Alias Recap: “There is Only One Sydney Bristow”

You think Sydney Bristow has a tough mission???  Try posting a recap of a show you haven’t seen yet, avoiding spoilers along the way!!  GMMR’s fabulous Julie took on the daunting task of recapping Alias.  I was out last night and haven’t been able to see the show yet.  So I’m just posting, and not looking…wish me luck on my mission.  Should I be wearing a pink wig? Nah.

There is Only One Syndey Bristow
Airdate: April 26, 2006
100th Episode

Minsk: A hooded Sloane arrives at a large mansion. His hood is removed by Joseph Ehrmann, who we last saw telling Sloane he has a few more tasks to complete before they can give him Nadia’s cure. Joseph escorts him inside, where the 12 heads of Prophet Five are waiting. In a dark library-type room, the 12 inform him that he has to complete just one final task before they give him back his daughter.

Meanwhile, a prison guard is leading Peyton to the cell of what he warns her is a very dangerous inmate. Guess who it is? Our old friend Anna Espinosa (Zoe!!!), who doesn’t exactly welcome Peyton with open arms. However, she becomes a bit more receptive when Peyton explains that they’ll release her in exchange for a “long-term deep cover operation” that will help her get the ultimate revenge on the person who put her in prison — Sydney Bristow.

Back at home in her apartment, putting her daughter to bed, Sydney looks a far cry from the woman who put Anna in the slammer. After some sweet, bumbling attempts at baby-proofing the apartment, Jack explains to Syd that no one has heard anything about Irina and there’s no significant activity from Prophet Five. This worries Sydney, who thinks it must be the calm before the storm and they must be plotting something big. Jack encourages her to leave it and enjoy her time off.

Sloane’s done reading the plans for his last job. He insists that Sydney not be harmed as part of the plan and warns the Prophet Five peeps that they might have trouble getting Syd active, since she’s on maternity leave. They promise to provide “incentive”. Hmm…that doesn’t sound ominous at all.

Anna arrives at Will’s door, posing as a CIA agent. She tells Will his cover may be blown, and Sydney’s in trouble. Will lets her in with trepidation. Not enough trepidation, though, because as soon as she confirms he’s alone, it’s taser time for Will. Poor guy – looked like he might’ve been expecting a romantic evening, if the candles were any indication.

Sloane, Jack, and Sydney review the security videotape from Will’s apartment. Sydney is very upset that Anna is out of prison and doesn’t trust anyone else to handle the case. Though Sloane insists they can take care of it and just told her because they wanted to keep her informed, Syd decides her maternity leave is over effective immediately.

Creepy Doctor of the Year, Dr. Burris, last seen interrogating Syd, injects something into the base of Will’s skull. Will’s unconscious, but tells Peyton they should expect him awake soon. Peyton says she’ll have Anna make the call…which APO then intercepts. As Sloane tells Syd, the call was Anna coordinating with her contact to meet him at a club. Syd will get on a plane with the rest of the team and determine Will’s location once they get to the club.

The babysitters, two kick-ass agents, who are field-trained and child-development, arrive at Syd’s house to take care of five-week-old Isabel. (Isabel? Perfect!) They also offer to properly baby-proof the place. In other words, set up bomb filters and alarms and all sorts of high-tech gadgetry. Syd has to run to catch her plane, but she gives adorable Isabel a little goodbye speech about how “Mama’s got to go to work”.

Next time we see Syd, she’s in Moscow, wigged out in a kickin’ outfit and ready to glide right over to the rooftop of the club where Anna’s scheduled to meet her contact. What is it with the evil and nightclubs? Rachel, Dixon, and Thomas provide enough distraction for Syd to get in the club from the roof. Using some very swanky Marshall-designed eyewear, they scan the club hoppers for anyone with enough cash on them to give Anna the payment. Finally they find men with both guns and money – this must be the contact.

Rachel and Thomas provide a little distraction, and Syd tags the contact with a tracking bug. Through the bug, we hear him meeting with Anna, who takes his money and tells him Tippin is in room 147. Syd races to find the room, not thinking for a moment that this is waaaaay too easy.

Syd easily finds the room, empty except for Will tied to a chair. Anna bursts in and they begin fighting as Peyton and Dr. Creepy watch from a monitor. When Anna slices Syd’s arm with a knife, Dr. Creepy instructs them to ‘begin data capture’. Over the monitor, we see Syd and Anna still fighting as some kind of thermal signature spreads over Syd’s body and the ‘Isotope Data Capture’ continues. Will breaks free and attacks Anna with some incredibly hot Krav Maga skillz. Anna leaves out the window, but no worries – Dr. Creepy’s Isotope Capture of Creepiness managed to complete.

In the plane, Syd attends to Will’s injuries and they get caught up on each other’s lives. He tells her he’s got a fiancée…well, not exactly fiancée…a painter girlfriend who he was planning to propose to before Anna got taser-happy. She tells him she has a daughter, and Vaughn’s the daddy. Of course…she has to lie to Will about Vaughn being dead…which she confesses to Jack makes her feel terrible. Jack insists they have to keep Vaughn a secret, since Prophet Five is probably involved with Will’s kidnapping as well, just to get to Syd.

