Alias/Parity

Parity
Season 1, Episode 3
Airdate	October 14, 2001
Production Number	E632
Written by	Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci
Directed by	Mikael Salomon
← 1x02 So It Begins	1x04 → A Broken Heart
Alias — Season One

Parity is the third episode of the first season of Alias. A grab for an ancient technical design puts Sydney at odds with a rival agent while Will gains further details into the death of Danny.

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)

and Victor Garber (Jack Bristow)

Guest Starring: Evan Dexter Parke (Charlie), Gina Torres (Anna Espinosa), Aharon Ipale (Ineni Hassan), Keone Young (Professor Choy), Elaine Kagan (June Litvack), Mark Rolston (Seth Lambert)

Co-Starring: Carole Gutierrez (Laura Stenson)

Featuring: Duane Journey (Sniper Team Leader), Luis Medina (Eduardo Benegas), Randy Mulkey (Navy Seal), Russell Alexander Orozco (M.C.), Alfonso Paz (Lead Security Officer), Tony Sears (SD-6 Agent), Anthony Vatsula (Doorman)

Uncredited: Greg Grunberg (Eric Weiss)

Plot Overview

Following the standoff between Sydney and Hassan, Sydney is able to escape with the plutonium core and return it to the CIA.

Returning home, Sydney and Will get closer to each other. Doing her a favor, Will goes to collect some of Danny's things from his now vacant apartment. He thinks to check the traffic cameras near his house but is surprised to find that the traffic cameras within a mile of the apartment are all blank. Later, after a party hosted at Sydney's new home, Will and Sydney are left alone drinking Tequila and kiss. Awkwardly, Will leaves.

The operation this week revolves around the Mueller device recovered earlier. Mueller was not an inventor but was just working off someone else's design. The original design came from Milo Rambaldi, a DaVinci-esque prophet who died in 1496. Among his many advanced designs were a transistor, a form of cell phone, and a form of incomplete machine code. The remainder of the machine code is found on the back of a sketch currently owned by Eduardo Benegas, who refuses to sell it. The plan is to attend a car show at a museum in Madrid owned by Benegas and steal the case from the vault. The key to the case has already been stolen by Anna Espinosa, a rival agent working for K-Directorate. Sydney spots Anna posing as a waitress and the two race to the vault. Sydney creates a distraction by shattering a glass wall and then making her way to the vault. While bypassing security, she finds that Anna has gotten there ahead of her and is going through the ducts. While deactivating the electronic lock guarding the vault, her remote access is scrambled and Anna cuts through the floor ahead of her. Getting the case and taunting Sydney, who is now trapped with alarms going off, she escapes down the hole in the floor. Dixon crashes his van into Anna's support van allowing the electronic lock decoding to finish and Sydney gives chase. After fighting, and losing, to Anna, Sydney shoots the strap of the carrying case off of Anna's shoulder and escapes.

Vaughn passes along word to Sydney that he has been replaced by a senior agent, Agent Lambert. Neither Sydney or Vaughn think highly of him and after he gives her an ear-mike to use on a critical mission and has no apparent regard for her safety, Sydney makes the ultimatum that Vaughn be reinstated as her case officer or she walks. Vaughn is brought back, promoted to Senior Agent.

The case appears to be protected by a defense mechanism that will destroy whatever is inside, so the original key must be used. As K-Directorate already has the key and an attempt to break in to steal it back was deemed a suicide mission by her father, a deal is brokered where Sydney and Anna will meet in a large stadium in Madrid and open the case together (under threat of snipers from both sides. The two meet, where Anna trades barbs with Sydney over her fiancé's death, before opening the case and finding something surprising inside.

Notes

• Marshall gives Sydney a necklace with a microphone in it, sonic wave emitter shaped like Spanish currency with a remote activator in a pen, lockpick in a Japanese fan, remote modem to bypass security, electronic lock descrambler, and a two-way ear mike. Anna uses a cutting torch.

• Sydney goes undercover dressed as a woman attending a fundraiser while Anna poses as a waitress.

• Sydney defeats one guy in hand to hand combat, explodes two men with a grenade, and evades fire from two gunmen. Anna beats one armed guard and beats Sydney in hand to hand combat.

Music

• Miranda Lee Richards - "The Beginner"

• Ryan Adams - "La Cienega Just Smiled"

• Bill Bonk - "Rings A Bell"

• Spookie Daly Pride - "Go Get It"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Sydney's father confirms that her mother knew her father worked for the CIA but again tells Sydney that her mother's death was an accident. Later, he confirms with Sloane that he lied about the nature of her mother's death.

• Francie thinks Charlie is cheating on him because she finds a hotel matchbook saying 'I truly loved tonight, Rachel'.

Referbacks

• The Mueller device stolen in "Truth Be Told" is determined to be made from design schematics originally from Milo Rambaldi.

Trivia

The Show

• This episode makes the first mention of Milo Rambaldi whose work would become a major part of the show's mythology.

Quotes

• Vaughn: What can you tell me about this woman? Anna Espinosa.

Sydney: She was born in Cuba, raised in Russia. One of the last of the cold war babies. Go-to officer at K-Directorate for wet-work and active measures. About a year ago, I had a meeting with an informant in Yugoslavia. Low-level, just a guy with intel who needed the money. Anna recorded the entire conversation with a parabolic mic from the building next door.

Vaughn: How do you know?

Sydney: Because as I was shaking his hand to leave, she blew out the back of his skull with a sniper rifle even though she got what she came for. Her way of telling me I was out of my league.