Episode Report Card Shack: C | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Déjà Vu To A Kill
By Shack | Season 1 | Episode 17 | Aired on 03.16.2002
Kendall asks Sydney what SD-6's goals are. She tells him that they're all about the Rambaldi these days. Kendall asks for details about Rambaldi. Sydney explains that Milo Rambaldi was Pope Alexander VI's chief architect, an artist, and an inventor. He was so forward-thinking in his ideas that he was executed as a heretic. We're treated to a five-hundred-year-old flashback of Rambaldi at work, just to add some variety to the clips. Now people are recognizing his genius, so the entire intelligence community -- CIA, SD-6, GRU, K-Directorate, among others -- are on a scavenger hunt to recover his works. Sydney explains that people believe Rambaldi had a master plan. Previously on Alias: Sydney and Dixon uncovered a secret vault in Argentina, where she found Rambaldi's book. In the book, Rambaldi describes some sort of construction. Nobody has figured out what it is, but Sydney says all the agencies are worried that the other agencies are going to figure it out first.
Kendall says he only has one more question. Thank god. The flashbacks are making me dizzy. He asks Sydney whether or not she believes that Rambaldi was a prophet. Sydney doesn't answer, but tosses the question right back at him. Then she looks worried and asks, "You're not going to let me go, are you?" Kendall just responds that they're done for the day. Jennifer Garner does a good job expressing fear. She's not so good with grief or anger. But she's good at fear.
Sydney is escorted out in cuffs by three guards. They make their way outside. Suddenly a silver van comes zooming up to the door. Three men in ski masks and large guns jump out and force the FBI men to drop to the ground. I can't believe that these guys are so worried that they have Sydney in chains, but were totally surprised by this turn of events. It bothers me that the dramatic tension of this show revolves mostly around whether or not people are going to behave stupidly in any given situation. The men load Sydney into the van and drive off as the FBI guys call in the van's plates.
Inside the van, two of the men take off their masks to reveal themselves to be Agent Amorous and Sean. See, since they wore those masks, the FBI can't possibly figure out that her friends from her office would come rescue her, even though they've been trying through other channels to free her already and do this sort of thing for a living. Sydney's all surprised. Vaughn tells her that they're going to prove that the prophecy isn't about her. The driver, still masked, tells Sydney that they'll explain it all on the way. Sydney's recognizes the voice as Spy Daddy's, and acts all surprised that he would help rescue her.
After some commercials, Spy Daddy drives the van inside the warehouse. Vaughn and Jack take turns explaining why they're sending Sydney to Italy. Sydney is pissed, though, because now she's certain that the FBI is going to think she's guilty of something. She says fleeing the country will prove that she's trying to act in opposition to the American government. Jack said he had no other choice; he had to protect her cover. Sydney whines that she's a fugitive from justice. Uh, no. You're on the run from some overly credulous government organizations that place greater weight on a five-hundred-year-old book of prophecies than a two-hundred-year-old document detailing people's rights as American citizens. Jack explains that once she sees the mountains, the CIA will reveal what they did to the relevant agencies, and then they'll have no choice but to drop the issue. Sydney's cover will be preserved, and all will be happiness and joy. But Sydney worries that the prophecy may actually be about her. Spy Daddy points out that if that's the case, then everything's predestined anyway, and nothing they do matters. Of course, if that's the case, then nothing the FBI does matters either, and they can't stop the prophecy from coming true by imprisoning Sydney. Sean points out the police sirens and tells them all they have to move. Vaughn locks Sydney in the trunk of a sedan and drives it out of the warehouse.