The Enemy Walks In

Episode Number: 2.01

Original Air Date: September 29, 2002

Written By: J.J. Abrams

Directed By: Ken Olin

Summary:
Last season on Alias, a whole lot of stuff happened. But more importantly, when we last left our favorite Spy Girl and Spy Boy, they were in deep doo doo and water – respectively.

Sydney, tied to a chair, wakes from an unconscious state only to discover she's being held by Alias's version of Boris Badenov – Mister Baddy himself, Alexander Khasinau. In a moment of humanity, Khasinau offers Sydney food, which she refuses. Instead, she plays a shortened version of Twenty Questions with her capture. Khasinau informs Syd she'll have to speak to his boss, The Man. Sydney is surprised as she's assumed Khasinau was The Man. After Khasinau leaves, a woman soon enters the room. A woman who is none other than Sydney's mother, Irina Derevko, aka Laura Bristow. Shock glooms across Sydney's perfect face and hence, the mother and child reunion is not what she expected.

Irina tells Sydney she must have known this day would come. This is a day Irina has waited for almost thirty years to happen. She continues to tell Sydney that all of this (the two of them meeting and Sydney learning the truth about her mother) could have been prevented when Syd was an infant…she was so small and helpless…it would have been so easy. Bad, bad Mommy Dearest and Sydney is not amused.

Irina questions Sydney. She wants to know who sent her (to Taipei and the Red Ball Room of Disasters and Untold Vaughn Fate), to which Sydney replies: "Or what? I'm grounded?" Heh. Whoops, wrong answer because Irina shoots Sydney in the shoulder and tells her she'll come back later when Syd's had time to make an attitude adjustment. It's at this point I heave a grateful sigh of relief that my family of origin was normally dysfunctional and none of this sick, twisted shit ever happened. Ya know?

Fast forward to present time LA, where Sydney is with CIA psychiatrist Doctor Barnett and the viewing audience realizes we're in for 42 minutes of retro story telling. Okay. Syd's shoulder is bandaged and she's informing Barnett she doesn't need help with her problems. The only thing that's important to her at the moment is finding Vaughn, who has been misplaced somewhere in Taipei. Barnett informs Sydney that she understands her frustration at not being part of the search team looking for Vaughn. However, as she's been ordered to see the In House shrink, she may as well comply. The first question in order is how did Sydney escape?

Sydney tells Barnett how she managed some pretty amazing physical gymnastics, especially with a bullet wound to the shoulder, to achieve her freedom. Barnett is amazed. The Audience is amazed. Sydney is amazed but says there's no better drug than an adrenaline. That is so good to know for those times I get kidnapped and shot in the shoulder. And who says network television can't be educational?

Syd continues to narrate her escape from Taipei and how she eventually was able to contact her father. Jack is safe with Will, but he hasn't seen Vaughn. Listening to their conversation, Will asks who Vaughn is. We'll tell you Will: Vaughn is the man you wish you were but will never be. And, he's seriously HOT. End of story. Find a new chick to drool over. Back to the story. Although Jack has ordered Syd to the airport, Sydney refuses to leave without Vaughn. Finding a HAZMAT suit, Sydney disguises herself, and her neon blue wig, and re-enters the warehouse where we last saw the Big Red Ball of Watery Demises. Through yet another set of flashback sequences, Sydney tells Barnett about the 'mission that went wrong' and why Vaughn cannot be located. The last time he was seen, he was stuck on the wrong side of the flood, drowning. The only trace of Vaughn found was his leather coat.

Flashback sequence continues with Syd in the plane with Jack and Will. Jack is attending to Sydney's wound and wants to know what happen to the guy who shot her. Sydney tells Jack that she was shot by her mother. Will, not understanding what he's just heard, exclaims "Your mother?!" Cute Will remark. Immediately following, Sydney's cell phone rings and it's Francie. Damn. That Sydney has some seriously good reception on her cell phone! Anyway, Francie's all worried about Will because he's been missing and the paper is running a huge story about Will and some group called SD-6. Sydney tells Francie she'll call her back and immediately asks Will what he wrote about SD-6. Surprised, Will asks Syd and Jack if they know what SD-6 is? Grave looks are exchanged by the father / daughter spy team.

