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Airdate: January 5, 2005 Written by J.J. Abrams and Jeff Melvoin, Directed by Ken Olin Cast: Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow, Victor Garber as Jack Bristow, Ron Rifkin as Arvin Sloane, Michael Vartan as Michael Vaughn, Carl Lumbly as Marcus Dixon, Mia Maestro as Nadia Derevko, Kevin Weisman as Marshall Flinkman and Greg Grunberg as Eric Weiss Main Guest Stars: Angela Bassett as Hayden Chase, Robert Patrick Benedict as Brodien, Karl Hamann as Komorov and Rick Yune as Kazu Tamazaki Season four begins as a door opens and Sydney appears walking in slow motion to the song “At Last” (the most appropriate song ever because really! it’s been over 6 moths since the last episode!). Clad only in some skimpy white lingerie and short blonde wig she continues into the room. We see that she is sharing a sleeper car on a train with a nerdy looking guy with a Russian accent. She starts to flirt with him, speaking with some sort of Slavic accent and it becomes clear that she wants him to open a briefcase that contains, as the nerdy guy brags in an effort to impress the woman he is hoping to score with, a very dangerous chemical. She demands that he open it so that she can see and, foolishly, he does telling her, “vat is inside can be used for good or evil.” “Open it,” she commands, “I vant to see everyting.” He finishes opening the briefcase, exposing the canister of the as yet unnamed but undoubtedly dangerous chemical. Sydney pauses, seemingly distracted and then knocks the man unconscious. She quickly grabs the canister, changes into more suitable attire, handcuffs the unconscious man and exits the sleeper car in time to be spotted by a sinister Henchman with a gun. She immediately turns and runs down the hall in the opposite direction as Henchman #1 gives chase. They run through the train cars until they come to the luggage area where Henchman #1 loses her only to be hit from behind as Sydney drops down from the ceiling. As they fight the train door comes open and Henchman # 1’s gun goes hurtling out to be crushed against the tracks. Henchman #1 whips out a knife and as they continue to fight Sydney falls out. She manages to grab on to some straps that look as though they are used for holding the luggage in place. Henchman #1 starts cutting through the straps with his knife. One gone! Two gone! The train is going over a bridge as the tracks flash by! The third strap is almost gone! Cut to…. 72 hours earlier. Shanghai. Running feet! A man in a suit runs through the crowd as Sydney appears behind him wearing a schoolgirl outfit complete with short black wig, plaid skirt and knee socks. The man and Sydney are actually working together and she yells at him, “Turn here!” as we see that they are being pursued by a group of Asian mafia types. They enter a goth club and head to the bathroom. The man in the suit (whose name is Brodien) demands answers and Sydney shortly tells him, “We’ve been compromised” as she reaches under the sink and pulls out a package that contains guns and a communications device. She contacts someone named “Shopkeeper” and tells him that his cover has been blown and they’ll meet him at a train yard in twenty minutes. Shopkeeper begins to respond but is cut off by the sounds of pounding and begins yelling, “They found me! They found me!” There are scuffling noises, gunshots and then a creepy voice comes over the comlink: “Hello Sydney Bristow. I heard about what you’re wearing. I like it.” Sydney demands to know what he wants and the Creepy Voice tells her he’s tracking her radio signal. She thrusts the comlink under the faucet as Brodien whines some more about wanting to know what is going on. “Do what I say or you’ll die,” Sydney snaps. She transforms him into a goth/punk with some black gunk from the windowsill as make-up (“Ow! That burns!”). She then takes her earring out and tells him, “It’s the details that matter. Try not to scream,” as she pierces his ear (Ouch!). She rips his shirt, wraps his belt around his neck and prepares to send him back into the club telling him, “You’ve got to strut out of this club.” He asks what she’s going to do. Sydney opens the bathroom door and asks the woman, who has been banging on the bathroom door this whole time, how badly she has to go as she hauls her inside. Seconds later Brodien emerges as we see the mafia men searching through the crowd and then Sydney comes out wearing the outfit and blonde wig of the woman she pulled into the bathroom. Both make it out of the club safely and cut to…. Los Angeles. Sydney sits across from Brodien and Angela Bassett, I mean Hayden Chase, her new supervisor, as they debate over what went wrong in the Shanghai operation. Brodien has lodged a complaint against Sydney’s behavior and Chase questions why Sydney tried to extract Agent Strum (Shopkeeper) when her mission objective was simply to pick up surveillance photos from Brodien. Sydney counters that the photos were taken by Strum and his cover was already blown so she made a judgment call. Chase calls this supposition and they begin talking over each other until Sydney snarks, “You do understand that things don’t always go as expected