Alias/Snowman

Snowman
Season 1, Episode 19
Airdate	April 14, 2002
Production Number	E648
Written by	Jesse Alexander & Jeff Pinkner
Directed by	Barnet Kellman
← 1x18 Masquerade	1x20 → The Solution
Alias — Season One

Snowman is the nineteenth episode of the first season of Alias. Vaughn tracks an assassin as Sydney grows closer to Hicks.

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: Peter Berg (Noah Hicks), Natasha Pavlovich (Laura Bristow/Irina Derevko), Stephen Spinella (Kishell), Boris Lee Krutonog (Alexander Khasinau), Angus Scrimm (Agent McCullough), Paul Lieber (Bentley Calder)

and Patricia Wettig (Dr. Judy Barnett)

Co-Starring: Richard F. Whiten (Officer Pollard)

Featuring: Don Took (Agent Grey), Scott Vance (Agent Douglas)

Uncredited: Greg Grunberg (Eric Weiss)

Plot Overview

Sydney wakes in the safe house as Hicks warns her that Khasinau's men are outside. The two escape through a trapdoor in the floor and drive off on a dirt bike. Pursued by guards in a Humvee (HMMWV) as well as a helicopter, Sydney calls in for an emergency extraction. Releasing a balloon attached to her harness, a passing C-130 transport plane captures the balloon and pulls them to safety as their motorcycle crashes into the Humvee.

Vaughn tells Sydney that the CIA has uncovered a plan by K-Directorate to get revenge on Khasinau by having him killed. They've hired a noted assassin known only as The Snowman to kill him. The CIA believes that by following the assassin they can find Khasinau independently of SD-6. Vaughn goes to Bogota to talk with a CIA resource who was disfigured by the Snowman to get a lead on his location and his target.

In talking with Jack after her return, the data core is found to contain almost no useful data although it contains video footage of Laura Bristow that Jack says he has no interest in looking at. Sydney, anxious for any information on her mother, views the footage of a debriefing of her after her apparent death where she details her planned cover and marriage to Jack to gain CIA information. She also notices a man in the debriefing room that she recognizes. Digging back through old news clippings, the man in the photograph is listed as FBI Agent Calder but is in fact KGB Agent Igor Sergei Valenko.

Calder is tied to Khasinau by the initial ISV on several of Khasinau's liquidation documents. Knowing that Calder wasn't FBI and hadn't died in the crash, SD-4 captures a recent photograph of him entering a Capetown bank, a known money laundering establishment. The new operation is to break into the heavily secured data network of the bank to gather the financial information. Protected by pressure sensors as well as noise monitoring, Sydney and Hicks go into the warehouse wearing noise cancellation devices and work in silence. Roping over computers and lowering her down, Hicks is in position to receive the hard drive information via wireless modem that Sydney dangles near the computer. As the rig holding her up begins to lose hold, Sydney is unable to overcome the noise cancellation to warn Hicks and he has to make a last minute save by wrapping the rope around his arm, injuring him.

Nothing is found in the laptop on their return, which Marshall suspects is due to a electromagnetic signal that wiped the hard drive. Vaughn is somewhat angry that Sydney hadn't shared any of her information but understands her reasoning that anything shared would be highly classified by the FBI and would eliminate any chance of finding her mother. Hicks, who had made an offer to Sydney to go away with him with $47 million in funds he siphoned off of a company, takes a voluntary job from Sloane for a deep cover assignment and leaves a surprised Sydney.

Marshall is able to perform some technical recovery of the hard drive data and recovers a fragment suggesting that Calder is now in Mackay, Australia. Vaughn, similarly, gets information from the Bogota informant that the Snowman's next target is Calder. Sydney goes to Australia with the intent of capturing Calder for later interrogation but finds his security staff already dead. Sydney breaks into the kitchen just as Calder is being stabbed by a masked Snowman. The two have an extended fight and the Snowman notably uses blunt weapons instead of the many knives in the kitchen. Snowman hesitates in delivering a fatal blow and Sydney knocks him aside and onto a knife. Unmasking the dying Snowman, she sees that Hicks was the Snowman and he dies in her arms.

Notes

• Sydney explodes two guards with her unmanned motorcycle and kills, accidentally, The Snowman/Hicks. Hicks kills seven, including two with a sniper rifle and one with an ice pick.

• Marshall gives Sydney an Active Noise Control, an out of phase noise emitter that cancels sound in a 200' radius. They also use a magnetic grapple and a wireless modem capable of reading a hard drive from several feet away.

47

• McCullough asks Noah about 47 million dollars transferred and subsequently withdrawn to an untraceable account.

Music

• Matt Beckler - "From The Summer"

• Jeff Buckley - "Lover, You Should Have Come Over"

• Paul Oakenfold - "Ready Steady Go"

• Hathaway - "There's Something Better"

• Gigolo Aunts - "My Favorite Regret"

• Lena Anderssen - "Stones In My Pocket"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Sydney, when confronted with her unexplained Italian plane ticket, says that her company has her tasked with several off the record transactions that require her to appear with clients overseas in person.

Referbacks

• Sydney first looks into the death of Calder and talks to his widow in "Reckoning".

Trivia

Goofs

• A motorcycle crashing into a Humvee would not result in a large explosion.