Back in real time LA:

Barnett wants to know what Sydney told Will. Without going into a whole lot of espionage detail, Syd explains they (she and Jack) told Will the truth: That they're CIA agents working undercover in a global syndicate organization called SD-6. Barnett is curious if Will's article placed Sydney's cover at SD-6 in danger. Syd explains that any problems she faced with SD-6 were coming from another source: Dixon.

In another flashback scene, Sydney tells Barnett about Dixon's suspicions of her activities and that more than likely, Dixon has now reported her to Sloane and security section as a possible double agent. Since Jack was aware that this situation might arise, he tells Sydney that he'll take responsibility for her cover. In the mean time, Will is not going to have an easy time keeping himself alive.

Basically, Jack tells Will that in order to save his ass, he needs to lose any credibility and dignity he ever had, or ever hopes to have. You know, it's a damn shame Will has to go through this but the viewing audience has been warning his sorry ass about this for a long time. He wouldn't listen because he was incredibly stuck on being Syd's champion. Whatever dude. Now, you're an instant heroine addict but I'll get to that storyline momentarily.

In the mean time, and continuing with the endless flashback expositions, we see Jack telling Sloane he created Sydney's cover of "Freelance" in order to track Kasinau. Whatever. I still don't understand the story or why Sloane bought it, but he did. Next thing we know, Dixon is visiting Sydney, in a cell where she's being held by security section, feeling really bad that he doubted and mistrusted her. Poor Dixon.

Sydney is sprung free and she's off for a covert meeting with Weiss in the warehouse. Weiss explains that the team looking for Vaughn is doing all they can but as of yet, they haven't found him. Both Weiss and Sydney are bummed. Syd tells Weiss she's being sent to France by SD-6 to plant a bug in a phone line.

Here's the part where there's so many flash scenes between Syd's mission briefing with SD-6 and her meeting with Weiss, that I had to stop and take a dose of Dramamine before continuing to watch. Sloane wants Syd to enter the estate of Jean Marc Revais, a member of the French National Assembly, so they can listen into his phone conversations and gain info on Khasinau's now fractured organization. Revais is believed to be part of that group. Weiss tells Syd he'll get CIA op tech to make a delayed transmitter so the CIA can control what information SD-6 receives.

Back to the Present: Syd tells Dr Barnett that instead of finding Vaughn, she now needs to leave for France, (where she'll be thinking even more about Vaughn because that's where he was born.) Barnett is on a roll, however, with exposing raw wounds and asks Syd why she hasn't talked about her meeting with her long lost mom. Syd tells Barnett that her mother isn't worth dog crap only she explains this a lot more appropriate than me. With that, she leaves for France.

France: Khasinau is cutting into someone's forehead. WTF? Man, I'm getting serious flashbacks to the X-Files and Mulder's Alien Torture Chair. Whatever. Dr. Frankenstein, alias Khasinau, has some kind of medical lab where he's conducting experiments on all these people we don't care about. That is, until the camera angles on Vaughn and then we gasp and care a lot. Really. We are in serious care and concern mode right now because Vaughn cannot be harmed. Khasinau is about to cut into Vaughn's beautiful body when the phone rings! Great timing. Personally, that only happens at my house during dinner, but hey, this is Alias and we'll take what we can get. Vaughn is saved by the bell.

In the meantime, Syd parachutes onto Revais's estate, does what she's suppose to do in terms of her mission, and before leaving she spots a guest who really looks like this guy she saw in the Red Ball of Doom Warehouse. Syd must follow 'familiar looking man' to see where he goes. She sneaks into what looks like the basement, aka, Lab of Torture, and discovers all these bodies laying on gurneys. A guy on a gurney wakes up to see Sydney and grabs her, which in turn makes her gasp, which in turn stops Khasinau from returning to his surgical debauchery on Vaughn. Isn't it great how these things work out? Eventually, Khasinau discovers Syd and the two have a kick boxing fest. Khasinau wins and leaves Syd's not-so-unconscious body unattended as he goes to get help. Syd comes to her senses, sees an unconscious Vaughn and attempts to wake him. She quickly surmises that a touch or kiss won't get him up and going. She rummages the medical lab and in record time finds a vile of adrenaline. She also finds a syringe with this huge ass needle that she's going to plunge into Vaughn's beautiful chest. Vaughn wakes momentarily to tell her not to 'do that." Heh, heh. Damn, he's so cute. But she does and Vaughn is off that table in seconds. They hustle butt and get the hell out of Kasinau's lab of weirdness.

