- Sydney recounts her most recent mission to a CIA psychiatrist: Tied to a chair somewhere in Taipei, Khasinau introduces her to "The Man" — who is actually her mother, Irina Derevko.  Irina shoots her in the shoulder to make a point, then exits.

- Syd rendezvous with Jack, who has rescued a badly beaten Will, and explains what happened. She and Jack then reveal the truth about themselves and SD-6 to their panicking friend.

- Dixon apologizes to Sydney for questioning her loyalty.

- In  France, Sydney finds an unconscious Vaughn about to be butchered by Khasinau. She revives him with an adrenaline shot to the heart. He explains that he used a screwdriver to open a grate, which allowed him to escape the flooded room.

- Jack ensures Will's safety by drugging him with heroin and placing him at the scene of a drug bust. Under media scrutiny, Will claims his story about SD-6 is a lie.

- In Barcelona, Syd encounters Derevko, who tells her "Truth takes time".

- Derevko surrenders herself to the CIA.
 

- Vaughn, under pressure from Kendall, speaks to the uncooperative Irina. She bends when Vaughn mentions Sydney's mission to Rabat, saying that Sydney must first pull a fire alarm before opening the safe. Vaughn quickly contacts Sydney.  A suspcious Sydney refuses to pull the alarm but when she snatches the disk, an alarm sounds anyway.

- Syd and Vaughn travel to Peter Fortson's Helsinki lab to retrieve the T-Wave Satellite camera before Sloane does. She narrowly avoids Sloane and steals the camera. Shortly thereafter, Sloane shoots Fortson in the leg when he discovers the camera is missing.

- Back home, Will, who has been doing community service, offers to help Francie set up her restaurant.

- Sydney goes to Irina again and lays down guidelines for their interaction in order to depersonalize their relationship. "You are not my mother," she says, "You are to address me as Agent Bristow". Irina complies.
 

- Sydney learns the T-Wave Camera she had stolen was a prototype, and that the Asiatic Space Agency and their client Sark will launch the real camera, which can see 100 meters through solid matter, into space in 72 hours from a site in Sri Lanka. Her mission is to wire it so SD-6 can tap into the image.

- At the CIA, Kendall wants Syd to talk to Irina because Sark has assumed control of her organization, so she must know what he's looking for. Meanwhile, Jack tells the CIA psychiatrist that he wants to keep Sydney away from Irina. She notes that Jack refers to his ex-wife as Laura.

- Irina tells Sydney that Sark is after a Rambaldi-designed music box. Encoded in the tune is a numerical equation for 0-Point Energy. Sydney rebuffs Irina's attempts to talk about her childhood. Later, Jack warns Syd about Irina, but says he trusts her judgment.

- Under hypnosis, Will remembers the names on Sark's computer.  Later, Irina decodes the names and warns Sydney about Sark's ruthlessness, saying she wants the chance to explain herself.

- Jack confronts Irina, who says they had their good moments together. He threatens to kill her if Sydney is harmed. She asks cryptically, "You haven't told her what you did to her after I disappeared, have you?"

- In Siberia, Sydney receives the code from Vaughn and plays the music box. She records the tune and acts to disable the artifact. The SD-6 team is ambushed by Sark's men, however, and Sydney falls under the ice.
 

- As Sydney struggles underwater, she takes the gun of a drowned henchman and fires through the ice. Dixon helps pull her through.

- Jack interrogates Richter and learns that he had designed a map to lead Irina to The Bible, which he had hidden in a remote location. The map, we learn, is hidden in a 1st edition of War and Peace in a Moscow military library.

- In rehab, Will meets Rebecca Martinez, a conspiracy theorist who presses him to continue his expose of SD-6. Will refuses. Later she meets with Sloane; she's SD-6, and was sent to test Will. Dixon then returns with the B&B registry — signed by Emily!

Irina tells Sydney how to get to the map in exchange for her earrings and expresses worry. Vaughn offers Sydney his unconditional support during this difficult time. Meanwhile, an upset Jack tells the CIA psychiatrist that he's afraid of losing his daughter.

Sydney appears in Moscow disguised as a military officer . She finds the book and retrieves the map. Suddenly Sark appears and offers her a chance to work for him.

