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Season 2 opens with Sydney in Dr. Barnett's office discussing the events that took place in Taipei when she, Jack and Vaughn went to rescue Will and destroy his kidnappers' lab. A brief re-cap of those events is shown, explaining how Vaughn goes missing and Syd gets captured.

As Jack was paying the ransom to Sark in order to save Will, Syd and Vaughn had infiltrated the lab in order to destroy a Rambaldi device. The device was much larger than they'd anticipated, and destroying it flooded the lab. Syd had made it out in time, but Vaughn was swept away in the flood of water. Sydney was captured by guards while trying to save him and was knocked unconscious.

When she awakes, she discovers that "The Man", for whom they'd been searching for months, was none other than her mother, Irina Derevko. During a brief encounter between Sydney and her mother, Irina shoots her in the shoulder and leaves her alone. Sydney is able to escape, and after an unsuccessful attempt in locating Vaughn, joins her father and Will for the flight back to Los Angeles.

Frustrated because the CIA isn't telling her much about the ongoing search for Vaughn, Sydney nevertheless has to resume normal duties for SD-6, who tasks her with a mission to France to bug the telephone line of an associate who had worked with Irina, who is now believed to be in hiding. The CIA gives her a delay transmitter to attach to the bug, so that they can control what information SD-6 hears.

While in France, Sydney recognizes one of the guards from Taipei and follows him into the basement where she discovers Vaughn is being held. She frees him and they return to Los Angeles.

Soon, the tap they set in France pays off, and the CIA learns that a courier is supposed to deliver the "Bible"... the operations manual for Irina's syndicate to Alexander Khasinau, Irina's partner, in Barcelona, Spain. The CIA organizes a mission to intercept this exchange and take both Khasinau and the courier into custody. However, Irina has had plans of her own, and just before she can assassinate both Khasinau and the courier, the CIA team moves in. She rigs the rifle, so that it will begin firing on its own, allowing her to escape in the confusion. Khasinau grabs the manual and tries to escape, but Sydney follows and they fight. She's about to take him into custody when Irina shows up, shoots him and takes the manual from Sydney, effectively escaping.

Back in Los Angeles, Sydney delivers a eulogy for Sloane's wife, Emily, who had passed away. After the funeral, Jack receives a call notifying him that Irina had turned herself into the CIA, supposedly with the desire to cooperate in exchange for a pardon for past crimes. The episode ends as it began, with Sydney talking this development over with Dr. Barnett.



"I've waited almost thirty years for this."

"Surely you must've known this day would come. I could've prevented all this of course... you were so small when you were born. It would've been so easy."

"Truth takes time."




After Irina's transfer from CIA Headquarters into the Joint Task Force (JTF) Center is complete, Jack goes to see Sydney at her apartment to make sure she's okay. While waiting for her to come out, Francie asks his advice about the color to paint her new restaurant. After a funny and awkward exchange, Jack suggests the color red. As Sydney enters the room, Francie leaves to go buy some paint.

Jack asks how Syd feels about the fact her mother turned herself in, and Syd is rather indifferent, saying that while she doesn't believe in the death penalty, she hopes Irina dies for all she's done, but that she's the CIA's problem, not theirs. Jack also tells her that Sloane has been made a full partner in the Alliance. The two speculate that it's likely Arvin murdered his wife, who had learned of his involvement with SD-6, in order to obtain that seat.

Later, Sydney is briefing Vaughn about the latest mission SD-6 has tasked her with. The Alliance wants all the information on Irina's organization they can obtain, so she and Dixon are being sent to Rabat to retrieve a blackmail disk. Vaughn instructs her to pass the disk off to another CIA officer in order for it to be copied and a "dummy" disk made to be handed over to Sloane. During this briefing, the head of the JTF, Director Kendall, shows up and informs Sydney that her mother will only talk to her and orders her to the JTF to see her Irina. Sydney refuses and leaves. Kendall threatens Vaughn in order to make him coerce Sydney into assisting.

