Previously on Alias: Rachel dressed up like a ho. And I think she kind of liked it. Also? Gordo was a dick. so don't feel sorry for him later. Justdon't.
We begin this episode dropped right smack down into the middle of an assignment in Rome. Syd's sporting a silly blonde wig and throwing her belly out proudly as she walks along with a handsome Italian man, a chancellor. Through the subtitles, we learn that Syd's pretending to be some wealthy woman who's donating money for a wing to the place, and that they're in a university of some sort. While Syd's getting the royal tour, lodie breaks in through some other door and tells Syd over comms that she's at the archive. lodie's new short haircut isn't doing her any favors, by the way. I much prefer it all choppy and waiflike the way it was in The Dreamlife of Angels. Butthat's not really important right now, is it?
lodie tells Syd that it's her turn now; as the Italian chancellor uses his key card to get into some private wing, Syd fakes a faint, steals his wallet of keys, and he helps her to a chair and runs off to get her some water. While he's gone, she pulls out her handy Acme Electronic Key-Copying Putty and puts one of the chancellor's keys inside. How she knows which key is the right one, I have no idea. She runs the machine (which is alarmingly similar to a key-copying putty that I think the Angels used in Charlie's Angels Part the First) and tells lodie to put a key template in her end of the machine and whammo, lodie has an exact duplicate of the key in her hand. That is Alias WTF Technology at its best, people. With her newly minted key in hand, lodie enters the archive. She looks around and tells Syd that she needs the lot number.
We smash cut back to the past, where Syd is asking what they're looking for and lodie is telling her all she knows is that whatever it is, it's intended for Gordo. It'll be sent from Milan to the University of Rome and it will be sent under an alias: Marcello Demasi. Back in the present, Syd finds the manifest list and tells lodie to hang on while she finds the name and the lot number. "Here it is," she says, over comms, "Marcello Dima--" "Sydney?" a male voice says. Syd looks up, and it's her professor from her grad school days. She looks totally flummoxed. As should he, considering that for all intents and purposes, Sydney was burned to death in her apartment a few years ago. But maybe that wasn't really made public. Idon't really know.
At any rate, Professor Choi and Syd share some small talk about what they're both doing in Rome, and Syd manages to communicate the lot number to lodie by hitting her comm button and telling the professor that she's visited "12 countries in 22 months." It's a nice save, actually. lodie tells Syd that she gets what she's saying about the lot number and to get the hell outta there. Syd just stands there, looking nervous, not really sure how to blow off the nice professor-man before the nice chancellor-man shows up with her glass of water. Unfortunately, Professor Choi is on his lunch break and has alllll the time in the world to chat with her. Damn.
Meanwhile, down in the archives, lodie comes upon Lot 1222 and goes to open it, but she hears the door opening and has to run and hide. Back with Syd and Nosy Choi, he asks if she's married, she says they're newlyweds, he comments that they must've been eager to start a family and KEEP YOUR NOSE IN YOUR BUSINESS, NOSY CHOI. Seriously. And if Syd's so worried about the chancellor coming back, as she obviously is, why not just grab Choi's arm and drag him off to a caf for a nice espresso? Oh, because if she did that, we wouldn't have to endure Choi's nosy questions about Syd's dead fianc, I guess. Whatever. Back with lodie, the intruder informs someone that he's found the package and is retrieving what's inside. lodie comes out of hiding and points her gun at him. "I'll take that," she says. "That" is a small statue. The intruder tosses it at her and she grabs it and he takes that moment to get his own gun and shoot at her and then they fight. It's actually a nice fight, and for the most part, it looks like lodie does quite a bit of high-kicking on her own, which is enjoyable. The statue drops and shatters, there's a card inside, lodie grabs it and manages to kick the intruder to the ground. Excellent.
lodie tells Syd that she has the card and is proceeding to the extraction point. Choi asks if Syd's husband is here and she says he's at the hotel; she sees the chancellor coming down the hallway, so she knows she has to get out of there. Duh. She winds up asking for Choi's card, and while he's looking for it, she justdisappears. Yes, because pregnant women move really, really fast and can vanish in the blink of an eye. The chancellor arrives at that very moment and he and Choi share a hilarious "where the hell did she go?" look between them. Heh. Syd meets up with lodie outside the university, and lodie asks who Choi was. "No one," says Syd. "He wasjust someone from another life." Aw.
Hospital of Red-Eyed Daughters. Sloane enters and we get a glimpse of whatever the hell his hair is doing, which seems to be a variation on the Alfalfa 'do of 1943. I didn't notice it the first time I watched this episode, but I have one thing to say to hair and makeup: make it stop. Thank you. Sloane goes into Nadia's room and she's still out cold. He kisses her on the forehead (ew!) and then has a chat with her doctor, wherein he learns that there's no change in her condition and that Sloane had better start considering alternative care. Or, you know, just taking her out back and shooting her. What? He could do it. He cut off his own wife's finger. The man is merciless.