- Later, Irina decodes the map, which reveals that The Bible is in a house in Madagascar. Kendall sends Vaughn and Sydney, over Jack's objections. Jack privately hatches a plan and has the building rigged with explosives, framing Irina.  Irina was then taken to Camp Harris for unrestricted interrogation. A heartbroken Sydney tells Jack that he was right about Irina and apologizes for doubting him.
 

- Sydney's SD-6 mission is to photograph the next generation  weapons in Budapest.

- opening of Francie's restaurant.

- Vaughn finds out Jacks involvement in the Madagascar explosion.

- In Budapest, Syd finds out that the next generation weapons are children.

- Sloane explains that they're being trained as sleeper agents. European standardized tests locate the brightest children, who are then given a month-long training program that's erased from their memory and sent back home. Supposedly, the KGB was developing a similar program in the 80s.

-  At home, Sloane finds a glass of wine ominously waiting for him. When he has the wine analyzed, he finds that it contains VTX, an antidote to sodium morphate that simulates death.

- Syd confronts Jack with her memories — Irina's mission was to uncover "Project Christmas," a plan Jack developed to train kids to become American spies. Syd claims that Jack has been afraid she would figure it all out. "You programmed me to be a spy," she says, "I will never forgive you for this."
 

Jack explains to Sydney that he never intended her to be a spy, that he only tested Project Christmas on her so she could be strong in a dangerous environment — but Sloane got to her before he did.

- Syd writes Devlin a letter stating that Jack has deceived the CIA.

- Later, Vaughn explains to Devlin that he's found Soviet standardized test from the 80s, similar to our own. He believes that Irina stole Jack's research and there may be Soviet sleeper cells here in the U.S. Devlin is doubtful. Vaughn hires Will as a freelancer to look into this issue.

- Sloane had Emily's remains exhumed — her coffin is empty!

- Syd watches on closed circuit TV as Jack tells Senator Douglas during his inquiry that he loves Sydney despite his limitations as a father. Still, Jack will go to jail and Irina will be executed the next day. Sydney commandeers Douglas' limo and forces him to reverse the charges against both Jack and Irina by telling him that a Senator is working for The Alliance and she'll turn her evidence over to the FBI if he doesn't cooperate. It's a lie, but it works.

- Meanwhile, at home, Vaughn exhibits bleeding fingernails, a symptom of Sark's virus.
 

- Vaughn wraps his bloody fingernails and heads to Irina's cell. She thanks him for proving Jack's involvement in Madagascar. Vaughn admits he's sick and asks Irina what Khasinau learned from experimenting on people exposed to the Red Ball. Irina asks if he loves Sydney, to which Vaughn replies that he'll tell her if she helps him.

- At the CIA, Sydney, having learned that Vaughn is sick, asks Irina if there is an antidote.

-  Sydney meets Alice, Vaughn's girlfriend.

- Will speaks to an official at the Dept. of Education who gives him the actual '82 test, which has spatial relations questions. The official is baffled — he had submitted the test without such questions.

- Sydney arrives at the Paldiski lab and dons a hazmat suit. Sark traps Sydney and he forces her to cut a deal — Sydney can keep the antidote if she'll deliver him Sloane.

-  In a Tokyo hotel, Sydney, dressed as a geisha, overtakes a pair of guards and replaces a masseuse administering to Sloane. Syd stabs him with poisoned prongs from her hairpin and he passes out. Sark takes Sloane away in an ambulance. A Sark associate gives the antidote to Jack.

- At SD-6, Sydney surprisingly sees Sloane — with Sark! He says Sark is cooperating with SD-6 on the search for Derevko. In private, Sark explains to Syd that he revived Sloane and convinced him that they should work together to solve the Rambaldi mystery.

- A healthy Vaughn returns to Irina's cell. He confesses his feelings for Sydney.

- Sydney and Dixon are to purchase the communication codes used by Uzbek troops. Extremist forces in neighboring Tajikistan are trying to use the codes to plan terrorist attacks, and SD-6 wants to study them. Irina, upon hearing of the mission from Sydney, insists on being released for 48 hours but refuses to offer details. Her request is denied.

- In LA, Will informs Vaughn that the KGB inserted questions into the 1982 standardized test, which was administered to 5 million American children. Vaughn bluntly says that Devlin ordered him to let Will go because his involvement may pose a security risk.

- Vaughn shows Sydney a watch, a gift from his father, who had told him, "You could set your heart by this watch." The watch stopped October 1 — the day he and Syd met.

