her pistol, but Sloane tells her that a gunshot will create an avalanche. Arvin reminds her that she lived with Emily an him while Jack was in jail and her mother presumed killed! He tells her that she was so withdrawn then. They tried to reach out but she wouldn’t respond. So they lined the shelves of her room with stuffed animals, hoping that it would comfort her. Syd lowers her handgun. Sloane tells her that every morning he would come to her room to wake her and find that she had them all with her under her blanket. Syd would explain that there was a storm in the middle of the night that knocked them down. They were drowning, so she had to save them one by one. Arvin says that even then, he wondered when she would learn that she couldn’t rescue everyone.
Mr. Sark sets a timebomb for 10 minutes. Tom interrupt Jack’s briefing to show that Sloane had schematics for the entire Los Angeles subway system. Rachel determines that Arvin has mapped architectural weaknesses of the tunnels around APO. She concludes Sloane has targeted them. Jack orders the facility evacuated and the subway too. Sark is seen leaving the subway.
Sloane says that he realized that Marshall was leaving her a message, but he knew that it didn’t matter because had already accounted for everyone. Arvin explains that he targeted Prophet-5 and APO, removing all obstacles. Syd threatens him, but he explains that the time for threats has passed and then he couldn’t stop what is about to happen even if he wanted to. He is making sure that he’ll see this plans through to the end. Peyton explains to a guard that she is going to meet with Prophet-5 in Sloane’s place because he can’t make it. Arvin tells Sydney that she should understand that there is no stopping fate. When she says that she doesn’t believe in fate, he says regardless, he is glad that she is there with him because he doesn’t want her to be at APO when it happens.
APO is being evacuated, while Dixon and Grace search the subway for explosives. Tom spots a suspicious subway car parked in a tunnel, so he inspects it. He reports finding a big bomb. Sloane continues to explain that he never wanted Sydney to suffer like she did as a child. Or the way she suffered when she lost Danny. Or when she lost Naughn.
Thomas com-links Dixon about how long they need to complete evacuation. Marcus replies Rachel says they need five more minutes. Tom says that he can’t disable it, but he can buy some more time by constantly spraying the timer with liquid nitrogen. Dixon says to do it until there is only one minute left, then evacuate. Grace says that he will.
Peyton arrives at P5 headquarters on the pretext of giving them the locket. She draws two submachine guns and kills the Twelve heads of P5.
Tom can't do anything about the bomb, so he tells that he wants to talk with Rachel. They know he is going to die. She says that if Tom would have asked her out, she would have said yes. Tom is blown up along with the APO headquarters.
The amulet starts some 3-d prism thing spinning in the air. Sloane's shoots the ice in front of Syd -says she can't see this. Syd falls through floor of crevasse. Dreams of being asked in school, when she was six?, what she wanted to be when she grew up. Vaughn finds Syd and tries to rescue/revive Syd.
Syd goes back again. Jack telling little Syd Laura's dead.
Sloane holds the amulet up to the sunlight and then Rambaldi symbols appear on the cave wall. Arvin apologises and then shoots out the floor below Syd. She falls to the cave below.
Syd gets recollections of her as a child. Jack tells her that her mother was killed in an auto accident.
Naughn comes down of a rope and revives Syd.
Slaone rendezvous with Sark and Peyton, telling them they did a good job. They are to meet a "her" (Irina, no doubt!). Sloane and Sark look at two nuclear missile launcher trucks.
Vaughn tells Jack they're okay.
Syd flashes back to past. Syd found a xmas project puzzle on Jack's desk in a box with family pictures (she looked at a pic of Laura), and puts it together. Jack comes in and is amazed
Naughn tells Jack that he and Syd are okay. Jack tells that APO headquarters was destroy and Tom didn't make it.
Syd is having a flashback to assembling a 3-d puzzle as a child. He says that it is an indicator for 3-D skill. He can't do it. He says that she is a speical girl.
Syd thinks that they can trace Sloane through records, or someone that is working with him. Peyton is captured by Naughn and bought back to APO’s temporary headquarters. Rachel uses knowledge Peyton's of fear of snakes to get her to talk.
In Mongolia, Sloane is in a remote location. He is led to an archeological building with the sign of Rambaldi on the roof.
Syd has a flashback to her college years. Francie is there! Francie finds Syd studying outside at a picnic table. Francie wants to go have fun. Syd wants to go to a job fair. She thinks of teaching, as a fall back job. Francie said her boyfriend is bringing someone for Syd named Danny. Francie leaves.
She tells about the party tonight and a guy named Danny will be there. After Francie leaves, Syd is a man who presents her with a CIA card with no other identification. He is a SD-6 agent there to recruit her
Back in Mongolia they blow into a tunnel. Sark complains of the dust to his $500 shoes, says Rambaldi could have warned them. Sloane and the group are descending, deep chamber. Sloane says the next step (going into the chamber) is for him alone.
Sloane is going down some sort of mine shaft. He sees a stone marker that says Rambaldi. The ghost of Nadia appears and he is happy to share the experience with her.
