Previously on Alias: Spy Daddy went cuckoo, and Syd had to dress up as her own mother to find out the location of the only doctor alive who could save him. Elena stole the Hydrosec and disappeared and will ostensibly no longer be making any tasty empanadas for young Eric Weiss. Dixon had less than nothing to do. And yes, that is a crime. What's more of a crime? How much I hate that I now have to go see bloody Monster-in-Law because my friend Megan told me how it wasn't until she saw Michael Vartan's face projected above her thirty feet high that she noticed just how damn handsome he is and now I'll have to see the stupid thing because MICHAEL VARTAN THIRTY FEET HIGH? Dayum. ["Michael Vartan on a billboard on the Jersey Turnpike, meanwhile? Looks like Jason Alexander. I…don't know what to tell you." -- Sars]
Props and mad thanks to the honorable Stef for scrambling a DVD of this episode directly over to me when I stupidly unplugged my TiVo for over twenty-four hours because I had to move a bunch of crap around my living room because the BOXES AREN'T PACKING THEMSELVES, YOU KNOW, AND I HATE PACKING AND MOVING AND CAN'T I GO TO SLEEP YET?
Ahem. Let's get on with Jennifer Jason Leigh Love Hewitt Garner Affleck's directorial debut, shall we?
Holy Brotherhood of Strapping Hot Monks. A black car and a black van drive up to the gates of the Holy Brotherhood. Sloane Clone gets out, dressed all in white. A Hot Monk greets him and another Hot Monk checks him for weapons. Finally, Sloane Clone is cleared and he goes to meet Father Kampinski. The camera pans back and up, and lo and behold, there's the Rambaldi symbol right on the gate. Once inside the building, Sloane meets Father Kampinski, the hottest of the Hot Monks and one of my favorite character actors, John Benjamin Hickey. Sloane Clone wants something that Sexy Kampinski has: namely, his bees. Or at least the knowledge Sexy Kampinski has acquired that's allowed him to basically breed the aggression out of them. Sexy Kampinski corrects Sloane Clone, saying that the aggression is still there, but the need for it has been removed. He says that these beeeszzzzzz…
Oh! I'm sorry. I nodded off there for a second. Man. You know an episode's getting off to a slow start when even hot monks can't keep your attention.
So, yeah, the bees. They have a venomous sting. But they're hard to antagonize and they choose productivity over aggression. Aggression is a distraction. Sexy Kampinski illustrates the calmness of the bees by drifting his hand through one of their hives. No idea how they achieved that shot, actually. Unless he's covered in Acme Bee-Away. Sloane Clone asks how Sexy Kampinski managed this miraculous task of taming bees, and he's rewarded with a rambling answer that's basically full of hot monk bullshit: lots of God and magic and whatever. Finally, he comments that with the right blend of genetic engineering, dietetic supplements and behavior modification -- "You could create a new species," says Sloane Clone. Sexy Kampinski tamps down that idea right away, saying that no, they'd just create a better bee. Although why you'd really WANT a better bee is beyond me, honestly. Unless you're overly fond of honey. Or black and yellow stripes.
They enter the greenhouse, and Sexy Kampinski tells Sloane Clone that they've managed to create bees that work harder and longer, all for the common good. That's when Sloane Clone sees the orchid over in the corner. He calls it by its proper name, paphiopedilum khan, and says it's the rarest form of lady slipper orchid, thought to be extinct. It exists, or at least has existed, according to Google. Sexy Kampinski suddenly looks nervous and says that the orchid isn't the real thing; it's just a close cousin. Sloane Clone disagrees and moves forward to examine the flower. "What do you want?" asks Sexy Kampinski. Why, Sloane Clone just wants to hang out for awhile. Do some research. Maybe take a cutting of the orchid. You know, in exchange for $50 million bucks deposited into the Hot Monk accounts in Vanuatu and Samoa. Kampinski is all, yeah, I may be hot, dude, but I'm not STUPID. I'm a man of God, you short little monkey. Not a merchant. Take your creepy white-suited ass back home where it belongs and bugger off. Sloane Clone takes this rather well, and gets on the horn to his people and says that he's coming home.
