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Alias
Nightingale
original air-date: 04-06-05
Be
Kind. Rewind: Sydney got buried alive and it was
Marshall to the rescue!
Man, I just hate it when people start melting
in my nuclear reactor chamber. It’s so hard to get
out the stains they leave behind.
Seriously,
though, it was kind of nasty when that Vlachko dude decided
to fry some guy with what we now understand to be the mysterious
Nightingale. The question is why is he experimenting on
humans and to what end? Is it just a weapon used to turn
hundreds of people into human blobs in mere minutes or are
they doing something else with this DNA altering machine?
Of course,
we won’t know the answer to that for a while, but
we did get a better idea about what Sloane and Jack are
up to. They’re searching for another one of Irina’s
sisters, Yelena Derevko. There’s speculation on many
fan sites about what this could mean. Some think that this
other sister could actually be Lauren’s mother, while
others argue that the interest in Irina’s sister might
be further evidence for backing up the thought that Spy
Mommy might not be dead after all. The fact that Sloane
made it clear to Jack that keeping their plans from Sydney
was essential might also add some weight to this idea.
Whatever
it means, it seems to have a lot of people talking about
where the show is heading as May sweeps quickly approach,
the time when big guest stars star showing up (such as Lena
Olin), if they are offered enough money, of course.
And
I would honestly like to believe that Jack risked his life
to save Syd when she was trapped inside the chamber, but
I’m just not buying it. Why, you ask? First of all,
we never saw him actually go into the core, just getting
the door open. Second, he and Sloane had that conversation
about exploiting Sydney to get information and protecting
everything they’d worked for. And finally, Jack has
not been above making himself out to be the self-sacrificing
father before in order to get what he needs. Why should
this time be any different from past incidents?
And the stuff involving Vaughn’s father
just gets more confusing the more we learn. If his father
wasn’t killed after all, why did he abandon his wife
and son? Did he take up with Irina Derevko and her lot?
Is that why he had Nadia with him? We don’t have any
answers yet, but we do know that Vaughn is willing to go
to extreme lengths to learn the truth.
This
is actually working out to be a good plotline for Michael
Vartan, who has had to deal with being basically seen as
either Sydney’s love interest or Lauren’s betrayed
husband. Now, he gets a story that is mostly about him and
his issues, besides the Irina and Nadia connections.
Still,
it gives Vartan the opportunity to stand on his own for
the first time in a long time, despite the fact that everything
in the Alias world is interconnected. Having Vaughn go off
on a rogue mission also forces us to question what the repercussions
of his actions will be, whether or not he will be able to
return to APO after he learns the truth or if Jack and Sloane
have something more sinister install for Spy Boy.
“Nightingale”
was basically satisfying, but there were some great parts
that just stood out. Like when Syd, dressed as a German
bar wench, slides across the table knocking out Dietrich’s
guard and then cries “Auf Wiedersehen” before
rushing out the door with Vaughn. The other laugh out loud
part was when Vaughn tells Syd that he loves her and then
punches her in the face, making it look like he overpowered
Spy Girl and ran off with the coil so Jack wouldn’t
think that they had willfully deceived him.
The
only problem I have with this episode is the melting person
in the beginning and Vaughn injecting himself with the scary
needle when he meets with the informant concerning his dad.
Must we have all the grossness? It was just plain icky,
but, in retrospect, necessary, I suppose.
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