- Sydney convinces Irina to lead a team to Kashmir. A furious Jack reacts by joining the team himself. He gives Irina a necklace layered with C4, warning her that he would detonate it if she tried to escape.

- Disguised as a loving family on vacation, Irina, Jack and Sydney board a train en route to Kashmir. They parachute from the train and meet their contact, who provides them with the necessary equipment.

- Syd, Irina and Jack are ambushed by the PRF on the way to the camp. During the fight, Irina uses the C-4 necklace, as well as a machine gun. After killing the soldiers, Jack informs Irina that she is not to carry a weapon. Irina acquiesces, but reminds him that they are in enemy territory and need to start trusting each other. The trio makes their way toward a CIA station where they can patch through to Langley on a secure line. They leave, set to arrive at dawn.
 

- At CIA headquarters, Vaughn learns of the PRF ambush on Sydney, Jack and Irina. Sending a rescue team is impossible, since doing so may instigate the Pakistanis. To make matters worse, Vaughn receives a memo stating that the nuclear warheads will be activated the next day at 1700 hours.

- The spy family makes it to Srinagar and meets Jack's contact. Vaughn contacts Sydney and informs her of the nukes' impending activation. Sydney jokingly tells Vaughn that while some families go miniature golfing, her family hunts for nuclear warheads.

- Jack and Sydney make it to the lab, only to find that the nukes' plutonium cores are gone. Suddenly, Cuvee enters 3 with Irina alongside! They're incarcerated, and a fearful Sydney watches Cuvee and Irina confront Jack. Cuvee says that years ago he gave Irina the assignment to marry a CIA officer. Irina tells Jack that the PRF has made a deal with Sark. When Cuvee leaves, Irina reveals to Jack that it's just an act, that she was caught and had to play along. She pistol-whips him, but secretly gives him keys to escape.

- Vaughn rescues Sydney, Jack and Irina.

- Back at the CIA, Irina returns to her cell and finds her reward — a fresh set of pillows and blankets. She explains to Syd that she shot her in Taipei to maintain her own cover. Later, Sydney learns from Vaughn that the flowers are 400-600 years old. Vaughn hands her something — tickets to go miniature golfing, which she does with Will and Francie while Vaughn observes from a distance.
 

- Sydney tells Will that Devlin would approve of him doing research if he undergoes a psychological evaluation test. Francie walks in on their conversation and wonders aloud about the secrecy between Will and Syd. Later on, Irina tries to explain to Syd why she worked with the KGB, and calls herself a fool for abandoning her daughter. They hug but guards separate them.

- In Paris, Sydney and Sark disable their target, a guarded truck, but learn that it was a decoy. Sydney gives chase to a man who emerges from another vehicle and finally grabs the terminal. Meanwhile, Sloane introduces Jack to Ariana Kane, the head of Alliance counter-intelligence, who is investigating Emily's mysterious reappearance. Later, she interrogates Jack, who explains that Sloane recruited Syd without his knowledge in order to ensure his loyalty.

- Back SD-6, Sloane tells the team that a failsafe erased the Echelon terminal's hard drive. Cuvee, he says, may be able to reverse engineer a new terminal based on duplicate software that he's stored on a secure server in London, so he wants Syd to delete it. Marshall says the server can detect any electronic intrusion, so it must be cracked manually by a polymorphic algorithm — something only he can do. A nervous Marshall accepts his mission.

- After Syd and Marshall split for their return flight, Marshall is taken into custody — but not by the CIA! A terrified Marshall is in the custody of … "Suit and Glasses."
 

- At the CIA, Vaughn tells Syd that Marshall was abducted by an associate of Cuvee. Although an extraction team is searching for him, Sydney feels that Marshall is her responsibility. The larger issue is that before he was abducted, Marshall e-mailed Cuvee's copy of the Echelon access program to SD-6.

At SD-6, Sloane reveals that Marshall's email was broken into packets of data that were routed to SD-6 via ISP's around the world. An error in Vietnam prevented several data packets from being transmitted, however, so Sydney and Dixon are to travel to a government facility in Ho Chi Minh City to retrieve the data. Sloane feigns concern for Marshall and contacts SD-4 for a replacement. Sydney's CIA countermission is to switch the actual data with corrupted files.

-  Will meets with Vaughn, who hires him as a CIA analyst — his cover is that he's a journalist for Trade Roads magazine. Will tells Vaughn that Syd cares for him and wants him to respect that.