That's when his people kick into high gear. A pretty girl hangs up her cell phone and turns to the guy to her. "Plan B," she says. He turns to a mini Clifford and fires it up. Immediately, shit starts happening with the bees. They start attacking the Hot Monks. As Clifford spins, Sloane Clone's henchmen watch and the bees go into hyperdrive. Sloane Clone watches as they all drop dead around him. He's wearing protective gear, of course. He heads on over to Sexy Kampinski, whose formerly hot face is all swollen and disgusting. He begs for help, and Sloane Clone holds out a vial of anti-venom. But he wants the Rambaldi orchid formulas first. "You go to hell," spits the monk. "You first," returns Sloane Clone, firing a rifle directly into the monk's head. Ouch.
Hell-Lay. Jack's doctor is instructing him to keep his arms bent so that his wrists are above his heart. Jack's all, yeah, I know, keep the arms bent. I GET IT. Jack's a very cranky patient, it would seem. Syd smiles at the doctor, and Jack's all, they treat me like an idiot! And he starts to put his arms down and Syd's all, dude? Keep 'em up! It's for your own good. Jack's supposed to follow Dr. Liddell's instructions to the letter, or the cure won't work. Why this means Jack has to go around with his arms uselessly bent upwards is beyond me but, you know, it's funny watching him flounder like this. Jack hesitatingly tells Syd that he never thanked her for what she did during the whole "I'm My Own Mother" Saturday Playworks Series. She says he doesn't have to thank her. He asks whose idea it was for her to pretend to be Irina. Syd says it was Sloane's.
Then she sits down on the bed and talks to her father about how he broke protocol when he told his wife he was in the CIA and that's how she stole agency secrets. This would be a much bigger reveal if they hadn't already revealed it back in, what was it, SEASON ONE? I think the writers need to stop sucking on the exhaust pipes of their cars and start perusing some past season DVDs, no? Whatever. Syd goes on to say that he also said something about resigning from the agency. "You would have, Dad," says Syd. "If she hadn't left?" Jack's back to his gruff old self. "I didn't like being away all the time," he grits. "Not being a part of your life." Aw! "You're part of it now," she says. AW! I just love these two. Can Victor Garber be my daddy? I'm sure my real daddy won't mind at all.
Conference Room of Endless Expositions. Sloane fills everyone in on the orchid theft and how it was Sloane Clone who did the stealing. Syd wants to know what's so special about the orchid, and Marshall says it has chemical properties that heighten the receptivity of the neural pathways. Or something. Sloane looks at Jack. Jack looks at Sloane. Once again, the Spy Daddies are up to no damn good. Sloane states that they've been tasked with finding the orchid and rounding up the imposter. Everyone scrambles to get to work. "Arvin?" says Jack, standing up and leaning on his cane. "A word." Damn. The man is still kind of dangerous, even with a cane. I honestly don't know how he does that.
Jack and Sloane retreat to Sloane's office, and Jack immediately goes off on him, saying that Sloane said "it" was harmless and that "this" could never happen. Sloane didn't know "it" could, whatever "it" is. "I never imagined the effects of the orchid could be reversed," says Sloane. Do you think that Garber and Rifkin just giggle and giggle whenever they have to say lines like "I never imagined the effects of the orchid could be reversed"? I mean, what's NOT funny about that line when taken out of context? I just picture Rifkin being like, "I never imagined…HOO HOO HOO…the effects of the orch-- HA HA HA HA!!" But I digress. Jack spits that someone obviously thought about reversing the effects of the orchid and that someone is roaming the earth, looking a whole hell of a lot like Sloane.
Sloane says it ain't over 'til the fat red Clifford sings and, quite frankly, what they saw was a demonstration of the Clifford on insects, not humans. Jack snaps that they are looking at a global disaster, due in no small part to what Sloane put in place. Sloane is just like, dude! I get it! I'm partly responsible! Now shut up and go get me that damn orchid! Jack says that if they don't recover the orchid in 72 hours, he's going to Langley with this. "It'll mean the end of you, Arvin," he sneers. "You too, Jack," retorts Sloane. "I know," says Jack. "72 hours." He walks out, and the Horns of Impending World Disaster take us to the credits.
And now is the time on Alias when we beeeessszzzzzzzz.
Barbie Penthouse. Dixon, Nadia, Syd, and Vaughn are chomping some Chinese food and discussing a potential plan to get the orchid. Syd suggests that they pretend the Vespertine Papers are coming up for auction and draw the Sloane Clone out of hiding. They're going to leak intel that these papers, which mention the orchid, were found in Sexy Kampinski's belongings. Dix picks up the phone and makes a call.