when you’re in the field.” Chase comes right back saying, ”Even for you, Agent Bristow, your arrogance today is appalling.” Sydney backs off a little and says that she doesn’t mean to lecture Agent Chase…but “It’s been twelve years since you’ve been field rated.” Oh no you didn’t just call Angela Bassett old! Awkward silence….and then Chase coldly tells Sydney that her poor judgment cost a man his life. There is more debate over Sydney’s actions ending with Chase concluding that Sydney suffers from a “systemic dysfunction” as well as “a psychological need to challenge authority.” She will recommend that Sydney be stripped of classified clearance and transferred to a desk job. Sydney does not take this well and states, “I will no longer burden this agency with the hazard of my participation.” Before leaving she gives Brodien a disgusted look because he is a little twerp. Washington D.C. Agent Vaughn works out some aggression on a punching bag until Weiss comes up to talk to him. They go to the locker room to chat and I’m hoping that Vaughn will take his shirt off at some point in this exchange, but alas, it is not to be. Weiss asks if Vaughn is ok after all the psyche evaluations and says that burning his house down might have been a little extreme. Vaughn says that it was not a happy home and asks Weiss to see how rational he would be if he had just killed his wife after learning that she was a vicious killer and double-agent. I think he has a point there as does Weiss who simply offers to let Vaughn stay with him for a while and says that he’s there for him. Vaughn says he’s leaving the CIA….”because last year sucked” (which, yes…and I think it’s great that the writers acknowledge this by giving him this line). Also Vaughn doesn’t have the desire to do the job anymore. Weiss thinks this has something to do with Sydney which Vaughn denies. Weiss then tells him that Sydney had her review today and she quit. Undisclosed Location. Sydney walks through a subway station and makes her way to a door marked Authorized Personnel Only. She opens it with a key card and once inside pulls some switches to open another door that leads into a secret underground operations center. Agent Chase stands at the end of the hallway and welcomes Sydney to her new job. They exchange some friendly words letting the audience know that both their confrontation at the evaluation meeting and the entire Shanghai operation were completely set up so that Sydney could join this new supersecret black ops branch of the CIA. Sydney thanks Agent Chase for giving her this opportunity for a fresh start. She tells Chase that in the past year she has had some problems involving “my father, Vaughn, irrelevant personal stuff.” Chase tells her, “This assignment will be a challenge for you…more than you were led to believe.” The door opens to reveal Dixon, her father and Vaughn. Chase tells Sydney that they were all handpicked for this operation. “Handpicked by whom?” Sydney wonders…and dunh dunh duuuunhh! Sydney turns to see her arch nemesis, Arvin Sloane. “This is exciting,” he says somewhat creepily. Sydney is clearly less than pleased with this development and asks to have a word with Agent Chase. Sydney describes Sloane as “a criminal psychopath beyond verbal description” but Chase assures her that Sloane is the right man for the job and is being closely monitored. The agency believes that Sydney herself along with Dixon, Vaughn and Jack Bristow are just the people qualified to keep an eye on Sloane. Sydney tries to protest but Chase lays down the law saying, “Now that’s it. This is your assignment.” Yeah, nothing could go wrong here. Credits. Finally. First official meeting of the new supersecret black ops unit or APO (Authorized Personnel Only). Sloane explains that the group was formed because there was a need for a “covert unit…governed by U.S. laws but unhampered by bureaucratic chain of command with no accountability except to ourselves.” Basically the U.S. government wants their own SD-6. Their first assignment is to track down the Russian scientist Yuri Komorov (the nerdy guy from the train) who has the world’s only sample of a certain unstable chemical isotope. He plans to sell the chemical to an undoubtedly unsavory character while on a train between Latvia and Belarus. Vaughn will pose as Komorov in order to intercept the buyer and sell him a bogus chemical with a tracking device attached. Luckily they’ve intercepted the protocol of the meeting. It will take place in the dining car and there will be a green fountain pen on the table (Aw, kind of like a blind date for super spies). Meanwhile Sydney will secure the chemical and the real Komorov. Sydney will have to get Komorov to open the case himself as he often equips them with self-destruct mechanisms. Sydney asks Sloane if he has any suggestions for how she should do this to which he smarms, “I assume you’ll think of something interesting.” Dixon will act as backup. Sloane asks if there are any questions and Sydney responds, “Besides how’d you get this job?” She leaves the room in a hurry saying she has to prep for the mission. In their office Sydney and Dixon discuss how deceitful it was of the CIA not to tell