- As Marshall is writing the echelon code he pings SD-6 to inform them of his Mexico City location. Sloane wants to notify an extraction team, but Sydney and Dixon request the mission.

- Disguised as clubbers, Sydney and Dixon set up a surveillance feed and locate Marshall. Marshall shows his finished program to Suit and Glasses — it's an old-school Pong game. Sydney arrives just in time to prevent Marshall's execution but they're soon trapped in the upper stories of a skyscraper. Marshall breaks a window and "rescues" Sydney with the parachute lined in his jacket — the one he keeps because he fears commercial air travel.

-Irina finds the access point and prevents SD-6 from entering Echelon. Vaughn explains to Sydney that it didn't make sense to bring Marshall to the CIA after what happened with Sloane. Jack confronts Sloane at his home, stating that Kane needs someone to blame and is setting him up. He gives Sloane leads, trusting that he will not be framed. When Jack leaves, however, Sloane calls Kane, informing her that Jack just left his house.
 

- Jack is attacked as he meets a contact in a darkened movie theater. As he flees on foot, Sydney pulls up and rescues him. He explains that Alliance counter-intelligence is after him because he's suspected of extorting $100 million in bonds from Sloane. Sydney's upset that he didn't tell her. Back at the CIA, Jack explains to Sydney the blackmail scenario involving Sloane and Emily. Kane is framing him, and is uncovering his secrets in the process.

- Ariana Kane suggests to a doubtful Sloane that Sydney might be a double agent.

- As Sydney prepares to leave for Nice, Weiss returns from his lengthy stay in the hospital. Dixon and Sydney later arrive at the airport, disguised as a priest and a punk, respectively. Sydney collides with Shatz and picks the gyroscope. While the copy is secretly being made, Vaughn asks Sydney to dinner. She agrees, despite her misgivings. Back at SD-6, Kane learns that Sydney left the airport with a man that was not Dixon and has two agents track them.

Jack scans the security tapes of Brio's hotel in Peru and finds a shot of Brio — and Kane! He learns that the same day Sloane handed over the bonds, Kane opened an account in Monaco. If he can get into their network, he can verify her balance and prove she's the blackmailer. Kendall suggests that Jack let the CIA take care of it, but he refuses to wait.

- Sydney tells Francie that nothing will happen with Vaughn. Later, Vaughn informs Sydney that if he tells the truth about the mission in his debriefing, he will be removed as her case officer. Sydney responds by stating that they work well together, and should stay together as a result. She hands Vaughn the gyroscope, she switched them after all.

- Sloane meets with a man who has created a ring that will act like the tracking device in his neck. He's now able to move about freely. Sloane kills the man and travels to the Philippines, where he meets his wife. Their plan worked.
 

- In a comfortably appointed 747, Sydney poses as a call girl and models lingerie for an unnamed fat man. She gets close to him, surprising him with a choke hold and demands to know the location of Server 47. He tells her, and she knocks him and downloads data from the terminal. She searches the plane for a parachute and fends off a guard — but the fat man appears brandishing a gun and fires at Syd …

- Vaughn locates the Server 47 — it's on a continuously airborne 747 that lands only to refuel and is guarded by a man named Macor (the fat man). As payment for spending his life on the jet, he's supplied with an unlimited number of call girls. Syd's mission is to gain access to the server in the main cabin by playing a high-priced hooker.

- In L.A., Will tells Francie that he must quit her restaurant because he got a job as a travel writer. She's genuinely happy for him and an innocent kiss turns romantic. Later on, they tell Sydney.

- Sydney is frantic because she can't help Jack and knows Kendall will think a rescue is too risky. She tells Will and Francie to leave town because someone is looking for her. She then meets with Dixon and reveals to him the truth about SD-6 and her role as a double-agent. She asks him to hack into SD-6's innermost server and make visible to the CIA the code that will verify their info. Dixon is dubious but acquiesces. When the CIA receives the code, Kendall orders a global assault on all Alliance and SD cells.

- A CIA team overruns SD-6. Sydney finds Jack just in time and shoots Geiger. As the CIA gains control of the facility, Sydney and Vaughn see each other amidst the carnage and kiss passionately.

- Later Sark, who has escaped unharmed, phones Sloane and informs him that Phase One is complete. A pleased Sloane asks him to check in on their "new asset." Sark phones … Francie. But it's a double. She's murdered the real Francie, who lies on the floor with a bullet to her head.
 