He takes out the Sphere of Life which glows and rotates in the frame of the Horizon.
A red sphere like the circumference appears and Nadia asks if that is what he wants.
Outside, an assault team attacks the site. Syd is in the tomb to tell Sloane that it is over. Naughn has his gun on Sark who points back at him. Jack comes into back up Mike. But a henchman has Jack covered from behind.
Sydney arrives at Rabaldi's tomb and when she touches the Sphere of Life, the Circumference collapses as a puddle of red fluid. She picks up the ball and asks why she shouldn't smash it. Sark comes in and says that he has two reasons. He shows that he has Jack and Naughn as his prisoners.
Marshall and Rachel find that Sloane/Irina infected the defense satellites with a virus. They are sent burning back toward the earth.
Sloane tries to negotiate with Sydney. He tells her to give him the Sphere and to go live her life with Naughn.
She refuses so Sloane says what is about to happen is her fault, then shoots Jack several times in the chest. Syd drops the sphere to rush to Jack's side. Arvin picks up the ball. Naughn and Jack overcome the henchmen. Syd then shoot Sloane in the chest several times. He collapses into the pool of red fluid. Sark grabs the sphere and escapes. He contacts Irina to tell her that he has the artifact. She tells him good and to bring it to her intact.
Syd has a flashback to telling Jack that she is working for Credit Dauphine. He tells her to quit and to just concentrate on her studies. She refuses and runs off.
Back outside on the surface, Naughn says that he is going to radio for a medivac helicopter. It will take a half an hour. Marshall report that Sark is going to meet with Irina. Mike comes back and tells Sydney that he’s learned that says Irina is ready to launch the nuclear missiles. Jack tells Sydney that she must stop Irina and that she's not one to make idle threats. Jack says he can hold out by himself, until medivac comes. Syd and he say they love each other. She and Naughn drive away. Jack stands up to show her that he is fine. But she knows he isn't. After the SUV drives away, Jack collapses.
Sark presents the sphere to Irina and talks about why he is so highly paid. Irina tell him to target atomic missiles on London and Washington. Shortly afterwards, Sydney shows up to confronts Irina for harming Naughn and the baby. Irina says she learned early that only power matters. Irina tells Syd that Irina is life. Sloane who is lying in the red fluid of the Circumference, has his wounds disappears. He sits up revived and cured.
Irina tells Sydney she gave her a way out of the business, giving her a daughter. Irina was hoping that Syd would settle down and leave her to her business. Sydney mocks that she doesn't know her very well. Irina says that she does know, since she is her mother. Syd says that doesn't mean anything to her anymore. She is through being disappointed with her. Irina says that she is disappointed that it has had to come to this, but Syd says that she supposes that it had to be. Irina says that she's come too far to let anything get in her way. Sydney replies that she'll have to get through her first to do it.
Sydney has a flashback to her promotion to be a SD-6 agent. Arvin complements her on her evaluation. and tells her that he is considering promoting her to field officer, but warns her that she has a romantic notion espionage of brush passes and dead drops. He warns that she'll be facing life or death choices regularly and they will haunt her for the rest of her life. Syd assures that she can, explaining that for as lonmg as she can remember, she has been searching for what she is supposed to do. She says this is her purpose and that it is in her blood. She has never been so sure of anything.
Back in the present, Irina's attacks sends Sydney flying against the wall. She pulls the cord from the lamp and strangles Syd with it. After slamming against a mirror, Sydney grabs a shard of glass and stabs her mother in the leg. Irina throws her through a glass table and then tries to stab Syd in the throat with it. She strikes her mother in the head with the Sphere to get free. They struggle and fall through the window to the rooftop patio. As they both lay stunned, Irina asks why she is fighting her, the defense satellites are already destroyed. Syd realizes that the prophesy of "The stars falling from the sky" are the defense satellites! Irina points out that even if Syd defeats her, it is too late for her to stop the missiles from launching.
Vaughn finds Sark and attacks him, knocking him to the floor.
In the cave, Arvin marvels at his reflection at being healed thanks to Rambaldi. The ghost of Nadia complements him for being right all along. He smiles and says that he'll never forget her sacrifice for him. He says the Horizon is gone, probably in her mother's hands. She says they should get moving. He tells her that they don't have to hurry. They have all of the time in the world now that he has been cured. Jack arrives to confront him.
Naughn wants the codes to stop the missiles, but Julian swears that he doesn't know them. So Naughn shoots him in the leg. Sark explains he never wanted mass extermination, but he wanted to be on the winning side as a businessman. He offers to give up the codes in exchange for being set free. Naughn demands the code first. He com-links the code to Marshall who stops the countdown 5 seconds from launch.
Jack has Sloane at gunpoint and is surprised that Arvin was correct about Rambaldi’s being able to overcome death, going against nature. Sloane wants to help stop Jack from dying. But Jack doesn't want help. He regrets the pain Sloane has caused Syd. Thinking that Arvin can’t be killed, Jack blows-up the cavern to keep Sloane in.