We jet off to Paris, where Dix and Nadia are pretending to be potential bidders. Nadia's wearing a hideous orange/red wig and glasses with a camera hidden in the frames. Vaughn and Marshall are monitoring the action from a safe distance. Syd's back at the Apple Store with Jack and Sloane, watching from afar. Since the clone has seen her before, Syd can't directly participate. Or she's pregnant and has to be stuck behind a table for every scene so no one sees her belly which, you know, you'd better get used to since you're looking at the future of Season Five, people.
Auction house. The Vespertine Papers come out and are announced as Lot 47. Everyone is invited to peruse the Papers before bidding. Nadia heads up and pretends to look at the papers while actually getting shots of the other people who come up to look. Two men are identified and deemed unimportant. But a woman walks up, and it's the woman from the monastery. They can't ID her. Nadia zooms in on the woman's name tag and thereby her generous cleavage, and Marshall practically knocks the table over with his erection. The man's a walking gland. Vaughn's all, dude. Easy. Jack discovers that Ms. Booby O'Titsalot is working for a dummy corporation, so she's a phony. The bidding starts as the Papers leave the room in the company of a couple of guards. Suddenly, Ms. O'Titsalot makes a phone call and stops bidding. Everyone's on alert. Marshall can't decrypt the call. The woman heads out of the room.
Syd and Jack are all, dude? Are you sure this is your mark? Sloane's all, dudes. Seriously. Trust me on this. She's our man. Nadia and Dixon chase after the woman, who starts running down a hallway. Sloane tells Dix that the woman's a decoy and that he should go after the Papers. He's too late, though. The Clone's other henchman has just shot the guards and taken the Papers. Chase chase chase. Dix finds the guards. Dix runs outside and shoots at a retreating van. Vaughn and Marshall screech up in their own van and cut it off. Vaughn kills the henchman who's driving. Dix kills the other henchman. Marshall (with a gun!) and everyone else move around to the back of the van and rip up the tarp. Sloane Clone sits calmly and primly inside with the Papers on his lap. "Marcus!" he says in surprise. Vaughn tells the Apple Store that the imposter's been nabbed.
Interrogation Room of Prissy Little Mama's Boys. Sorry. I don't like the Clone. I like Joel Grey just fine, but his Sloane bugs. And I'm all out of patience with this plot device. The Clone's got a hood on his head. It's removed, and so are his handcuffs, and he's left alone in a white room. He takes a sip of water, and the door opens. In walk Jack and Sloane. The Clone's all, dude! Jack! Whassup? Jack's all, you know me? The Clone's all, duh! Sloane's all, what about me? Do you know me? Clone's all, uh, no. Sloane's all, dude? I AM ARVIN SLOANE. Clone's all, no, I AM ARVIN SLOANE. Jack's all, no, IIIII AM ARVIN SLOANE. I'm all, I DON'T CARE WHO'S ARVIN SLOANE, JUST GET THIS SHIT OVER WITH.
Marshall and Nadia are monitoring the action in the room, and Sloane Clone states for the record that he is Arvin Sloane. Marshall looks befuddled. Finally, Jack and Sloane and the clone take seats and Jack starts interviewing him. He brings up the orchid theft and how Sloane Clone's been caught. It's all over. Sloane Clone just isn't buying any of it. He honestly thinks he's Sloane. He starts rattling off specific dates and events that only Sloane could know about. Jack shoots Sloane a look and asks Sloane Clone how he can explain that this man to his left started an agency called OmniFam and the world knows his face as Arvin Sloane? "He's a CIA stooge with my good looks," says Clone. "And I can prove it." He goes on to say that in Santiago, he saw that Dix and Syd were there on the mission together, and there's no way in hell they'd work with the same man who killed their loved ones. Syd, who's listening outside, looks a wee bit uncomfortable at this statement. "What's the more logical outcome?" says Clone. "That I'm the imposter or that you are?" Which…yeah. This is stupid. We know which one is the real clone. Because I find Joel Grey about as threatening as a plate of asparagus in a hollandaise sauce.
After the break, Syd, Nadia, and Marshall are sitting around, listening in, when Marshall finally says that he's found something weird. Nadia goes to tell Jack that Marshall wants to see him, and Jack leaves, saying to Sloane, "Try not to kill him." Heh. Jack walks out to Marshall, who shows him the EEG readings of the imposter's brain. After rattling off his regular mumbo-jumbo, we find out that the EEG readings of the imposter's brain exactly match the EEG readings of the real Sloane's brain. Back at SD-6, Marshall worked on a program that involved encoding brains. McCullough ran that program. McCullough, if you'll recall, was the Spy Inquisitor from past episodes. I'd link to them, but the couple of instances I found really didn't have him doing much at all, so I find it hard to believe that he's all that threatening.
