When Sloane kills a Russian mafioso that Irina Derevko used to know and steals his wallet (!), she understands that he must have been looking for a Rambaldi document that details his studies on the human heart. But the dead guy no longer had the document - he had sold it, and Irina knows to whom. So Jack devises a plan: the CIA will again release Irina temporarily and she will take him to the man with the document; they will steal it and use it as bait to make Sloane arrange for a meeting to buy it from Irina, setting a trap for him. Meanwhile, Sydney is questioned by a CIA "counterintelligence threat analyst" who is suspecting Vaughn (yes, Vaughn) of disloyalty to his service. I really liked this episode. In the previous one, "Firebomb", the emphasis was on the external threats - Sloane and Sark primarily. Here, the emphasis is on the internal threats - "Francie" (I've said it before, and I'll say it again: this character is now 10 times more interesting than she was in Season 1 - although technically she's not the same character. Plus the actress, Merrin Dungey, clearly loves playing the bad girl, and it makes her HOTTER as well), Irina (she's out of her cell again; will she use the opportunity to try to escape, or will she honestly help the CIA? The finale seems to give us an answer, but I think it deliberately tries to play it both ways), Will (he is hypnotized by "Francie" into revealing crucial information, which she then passes on to Sloane), and even Vaughn himself. The way this episode brings together the Jack-Irina and the Sydney-Vaughn plots is a lesson in good screen writing. *** out of 4.
2 Reviews
Vaughn is under investigation and Irina is trusted to go in the field again
Tweekums12 April 2012
Warning: Spoilers
When a Russian arms dealer is killed by Sark to get the Rambaldi documents in his possession he doesn't realise he has already sold them. Irina knows who the purchaser was so the CIA must trust her once again if they are get to it first
they need to use her because if it becomes known that she was the one who possesses it they can use her and the document to catch Sloane. Of course this all relies on her being trustworthy. While this is going on there are also two other story lines; firstly Sydney is asked to look into some activities of Vaughn's that the CIA believe to be suspicious and in the second fake-Francie hypnotises Will into giving her information he has learnt while working for the CIA.
This was a decent episode with some good action scenes; I particularly liked the opening scene where the Russian was assassinated in a plummeting lift and the scene where Irina acquired the Rambaldi documents. The film also had a fine ending but I won't spoil that here. The secondary story lines seemed a bit of a distraction although I'm sure the way fake-Francie is getting information from Will is going to be important in forthcoming episodes. It was good to see Lena Olin get a larger part in this episode as Irina gets more screen time here than she has had since the time she accompanied Sydney and Jack to Kashmir... while she does a fine job when her character is confined to her cell she gets to demonstrate a greater range when she goes into the field.
This was a decent episode with some good action scenes; I particularly liked the opening scene where the Russian was assassinated in a plummeting lift and the scene where Irina acquired the Rambaldi documents. The film also had a fine ending but I won't spoil that here. The secondary story lines seemed a bit of a distraction although I'm sure the way fake-Francie is getting information from Will is going to be important in forthcoming episodes. It was good to see Lena Olin get a larger part in this episode as Irina gets more screen time here than she has had since the time she accompanied Sydney and Jack to Kashmir... while she does a fine job when her character is confined to her cell she gets to demonstrate a greater range when she goes into the field.
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