Hey kids! It’s Michaelaneglo here. Sorry about the lack of an article last week, but I was in the hospital for a few days. So I figured I’d recap last week’s episode as well as this one. Before we get started, I figured I’d throw a shout out to John Duran, who recaps Hour 1 of the Wednesday Bad Robot lineup, Lost. If you’re not watching Lost, why not?
I’ve made a slight alteration to how I’ll be doing this. Instead of doing a full-out transcription of every little thing that happened, I’m going to be doing more of a recap, then going over what it was I liked and disliked about the episode.
Episode 3: The Awful Truth
We open in the Bahamas, where Sidney and Marshall go undercover into a Bahamina bank, where they meet with the bank president, who takes them to his office. Vaughn and Dixon are in the bank lobby and stage a mock fight that requires the manager’s presence. While he is away, Marshall and Sidney break into the manager’s vault and get an account code.
Back in LA, Sidney is throwing a birthday party for Weiss at her place. Jack shows up and tells Sidney that her mission bore fruit, as they have tracked down the account holder. Sidney says Jack could have told her that at the briefing the next day. Jack asks Sidney if it’s true that Nadia is living with her, and Sidney says yes. Sidney tells Jack that she plans to tell Nadia that Jack killed Irina. Jack asks her if that’s wise, considering that Nadia’s sworn to kill the person who killed Nadia, and Sidney says better that Nadia find out from Sidney than someone else.
Back at APO, Sloane briefs the crew. He tells them that the account belongs to Martin Bishop, a British ex-pat living in Spain. He’s stolen a computer, called the Valta, from the NSA and plans to sell it to a German terrorist crew. Sidney’s mission is to either recover or destroy the Valta, but under no circumstances is it to fall into the hands of the German group. After the meeting, Sloane thanks Sidney for letting Nadia stay with her, and tells her that Nadia won’t be going on the mission. She will be having some psych tests done with Jack. Sidney gets suspicious and talks to Jack, who says he’s come to terms with Sidney telling Nadia he killed Irina, but thinks she should wait until after the mission.
Sidney, Vaughn, Dixon, and Marshall head to Spain, where Sidney infiltrates Bishop’s house by staging a car accident. Bishop drives by the accident and pulls Sidney out of the van she’s flipped. After she lets him know she’s on the run from someone, Bishop lets Sidney rest at his house. When he leaves to attend to some business, Sidney hacks into a server in Bishop’s basement and transmits the location of the Valta to Vaughn, who relays it to Sloane. But before Sidney can make her escape, Bishop comes back.
Meanwhile, back at APO, Jack has been running Nadia through an exhaustive battery of psychological tests. When he’s done, Sloane tells him that Sidney found the location of the Valta and Langley’s dispatched a team to recover it, but Sidney is still in the house with Bishop and can’t leave. Jack says he’s going to Spain and taking Nadia with him. Sloane asks Jack if he’s learned what he needed to know and Jack says he’s learned enough to deal with the problem at hand.
At the Alameda Yards in Spain, a CIA team led by Weiss destroys the Valta but wind up in a gunfight with Bishop’s men. Bishop learns of the raid and discovers that someone accessed the server in his house. Vaughn and Dixon go into Bishop’s house to extract Sidney but the house is empty. Marshall manages to track Bishop down by his cell phone and they all head out to find him.
In the air on the way to Spain, Jack talks to Nadia and tells her he doesn’t blame her for Irina’s unfaithfulness. He hands her a set of classified documents to read before they liase with Vaughn.
Back in Spain, Bishop has both Sidney and Weiss hostage. Weiss is perturbed to find out that Sidney is still CIA, but he’s not really surprised. Bishop is planning to offer Weiss and Sidney to the Germans as a goodwill gesture for the loss of the Valta, but the Germans don’t find that very equitable. Sidney’s able to break free of her restraints and overpowers the guard. She frees Weiss and they take off after Bishop. Weiss runs into Vaughn as Vaughn is infiltrating the warehouse they were being held in, and is similarly unsurprised to see Vaughn’s still CIA as well.
Sidney tracks down Bishop, who is preparing to drive away. She jumps on top of the car and shoots Bishop through the roof. When Bishop gets out of the car he has the drop on Sidney, but before he can shoot her he takes bullets in the back and falls to the ground. The shooter is none other than Nadia, who walks up to Bishop and empties her clip into him. When Sidney looks at Nadia in shock, Nadia says that Bishop is the man that killed their mother.
Back at APO, Weiss has been made the newest member of the team. Sidney confronts Jack, who admits that he gave Nadia fake classified documents that made it look like Bishop killed Irina. Sidney says Jack manipulated Nadia, but Jack says he gave her closure. He says a satisfying lie can do more good than the awful truth.