Jack thinks he's a bad fellow, though, and canes around the Conference Room of Endless Expositions, telling the Appleseed Gang just how bad he was. While at SD-6, McCullough headed up a program that went by the name Project Brainstorm. Yeah, that's another one of those giggle lines. "He headed up something called Project Brainstoooo-- HEE HEE HEE HEE! Shut up, you guys! You're making me laugh!" Brainstorm was supposed to be used to create sleeper agents, but it was also used to transfer memories from one subject to another. In short, Sloane Clone thinks he's the real deal. Sydney mentions the usage of "Jacquelyn" back in Santiago, and Sloane claims he has no reference for that; it just came to him. Marshall says that this is probably because it's buried deep in Sloane's subconscious, which means it's also buried deep in Sloane Clone's.
Nadia pipes up that someone must have continued McCullough's research after SD-6 went down. Turns out that McCullough escaped before the raid and it was Sloane who tipped him off. He has a good idea where McCullough might be, and Jack says that they'll send Dix and Vaughn off to deal with him. In the meantime, they continue with the Sloane Clone interrogation.
Buenos Aires. There's McCullough. Sitting at an outdoor café. Dix and Vaughn walk up and join him. McCullough greets Dix warmly and Dix says that Arvin Sloane sent them. "The real Arvin Sloane," says Dix. "Tell us where the orchid is, and we might be able to cut you a deal." McCullough doesn't know where it is and he reaches into his inner coat pocket, which -- AREN'T VAUGHN AND DIX ARMED? When a cornered former SD-6 baddie sticks his hand inside his coat pocket, don't you, I don't know, STOP HIM? Dude could have a weapon! As it is, he just has a packet of cyanide substitute, but still. McCullough pours the cyanide into his coffee and continuously avers that he doesn't know the answers. Dix tries to berate the guy into giving up the goods, but McCullough just calmly drinks his cyanide-flavored coffee and mentions that he thinks Sloane Clone double-crossed him and kept the orchid for himself. Vaughn thinks McCullough's lying. McCullough says he's beyond lying and that his employer would never let him live long enough to be interrogated. Hence the cyanide substitute racing around his system. Vaughn hollers for an ambulance. Dix asks who McCullough is working for, but he dies before he can answer.
Interrogation Room of Prissy Little Mama's Boys. Sydney enters. Clone greets her. She asks where the orchid is. Clone blabbles something at her about time passing and loved ones and it doesn't really matter because the dude's not Sloane, okay? Syd doesn't get the answer she's looking for, so she gets up to leave. Slone Clone blabbles some more, this time about the reengineering of the origin of the species. It would seem that he's discovered an application for one of Rambaldi's formulas. Basically, the work involves genetics and bioengineering and mutation and would create a calmer more gentle being. Ultimately, easier to control. Like the beeeessszzzzzzz. Yawn. Sloane Clone claims to have the solution to war and genocide. I don't really care. "Suppose one could administer a formula to the general population that would quietly alter our brain chemistry," says Sloane Clone, "exponentially expanding our capacity for qualities like empathy and harmonic coexistence." "This formula," says Syd, "how would you administer it?" "Nothing could be more simple," says Sloane Clone, bringing forward a glass of Rambaldi Life Juice. "Do you know how many additives are in our drinking water?" The Strings of Oh, Shit, I'm Totally Getting My Water From Hinckley & Schmitt From Now on take us out of the scene and to the break.
Hallway of We Don't Bother Checking for Listening Devices Anymore. Sloane, Nadia, Jack, and Syd are all standing around as Sloane explains that he's real sorry about that whole "trying to make zombies out of the general population by infecting the water" thing he did while he was at OmniFam. It was his intent, through introducing a series of chemicals to various water supplies, to create a more gentle species. Syd looks like the cat that ate the canary. Nadia looks horrified. Jack looks like he just had a corkscrew shoved into his spine. The water plan failed, though, because he didn't have the orchid. He tried to artificially manufacture its nectar and it didn't work. But, because the Clone has the real orchid, all he has to do is put the nectar into the water Sloane contaminated and he's ready to go. "You loaded the gun," says Nadia, finally cluing into the fact that her daddy ain't so nice.