While Syd and Dixon are in Rabat, Vaughn decides to visit Irina, to see if she has any intel she can provide on the current mission. He informs her that Sydney will never come to see her if she doesn't prove her willingness to cooperate. Irina tells him of a failsafe on the alarm system at the location Syd is currently infiltrating. Vaughn races to give her the information, and after a moment's hesitation, she refuses, as she is unwilling to trust the source of the information. Nevertheless, the alarm does sound and the mission is compromised. She fails to pass the disk off to the other CIA officer, and SD-6 gets the intelligence.
Angry because she's blown the mission, Syd agrees to see Irina in order to learn what was on the disk. Irina gives her only a name, but that is enough to send them to Helsinki, Finland, to retrieve a terahertz wave camera that SD-6 is trying to acquire. She barely misses being seen by Sloane, who has gone to retrieve it in person; however, she and Vaughn are successful, and she hands the camera over to Kendall.

As she is leaving, another agent who had been attempting to debrief Irina about the t-wave camera tells Sydney that Derevko had been proud of Sydney's success and asked that her congratulations be passed on to her daughter. This angers Syd, who goes immediately to her mother's cell, informing her that she is not her mother... that her mother had died twenty-one years ago. Sydney goes on to say that she and Irina will interact only when absolutely necessary and that there would be no personal sentiments involved. She stalks off, and the last scene is a shot of Irina, who smiles slowly, a mixture of emotions evident in her features.



"I've given you a gift, and all you get from me, is one."

"No, you want to know why. There's a difference"

Irina: "Trust me."
Sydney: "Why should I do that?"
Irina: "Because I'm your mother."




After having believed the mission in Helsinki to recover the t-wave camera had been successful, the CIA is troubled to hear that this was not the case. The episode opens with Sydney informing Kendall and Vaughn that the camera she took had been an early prototype. Mr. Sark obtained the real camera, and was preparing to launch it into orbit inside a satellite. The camera has ground penetrating capabilities, and launched in a satellite, would allow Sark to see into NORAD undetected. Syd goes on to say that she and Dixon have been tasked to go to Sri Lanka and hack into the feed, so that they can see what Sark sees. Vaughn tells her that the CIA will provide her with another circuit board so that they can also see what SD-6 and Sark are seeing.

Kendall agrees, but wants more information beforehand, so he orders Sydney to visit Irina again. Irina answers by reminding Syd of something her music teacher had taught her when she was six... that music was like math... if you could count, you could play. She tells Sydney that Sark was looking for a music box designed by Rambaldi. The music won't play without the proper combination to unlock it, and that he'd been working on deciphering it, but that she didn't know if he'd been successful.

Sydney and Dixon successfully tap into the satellite feed in Sri Lanka, and upon their return to SD-6, they learn that Sark had been looking at a section of frozen tundra in Siberia, which revealed underground caverns containing what appeared to be a metal object. SD-6 sends she and Dixon to Siberia to recover the object.

In the meantime, the CIA decides to bring Will in for induced regression therapy due to some information he'd provided in his debriefing after Sark kidnapped him. He is able to provide the CIA with a list of names of Russian authors. Irina deciphers the text for Sydney and gives her the code for the music box. During their exchange, Sydney tells her that she'd been a turkey in her school's Thanksgiving play, and it is clear that their interactions have indeed taken on a personal note. Jack sees this on the monitors and goes to see Irina, threatening her if she hurts Sydney in any way.

In Siberia, Sydney finds the music box and transmits the tune back to the CIA. She then destroys it and packs it up to take back to SD-6, the intention being to make Sloane believe it had merely deteriorated over time. Before she can leave, Sark shows up and demands that she hand over the music box. She does, but they scuffle, and Sydney ends up falling through the ice. Sark escapes, and the episode ends with Syd trapped underwater.