At Prophet Five HQ, Joseph calls Sloane to tell him he’s doing well and they just have a bit more required of him. Meanwhile, Dr. Creepy completes another Isotope Data Capture – this time from Anna.

In the complete opposite of creepy, we’re back at Syd’s where Isabel is meeting Uncle Will. I think I might just die from cuteness. Will’s really understanding and sweet when Syd explains he was probably kidnapped because of her. But what’s that alarm? It’s a bomb…and it looks like it’s on Will. Worse—it’s in Will.

And Marshall’s got the x-rays to prove it. They put a bomb in Will’s brain. Bastards! Though the bomb is small enough that it would only kill Will, it’s too delicate for them to remove. They’re discussing options when Anna calls with some demands. What does she want? A blast from the page – page 47 from the Rambaldi manuscript. Remember that guy? I barely do, and Rachel doesn’t at all, so they explain. (15 th century genius who sketched Syd’s doppelganger) Anna asks for Syd to meet her on a train from Madrid, where they’ll make an exchange – the page for the bomb deactivation codes.

The APO team debates giving Anna the page. It’s the page with the portrait of the ‘chosen one’ and the things she is prophesied to do. Syd argues the page doesn’t matter – it’s things she might do, not things she has to do. Sloane agrees – without Syd, the page is useless. (Pay attention to that, ’cause it’ll matter later.) Will’s pretty insistent that they give Anna the page. I am too, because Will’s head is gorgeous and I don’t want it to blow up. You don’t find eyes that blue just anywhere. Eventually they compromise – they’ll bring the page, but once they get in range of the detonator, Marshall will link in on the signal between the bomb and the detonator and try to figure out the deactivation codes.

Undercover in Portugal, Will and Sydney play a spoiled rich couple who bribe the train attendant into giving them a first class cabin. As part of this arrangement, Will refers to Syd as a “delicate porcelain lily” while using a French accent. I’m going to give that a hotness level of 8.7 – roughly equal to the hotness of Vaughn speaking French at any point in time. Le sigh. In their cabin, Will tells Syd he’d want her to be the best man at his wedding. What a sweetheart! Syd’s touched, but wonders if she’ll have to wear a tux.

Now Syd has to keep Anna busy long enough to scan the deactivation codes. She meets Anna in the dining car, but the two of them take things a somewhere a bit more private. The deactivation codes are scanning…38% so far, but Syd and Anna can’t go too far away. They’ve got to stay close enough and long enough for the codes to process. When Anna tries to leave, the scan isn’t complete, so Syd is forced to kick some ass. Darn! The detonator accidentally starts a countdown on Will’s brain-bomb, but Syd manages to stop it in time. On behalf of women throughout America, I say a big thank-you to Syd. Anna, however, manages to grab case with Page 47 and lock Sydney in the train car where they were fighting. Anna pushes a button, and sprinklers on the ceiling of the car begin spraying out a red liquid as Syd frantically tries to get out.

What’s the liquid doing? It’s collecting down a drain, through tubes, into a container below the car. From a snippet of Anna’s conversation, it sounds like it’s collecting DNA from Syd for a genetic sample. We don’t get to hear more, because Will knocks Anna out and runs to help Syd. As he’s getting her out of the train car, Anna comes up with a second detonator. (She must’ve been a Girl Scout – always prepared.) She tosses pushes the timer, tosses the detonator out the window, and Will and Syd dive after it – right off a bridge into some serious water. Syd must love Will’s blue eyes as much as I do, because she gets to the detonator in time to turn it off. Again. Will gratefully hugs her. He’s ready to go home.

Peyton meets with an irritated Sloane. He’s upset that they messed with Syd, and asks what they did to her. Peyton won’t provide details, but does give him a box containing the cure for bringing Nadia back.

Dr. Creepy has loaded Syd’s genetic material into the sequencer and tells Joseph that the patient is nearly ready to begin. The patient is Anna, caged in on a medical table. According to Dr. Creepy, the Provocilian should be taking effect. Umm…Provocilian? I don’t like where this is going… Anna’s gurney is lowered down into the red liquid they rained on Sydney. Anna screams, clearly suffering through the genetic manipulation.

Syd and Will walk Isabel in the park. Syd apologies to Will for bringing him into all this. She explains: “The people I love – sooner or later something terrible happens to them.” Syd, I’ve got this friend you should meet. His name’s Peter Parker. I think you two would really get along. It’s hard being as awesome as you are. Will’s no Spiderman, but he is super-supportive of Syd. He tells her yeah, bad things have happened to him, but it’s not her fault. He’s seen horrible things, but he sleeps okay, because he knows she’s out there fighting to make the world better. He’d rather have her in his life than be ordinary, because “there’s only one Sydney Bristow.”

Looks like Will might have to amend that statement. As they raise Anna’s body from the red liquid, we see she’s been modified to look like Sydney. Daaaaamn. Turns out there’s only one good Sydney Bristow. The other one? Pure evil.