Episode 14: Nightingale
4/6/2005
Vaughn wakes up from a nightmare. Troubled, he tells Sydney
that they should stop pursuing his father's past. Syd insists
that they continue.
In a Siberian nuclear facility, two men lock an unconscious
prisoner into a test chamber, while a scientist observes behind
glass. When the prisoner wakes up, he realizes that he's the
subject of a gruesome experiment. His flesh melts and he dies
screaming.
Jack agrees to Syd's request for clearance on files relating
to Vaughn's father. Starting with one word - Nightingale -
from Bill Vaughn's journal, Syd discovers its connection to
Dr. Josef Vlachko. She also finds that he's currently working
with Hans Dietrich, a money launderer involved in weapons
sales who funneled over a million euros to an account labeled
Nightingale. Syd presses on with the search.
A wary Sloane asks Jack how much Sydney and Vaughn know about
Project Nightingale. Jack suggests that they tacitly let the
pair continue the search.
In a rogue operation, Syd and Vaughn go to Dietrich's beer
hall in Munich. Dressed as a beer maid, Sydney charms Dietrich.
Then they go back to his private office where she beats him
and rips out the hard drive from his computer. As guards arrive,
Syd and Vaughn fight their way out.
Back in Los Angeles, Vaughn secretly meets with a mysterious
man named Roberts, who knows about their "trip"
to Munich. Roberts says he'll give Vaughn info about his father
in exchange for the transformer coil from Project Nightingale.
Vaughn agrees, though he doesn't yet know what Nightingale
is. Before he leaves, Roberts gives him his contact information
and the name "Philip Burke" as a lead.
Jack invites Sydney out for dinner to learn more about their
acquired intel. Sydney says that Vlachko is running Project
Nightingale in an abandoned nuclear plant and using humans
as test subjects for experiments. Jack tries to convince Sydney
to bring this intel to APO.
Sloane tells Jack that due to Vlachko's ties with Elena Derevko,
he needs to send a strike team to Siberia. Jack says they
should wait for Sydney to willfully bring this to APO. Once
she does, Jack will join the mission so he can interrogate
Vlachko without Syd and Vaughn's knowledge. Sloane advises
Jack to eliminate Vlachko because he can alert Elena about
their agenda-or worse, talk to Sydney.
Vaughn tells Sydney about Philip Burke: he was killed the
same day that Bill Vaughn was supposedly killed, and his dental
records are identical to Bill Vaughn's. Vaughn also says that
he met with Roberts, who wants the transformer coil. Syd suggests
they bring this operation to APO, then acquire the coil through
a rogue countermission. After they report to APO, Jack says
that he'll join them in the retrieval of the transformer coil.
After infiltrating the Siberian nuclear facility, Jack shuts
down security while Vaughn and Sydney run toward the test
chamber. Sydney enters the chamber to retrieve the coil inside
the nuclear reactor's containment shield. A guard arrives
and shoots at Vaughn, destroying the control panel in the
process. Syd is trapped inside as the nuclear reactor starts
counting down. After Vaughn's failed attempts to stop the
reactor, Marshall says another way to stop this is through
the removal of fuel rods from the core.
Meanwhile, Jack finds and interrogates Vlachko. Upon hearing
that Sydney's life is in danger, Jack shoots Vlahcko and heads
toward the nuclear core to remove the fuel rods. Marshall
advises Jack against this as he tries his best to bypass the
system.
Suddenly, the nuclear reactor shuts down. Syd walks out the
chamber and hands the coil to Vaughn. After they kiss, Vaughn
punches Sydney and runs away with the coil as Syd watches
him go. Sydney then goes to Jack and tells him that Vaughn
took the coil from her.
Jack and Sloane discuss Sydney and Vaughn's deceit. Later,
Marshall realizes that Jack shut down the reactor himself.
Jack tells Marshall that his daughter's life depended on it
and demands that his actions remain a secret.
- description from ABC.com
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