Episode Report Card Erin: C | 1 USERS: B- YOU GRADE IT Blowback? Blow me.
By Erin | Season 3 | Episode 14 | Aired on 03.06.2004
Anyway, Weiss, Syd, Lauren, and Vaughn are circled around Marshall, crowing over the pics. Marshall mentions that little Mitchell (hee! Marshall and Mitchell!) hasn't quite gotten the hang of the whole "sleeping through the night" thing. Vaughn grabs one of the photos and says, "Looks like he's got my nose." Hee. That's an alarming mental image. That little baby with that rather large Roman nose in the middle of his face? Gah. Marshall goes on crowing about his offspring until Jack passes by and Marshall stops him, handing over a picture. "That's Mitchell," he says. "That's my guy." Jack stops, nearly out of frame, glances at the picture, and goes, "Cute." And the way he says it? Is EXACTLY how I'd say it. As if I'm actually saying, "Huh. Human. Baby. Is that all?" Heh heh heh. Jack is SO my Spy Daddy. Good thing too, because it looks like the "Daughter Bristow" spot may be vacant. What? I'm not spoiling it! Shut up!
Conference Room of Endless Expositions. Snore. Yawn. Whuh? I have to be awake for this? Well, shit. Dix is briefing the troops, but the scene's really boring, so I'll just nutshell it up for you. This is the part where we find out about Operation Shining Sword. Who comes up with the names for these things? What, were Team Running Brook and Cabal Laughing Fool already taken? Operation Shining Sword is apparently a fundamentalist terror network based in the Philippines. They've supposedly been dormant since the Bali bombings of '02 (a real occurrence, if you'll recall), but have dismantled the snooze button and appear to have started doing the terror thing again.
All you really need to know is that an operative of Operation Shining Sword has acquired a plasma charge. And no, I really have no idea what that is, even though I looked it up online. Syd thought plasma charges were only theoretical. Nope. Turns out, the operative is shipping the plasma charge to one of the European cells of Shining Sword. Hope they're using FedEx. Marshall steps up and shows some schematics of the thing, stating that the bomb itself is only six inches in diameter. I guess that's…impressive? Fear-inducing? Somewhat important? I have no idea. Marshall says it's small, but mighty, and he shows some pictures that give the crew an idea of the damage it could cause. It packs a wallop, yes it does.
A picture of Marshall and Mitchell gets tossed in there for comedic measure, but Lauren's totally not charmed by it. She asks some question about whether the bomb's being shipped trans-Pacific or via the Atlantic. Jack pipes up that they don't know, but they managed to trace the operative's transmission to a digital storage facility in Vancouver where this dude maintains his database. Unfortunately, they weren't able to hack in, because the firewalls in that place are state of the art. In order for Marshall to hack in, someone on the inside will have to open up a port. And that's Dixon's cue to speak up and send Sydney and Vaughn on yet another mission together. Errant glances are tossed around the Triangle. Syd and Vaughn are heading to Vancouver for a little port-opening. Heh. I bet that's not ALL they'll open. Boom chicka chicka. Hopefully, this operative dude will have archived the details of the plasma charge shipment, and the CIA can intercept the bomb before it's delivered.