Episode Report Card Erin: A | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT The Vampire LeSyd
By Erin | Season 4 | Episode 6 | Aired on 02.08.2005
We switch from this scene of desperate suicide to a much fluffier, friendlier scene of Vaughn and Syd at the hockey rink, trying to continue Syd's hockey education. I'd say the lessons aren't going all that well, because as Syd attempts to take the puck all the way to the goal, she totally bails and spills it flat out on the ice. Hee. I laughed out loud when I saw this the first time, but now that I have it TiVo'd, I'm actually apoplectic with giggles. I just keep replaying it to the moment when Syd bites it and Jennifer Garner's expression is priceless. Vaughn falls out laughing at her sorry ass and she laughingly tells him not to laugh at her. Heh. Vaughn shows her how to put more snap into her goal shot as he tells her stories of his hockey days. That dimple in Michael Vartan's cheek should be bronzed. Rowr.
So Vaughn tells Syd this cute story about going for an impossible goal or something, but the real point to the whole thing is the lesson he learned about how he shouldn't let fear get in the way. Yeah. No idea. But most of the episode seems to revolve around fear, so I'm guessing this was the writers' kind of ham-fisted way of introducing the subject. Vaughn continues the fear theme by saying, "Syd, I know you want to take it slow, but what are you afraid of?" Syd's all, "Slow? How slow was it when I did that thing to you in the shower in Russia last week? Huh? If that's 'slow' then I'd hate to see what we do when we're going 'fast.'" Yeah, the "taking it slow" thing is A) getting real old and B) totally out of place and confusing, seeing as the episodes are being shown out of order. If this episode had come before the last one, then the "take it slow" comment would make sense. But it doesn't here. Not that it matters, because if I hear one more goddamn discussion of "taking it slow," I'm going to hire a jet, fly out to California, rent a car, peel into the Disney lot, locate the writers room, and promptly whack them all about the head and neck with a fake palm frond from the Lost set. Drop it already, is what I'm saying.
After both of their cell phones ring, Syd -- without Vaughn, apparently -- heads off to the Apple Store. Once in the Conference Room of Endless Expositions, Sloane informs the troops that Professor O'Paranoid's real name was Nancy Cahill, and she was a narcotics operative for Langley. She's been stationed in Europe for the past three years, working with a task force that specializes in the development of new synthetics. Assignment dossiers are handed out and…Vaughn's there on the sofa, which…what? I guess he and Syd took separate cars. I don't know. I mean, not that he and Syd have to go everywhere together, of course, but that just seems weird that they were together, got the call together, and…showed up separately? Hm.