Episode 18: Masquerade
Sydney
has traveled to Mt. Subasio in Italy, following her underwater
escape. She scales the mountain -- thereby proving that she
is not the subject of the Rambaldi prophecy -- and once at
the top, she uses a satellite phone to call the FBI and turn
herself in.
Upon her
return to the States, her father explains that the CIA is
still investigating the Prophecy, but they are now searching
for her mother. Jack also confirms that, according to a CIA
investigation after Laura's car crash, a special commission
concluded that she had escaped alive...and that Sloane, who
was on this committee, had been keeping the truth from him
for many years.
Sydney
is now determined to find her mother, and she meets privately
with Sloane to ask for his help, and insists upon a leave
of absence. He agrees...but to her surprise the following
day, he assigns her onto a mission to retrieve material about
Alexander Khasinau.
.When
Sydney protests -- reminding Sloane that she wants to find
her mother first -- he explains that Khasinau was Laura Bristow's
superior at the KGB. Dixon and Sloane are to fly to Vienna
and rendezvous with an undercover agent stationed at the Russian
embassy. The agent, Wexler, has a microchip with valuable
information about Khasinau's organization.
Wearing
a mask, Sydney attends a masquerade ball at the embassy. Another
man, also wearing a mask, whispers to her that Wexler is dead
and that they are both now in jeopardy. In private, the masks
are dropped. The man is Noah Hicks, an SD-6 agent whom she
dated years ago.
Together,
they make it to the basement and find Wexler's corpse. Suspecting
that he swallowed the microchip to keep it hidden, they cut
the chip out of the body. With enemy agents in hot pursuit,
Sydney and Dixon extract Noah from Vienna and make their escape.
On the
plane home, Sydney asks Noah why he left five years earlier
without saying good-bye. It becomes clear that their separation
was the result of a misunderstanding, before Hicks had to
be transferred out of the States...
That evening,
Francie borrows Sydney's coat and discovers a ticket stub
for a trip...to Italy. Sydney said she had flown to Seattle,
so she and Will contemplate an explanation for the mysterious
ticket, and speculation fills the air... Is she having an
affair? Why would she lie to her friends? ...and they resolve
to confront her about this.
Meanwhile,
Jack -- after learning that his wife is still alive -- is
furious that Sloane kept the truth from him for this long.
He tries to console himself with drink, until Sydney finds
him in a local tavern in the middle of the afternoon. She
informs him that Devlin has ordered him to visit Dr. Barnett,
the agency psychiatrist... and the wall, between father and
daughter, goes up once again.
Following
orders, Jack visits Dr. Barnett. She is a shrewd judge of Jack's
character, and does not believe that he is being truthful, with
her or with himself... She asks that he visit her once a week.
After
the microchip is analyzed at SD-6, Sydney and Noah are sent
to the Arkhangelsk forest in Russia. In an underground complex,
below a ranger station, is a computer with information about
Khasinau's organization. They break into the complex to steal
the data-core from the computer. Sydney also uses this opportunity
to confirm background on her mother.
The data-core
is kept under sub-zero conditions in a cryo-chamber, and Sydney
must don a protective suit to access it. During the invasion,
one of Khasinau's men triggers a large, robotic lever-arm
-- and knocks her to the ground, cracking her helmet -- and
Noah must rescue her before she succumbs to the paralyzing
cold. Sydney and Noah narrowly escape with the core, and make
it to a cabin -- a remote SD-6 safehouse. With hours to kill
before they are rescued, they discover that their passion
has not been extinguished.
- description
from ABC.com
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