A Dark Turn

Episode Number: 2.17

Original Air Date: March 02, 2003

Summary:
Sark kills a former contact of Irina's, and Irina suggests that Sloane may be after a Rambaldi manuscript. She offers to meet with the man the manuscript belongs to, but also by bringing her out in the open, Sloane may fall for the bait that Irina has resurfaced. Kendall is hesitant to let Irina out and go off on her own, even though Jack is beginning to trust her more than he ever has. So we think.

Menahwhile, Syd is called into a meeting with Mitchell Yeager. he begins asking her very personal questions about her relationship with Vaughn. She asks what this is all about and Yeager revealls that Vaughn is being investigated for strange behavior. They think he's accessed an illegal program called "ICE" that could get him arrested for espionage. When Sydney refuses to believe this, Yeager asks if she and Vaughn are sleeping together. She refuses to answer him, and Yeager tells her that she could be arrested for obstructing justice if she doesn't cooperate. They want her to hack into his laptop computer and copy his files so they can find out if he's been using this program. She takes the disk, but doesn't want to do it.

Later she sees Vaughn at his desk after recieving a package- which he quickly shoves into his pocket. She pulls him aside and asks if he's hiding things from her. Vaughn is hurt that she would question his loyalty, but Syd questions what the package was that he shoved in his pocket. He pulls it out and reveals it to be his apartment key, which he was going to give to Sydney at dinner. He takes it back and Sydney feels horrible. Later, they make up and Syd apologizes for everything. He apologizes for snapping at her. He asks to take a shower and she tells him he never has to ask. She eyes his laptop computer and walks over.

Sydney meets with Yeager again and hands him back the disk, but she didn't copy Vaughn's computer. She refuses to betray the trust of someone she loves. yeager says, "I guess that answers the intimacy question."

She meets up with Weiss, who is also being questioned about Vaughn's past behavior.Apparently Vaughn's bank accounts have had strange activety and there's more evidence that he's using the ICE program. Weiss warns Sydney to find and warn Vaughn using CIA vehicle tracking because Yeager is planning on bringin Vaughn up on charges.

Irina and Jack travel to a shady nightclub. Irina meets with her contact and obtains the manuscript. Jack saves her life, killing a man who was about to kill Irina. Back at their hotel room, Irina confesses that she didn't even see the man behind her. She never would have slipped up like that before. They discuss how the only thing that ever really meant anything to them was Sydney. They stare at each other, then begin to kiss. Jack leans her back on the bed.

Because the manuscript operation went well, Sloane does find out about Irina's resurfacing and Kendall agrees to set up a meeting between Irina and Sloane. Irina meets with Sydney and tells her that she wanted to talk to her once more before going to meet with Sloane because she could be killed. Syd and Irina are both teary-eyed and Sydney won't say goodbye to her. Lter, with Jack in the van on route to meet Sloane, Irina asks Jack to remove the tracking device that was placed in her shoulder. If she is caught Sloane will kill her on the spot. Jack agrees.

Meanwhile, Francie is hypnotizing Will to get top secret CIA codes out of him. She needs the codes to access a CIA satellite that will oversee the meeting between Irina and Sloane. They need the CIA to be blinded.

Sydney finds Vaughn at a bar. She spys on him for a moment, seeing him meeting with a man. He gives Vaughn a file folder and Vaughn hands him an evelope that looks like it's full of money. Syd is heartbroken to think that Yeager was right and Vaughn is betraying the CIA. She walks right up to him. Vaughn sees her but doesn't say anything. Syd demands he give her a good explanation for his actions because she can't believe he was a traitor. He tells her he's not, but that because of the research he was doing, he didn't want to hurt her. He reveals that as much as everyone was beginning to trust Irina, he just couldn't. He saw Sydney getting closer and closer to Irina, and knowing what she'd done to his father, he couldn't let himself just accept that Irina was as innocent as she claimed she was. So he began secret investigation, on his own using his own money, to try and trace every action she's made since being arrested. He traced the time she was on the computer at CIA headquarters for any trace of her contacting anyone. He investigated any person she's spoken too, etc etc. Sydney asks if he found anything. he stares at her. Sark meets up with Irina. He asks her to get into his limo. The CIA begins to track the limo, but suddenly their satellites stop working and they loose her. We see Francie controlling the satellite using the info she got out of Will.

Vaughn stares and Sydney and says that despite all of his investigations, nothing has turned up. She really does seem to be innocent. He apologizes but he didn't want to hurt her by telling her he was investigating Irina despite how close she's come to her mother. Sydney looks relieved.

Without the tracker in Irina anymore, Sark brings Irina straight to Sloane, who is waiting casually in a van for her. "Thanks you for extracting me," she tells him, handing him the Rambaldi manuscript that she stole from the CIA. Jack tries to follow the van carrying Irina and Sloane, but he loses them. Kendall realizes that the real manuscript was replaced with pieces of paper. Kendall screams to Jack to find Irina using the tracking device, but he took it out, which was all a part of her plan. Jack finally realizes that Irina has planned this moment from the first day she walked into the CIA.