The Good – Once again, Jack Bristow shows us why he’s the baddest man on the planet. And this time he didn’t even have to pull his gun. The way he manipulated Nadia, without even the slightest shred of remorse, was brilliant. If they ever cancel Alias, I’d love to see a spin-off of just Jack, walking the Earth like Kane in Kung-Fu.
The Bad – Conversely, just how stupid is Nadia? What valid reason would Martin Bishop, a master thief, have to kill Irina? That question never crossed her mind? I know that the psych tests Jack gave her showed Nadia had some impulse issues, but that was a bit ridiculous. This had better not be all we get about the contents of the safety deposit box from last year, because if all there was was Jack getting permission to pop Irina, and then this was the resolution, I’m gonna be pissed.
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Episode 4: Ice
We’re in a Middle Eastern bazaar, where a man is repeating to himself, “My bird is missing.” Vaughn walks up to him, tells him it’s “I’ve lost my canary,” and sends him up to meet with Sidney. As Vaughn is on guard duty, he’s distracted by a woman who reminds him of Lauren. Sidney meets with the man and asks him if he has the weapon and he says he had to swallow it. Vaughn notices some men entering the bazaar and tells Sidney, who says it’s time for plan B, grabs the man, and heads out. They are attacked but fight them off, but before they can get out of the bazaar one of the men shoots the smuggler in the leg, which literally shatters into pieces. Sidney and Vaughn drag the smuggler into the van Weiss is driving, but before they can get him in he is shot again and explodes into a million shards.
Back at APO, Vaughn shows up and runs into Sidney, who notices Vaughn looks pretty haggard. She asks him if he’s OK, and he says he’s fine. It’s just not every day you see someone shatter into a million pieces. They go to the briefing, where everyone’s still in a bit of shock from the events at the bazaar. Marshall explains that what the shatteree swallowed was called Ice 5. It freeze-dries whatever it comes into contact with. The container the smuggler swallowed leaked, freezing him from the inside out. The smuggler, whose name was Modell, spent the last nine months working as a relief worker in Montenegro. He discovered Ice 5 was being developed by a man named Fenton Keene, who was once one of the world’s most wanted men but claims to have gone legit. Sidney is being sent in posing as a relief worker from the UK. She is told this isn’t a tactical mission. Go in, get the Ice, and get out.
Vaughn is in the coffee room getting a cup of java. Jack walks in and pours himself a cup. He asks Vaughn if he’s OK, and Vaughn says he keeps seeing Lauren. Vaughn asks Jack if that happened to him. Jack said it used to, but now it doesn’t.
Back at Sidney’s place, Sidney is packing for her mission. Nadia notices a pile of photos of Irina. Sidney says she lost all her old pictures of Irina in a fire, so she got those from Jack. Nadia notices a black and white photo of Irina holding a baby. She asks Sidney if she knows who the baby in the picture is and Sidney says no. Nadia says the only photos she’s ever seen of Irina are the ones in her file. Vaughn shows up and Sidney leaves for her mission.
At Sava hospital in Montenegro, Sidney is paired with Kiera, the head nurse. She says she hopes Sidney isn’t squeamish. She’s gone through nine relief workers in six weeks. Sidney reassures her that she’ll be OK. For her first job, Kiera gives her a jar of lube and tells her she’ll have to grease a man suffering from cirrhotic arthropathy head to toe.
Back at APO, Nadia is admiring a set of photos of Marshall’s son. Marhsall begins to regale her with tales of his son, but Weiss interrupts and says they need to determine what forms Ice 5 could take and who would attempt to make a purchase. Nadia says they should then offer Ice 5 for sale themselves to see who would be interested in purchasing it. As she leaves to get to work, Weiss reminds Marshall that he’s married.
Back at the hospital, Sidney is searching the supply room for signs of Ice 5. Kiera walks in and asks Sidney what she’s doing and Sidney says she was searching for a purchase order because they were low on syringes. Just then, a group of soldiers enters the hospital with one of their members on a stretcher. Kiera attends to them and one of the soldiers says in a foreign language that the soldier was holding the container when their jeep was hit. Kiera takes them to a locked room and swipes a card and enters a code on the keypad. When Sidney tries to follow, Kiera tells her to go back to her inventory.
Back at APO, Jack tells Nadia to eliminate two groups from her list but the rest is good. Nadia shows Jack the picture of Irina holding the baby and asks him if he knows who the baby is. Jack asks her where she got the photo and Nadia says from Sidney. Jack says there’s nothing to tell.