- CIA Agent Jim Lennox is in bed with his partner, Emma Wallace. She tells him that she'd like to go back to Fiji. He agrees and they kiss. When he goes into the shower, she frantically types an email: "Abort operation. Lennox is a …" Lennox hits her before she completes the message. Sloane, whom Lennox has called to say he'd been compromised, tells him to make it public. Wallace, strapped with C-4, is thrown from a van onto a Berlin street.

- Shortly thereafter Kendall briefs the staff, saying that Wallace's mission had been to gain the trust of Dr. Enzo Markovic, a scientist developing a technology known as Helix, to determine if it was a weapon. Enzo was believed to have gone to a secret lab in the Serena del Sol Resort in Cayo Cancho, off the Dominican Republic. Lennox is believed to be held there or dead. Sydney and Vaughn's mission is to acquire intelligence and bring Lennox back home.

- At the CIA, Jack reports that Helix is a new gene therapy that can reshape a patient's face and body. The only way to determine an actual identity is through an ocular scan — this flaw was purposely built into the procedure. Lennox, he says, was the first test subject to be doubled, meaning Lennox may actually be Enzo. Vaughn then places Lennox at the scene of Wallace's murder. Syd is dubious, believing Lennox's grief to be authentic.

Lennox's scan checks out okay, and he's shocked when Syd tells him he's been doubled. They learn that Enzo brought Helix to Poland. Syd and Lennox are to find it, download the schematics and destroy it.

- Syd confronts the second Lennox, but the first one appears. They're in a standoff. Syd threatens to detonate Helix. The second Lennox reacts and tries to shoot Sydney. The first — and real — Lennox shoots and kills the phony. Sydney destroys Helix.

- At the CIA, Lennox prepares to go to Fiji — he's never been there; he and Emma were going to go on their honeymoon. Later on in Syd's apartment, she and Vaughn fall into bed. But they're being observed through a camera secretly installed in the television. Francie watches — she's the other double.
 

- Syd's graduation day. Irina, hoping to push her daughter away from the CIA, says she will refuse to see her if Syd stays with the agency.

- At the Long Beach Aquarium, Sark kidnaps Neil Caplan, a Cal Tech mathmetician, along with his wife and child. They're taken to Switzerland, where Sloane shows Caplan the Rambaldi manuscript and explains his 30-year-search for artifacts.

- As Syd prepares for her graduation, Sloane calls, ostensibly to congratulate her. He admits he knew she and Jack were double-agents and that he used them to free himself of The Alliance. He warns her not to get in his way. At the CIA, Kendall briefs Syd on Sloane's kidnapping of Caplan, whose knowledge of Knot Theory — how geometric objects fit together — would enable Sloane to build a weapon out of the Rambaldi artifacts. Syd wearily realizes the battle against evil is eternal, and rethinks her resignation.

- Sydney tells Dixon that he's been cleared, and offers him a CIA job. Dixon, however, feels manipulated by Syd and never wants to see her again. He goes home to his wife and confesses his life of deception. Despite his vow to be honest with her in the future, she later says that she'll leave him if he joins the CIA.

- Marshall, on the other hand, has already adapted to the CIA and has found a Sloane associate — Holden Gemler, a cybernetics specialist in Van Nuys. Jack discovers Gemler's body, sans one eye, during a search. Marshall reveals that the eye is actually a tracking device and they deduce that Sloane hired Gemler to deactivate his own Alliance-implanted tracking device. Marshall accesses the memory in Gemler's eye, which shows Sloane killing Gemler and mentioning a chartered C-123 cargo plane from Shipman.

- At the bank, Sloane, who has changed his appearance to that of an elderly man, gains access to the vaults under the pretext of making a $50 million deposit. He shoots the bank manager and finds the magnetometer. Syd and Vaughn arrive as Sloane and his team are leaving. The standoff is broken when Sloane says he has rigged the lower level with enough C-4 to destroy a city block and if he doesn't exit in 30 seconds, an off-site team will detonate it. Sydney and Vaughn toss their guns to the ground. Sloane throws Sydney a set of keys, telling her that she will drive him out.
 

