Alias 5.9: The Horizon

Michael Vaughn arrives in Sydney's apartment and starts preparing dinner. He also tells a very pregnant Sydney that she is going to be a great mother. Syd looks at herself in a mirror and sees a vision of herself, strapped in, with wires attached to her head. She regains consciousness and finds out that the vision is reality and "recently" being with Michael Vaughn was part of a dream. A doctor injects her with a chemical and she protests helplessly.

Two days earlier, Peyton stabs a man who has access to CIA archives in San Francisco. She breaks in and retrieves Vaughn's files. She calls Aldo Desantis and arranges a meeting.

At the APO briefing room, Jack tells them that the CIA archives were breached and they had identified Peyton as part of Prophet Five. He added that she stole files of killed agents in the line of duty, including journals and protocols. Syd knew that he meant Vaughn. As Jack tasks Sloane to oversee Rachel analyze the intel, he asks Syd to meet with Renee Rienne who might provide information about Prophet Five's motives.

In a warehouse, Peyton's team listens on mission tapes. This leads them to believe that Vaughn had told Sydney crucial information about Prophet Five, and Sydney might not even be aware of it. Peyton calls Desantis and he recommends a doctor who specializes in extracting information.

In Madrid, Sydney meets with Renee who confirmed that Vaughn didn't keep anything on record related to Prophet Five. Just then, Syd notices two men moving menacingly toward them. She and Renee start moving away. Though Renee kills the two men, Sydney gets abducted by another group and is thrown into a van. As another van attempts to follow Sydney's, Renee shoots it and opens the door to find Desantis.

Still trapped and bound in the interrogation room, Sydney listens to the doctor explain to observers behind a one-way mirror that the chemical he injected will force hypnosis. When the doctor asks her to find a happy moment with Michael Vaughn, Syd's subconscious reverts back to the time Vaughn had proposed to her. In this dream state, she gains awareness and frantically tells Vaughn in the dream that Prophet Five is using her. Vaughn is taken aback at Syd's knowledge of Prophet Five.

Renee contacts APO and tells Jack about Syd's abduction. Jack moves the team to locate Sydney and points out that since Desantis is involved, this means involvement of Prophet Five experimental medical procedures. Jack asks Sloane if he knew another Prophet Five contact and Sloane denies it. Later, Sloane privately begs his Prophet Five contact to plead for Sydney's release but to no avail.

At the lab, the doctor continues the regressive process attached to Sydney's memory of Vaughn. She recalls speaking to Vaughn on a hospital bed minutes before she lost him, and her conscious mind breaks through in this memory and starts talking to Vaughn about Prophet Five once again. Living in that state, she realizes that the drink she had given him that was recommended by the nurse caused Vaughn's body to crash. As she refused to let him die, Vaughn tells her to let him go, since this is the only way to defeat the people holding her captive. She recalls another memory where they were stuck in a jail cell, and she refuses to let Vaughn go.

Jack interrogates Desantis and threatens to torture him more after cutting one of his ears off. Just then, Renee finds a recurring address located in Hungary through a notebook that she retrieved from Desantis. Jack realizes that one of the dates listed is Sydney's delivery date. Jack leaves the room and Renee shoots Desantis.

Meanwhile, the doctor once again urges Sydney to dive into her memory. She recalls a moment where she speaks with Vaughn at the pier, and in a similar pattern, Vaughn urges her to let the memory of him go before they hurt her further. In the memory, Syd's phone rings and she hears the doctor's voice on the other end, asking her to draw a map. In the memory, Syd and Vaughn tell each other that they give each other strength.

Syd's memory jumps back to one of her first meetings with Vaughn, where they spoke about SD-6. When Vaughn shows Syd the real map of SD-6, the doctor asks a semi-conscious Sydney to read the information on the map. After Syd says "X-23 Norte," the observer from behind the mirror tells the doctor to end this procedure. A satisfied Irina Derevko prepares to leave and orders Peyton to tell their associates that the location has been found, and to keep Syd comfortable.

In a deserted beach inside Syd's head, she meets with Vaughn. They listen to the waves and Syd expresses how much she wants to stay with him. Vaughn encourages her and tells her that together, they will defeat these people -especially after they find out that Syd had given them the wrong information. He has to go so they can stop using her.

Renee and Jack arrive in the Hungarian address listed in Desantis' notebook. They go into a deserted building, and was surprised to find a room where a nursery was set up. Meanwhile, with the chemicals wearing off, Sydney opens her eyes and finds Peyton unstrapping her. With one hand, Syd stabs Peyton with the drug and escapes. Still groggy, she finds her way around narrow corridors. She bursts through a door and realizes that she is in a ship, in the middle of an ocean.

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That mysterious person with an interest in Syd and the baby was Sydney's mother, Irina Derevko (Lena Olin). Vaughn (Michael Vartan) had a cameo role tonight, through drugs and Sydney's memory. This was a good episode. Left us with a bit of a cliffhanger until next time.

ALIAS is going on hiatus until sometime in March, due to JG's real life maternity leave (now). They did not say specifically when the next episode will be on in March, just that it would be then. The plan apparently is for ABC to reintroduce the show then and run solid for 13 weeks, until the end of the season/series finale. SO when the show resumes, so will my updates. Not that I write them, but I cut & paste them from ABC's web page.