Episode Report Card Erin: A | 1 USERS: B+ YOU GRADE IT Papa, can you hear me? No, seriously. PAPA?
By Erin | Season 4 | Episode 18 | Aired on 05.03.2005
Syd continues unloading the groceries, and at one point, she pulls out a...a gourd. Heh. I don't know why I found that funny. It's actually a squash, but I caught just a glimpse of it and was like, "A GOURD?" I'm easily amused. "How can you do that?" says Jack. "Do what?" says Sydrina. "How can you be so perfect?" he asks softly. "Loving mother…beautiful wife…just…just by standing there." Aw. And ew. And aw. This whole scene was one big "AwwweeeewwwwawwwEWWWAAWWWW." Sincerely. Like, it's a side of Jack we've never seen (loving, tender and sweet), but it's not really a side I want to see, you know, ALL OVER HIS DAUGHTER.
Sloane saves us from some impromptu incest by ordering Vaughn to make the fake handler call. Jack goes to get the phone, looking a bit like a sleepwalker, and, as soon as he turns around, Syd's face starts to break, like she's torn between being touched that her father used to be like this and sad that he isn't any longer. Vaughn pretends to be calling from the handler's office and says that they have to get Liddell out of Minsk now. Syd gives Jack privacy as Vaughn asks him what kind of travel arrangements he needs. Jack doesn't respond. "Jack? Where do you want Liddell moved?" Jack still doesn't answer, choosing to watch Sydrina instead. Marshall thinks Jack's rejecting the situation because Vaughn doesn't sound like the real handler. Nadia says they should send in the girl and Sloane agrees. Marshall sends in the girl.
And in comes the little Syd. "Hi, Dad," she says sweetly. "Is it okay if I practice the piano?" He smiles tenderly at her. "Of course," he says. Jack gets back on the phone and tells Vaughn he has company. Vaughn understands. "About the doctor," Jack says, "I'm feeling a bit under the weather, but I'm much better now." Marshall says that it's code. Sloane doesn't recognize it, but thinks it might have been something Jack had set up with his handler. "Despite that," says Jack, "I think it'd be wise to have a check-up. It's been a year since my last stress test. Can you schedule that for me?" Vaughn says he will, and they both hang up. Sloane gets on the horn to Syd and tells her that Marshall should be able to decipher the code, but she should keep trying to get Liddell's location.
Jack returns to the kitchen as Little Syd practices "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star." He tells Sydrina that he has bad news -- that was Grady, his handler, on the phone. "He has a mission for me," says Jack. "I'm afraid I have to leave town." Nadia says exactly what I'm thinking: "He told her. She knew he was a spy." Or, you know, that he worked for the government in some capacity. Not everyone who works for the CIA is a damn spy, you know. Even government agencies need fry cooks. Sloane's surprised by this realization, however. So is Syd. She covers well, asking Jack what the mission is. He tells her about Liddell, and how he's a doctor who saves lives but he needs to disappear. Sydrina asks where he'll take the doctor and Jack responds, "Finland." Sloane immediately orders Marshall to run a biometric of Liddell against the database of the Finnish passport offices and medical licensing board. Marshall's already on it. Vaughn tells Syd they got it. She's done.