"You asked me a question... I'm giving you an answer."

"Speaking of Mrs. Adams... just before I left, I remember her encouraging you to try out for your school's Thanksgiving play. In the twenty years since I last saw you, I've often wondered... what part did you play?"

"You know, you haven't yet asked me how I could shoot my own daughter."

"Sark won't hesitate to kill you, and I don't want to lose the chance to explain myself someday."

"I've had a picture of your face in my mind for twenty years. I remember a loving husband... a generous man... a patriot. I may have been under orders to fabricate a life with you, but there were times when the illusion of our marriage was as powerful for me as it was for you, especially when Sydney was born. Looking at you now, I see that illusion is finally gone."

"You haven't told her what you did to her after I disappeared, have you?"




Dixon saves Sydney in Siberia, and they return to SD-6. In a meeting with Sloane, Sydney explains that although Sark got away with the music box, she'd seen it. It had been destroyed with age. Unsatisfied, Sloane sends a team after Sark to retrieve it. Sark escapes in a gunfight, but SD-6 recovers the music box, along with a hostage Sark had been interrogating, Klaus Richter. Richter was an associate of Irina's, who as it turns out, had hidden her organization's operations manual. Sloane tasks Jack to find out where, and the man reveals that the map to the location of the manual is hidden inside a first edition of "War and Peace" in the Technical Services Library at Fapsi Headquarters in Moscow.

Having been unsuccessful in his attempts to have Irina relocated, Jack decides to ignore protocols and gives Sydney this information himself, along with a fake map to return to SD-6. The purpose is to take away any reason Sydney would have to discuss the mission with Irina. Sydney sees through his ploy and goes to her mother anyway, who is able to give her an alternate means to infiltrate the library, in exchange for the return of a pair of earrings taken from her when she was brought into custody.

Sydney goes to Moscow, and is just about to retrieve the map when Sark shows up. To provide a distraction, Sydney sets off the alarm and while Sark is battling the guards, she grabs the map and manages to get away. She becomes trapped in an office above the library and phones into the CIA to have Vaughn get an escape route from Irina. Irina helps, and Sydney successfully escapes the building.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, she and Vaughn agree that Richter had probably encoded the map with a code only known to he and Irina, so Sydney once again goes to her mother for assistance... taking the requested earrings to her. Irina decodes the map and gives Sydney the coordinates for a safe house in Madagascar, which she assures Sydney is safe to enter.

Sydney and Vaughn travel to Madagascar to recover the manual. In the meantime, desperate to get Irina out of Sydney's life for good, Jack hires someone to rig the entrance to the safe house with explosives. As Sydney and Vaughn approach the building, Jack, who is monitoring the mission from the JTF with Kendall, switches to infrared technology and sees something suspicious. He halts their entrance and suggests they look under the house. They do, and discover the explosive charges.

As they fall back, Sark and his team show up. His team moves in and the house explodes. Sark gets away, and Sydney and Vaughn return, defeated, to Los Angeles. After the explosion, Kendall orders Irina's removal from the JTF and has her sent to Camp Harris for "unrestricted interrogation". The show ends as an obviously confused Irina is shackled and led away.



"When I turned myself into the CIA, a pair of earrings were taken from me. They have sentimental value. I'd like them back."

Irina: "How do you say 'thank you' to the woman who killed your father?"
Vaughn: "You don't."

"I was twenty-one years old when I was given these. At the graduation from the Academy, my mother... your grandmother... put these in my hands. I cried. She said, 'Sweetheart, wear them well.' You would've liked her... had things... been different."




Following the incident in Madagascar, the Joint Intelligence Committee calls a special session to assess the events and make decisions regarding the handling of Irina Derevko. Sydney is called to testify to explain how Irina came to provide the intelligence leading them to the plantation house that was rigged to explode, contrary to Derevko's assurances the building was safe to enter.