Syd asks how many people drank the contaminated water. Sloane tells her it's somewhere between 300 and 400 million. She's stunned. Jack steps up and says that, considering the Clone's people are probably already harvesting the orchid nectar, they should probably stop bickering in the hallway and get down to the business of getting the orchid back. Syd asks what their options are, and Jack says they're getting McCullough's files from Dix and Vaughn, so they should divide 'em up and get to researching. Syd requests a private audience with her father.
"I saw it on your face," she spits at him as soon as they're behind closed doors. "You knew! You knew what he did and you ignored it! I wanna know why!" Jack reasons that when Sloane did this thing, he wasn't intent on global destruction; he thought he was doing good. Syd's not buying it. She thinks that if Jack had come forward with what he knew, they could have gotten their hands on the flower sooner, turned it over to the DSR, and avoided this whole damn fiasco. But he didn't. Which makes him just as guilty as Sloane. Jack looks like he just swallowed a quart of lemon juice. Marshall enters and says he thinks he found something.
Conference Room of Endless Expositions. Marshall once again explains that the brain coding goes deep in the Sloane Clone. Which means that he'll never give them the orchid location as long as he thinks he's Sloane. So they'll have to shock him out of it by introducing a painful memory that'll loosen his moorings, so to speak. So Sloane will have to undergo regression hypnotherapy in order to conjure up a painful memory, which will then be uploaded to Sloane Clone and knock him into reality. Marshall wants to run some more tests before they try this, but Sloane wants to do it right now. "Fine," grits Jack. "Where do we begin?" "Jacquelyn," says Sloane, confidently. "Who's Jacquelyn?" asks Jack. "She's the daughter I named after you, of course," says Sloane. Oh, okay. He doesn't. He starts to tell them, but Marshall cuts him off, saying that he has to relive the memory when he's under hypnosis.
Hypnotherapy Room of Painful Memories. Marshall sets Sloane up in the hypno chair. Sloane says he'll need some help accessing the memories. Marshall says that Jack will be talking to him through the earbuds and administer certain verbal cues to bring his mind to the right place. Marshall leaves. Nadia's standing there, looking down on her father with disgust. She finally leaves, and we go to yet another break. Two hours into this recap, people. And I've got another hour to go. KILL ME.
Jack leads Arvin back into his memories. Sloane's fighting the hypnosis, but finally Jack gets him back into the past. Sloane's walking through a park with a fountain. Then he's walking up to a bench where Amy Irving, Auntie Em, is sitting. Aw. Auntie Em. I missed her! And she looks gorgeous. Arvin takes a seat and says that he thought they could take the boat out before it gets too cold, perhaps go to Bellagio. Ahhhh. Bellagio. I wish I were there right now. And that some little fairies would come in and magically pack my apartment before I get back. I'd also like to do naughty things to several of the Wilson brothers, but that's never gonna happen either, so I'd better just nip these fantasies in the bud, huh?
So, Auntie Em doesn't want to take the boat. She just wants to sit there. He says they can sit there for as long as she wants. For as long as she needs. "And I promise you," he says, "we will get past Jacquelyn." The Sloane back in reality looks desperately pained. Back with dream Sloane, Auntie Em says that she doesn't want to hear that name. He can't say it. Don't speak her name again. Never say her name again. Emily says she's alone in this. He tries to tell her she's not. Back in reality, Syd wonders aloud if Jacquelyn could have been a mistress. Marshall notices something funky on the screen. Jack tells Arvin he has to go back, and even shows up in the dream world to ask who Jacquelyn was. "Go back to when you met her," says Jack. Sloane goes back.
He's in the garden and Emily's gardening. He tells her she's supposed to be doing absolutely nothing. "It's the nesting instinct," she says, turning to reveal a very pregnant belly. "I can't help it." They park it on a bench and enjoy a glass of iced tea as Emily says she doesn't want to hear anymore silly Italian names. Sloane suggests Jacquelyn. Emily doesn't say, "Isn't that just the feminine version of 'Jack'? You sick bastard!" Instead, she kind of likes it. "Baby Jacquelyn," says Sloane, back in the hypno chair. Nadia hears this and gets up suddenly. Syd asks if Jack had any idea. He didn't. Nadia wants to bring Sloane out of it. Marshall says they don't have enough. Jack sends Sloane back to the memories.
Then we're in a hospital room. Emily's in bed, her pregnant belly missing. Sloane enters and takes her hand. "How is she?" says Emily in a panicked voice. He shakes his head, and Emily starts sobbing. Sloane tries to calm Emily by telling her that this was a risky pregnancy and that the baby tried so hard to stay with them but she just wasn't strong enough. Damn, this scene is making me cry. AGAIN. Emily just sobs and turns away, and Sloane gets up onto the bed and holds Emily in his arms, telling her over and over again that he loves her. Marshall watches the monitor. They have it. They have their memory.