>> episode 2.16: "Firebomb"   ( 02/23/2003 )

- Sydney and Sloane leave the bank while Vaughn works to disarm the C-4 in the bank's basement. While Syd drives Sloane's getaway car, she tells him that he's on the CIA hit list. Sloane, having learned that the C-4 is disarmed, jumps from the car to a speeding van that eludes Sydney.

- In Switzerland, as Sloane views a Rambaldi page with a hole in the center, Sark informs him that Caplan's tests are complete. The artifact is ready, and Sark will now prepare to test it. Sloane flies to Kandahar and meets Ahmad Kabir, a Pashtun warlord, hoping to recruit him as a partner in his nefarious plans. He wins over the reluctant Kabir with a gift — a pen once belonging to a 17th century Afghani warrior-poet.

- Kendall orders Sydney to recruit Dixon. She tries, but is rebuffed. Vaughn then tells Will to present his analysis of Kabir to Kendall.

- Sydney successfully enters Kabir's base but her intel is bad, and she's detected and captured when her mask is knocked off during a fight. Vaughn asks for assistance but Kendall refuses to take the chance. Unless they find another way in, no one will save Sydney. A desperate Vaughn turns to Dixon.

In Kandahar, Kabir tortures Sydney. As he is about to destroy her knee with a hammer and chisel, he's shot — it's Vaughn and Dixon. They take the device, fight their way out and return home. Syd thanks Dixon, who says that he can't judge her for not telling him about SD-6.

- Sark wonders why Sloane left the weapon with Kabir, who ultimately lost it. Sloane breaks the ahrat, revealing the missing piece of the Rambaldi manuscript page. He places the piece in the missing center, completing the page.
 

>> episode 2.17: "A Dark Turn"   (03/02/03)

- Vaughn is being investigated by CIA counter-intelligence. Vaughn has been found out to have contacted unaproved foreign operatives, and met with a former KGB assassin.

- Irina was allowed to go out on a CIA mission with Jack.

- Sloane is informed of Irina's appearance and requests a meeting in Panama to discuss the purchase of the manuscript. Jack and Irina will be accompanied by a delta force. In Panama, Irina and two guards are to meet Sloane. They'll be tracked by a CIA satellite — when the time is right, the delta team will ambush Sloane. At Irina's behest, Jack removes the tracking device so Sloane cannot possibly detect it. Jack and Irina kiss.
 

- At the apartment Francie puts Will under hypnosis, and he reveals the orbital location of a satellite, as well as its operational controls.

- Vaughn confesses to Sydney that he's been investigating Irina since she turned herself in. After months of research, he's found nothing to suspect she has an agenda.

-  Irina thanks Sloane for extracting her, and hands him the manuscript, which she had hidden with her during the entire operation.
 

>> episode 2.18: "Truth Takes Time"   ( 03/16/2003 )

- Jack tells Sydney of Irina's escape and betrayal. Heartbroken, she retreats to Irina's old cell, where Dixon consoles her. Sydney shows him the earrings Irina left for her and wishes Irina was dead.

- Aboard Sloane's jet, Sloane and Irina discuss their plans — Irina will acquire files from a genetic database in Germany while Sloane reunites with Emily in Tuscany. He speaks of his regard for Sydney, angering Irina. "Don't ever talk about your love for my daughter," she says. Later in Tuscany, Sloane surprises Emily with the purchase of a villa.

- In Sloane's jet, Emily is shocked to see Irina, whom she thought dead, and angered at Sloane's continuing deception. Sloane explains that what he's after will let her live cancer free forever.

- At dinner in L.A., Sydney thinks Francie's behavior is odd after she presents Vaughn with a gift.

- Emily, meanwhile, turns herself in to the American consulate in Florence and asks to speak to Syd, who flies in to meet her. Tired of the lies and rationalizing, Emily offers up Sloane in return for the CIA promise that he won't get the death-penalty. Sydney sympathizes with Emily, admitting she sees her as a maternal figure. Jack agrees to the condition.

- Emily, who chose to go with Sloane,  was accidentally shot and killed by Dixon.
 

- Back in Syd's apartment, Sydney and Vaughn are in bed when they hear Morse code coming from the earrings that had once belonged to Irina. Sydney decrypts the message, which reads: TRUTH TAKES TIME.
 

- Dixon apologizes to Sydney for taking the shot that killed Emily and says he has requested reassignment. In hiding, a vengeful Sloane, no longer interested in the Rambaldi quest, tells Irina that he wants to know who murdered his wife.

