Episode Report Card Manimal: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Mea Culpa
By Manimal | Season 1 | Episode 9 | Aired on 12.08.2001
Los Angeles CIA office. Sean/Weiss enters and tells Vaughn that Sydney's been made, and that they're taking a hit out on her that night. There's some faux Curtis Mayfield playing in the background. Vaughn gets on the phone and tells someone that they need an extraction team in Italy pronto.
Tuscany. Sydney grabs the scanning device and takes off. She looks pleased with herself, but she turns a corner to run into a seedy-looking bodyguard. He yells at her. She says she doesn't speak Italian. She tells him she loves everything about the house, "except the spinning. Can you do something about the spinning?" She fakes being drunk to the point of puking and asks for the bathroom. The guard looks icked out and points the way. Jennifer Garner kind of has man hands.
CIA. Vaughn. His phone rings. It's Jack. Vaughn tells Jack what's going on, and that they're getting Sydney out of there. Jack tells him he could be making a mistake, and to do nothing until he hears from him.
SD-6. Jack bursts into Marshall's office. Marshall's grooving, headphones on, standing up at his computer. Jack says curtly that he sent a message to SD-4, but they never received it. Marshall asks timidly if he wants some candy. Jack says no. Marshall shows Jack a list of every outgoing message in the last 72 hours, except for server five. Jack asks to look at server five, and spots Sloane's message to Spinelli.
CIA control room. Vaughn, Greg/Weiss, and other flunkies are watching Donati Park from several angles. Jack enters the CIA offices. A bearded guy looks shocked. Jack demands to be taken to the field officer.
Jack bursts into the room and says, "Call them off." Vaughn sputters. Jack tells him that Sloane's setting him up; the message was sent specifically so Vaughn would read it, and if they pull her out, it'll prove that Sydney's a double agent. The conversation actually goes on for much longer than that, and there's much crashing of minor chords. Vaughn tries to get authoritative about how they're playing with Sydney's life. Shut up, Vaughn. He's such a whiny little bitch. Jack yells that he's bluffing.
The rhythmic minor chords of "suspense." The CIA watches as Sydney walks through Donati Park. There are lots of fast camera pans and various agents looking alert throughout the park, and I wish that I were at all on edge or tenterhooks or some other metaphorically sharp object, but I'm not. We know she's going to live -- the show is based on her, for chrissakes, and it's not done well enough to put me on the edge of my seat. There's confusion and shouting in the CIA control room, and Greg/Weiss shouts, "What are we doing here?" They watch the screens -- as does Sloane, in his office -- as Sydney passes by a possible assassin. Except of course he's not.
Sydney makes her drop. Everything's cool. Jack blinks, then looks at Vaughn. In his lonely office, Sloane looks twinkly and relieved. Greg/Weiss says, "I just lost thirty pounds. And I'm not kidding."