Alias 5.7: Fait Accompli

.A very pregnant Sydney chats with a university chancellor in Rome while Renee Rienne tries to break into the building's underground storage facility. Syd feigns exhaustion and asks for a glass of water, affording her the chance to steal and duplicate one of his key. She sends the template to Renee electronically. Renee soon finds Dean's package - and another man about to steal it. She kicks his butt, grabs it and meets Sydney outside.

In her apartment, Sydney discusses with Rachel the mysterious keycard that is meant for one port among billions. Delivery men arrive with Sydney's baby's crib yet to be assembled. She sadly reveals to Rachel how she envisioned this moment to be very different from what had turned out. She leaves the crib disassembled.

After Sloane receives word from Nadia's doctor that she has no hope for recovery, he gets a call from Gordon Dean demanding his keycard. Later, Sloane apologizes and confesses to Jack and Sydney that he had been working with Dean. When Jack asks him what changed his mind, Sloane admits that he was hoping that Dean could help find a cure for Nadia. Now that he knows she's untreatable, he is more than willing to help them bait Dean with the keycard.

In a racetrack at Dubai, Tom and Dixon take out Dean's men while Sloane hands Dean the keycard. Suspicious, he takes Sloane hostage. The APO team loses track of them when the track's PA system jams their transmissions.

Rachel finds them in an empty stable and knocks Dean unconscious with a shovel. When Syd interrogates him, he says the keycard will grant them access to his anonymous boss' communication hub. After revealing that the card will expire in 12 hours, Dean offers to work with them in exchange for immunity and protection. Syd injects him with a drug to encourage him to talk more freely.

Meanwhile, Sloane meets with a man named Ehrmann, who asks him to eliminate Dean. Sloane refuses. On cue, Sloane's receives a phone call regarding Nadia's condition. He arrives at the hospital to see Nadia waking from her five-month coma. She begins convulsing, however, and must be injected with a sedative and returns to her comatose state.

In the APO office, Dean reveals that the communication hub is located on top of the Glenheim Tower, and says that the watchman can help. He also apologizes for killing Michael Vaughn and warns Syd that his bosses have plans for her.

In Seattle, Dixon and Tom arrive at the tower and plug the access keycard in a port. As they uplink to Marshall, he discovers that many of the organizations in the database are part of global governments. Marshall is then locked out of the system and presented with a riddle. Syd recalls that Dean mentioned a "watchman" who can help.

Sloane slips inside Dean's interrogation room. Dean says he has the access code and can help take down Prophet Five, but Sloane forces him to swallow a cyanide pill. Syd discovers his corpse.

Sitting inside a car, Peyton and Ehrmann drink to her success. He confirms that she now has Dean's operations and warns her of double crossing them. Ehrmann gets out of the car briefly and meets with Sloane, who confirms the assassination. When Sloane asks when Nadia will be cured, Ehrmann says that they will need more from Sloane -and points out that Sloane now has hope for Nadia's return. Frustrated and helpless, Sloane watches him leave.

In Sydney's apartment, Jack helps Sydney build her baby's crib. Sydney says that taking down the 12 sources making up Prophet Five will be a challenge since they are embedded inside a global government. Jack remains encouraging and tells her that they've already started their long journey.

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Prophet Five is apparently bigger than Gordon Dean. Nadia may yet survive. Sloane is still evil. The plot takes another twist.

The next episode, in three weeks, will mark the return of one of Alias' coolest bad boys. David Anders is back playing Sark, whom we last saw at the beginning of season four. What part he has and how big his role will be remains to be seen.

Apparently ABC has decided to move ALIAS back to Wednesdays, as it was last season. Its new time slot is at 10 pm, starting December 7th. I'm assuming they did this because they realize that even a show as good as this can't beat out the monster that is Survivor. (I've never understod the appeal of reality television shows like Survivor, which seems stupid to me. Oh well.) It's kind of interesting. Last season Alias was on at 9 as a lead in to Lost on Wednesdays. In three weeks, Lost will be the lead in to Alias.

So the next Alias update will be on Pearl Harbor Day.