After testifying, Sydney visits the now empty glass cell and finds one of Irina's earrings. While standing in the cell, Jack finds her and Sydney thanks him for saving her life.

At SD-6 Sloane explains Sydney and Dixon's next mission. A previously insignificant group called the Triad has made a foray into weapons trading, and it is rumored that they are developing sixteen "next-generation" weapons at a facility in Budapest. Syd and Dixon are tasked with infiltrating the facility and downloading all of the research, as well as obtaining photographic documentation of these weapons. The mission is successful and Sydney is able to obtain the information for the CIA while providing false data to SD-6. However, while photographing the "weapons" she learns that they are in fact children who are being trained as sleeper agents.

Back in Los Angeles, Vaughn has become suspicious about the events in Madagascar and suspects Jack. Sydney reminds him that Jack saved their lives, and tells him to drop it.

Later at Francie's grand opening, Jack finds Sydney to tell her that the Intelligence Committee in Washington has determined that Irina broke her agreement and that the government is pressing charges against her. They plan to seek the death penalty.

Vaughn runs into a buddy of his who has stopped by the JTF on a layover while transporting a prisoner who was caught with illegal explosives in Madagascar. He requests a meeting and learns that the man was hired by Jack to rig the safe house. Vaughn confronts Jack about what he's learned, and Jack informs him that Sydney will never find out what he's done.

Meanwhile, the CIA has located the whereabouts of the instructor in the Budapest program and they send Sydney to Buenos Aires with a team to apprehend him. While there, Sydney sees something that triggers a memory.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, she requests that the induced regression technique used previously on Will be used on her so that she can go back in time to whenever that memory occurred. She discovers that her father had used some of the techniques witnessed in Budapest on her as a child following her mother's death.

Sydney confronts Jack about the fact that he had used the "Project Christmas" techniques on her. "Project Christmas" had been a program developed by the CIA in the 1970's that would train American children to be spies. It is the reason that the KGB sent Irina to the United States to marry Jack. Using her intel, they developed their own program.

Sydney accuses Jack of taking away her choices in life and tells him that she will never forgive him for what he's done to her. She knows that all the time he's supposedly been protecting her from her mother, he was in fact protecting himself, as Irina must've figured out what he'd done. Sydney realizes that Jack set Irina up with the Madagascar incident.



None for this episode




The episode opens with Sydney and Vaughn discussing the fact that Irina's trial is scheduled to begin that morning. Syd requests access to view the opening arguments. Upon tuning in, she learns that Irina has pleaded guilty to all charges against her and waived her right to trial. It is announced that the government has imposed the death penalty against her, and her execution is scheduled to take place in 72 hours.

Having learned the truth about what happened in Madagascar, Sydney writes a letter to the Director informing him of this information, so that it can be used to have the death sentence overturned.

In the meantime, SD-6 learns that Sark and his associates have created a bio-weapon, and Sloane tasks Jack and Sydney to go to Geneva to obtain the research. While enroute, Jack confronts Sydney about her statement to the Director, returning it to her and encouraging her to think it over more carefully. He attempts to convince her that her mother's guilty plea was part of a bigger manipulation and an effort to prevent Sydney from witnessing her trial, which he states would have effectively destroyed whatever bond Irina had managed to forge with her thus far. The operation in Geneva is a success and they return with the necessary information to Los Angeles.

The CIA figures out that the Rambaldi device Sydney and Vaughn destroyed in Taipei was actually the source of the virus, or bio-weapon, that Sark and Irina had created. They order Syd and Vaughn to be tested for the antibodies of the virus. Sydney is cleared, but Vaughn's tests are inconclusive. It is at that time that we learn the first sign of infection is bleeding under the fingernails.

After learning that Syd believes herself to be the embodiment of all of his failures, Jack turns himself in and confesses his involvement in the Madagascar incident. The Intelligence Committee sentences him to prison and refuse to commute Irina's death sentence.