them of Sloane’s involvement in APO. Both weigh the option of walking away with their sense of duty to stay and keep an eye on Sloane. Speak of the devil…the man himself interrupts and says he realizes their reluctance to work with him but believes that they were once and can again be a great team. Yeah that shouldn’t be a problem considering Sloane had Sydney’s fiancé and Dixon’s wife both murdered. He asks them to give him a chance and then exits. Both Sydney and Dixon look skeptical. Sydney says, “one thing makes up for all this: having you as my partner again.” They have a nice little moment. Aw, I love Sydney and Dixon together. Sydney is at her new house packing for the trip. The doorbell rings and its Vaughn. “I miss you. I wanted to say that I miss you.” Sydney hasn’t been returning Vaughn’s calls. She doesn’t want to jump right into this relationship before dealing with the past few years. Apparently they need to take it slow. Vaughn agrees but looks disappointed On a train somewhere in Belarus. Sydney walks into Komorov’s room and starts to make herself at home. He speaks to her sharply in Russian and she pretends to be startled. He claims that this is his room while she says it is her’s. They compare tickets and find that they are both in the right room. The ticket agent must have made a terrible mistake! In the dining car Vaughn scopes out the tables looking for the green pen. He sits down across from Rick Yune…or rather, mysterious Asian Guy, who tells him that he’s early. Actually, according to imdb.com Rick Yune played a guy named Johnny Tran in The Fast and the Furious so that’s what I’m going to call him for now because that is an awesome name. Back in the sleeper car Komorov and Sydney decide to share the room as Sydney admits that she is slightly tipsy. She stretches her arms, thrusting her chest into his face, and asks “is there place for changing?” He directs her to the bathroom. She breezes past him saying, “You are cute” and caresses his face. And so he mentally begins to compose his letter to Penthouse…I know this sounds unbelievable but every word of this story is true… Meanwhile back in the dining car Vaughn and Johnny Tran begin to make their exchange. Johnny Tran tests the sample Vaughn gives him while back in the sleeper car Sydney parades around in her underwear. Komorov is entranced. In the dining car Vaughn and Johnny Tran complete their transaction and Johnny Tran tells Vaughn that he will get the rest of his payment when his employer, Mr. Vadik, is satisfied with the authenticity of the chemical. Sydney continues to charm Komorov in footage which we’ve seen before at the beginning of the episode. Johnny Tran tells Vaughn that he looks familiar. Uh oh! Vaughn covers by saying that he looks like a famous hockey player but Johnny Tran only says, “No, that’s not it.” A tense moment and then…commercials! Vaughn and Johnny Tran continue to stare at each other as Vaughn searches desperately for some way to keep his cover intact. Henchman #2 comes over as Johnny Tran says, “I don’t know where you’re from but you’re not Komorov. I’m getting off the train a little early.” A helicopter flies into view out the window, presumably his early exit. Johnny Tran orders Henchman #2 to find out who Vaughn is (and I assume this will probably involve more than simply looking through his wallet). Johnny Tran leaves the table and has a chat with Henchman #1 who then exits the dining car. Vaughn whispers into his comlink to Sydney that their cover is blown. This is where Sydney seemed distracted in the footage at the beginning and then knocked Komorov out. We see her exit the sleeper car and the subsequent pursuit of Henchman #1. Meanwhile Vaughn is being taken to another sleeper car by Henchman #2. Once there Vaughn proceeds to kick Henchman #2’s ass even though #2 is much bigger than him and throws him around like a rag doll for much of the fight. I think Vaughn’s lucky that he’s been left with #2 because Johnny Tran would have totally messed him up. At the same time Sydney battles Henchman #1 in the luggage car and is knocked out of the train. Vaughn finally ends his fight by beating #2 over the head with a metal coffee pot muttering an incredulous “are you kidding?” as #2 refuses to go down despite repeated blows to the head. #2 finally loses it and Vaughn is off and running down the hall to find Sydney. He bursts into the luggage car just as #1 is about to cut the final strap and send Sydney to certain death beneath the wheels of the train. Vaughn manages to throw #1 out of the train instead and helps Sydney clamber back aboard. They hug. Aw. Back at Sydney’s house they take things slow by having sex. Afterwards both seem a little unsure if they’ve made a mistake or not. Commercials. Back in the bedroom of post-coital awkward silences, Vaughn interrupts the silence with an even more awkward question about what is up with Sydney and her dad. He informs her that before they left for Belarus, Jack had given him a message for her and he wants to know why Jack is communicating to her through him. He knows that it stems from something she saw on her trip to Wittenburg and asks what happened. Flashback to Sydney opening safe deposit