Alias/Passage (2)

Passage (2)
Season 2, Episode 9
Airdate	December 8, 2002
Written by	Crystal Nix Hines
Directed by	Ken Olin
← 2x08 Passage (1)	2x10 → The Abduction
Alias — Season Two

Passage (2) is the ninth episode of the second season of Alias, and the thirty-first episode overall. Sydney and Jack learn where Irina Derevko's true intentions lie.

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) (credit only), 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: Derek de Lint (Gerard Cuvee), James Lesure (CIA Agent Craig Blair), Marshall Manesh (Hari Singh), Wolf Muser (Ramon Veloso), Iqbal Theba (General Arshad), Joseph Ruskin (Alain Christophe)

Featuring: Ira Heiden (Rick, CIA Techie), Andy Gatjen (Aide), P.D. Mani (PRF Guard)

Plot Overview

Stuck in a hostile country with the PRF aware of their presence, Sydney, Jack, and Irina head off on foot and hop aboard a freight train. Sharing some personal anecdotes of a good time in their past, Jack and Irina briefly drop their guard and laugh together. They rendezvous with an old contact of Jack's in Srinagar, India. He is able to provide some support and equipment for Jack but clearly isn't well connected anymore, making his decision not to use one of Irina's well established contacts a bad decision. Putting an end to some bickering, Sydney makes it clear that Irina is in charge when they enter the facility while Jack remains in control on the entry and exit of the former prison. To conceal their movements, they adopt disguises and hide Irina in a large plastic drum until the vehicle Jack's contact had provided breaks down.

The trio arrive at the base's rear entrance, protected primarily by a minefield, and being careful moving through it guided by Irina's memory. Sydney has been relayed information from the CIA that the PRF has commented that they will "activate" the nuclear weapons at 5pm putting them under a time pressure. As they are negotiating the minefield, they are surprised by three guards who open fire on them. They are able to kill them but not before Jack is shot in his bulletproof vest and falls on an armed mine. Forced to stay motionless, he entrusts his life to Irina who disarms the mine successfully.

The Indian government has found out the PRF is in possession of the nuclear weapons and, angry that the CIA didn't share the information with them, prepare to launch a preemptive airstrike against the prison facility. Vaughn goes to make a personal plea to a General in the Indian armed forces who was a friend of his father. Because of the history he shared with Vaughn's father, he gives Vaughn a helicopter and a pilot but won't call off the airstrike.

Having gained access to the facility, Irina tells them that the nuclear weapons are either in the vault or the lab. The lab is protected by thermal sensors that would be triggered if anyone approached. This can be avoided by raising the temperature in the room to 98°, which must be done separately at a control room by Sydney. The door is protected by a voice key and the decision is to have Jack break into the computer room and rerecord the existing voice with his own. Irina must be left on her own to disable the security to prevent their detection as they perform these steps, something Jack is very wary of trusting her with. When questioning her about it, Irina reveals that she was not an employee of the prison but an inmate.

Jack knocks out a guard and uses his palm print to gain access to the security office, quickly changing the recorded voice print according to plan. Sydney adjusts the temperature successfully. As Sydney and Jack meet back up, Irina is late and Jack makes the decision to proceed with the dismantling of the nuclear weapons. After opening them up they find the plutonium cores are missing. At that moment, guards surprise them and they are held at gunpoint by PRF leader Gerard Cuvee and a clearly cooperating Irina Derevko.

Sydney and Jack are kept in separate cells and Sydney watches as Cuvee and Derevko interrogate Jack. Cuvee is working with Sark to test a Rambaldi process using the plutonium cores and provide test results to Sark. He is convinced that Sark is planning to doublecross him and demands information from Jack. When it is clear that Jack isn't going to talk, Irina spares his life by promising to interrogate him. As she hits Jack, she slips him a handcuff key and tells him quickly that she was caught and had to make up a story to her former KGB supervisor, Cuvee.

With the key, Jack and Sydney escape. They return to the lab to observe the procedure, in which the cores activate a process involving a large sphere. As the process is complete the sphere is opened and reveals a red flower, supposedly over 400 years old and regenerated by the Rambaldi machine. As they examine the flower, the Indian airstrikes begin as the facility is hit with air to ground missiles. Sydney and Jack use this distraction to help rescue Derevko and take the flower and plutonium cores, killing Cuvee in the process. They escape into open air just as Vaughn arrives in the helicopter.

Sloane is contacted by phone demanding $100 million in bearer bonds to keep the secret of his wife's survival from the Alliance. Sloane goes to the Alliance personally and tells them that he is being blackmailed and suggests that they set up a sting to discover who is blackmailing them, citing the breach of security the blackmailers represent. The Alliance of Twelve agree but remind Sloane that after recovering his wife, she still has to die. Using an ingenious liquid tracker, the follow the money drop instructions as Marshall tracks the progress. Despite the untraceable nature of the liquid tracker, the signal and the money is lost and the identity of the blackmailers remain a mystery.

Notes

Music

• The Rolling Stones - "Emotional Rescue"