Alias/Dead Drop

Dead Drop
Season 2, Episode 4
Airdate	October 20, 2002
Production Number	E655
Written by	Jesse Alexander
Directed by	Guy Norman Bee
← 2x03 Cipher	2x05 → The Indicator
Alias — Season Two

Dead Drop is the fourth episode of the second season of Alias, and the twenty-sixth episode overall. Jack works to ensure Irina is not trusted.

Starring: Jennifer Garner (Sydney Bristow), Ron Rifkin (Arvin Sloane), Michael Vartan (Michael Vaughn), Bradley Cooper (Will Tippin), Merrin Dungey (Francie Calfo), Carl Lumbly (Marcus Dixon), Kevin Weisman (Marshall Flinkman), David Anders (Julian Sark)

with Lena Olin (Irina Derevko)

and Victor Garber (Jack Bristow)

Special Guest Star: Terry O'Quinn (FBI Special Officer Kendall)

Guest Starring: Marisol Nichols (Rebecca Martínez), Daniel Faraldo (Manolo)

and Patricia Wettig (Judy Barnett)

Co-Starring: Carol Androsky (N.A. Moderator), Jim Hanna (Claus Richter)

Featuring: Dato Bakhtadze (Russian Security Guard), Scott Donovan (American Tourist), Ira Heiden (Techie), Kevin Sutherland (CIA Operative)

Plot Overview

Sydney, trapped under the ice in Siberia, sees the floating corpse of Sark's henchman, killed by Dixon's defensive fire. Sydney uses his scuba gear to breathe as she fires his gun upwards, creating a hole in the ice for her to crawl out of. Unable to climb out as she succumbs to the cold, Dixon reaches down just in time before she disappears beneath the surface.

Sydney tells Sloane that although Sark escaped with the music box, it was heavily degraded by time and the elements. Sloane is very suspicious that the ordinarily careful and flawless planning Rambaldi prepared for his works would be subject to casual destruction like that. Sloane has Sark tracked to the Falklands where an SD-6 team trades fire with him, although he escapes. They recover the destroyed music box, supporting Sydney's story, as well as a man being tortured for information by Sark. Klaus Richter is nearly catatonic due to an allergic reaction from something Sark gave him, the first symptom of which is bleeding from the fingers. Jack is able to get him to talk by giving him a small amount of morphine to ease the pain. Klaus is the current holder of the Derevko Operations "Bible" and has hidden it in a location so remote that a map is required to find it. The map is hidden in the first edition of War and Peace housed in the technical library of FAPSI, a successor to the KGB.

Jack shares this information with Sydney personally, along with a false map provided by the CIA to exchange with the real one, in an effort to keep Sydney from talking with her mother. Sydney still ignores his warnings about her and asks for her assistance in finding a route into the FAPSI building, which she provides. In exchanges, Irina asks for her earrings back.

Sydney goes into the FAPSI library as a decorated Russian Army Major with several medals. Using the skeleton keys contained in the medals, she gets into the automated book retrieval system and brings up War and Peace. Just as it arrives, Sark appears pointing a gun at her head. Impressed with her competence at showing up as often as he does, he semi seriously offers her a job in exchange for her life. Sydney declines and removes a skeleton key from the computer setting off an alarm. After a quick scuffle, Sark reaches for the book but is forced to take cover when the Russian guards burst in the room. As Sark exchanges fire with them, Sydney takes the map from the book and runs upstairs. Locking herself in a room, she calls Vaughn on a concealed phone and has him go to her mother's cell. With her familiarity of the building, Irina is able to direct Sydney to a switch hidden behind an abstract painting in an office that conceals a hidden escape route. Sydney is able to leave the building with the map intact.

Sydney meets with Irina to help in decoding the map, identifying coordinates in Madagascar. In exchange for the help, she gives Irina back her earrings, which hold sentimental value for Irina as her mother gave them to her. Jack, in an effort to undermine Sydney's trust in Irina, has a contact head to the location and wire the building with an excessive amount of explosives. Sydney and Vaughn travel to Madagascar while Jack and the CIA observe via satellite. As Sydney is about to enter the building, Jack stops them and has them check the building. Finding the armed explosives, Sydney and Vaughn retreat right into Sark and his men. Having followed them to find the building, Sark covers them while his men enter the building. In the resulting explosion, consuming the Bible and the henchmen, Sark escapes. Sydney, convinced that her mother betrayed her, apologizes tearfully to her father for not believing him.

Notes

• Dixon kills one of Sark's men. Sark and an SD-6 team exhange fire, with one SD-6 and one of Sark's team killed. Three of Sark's team are exploded by Jack's diversionary bomb.

• Marshall gives Sydney a series of skeleton keys disguised as Russian military medals.

• Sydney goes undercover as a Russian Army Major.

Music

• The Innocence Mission - "Oh Do Not Fly Away"

• Michelle Featherstone - "Stay"

• Rachael Diggs - "When Its All In Pieces"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• At his AA meeting, Will is approached by Rebecca Martínez, owner of the ConspiracyChick.com website. Not believing his confession and asking several times for help in uncovering the SD-6 story, Will does not deviate from his story. Rebecca is revealed to be an SD-6 Security Section investigator reporting to Sloane and confirms that Will is not a risk.

• Sloane asks for Jack's help in uncovering the source of the phantom phone call from the Sonoma bed and breakfast. Dixon returns with a recent guestbook bearing Emily Sloane's signature.

• As a result of Jack's manipulation, Irina Derevko is moved to a new facility for more intense interrogation.

Trivia

Goofs

• While underwater, Sydney knocks her head back, causing her headband to come off, but it's on again in the very next shot.