Vaughn uplinks to APO, where Jack and Sloane say that there appears to be no link between Kiera and Fenton. They need to make a copy of Kiera’s keycard, so Dixon punches Vaughn a few times to split his eyebrow. Vaughn goes to the hospital dressed as a Catholic priest, where he’s treated by Sidney. Kiera takes over, and as Sidney leaves she slips Kiera’s keycard out of her pocket and gives it to Dixon, who takes it and makes a copy, then gives it to Sidney. Sidney breaks into the locked room and finds samples of the Ice.
Meanwhile, Kiera is treating Vaughn, who says he got beat up by some people who didn’t care for his sermon. While she is treating him, Fenton comes into the room. Kiera pulls him to the side and says they had an agreement, and Fenton says he came to visit his injured soldier. Fenton tells Kiera she should be nicer to her big brother and leaves. Vaughn says her brother seems nice and Kiera says he must be new there.
Fenton and his troops enter the locked room. Sidney hides from them and notices some large canisters with Russian writing on the sides. She looks through the window to the room that Fenton entered and sees doctors testing the Ice 5 on human guinea pigs. Later, they contact APO to file their report. Sidney says they need to shut down the lab but Jack says they’re not a tactical team. Vaughn says they can use Kiera to help them.
Vaughn goes to a pub dressed as the priest and Kiera shows up and sits with him. Vaughn says that Kiera seems burdened by something, her brother maybe. Kiera says she feels trapped, and Vaughn says she can leave. Kiera says it’s not that simple, she owes her brother her life. Vaughn says he knows what it feels like to be trapped. He tells her that, before he was a priest he was married. His wife betrayed him and a lot of other people. He was consumed with hatred until he finally killed her. He has to carry that guilt with him for the rest of his life. Kiera says that forgiveness is a tricky thing, and she wishes there was a way out. Vaughn tells her he can help her.
Back at APO, Nadia delivers a report to Sloane. She shows him the photo of Irina and the baby and asks him if he knows who the baby is. Sloane says Irina was a private person and his relationship with her was brief.
At the hospital, Vaughn and Kiera go into the locked room. Kiera asks Vaughn who he is, and Vaughn tells her he can make her brother go away. Vaughn says if Kiera helps him he will protect her from her brother. Fenton shows up at that point and says he can’t wait to hear the details. He straps Vaughn down to a gurney and asks him if he really thought he could get his own sister to betray him. Fenton says they’ve experimented with Ice 5 in various forms. They rejected liquid because it was too unstable, but he’s curious how it would work if it was injected straight into the brain. He gives Kiera a syringe of Ice 5 and orders her to inject it through Vaughn’s eye. All of a sudden, Sidney breaks into the room and knocks Kiera over. She fights off Fenton and cuts Vaughn loose. Fenton grabs the syringe and swings at Vaughn but stabs Kiera in the chest. Sidney knocks Fenton out. Vaughn attends to Kiera, who tells Vaughn she forgives him and then dies.
Back at APO, Jack tells Nadia that Fenton’s in custody and Sidney is safe. He asks her if he can see the photo again and Nadia gives it to him. He tells Nadia that Irina told him that was her niece, and that holding the baby made her want to have children of her own. He says it was probably a lie she made up to draw him in, but he chooses to believe it because he saw her hold Sidney the same way, and he’s sure she probably held Nadia the same way as well. He tells her that everyone needs their own sense of closure. He gives her the picture and leaves, and Nadia begins to cry.
On the plane back to LA, Sidney tells Vaughn that she heard him talking to Kiera and wants him to know that he can talk to her whenever he wants. He tells her thanks. She says that when they get back he should spend the night, but Vaughn has fallen asleep and didn’t hear her.
The Good – This was a pretty Vaughn-centric episode, and it was good to see him dealing with the ramifications of killing Lauren. In a lot of shows, killing is a casual thing, and I liked how we see that taking a life does indeed have repercussions. Also, we get to see that Jack does indeed have a conciliatory side to him. He has no love for Nadia, but for him to take the opportunity to give her some comfort was a nice touch.
The Bad – Once again, we’re another episode into the season and no attempt has been made to tie up any of the loose threads from the previous seasons. Four episodes and there’s only been one passing reference to Rimbaldi? You spent three seasons building this mythos and now we’re ignoring it?
OK, kids. I’ll be back next week with Episode 5, “Welcome to Liberty Village”. In the meantime, your homework assignment: who’s the most bad-ass Jack on TV, Jack Bristow or Jack Bauer? Email me with your answers and opinions and I’ll put them in next week’s column.