- Elsa Caplan admits that Ivanov was her handler and that she married Neil Caplan in order to monitor him. She also implanted in his arm a cyanide pill, and the meaning of the fax is that the pill has been activated and will kill her husband in 42 hours. She tells Syd that she really does love Caplan.

- Francie, who has altered Will's phone, calls him at the CIA and asks him to pull up a recipe on a Web site. As he does it, she somehow uses him to hack into CIA computers and downloads the surveillance tape of Emily's death. Sloane then identifies Dixon as Emily's killer.

- Vaughn and Syd arrive at an office building in Saria, Spain and overpower the guards. They find Caplan, who says Sark is in the area. He also tells Syd that he's an NSA agent and he knows that his wife is a Russian operative.

- Back at the CIA, Caplan and Elsa reunite. Convinced of their love, Jack has granted Elsa defector status. Syd says the data Caplan has decrypted gives them leads on Sloane. Unswayed, Jack says that Syd will be transferred if she disobeys him again. Marshall finds that the satellite footage from Tuscany has been downloaded from the CIA computers — and that it was an inside job.

- At Sloane's request, Dixon's wife, Diane, has been killed in a car explosion, set-up by evil Francie.
 

>> episode 2.20: "Countdown"    ( 04/27/2003 )

- At Diane's funeral, Vaughn observes a grieving Dixon secretly pop pills. Later, he tells Sydney that Dixon is self-medicating and should take time off before going back to work.

- Sark suggests that Sloane go to Panama City. Sloane seems distracted and declines, but gives him a number to call to get what he needs while Irina lays low in Cypress. Sloane admits that killing Diane was a mistake. He's going on leave, he says, and hands Sark the reins.

- At the CIA, Marshall gives a presentation on Rambaldi for the benefit of NSA task force leader Frederick Brendan and Rambaldi expert Kerry Bowman. In his 15th century drawings, Marshall explains, Rambaldi drew a DNA profile of Panamanian named Proteo Di Regno. His DNA is the code key to decrypt page 94 of the Rambaldi manuscript, which foretells certain apocalyptic events. One of them is to happen in 48 hours and may involve Di Regno. Syd and Dixon are dispatched to find him and bring him back.

- Sloane appears in the Himalayas, trekking to a monastery on a remote mountaintop. He finds the monk who sent him on the Rambaldi quest 30 years ago and vents his anger. The monk knows that Emily died; it was necessary, he says. He presents Sloane with a scroll. Sloane learns that his journey has just begun.

- Vaughn later apologizes to Syd; Dixon's drug test is negative. Syd tells Dixon he passed the test, but Dixon reveals he switched the results and begs her not to tell Barnett.

- The CIA team opens the box and finds the "heart." Dixon apologizes to Syd for putting her in a tough position. He says that he came to terms Diane's death while on the bridge. Vaughn and Syd relax in a park. Vaughn says Dixon admitted he switched the tests, and for that he'll get leniency. Syd reveals she knew what Dixon had done and apologizes. They walk off, arm in arm.
 

- Evil Francie tells Sark that the CIA believes Will has been compromised. Irina, informed by Sark, refuses to allow Francie to kill Will but supports his set-up. Francie hypnotizes Will, selectively erased his memories and burns the mark of the second double on his retina.

- Will, suspected as a traitor and the second double, has been arrested by the CIA for espionage. Will's fingerprints have been found in the detonator that set-off the explosion that killed Dixon's wife.

- The CIA has located Dr. Hans Jurgen, the creator of the Project Helix equipment, and believes he may know the identity of the second double. Under threat of blackmail, Jurgens swears he doesn't know the double's identity but says the DNA data is stored on a European server farm.

- Will is being transferred to Camp Harris. Will's convoy is attacked. As Dixon fights off the attackers, Will escapes. He desperately calls Syd, who wants to help. Will, however, says he can't trust her. Syd mentions the server farm. Will says his research showed that Markovic owned land in Marseilles, and that might be the server location.

- Irina, speaking to a contact, asks for the blueprints to a government storage facility. She then mentions to Sark that NSA security is based on a keycard. Sark admits he authorized the assault on Will and that Will is now at large. He suggests that if they get to Marseilles first, they could exchange the real double's DNA, which would prove Will's innocence, for the NSA keycard.

- Jack determines Will's fingerprints were placed on the detonator after it was wiped.