Sydney and Irina continue fighting. Irina is winning. She tells Syd that "For what it's worth, I really do love you" but she can’t let her stop her. Sydney fights back and Irina falls on the middle of a glass skylight. It creaks under her weight. Rambaldi’s sphere is just out of her reach. Sydney begs her mother to come reach for her hand, but Irina apologizes that she has to get the sphere. She goes after it and the window collapses. Irina falls to her death. She lies on the floor with a huge puddle of blood pour out of her body. Her eyes are open, but dead.
Sloane awakens in the cave, but is trapped under tons of rock. The ghost of Nadia comes, so Arvin finds minor consolation that he has her to keep him company. But she says that she is leaving him.
Roughly 5 or 7 years in the future, we see a little girl, a pregnant Sydney and Naughn walking on a beach. Young Isabelle rushes forward to greet her Uncle Marcus. Mike calls him Deputy Director and asks if him had a hard time finding where they lived. When Dixon says that it was nearly impossible, Naughn says that was the point of their location. They enter their beachfront home to have dinner. Marcus explains that he needs to ask Syd to come on a mission, saying that she probably misses the fun. When she says that she doesn’t want to, Dixon says that her incentive is to find Julian Sark. Little Isabelle heads to the bedroom and plays with the same 3D puzzle that Jack had called The Indicator. She assembles it, then knocks it down. She has the same skill that her mother has.
END
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A nearly perfect finale!
Though I didn't get my anti-Naughn wishes, I knew that the writers wouldn't dare have such a major twist. So this was nearly perfect. I rounded up to 10 even with some flaws.
I like the sad ending for Thomas, but he died knowing that Rachel would have said yes to him. He died a hero rather than through a senseless death like Nadia or as a victim like Renee.
I liked that we learned that Sydney was raised by Arvin and Emily after Jack went to jail and her mother was assumed dead. It explains Sloane's attachment to Syd. So why did it seem like Sydney never knew that/never mention that? If Syd had affection for Emily, she should have had some for Arvin. The scene where Syd was summoned by Arvin to tell her that she was under consideration for SD-6 field agent status, seemed strangely impersonal if he raised her until Jack was released.
Jack apologizing to Dixon about why he trusted Arvin made sense since he said that he trusted him with raising Sydney.
I can see how the Pro-Irina fans were disappointed that their belief in her was unjustified.
Many of the Jack fans have been saying for a long time that Irina was evil. I agreed. I said that Irina was more evil that Sloane because he regretted the bad things that he did, while she didn't. I posted somewhere that even evil people love their children, so Irina's love for Sydney wasn't enough to excuse her.
Sloane accidentally killed Nadia. Irina chose to try to kill Sydney.
I have a problem with Arvin shooting Jack. That was out of character of his lifelong friendship. I was hoping that we would learn that he was Jack's brother of some kind.
The writers threw logic out the window to satisfy fan desire for Sloane to be evil. Sydney threatened to destroy the ball. So how was shooting Jack supposed to help? There was no way to predict that Syd would drop the ball out of concern for Jack, so that he could get it. Merely shooting Jack in the leg would have had the same effect. Sloane merely gave her the incentive to shoot him in cold blood out of revenge. A mastermind like Arvin should have seen that outcome. Shooting Sydney directly would have achieved getting the sphere better for him.
I figured out that Sloane falling into that red fluid was going to heal him, but I didn't know that it would grant him near immortality/prolonged life. Fans hinted that Rambaldi, the clockmaker and the old prisoner had each gotten life extention, but that wasn't revealled in any episode, so it was jarring for Jack to conclude that Arvin couldn't be killed.
I was expecting Jack to revive and crawl into the fluid, but that didn't happen. I suppose that it was consistent with him not wanting anything to do with Rambaldi. The idea of Jack sacrificing himself in order to protect the world from Sloane and punishing him is consisent with his character.
Couldn't he have tested if Sloane was immune to gunshots before blowing himself up? Jack could have blown up the cave without dying in the process. He could have blown Arvin up to pieces with the explosive directly. I suppose that he intended Sloane to be trapped forever with the cave-in. But that also allows the possibility for Sark to find him (in a future Alias movie).
Jack went out a hero trapping Sloane and not giving in to the temptation bathing in the fluid as Arvin did. I would have preferred Jack taking the cure and then trapping himself in the cave with Sloane to guard him for eternity. That would have allowed the possibility of a future Alias movie too.
Irina's death scene. I like how it mirrored Sloane's falling through the stain glass floor when Nadia refused to retrieve the Sphere of Life for him. Nadia begged for her father to give up the sphere and come back to her. Sydney begged Irina to give up on the sphere and give her hand. Both loved their children, but they put their own needs first.
So Irina never had an explanation as to why she had the affair with Sloane. Arvin had said to Jack that Irina used the both of them. Arvin was telling the truth. Irina didn't have an excuse. Her saying that she hated Sloane was probably a lie.
The scene with little Isabelle going to her/Sydney's room was obvious. I could tell that she was going to assemble the 3D puzzle. Syd already said being an agent was in her blood.
