Episode Report Card Kim: B- | Grade It Now! YOU GRADE IT Taken
By Kim | Season 3 | Episode 16 | Aired on 03.20.2004
Dixon enters the facility and meets with Erin, the director. She's hot. Dixon congratulates Erin on her promotion, and Erin thanks him for his recommendation, so these two obviously know each other. Erin says she's sorry about Dixon's daughter, and offers to help. Dixon asks if the term "countershadow" means anything to her, since his son overheard his captors talking about it. I didn't get what he was talking about at first, but I think it was just a ruse to set up Dixon's next request, which is to ask for access to a research terminal for an hour. Erin says it won't be a problem. Dixon walks off, and Erin asks if she can tag along. Dixon looks back, and Erin admits that she has to tag along because they are at Code Orange. Dixon understands, since he set up the protocol himself.
Out in the desert, Syd changes into a silver bodysuit and attaches a line to a winch on her dune buggy. She then runs up to some sort of exhaust pipe sticking out of the ground, removes a grate, and climbs in. The line lowers Syd down into the pipe as she checks a thermometer on her wrist. The temperature inside is nearly 200 degrees, so I guess the bodysuit protects her from boiling or something. Syd tells Dixon that she's reached the grate. Dixon is with Erin at a terminal, so he can't respond immediately. Syd tells Dixon that the grate is sealed. Dixon goes through the motions of doing research, and asks Erin if she has any coffee to try to get her to leave the room for a moment. Erin, no dummy (yet), says she'll have someone bring it in. Syd checks her wrist thermometer and says that she's going to have to abort the mission due to the increased heat. Dixon fakes a sigh and claims that he's getting emotional. This guy was a spy? That was horrible. Dixon clasps his hands and asks, "Do you, uh, pray, Erin?" Heh. Erin looks totally gobsmacked as she says that she's agnostic. Syd frantically reports the rising temperature. Dixon lowers his head as if he's praying, and Erin offers to give him a moment. She leaves the room, and Dixon looks out the window to make sure she's occupied, and then unlocks the grate for Syd.
Syd reports that she's through the grate, and then she drops into a room containing multiple Rambaldi artifacts. Dixon sees that Erin is talking to various colleagues outside, and not really paying attention to what he's doing. Which is kind of horseshit, but I'm drunk. Mission accomplished! Syd notices an enlarged version of the page from Rambaldi's journal with the drawing of the woman who looks just like Syd. Around the room are various glass boxes, each with an etched number, and each containing an artifact. Syd approaches the box numbered 45 and sees that it's empty, and she radios this information to Dixon, who's like, "Fuck. Me." Syd asks Dixon what to do, and he says he'll use the computer system to try to find the artifact. Luckily, Erin is taking a phone call outside. Dixon reports that Lot 45 has been moved for analysis, and it's on level eight, quadrant one. Syd takes off to find it.