- Sloane unexpectedly confronts Jack at a restaurant. He says he forgives Jack for his SD-6 betrayal, to which Jack replies that their friendship ended when he recruited Syd. Sloane admits that was a mistake and asks Jack to partner with him in the next phase of the Rambaldi quest — and promises that Syd won't be involved. Jack declines. Sloane, undeterred, says they will work together again.

- In the Marseilles facility, Syd's objective is to secure a killswitch worn by the security chief and prevent the deletion of data. She finds that Irina has already killed the guard and possesses the killswitch. Irina tazers Syd and destroys the data. She's copied and transferred it to a secure location, however, and will give it to Syd in return for a favor.

- Will, believing he can trust only Francie, calls her. She picks him up and they drive off.
 

- At the CIA, a depressed Sydney confers with Vaughn. Marshall begins receiving top-secret info — Irina is uploading the double's DNA, as she said she would. Syd then tells Will that he's been cleared because the downloaded DNA doesn't match his, it's from one A.G. Doren.

- While Syd is unwinding at an ice rink, Irina shows up to call in her favor. Syd attacks but Irina throws her down and reveals the whole of her plan. Sloane had 23 Rambaldi artifacts, she says, and the CIA had 24. They had to be put together in order to work so she proposed to Sloane that they work together to defeat The Alliance and raid the CIAs storage facility, which is in an NSA lab in Nevada. Her favor — she simply wants Syd to raid a warehouse in Zurich where Sloane hides the Rambaldi artifacts.

- Sark and Francie meet, and he calls her Allison. He says they can't reverse the doubling process because Markovic's lab has been destroyed. Sark says they'll get her back and they kiss.

- Will investigates and finds the name Allison Georgia Doren on a list of children involved in Project Christmas. She was supposed to have died in a car accident as a child. Will calls Doren's parents and finds that her body was never identified.

- In Zurich, Syd and a team raid the warehouse. Rather than Rambaldi artifacts, they find kitchen appliances stuffed in crates.

- While transporting the Di Regno heart, Jack is attacked and captured by Sloane, who reveals that in 24 hours the final Rambaldi machine, called "The Telling," will be complete. He speaks almost mystically, referring to a "change." Jack, venomous, pities the void in Sloane's life. For his part, Sloane says they're still friends.

- Irina calls Syd and says Sloane switched the crates. She doesn't know where he is but Sark, hiding in a Stockholm club, does. Although Syd doesn't trust her, she and Vaughn go and do, indeed, find Sark. Weasel that he is, Sark quickly offers up Sloane, saying that he and Jack are in Mexico City. Later, from a CIA prison cell, he directs them to Sloane's hideout.

- The CIA team storms an office building and engages in a gunbattle. Dixon finds Jack. Irina appears, and while she seems to be on Sydney's side, Syd runs after her while Vaughn goes after Sloane. Syd confronts her on the skyscraper's rooftop and threatens to kill her. Irina says that Sloane believes he's been chosen to realize the word of Rambaldi. Only Syd can stop him, Irina says, because she — not Sloane — is the chosen one of the prophecy. "I love you," Irina says, and jumps. Holding on to a bungee cord, she shoots out windows and swings back into the building to escape.

-  Will finds Provacillium — the medicine needed to counteract the buildup of proteins in the double's eyes — in the medicine cabinet, at nearly the same time that Francie sees Will's file on Allison Doren. Having finally discovered the truth, Will makes a quick phone call to Syd and leaves a voicemail identifying Francie as the second double.  Francie attacks Will and she stabs him.

- Later, Syd comes home and retrieves her voice messages while relaxing in the den with Francie. Keeping a poker face, Syd offers Francie a scoop of coffee ice cream. Francie accepts, and Syd knows — the real Francie hated coffee ice cream. Syd goes to her bedroom to get her gun but Francie confronts her before she can. They engage in a no-holds-barred brawl. After a big fight, Syd finally shoots Francie and collapses from exhaustion.

- Syd wakes in Hong Kong wearing different clothes and appearing confused and worried. She calls Kendall, who directs her to a safe house. She arrives there and notices a scar on her stomach. Vaughn arrives and appears out of sorts. He says Will is okay. He's shaken, he says, because he thought she was dead. He's come back to explain. Sydney notices that he's wearing a wedding ring. Reluctantly he tells her that she's been missing for almost two years.