Episode Report Card Erin: C- | 1 USERS: C YOU GRADE IT Young (Fake) Americans
By Erin | Season 4 | Episode 5 | Aired on 01.25.2005
Marshall meets the Daddy Duo in the Conference Room of Endless Expositions and says that he thinks he found something. The van carrying Syd and Vaughn left the highway and seems to be headed for a facility called "Suberov 13." It's a military area that was supposed to have been abandoned in the late seventies, but now it has perimeter patrols and manned gun emplacements along the access roads and active airfields. Not so abandoned, huh? Marshall brings it up on the multiple viewing screens and, in the aerial shots, it looks just like any other modest suburban enclave. Is it military housing? If it is, it ain't like any Jack's ever seen. "Is that a swing set?" asks Marshall. "Looks like my neighborhood." Yes. Yes, it does, Marshall. If your neighborhood threw a block party with the theme of "Shoot Yer Neighbor."
Spysteria Lane. Sergei's Van of Fake Americans pulls into the driveway of a house. Everyone gets out and goes inside. Sergei says that Syd and Vaughn have to engage in an initiation of sorts. In the living room, a group of Fake Americans are having wine and waiting for the new recruits. Sergei introduces Syd and Vaughn as Karen and David Parker, and everyone beams and acts like they're just having a potluck or something. "Welcome to the neighborhood," says Sergei, smiling down on his perfect wife. Syd and Vaughn smile at each other. And we sort of…blandly go to credits.
And now is the time on Alias when we pour another beer, light another cigarette that we really shouldn't be having because we're still getting over the flu, tease our hair, throw on a miniskirt, and shake our groove thang to the B-side remix of "I'm Just A Spy In The House Of Love."
Back at Spysteria Lane. Sergei's telling Syd and Vaughn that the town's officially known as "Training Sector 56B," but everyone started calling it "Liberty Village" back in the mid-'80s. "So this is a government operation," says Syd. "It was a government operation, Karen," says Sergei, pouring them some drinks. "It's a private enterprise now. Which is fine with us, because it gives us the freedom to do our jobs." Syd wants to know what their actual job is. Sergei says their job, for the moment, is to prove that they fit in. They're under evaluation because the Contingent needs to make sure that they can pass for Americans. From this point on, everything they do should be considered a test.
Sergei brings them into the party in order to make some formal introductions. Syd hits something on her watch and follows the men into the other room. Back at Apple Store, Marshall tells Sloane that Syd's transmitting. We go back to Spysteria Lane as Syd and Vaughn are meeting the other Spyneighbors. Syd holds up her watch and grabs a good photo of the first couple. Marshall gets to work on identifying them. The first couple Marshall IDs, the Spyneighborsteins, are actually terrorists (no!) and they were responsible for a bombing that killed 47 people. Imagine that. The magic number 47 rearing its head once again. Nice.