Once safely outside, they stop for a brief moment so Syd can explain their current adventure. Vaughn is buttoning up this chef's coat they must have found along the way and I'm yelling, "Don't! You don't have to button that shirt, Vaughn!" But he does and then asks Syd where they are. We're in France, dude! Clearly, Vaughn has some catching up to do but Syd can't stay because, well, she's on an SD-6 mission and Dixon is expecting her. Before they part, Vaughn says "You saved my life," and Syd looks upon him longingly. Awwwe. This is such a wonderful scene and one that really needs to watched in order to fully appreciate the magnitude of nice smiles, beautiful eyes and dimples. Syd and Vaughn gaze at each other for another all too brief second and Syd leaves. Bummer. No kiss yet.

We're back to the future again with Dr. Barnett. Sydney appears to be happy and Barnett's sharp perception picks up on this easily. Vaughn's been found, the mission was a success and life is good. Barnett asks how Will is doing and damn if that isn't the precursor for warp speed into the Jack and Will story line. Jack is prepping Will with a cover story. Basically he lets Will know this is happening so his life is spared. Will must state publicly that he's had an ongoing drug problem and his story about SD-6 is the result of his drug-induced delusion. In order to make the drug addiction story stick, Jack shoots Will up with heroine and sends him to a crack house that will soon be raided. The raid takes place, Will is arrested, and Francie comes to bail Will's faux druggie ass out of jail. Poor Will. Poor Francie…she's completely shocked. They leave the police station where Will makes a public statement to the press that he's a fraud and an idiot. Er, I mean addict. His life, as he knew it, is now gone.

Sydney is watching Will's fall from grace performance from SD-6. Sloane says he's sorry Will has to go through this, but hey, he gets to keep his life so it ain't all that bad. In his next breath, Sloane asks Sydney to speak at Emily's funeral.

Three's Company Homestead, otherwise known as Sydney's apartment: Will is in the bathroom throwing up, and Francie is worried and teary eyed. She tells Sydney that Will isn't doing too good (no shit!). Francie has to meet with a realtor so Sydney agrees to baby-sit Will in her absence. Will eventually leaves the bathroom and he and Sydney converse about life and all that's taken place.

New Scene / Flashback scene to how Vaughn escaped drowning in Taipei. He narrates that he was a swimmer, could hold his breath, and most of all, had a screwdriver in his pocket. He managed to escape through an air vent and thought he was home free when he was captured by one of Khasinau's henchmen. We see that Vaughn is narrating this story to Sydney in their warehouse meeting space. Sydney tells Vaughn she was frightened and thought he was dead. They exchange serious looks. Jack, Weiss and another agent interrupt their meeting. Jack announces they just received an intercepted call from one of Kasinau's operatives about an item they referred to as "The Bible." The Bible is this really important book that basically has everything about every person on the Who's Who list of the underworld and global conspirators. If Kasinau and Irina Derevko intend to rebuild their organization, they need this book. The CIA must go to a warehouse pier in Barcelona where The Bible will be given back to Kasinau.

Barcelona. The CIA gang, Vaughn, Weiss, Sydney, numerous other agents we don't know, are all there waiting in various locations on the dock for some action to go down. Khasinau and another operative arrive in separate vehicles to exchange The Bible. Before the CIA can intervene, shots are fired and all hell breaks loose. While the CIA is taking cover and attempting to figure out where the shots are being fired from, Khasinau escapes with the bible. Sydney follows. Weiss is shot in the neck and the CIA discovers there was a lone shooter (Irina Derevko) waiting for Kasinau on a roof. The shooter can't be found.

Sydney chases Khasinau into the warehouse where they have another kick boxing match only Syd wins this time. She's just about to retrieve the briefcase with The Bible when Sydney's mother comes in and forces Syd to surrender. Syd does as she's instructed and Derevko kills Khasinau. She then orders Sydney to the floor, makes her escape and leaves Sydney unharmed.

Return to LA.

Sydney speaks at Emily Sloane's funeral and immediately following Jack takes Sydney aside for a private conversation. He tells her the CIA had a walk-in a few hours ago. Irina Derevko has surrendered.