In another hypno room, Arvin Clone's set up to receive the painful memory. He nervously tries to talk his way out of it, but to no avail. And Joel Grey really is a kind of sad little man in that chair. Jack hits a switch, and Arvin Clone gets hit with the memory. When he comes to, Jack asks him his name. "My name -- Ned Bolger. Corporal. U.S. Army. Serial Number ." "Where's the orchid?" asks Syd. "Who are you?" asks Bolger. "Corporal, where's the flower?" "At a warehouse. Lugano, Switzerland. 43 Paseo Pantello," says Bolger. As Jack gets up to leave, Bolger turns back into Sloane. "Damn you, Jack! I always knew you were a traitor and you turn me in! Sydney please! Don't let him do this!" Then he switches back to Bolger. "I'm Ned Bolger. I'm from Torch Lake, Michigan. You can't torture POWs! Geneva Convention! Who a -- who I -- who am I? Who are you? Who…" Yeah. Say buh-bye, Bolger. Marshall scoots in and says there's a problem with Sloane. He's not coming out of the dream state. Sloane is sleeping so peacefully, he's practically snoring.
Actually, he's kind of sleeping with his eyes open. In the dream state, he's now all in white instead of the all black he was sporting before. He's looking out at the water and mountains. Emily enters behind him, carrying Jacquelyn, now very much alive. She asks him if everything's okay and he says that everything's wonderful. Marshall, monitoring Sloane's brain patterns, says that Sloane's stuck right at the point of Emily's pregnancy and he can't come out. Nadia wants to know why they can't just wake up him. Jack declares that the shock could kill him. Nadia asks if one of them could guide him back. Marshall thinks it could work. Or, you know, Sloane could go into serotonin overload and literally die of happiness. Jack says they should get started, and Nadia gets ready to lead her dad out of his fugue state.
"Hi, Dad," she says. "It's me, Nadia, your daughter." In the dream state, Emily's chatting with Sloane about some nice lady in town as Sloane makes goo-goo faces at his daughter. Nadia shows up. "Who's that?" asks Emily. "She's my…she's my Nadia," says Sloane. Nadia says he can't stay there. He says he's happy there. Nadia says his work isn't done. Sloane says she's a beautiful girl and he's very proud of her. But he can't come with her. He wants her to stay with them. Nadia says that Emily and Jacquelyn are gone and that he has to let them go. He says he'll never let them go again. She says they already are. He turns to look, and there's no one there. "What did you do?" he asks. Nadia doesn't answer.
"I was a good man once," he says. "Now I'm a monster. And monsters cannot be allowed in this world." Nadia says that he was once a good man and that he can be again. But he has to reverse what he put in motion. He doesn't deserve to rest yet. Sloane says he's tired. Tired and ashamed. "Then there's hope," she says. "Come back and redeem yourself." She wants him to be brave and come back with her. She believes in him. "Do not betray that belief," she says. "Do not betray that again." Sloane just turns and sees Emily and the baby again. "Goodbye," he says, heading off toward his wife. "Don't go!" says Nadia. "Dad!" Suddenly, Sloane jerks awake in the chair. "Dad," he says. Nadia goes to him and they embrace.
And now we come to the part of the show that is just one big speech and, really, it's easier for me just to transcribe it and let you absorb what it means instead of trying to interpret it and mess it all the hell up. Here goes.
"The first time I heard the name Rambaldi, I was working with the Army Corps of Engineers," says Sloane, standing to Jack outside Bolger's room. "It meant nothing to me; his life, his works. He was simply a curiosity. Something I quickly set aside. And then when we lost Jacquelyn, when Emily lost the baby…I felt utterly abandoned. One night I came across some writings of his that I had stored in a drawer and somehow…it filled the hole in my heart. Oddly, it wasn't until I saw him that I realized how much of myself that I had lost. I am going to rectify this, Jack. I will clean up this mess that I have made." "I'd like to believe that, Arvin," says Jack. "But you can't," says Sloane. "I've heard it before," says Jack. "Well, all I can say, Jack, is I'm trying," says Sloane. "And every day is a struggle. Every day." That man is turning back to Rambaldi week, y'all. Trust me on this. Speaking of week…
week on Alias: I only have two words for you. Lena. Fucking. Olin.