Episode Report Card Manimal: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mea Culpa
By Manimal | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.08.2001
Back to Argentina. Sydney uses the sat-com phone to call base ops. I've never had to recap a show that had so much technical and militaristic jargon. It's taxing, I tell ya. She's very upset. Dixon's conscious, and can hear her make the call. Sydney says "just hang in there" about six million times, and it's terribly unconvincing. If I were Dixon, I'd head for the light. Maybe he'll find better acting over there.
Back to L.A. It's post-Argentina. Sydney starts telling Vaughn the story in VO as it cuts back and forth from past to present. She tells us that the CIA came and air-lifted them out, but all she could think about was what Sloane would think, until she thought of a way out of it. She made a pre-emptive call to Sloane instead, and told him she dragged Dixon back to the humvee and drove him to the hospital. Yipes. Wouldn't Sloane be able to check the hospitals, and therefore her story? Whatever. Anyway, the CIA flew them back to Los Angeles, and they went to Angel of Mercy Hospital, which, unfortunately, is an SD-6 hospital.
Cut to the hospital. A doctor tells Sydney that Dixon's wife is waiting to talk to her, and Sloane wanted to check that she knows her cover story. She says she does, and then asks if Dixon's going to make it. The doctor says curtly that he doesn't know, and runs off.
Sydney tells Mrs. Dixon some story about a hold-up: that she and Dixon were standing outside when some men pulled up and demanded the computer codes in her briefcase. Dixon pushed her aside and took the bullet(s) instead. She concludes by saying, "You should've seen him. I didn't even know he'd been hit." Mrs. Dixon is teary-eyed. Sydney tells Mrs. D that he's going to make it.
Back to Vaughn. He says the same thing. They discuss how Dixon was conscious as Sydney was making the call on the sat-com, and how he repeated her code name ("freelancer") twice. Sydney suggests that Vaughn send some operatives to watch Dixon when he regains consciousness. Vaughn points out that it's an SD-6 hospital. Sydney has nothing to say. Vaughn has two and a half forehead wrinkles. He repeats that Dixon will make it.
Kettle Drums Of Doom. Sloane and Carl Dryer sit across from one another. Sloane does The Exposition Shuffle: Dryer's under pressure to expose the mole, but Sydney's test results are perfect. Dryer says the results are too perfect. He asks why Sloane is defending her. Sloane denies it, pointing out the results again. Dryer says that this is his specialty, and that Sydney's recent past record is filled with mistakes, and that Sloane needs to follow protocol for taking care of a mole, or Dryer will go to the Alliance. Sloane tells him "not to do a damn thing" -- he'll take care of Bristow.