In a desperate attempt to save her parents, Sydney flies to Washington to intercept Senator Douglas, the head of the committee, upon his return from Los Angeles. She kidnaps him and coerces him to free Jack and Irina by telling him a lie about a senator working for the Alliance. Without Jack and Irina to help in the investigation, she'd be forced to turn it over to the FBI. She returns to the JTF to find her Dad has already been released and that Irina is being transferred back.

Vaughn had eventually been "cleared" from any signs of infection by the virus; however, at the end of the episode, we see that he has begun bleeding from the fingernails, indicating that he was indeed infected.



None for this episode




Upon seeing blood under his fingernails, Vaughn goes immediately to see Irina to ask if there is a cure for the virus. Before she'll answer his questions, she questions him about his feelings for Sydney.

Sydney is paged by Kendall, who calls her into the JTF to inform her that Vaughn has in fact come down with the virus from the Rambaldi device. Jack is also there, and he explains that Vaughn had visited with Irina about the antidote, but collapsed shortly after leaving the facility.

Sydney rushes to Irina's cell to find out about the antidote. Irina tells her that one does exist and is located in one of her former facilities in Paldiski, Estonia. She explains how to access the serum, but is unable to guarantee whether or not it will work.

Because the antidote is genetically specific, Sydney must visit Vaughn in the hospital to obtain a sample of his blood to take with her. While there, his vitals drop and he's rushed into an emergency procedure. Sydney rushes off to Estonia to obtain the antidote. She successfully infiltrates the lab and generates the serum, but doing so triggers the alarm system, and she is caught by Sark. Sark takes the antidote away from her and forces her to agree to help him get to Arvin Sloane for the purpose of killing him. He makes it clear that only in doing this, would she be able to have the antidote back. She agrees, and he releases her.

Upon returning to Los Angeles, she relays this information to Kendall, who flatly refuses, as the CIA is not in the business of having people killed. They argue, but Jack is able to calm her down and pull her aside, telling her they must handle this their own way and leave Kendall out of it. He tells her Sloane will be in Japan for an Alliance meeting, and that they can subdue him and hand him over to Sark at that time. This plan works, and Sark drives away with an unconscious Sloane after releasing the serum.

Sydney returns to SD-6, expecting to be told of Sloane's assassination. Instead, he is there... along with Sark. Sloane leaves her there to debrief Sark, and it's then that we learn that Sark never really intended to kill Sloane... merely gain his trust by making him believe that he'd saved his life. Sydney learns that she actually helped Sark make a deal with Sloane for them to work together towards some unknown purpose.

After being administered the serum, Vaughn recovers. Upon his release from the hospital, he goes to see Irina and thanks her for her help. As promised, he answers some of her questions concerning Sydney, albeit vaguely. Irina encourages him to throw the rulebook away and follow his heart.



Irina: "I know what you did for me... proving Sydney's father betrayed her in Madagascar. I would've been executed for that. Thank you."
Vaughn: "I didn't do it for you."
Irina: "While that may be true, I owe you my life."
Vaughn: "You owe me my father's life."

Irina: "You're the one who's sick."
Vaughn: "Yes."
Irina: "Tell me how you feel about my daughter."
Vaughn: "That's none of your business."
Irina: "Are you in love with her?"
Vaughn: "I don't know why that matters to you."
Irina: "I don't have the advantage of observing casual behavior. I'm curious."
Vaughn: "Help me, and I'll tell you what you want to know."

Vaughn: "You asked me some questions. I told you I'd answer them if you helped me. You did help me, and I thank you for that."
Irina: "I didn't do it for you."

ALIAS Introduction

ALIAS S2 (Ep. 1 - 7)

ALIAS S2 (Ep. 8 - 14)

ALIAS S2 (Ep. 15 - 22)

ALIAS S3

ALIAS S4 (Ep. 21 - 22)

ALIAS S5 (Ep. 11 / 17)