box 1062 in Wittenburg and reading some documents. We all remember this scene from last season. We see a page that identifies Sydney as a participant in Project Christmas with Jack Bristow as her case manager and then see Sydney crying as she reads through the other pages. Suddenly Jack is at the door saying, “Sydney, you were never supposed to have found this.” End flashback. “You want to tell me what happened in Wittenburg?” Vaughn asks. “No actually I don’t,” she replies getting up from the bed. Hm, that didn’t go well. Back in APO Sloane informs us that Johnny Tran actually works for Roman Vadik, one seriously bad dude. “Close personal contacts” have informed Sloane that Vadik poses an imminent threat to the United States. “Close personal contacts?” Sydney snarks. Jack smoothly ignores her little jab and moves the exposition along by saying the CIA wants Vadik. Sloane reveals that the previous year a foreign agent made great strides in infiltrating Vadik’s organization. She needs to be debriefed and Sloane’s sending Sydney. Sloane says he will give the details to her in his office. Sydney observes, “Lucky me.” In his office Sloane informs Sydney that he wants to send her because surprise! the foreign agent is his daughter, Sydney’s very own half sister, Nadia! Sydney wonders why Sloane doesn’t debrief her. Sloane explains that last year he and Nadia went on a search for a Rimbaldi artifact which they found and turned over to the U.S. government (which is incidentally how Sloane got his job at APO). Nadia apparently was disillusioned and conflicted over her job and chose to leave the intelligence service at this point despite Sloane urging her to join the CIA. Nadia is now back in Argentina enjoying life without the pressures of the spy world and her creepy father. Clearly she’s just asking to be sucked back in. Sloane admits that he hasn’t been the best father (ya think?) but believes Nadia will talk to Sydney because they both share “a need to work for what’s right.” He is also sending Sydney because she has the ability to put aside personal issues which, according to him, is a gift. “It’s not a gift,” Sydney informs him. “What it’s been is a necessity and it’s become a burden…and quite frankly something that I have run out of patience for.” Sloane stares as she brushes past him to exit the room. In the outer offices Jack wants Vaughn to communicate something to his daughter before she leaves on the mission but Vaughn interrupts him saying, “No, I’m not gonna be a conduit to your daughter. I’ve tried that before. You can imagine how well that went over.” He assures Jack that Sydney hasn’t told him anything that went on between the two of them but that only makes him think it is something really bad. Argentina. Nadia hangs out on the beach with other attractive Argentineans. She looks like she’s having a good time but don’t worry because Sydney is here to take all that away. Nadia looks genuinely happy to see her half-sister but knows that it’s not a personal visit. Sydney regretfully informs her that she’s right. Sydney wants to know about Roman Vadik. Nadia shows Sydney a picture of her and a young man. The young man is an agent killed by Vadik. Nadia tells Sydney that she will tell her all she knows about Vadik but doesn’t want to go back with her. Everyone that deals with Vadik must go through his lieutenant, Kazu Tamazaki, aka Johnny Tran. Tamazaki was arrested several years ago trying to rob the Asian section of a London museum but escaped from the police. He considers himself a modern samurai. This is all the info Nadia has. Sydney’s house. Sydney cooks dinner and the doorbell rings. She opens the door clearly expecting someone else but it is her father in the doorway. He says their lack of communication is detrimental on missions and endangers the rest of the team. Sydney needs to accept what happened. Sydney can’t believe that he approved “it”. She hates looking at him, being near him and not being able to separate herself from “the person I despise the most.” Jack wants to know if she has told Nadia what she knows. Sydney seems crushed as she says that she thought maybe Jack had come to see her in order to offer some kind of explanation and not to cover his own ass. She bitterly assures him that she didn’t tell Nadia and at that point poor Vaughn walks in with some groceries. Lalalaaa. Awkward! Jack leaves. Sydney begins to lose it and rushes into another room. Vaughn follows and asks what’s wrong. Sydney replies, “It was Lauren who told me. The safety deposit box in Wittenburg…” Sydney explains to Vaughn that at first she was not going to go because Lauren was a lying murderer but then curiosity got the best of her. She found top secret documents….evidence that her mother was a security risk…worked for the KGB… but finally and most shockingly an official request from her father asking for the authority to execute Irina Derevko…a request that was granted and that Jack carried out. Sydney collapses into Vaughn’s lap sobbing, “He did it. He killed her. He killed my mother. He did it Vaughn…he killed her. He killed my mother.” Fade out. Up next? Part two. Summary by Amy.
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