Alias 4.14: "Nightingale"
Written by Breen Frazier
Directed by Lawrence Trilling
In which Vaughn’s search for answers about his father spark a series of lies and deceptions, all of which force Vaughn to make a difficult decision and Jack to make a desperate choice…
Status Report
After more than half a season of slowly but sure setting up plot and character elements across episodes of varying quality, the writing staff begins pulling it all together in this installment. The effect is an episode of remarkable strength, reminiscent of the best elements of the past couple seasons and finally where many fans wanted this season to begin. The strategy of letting new viewers get hooked in a more episodic fashion before turning to the serialized storytelling seems to have worked to some small extent: the series has already been renewed for a fifth season, which is a very good thing.
This episode begins to close out the “complication” phase of the season arc, dragging things closer to resolution. The process is going to be painful indeed. There’s more shifting of alliances in this episode than one would expect, and secrets upon secrets are revealed and concealed along the way. It’s something of a cliché to say that information is the most important asset to those in the intelligence community, but in this episode, that is certainly the prevailing wisdom.
On the fact of it, the plot is very simple. Vaughn has information about his father’s activities after his supposed death, and Sydney is trying to help him follow the lead. The information, however, intersects in some fashion with the secret operation being conducted by Jack and Sloane. As such, the two goals conflict, and thus the intrigue begins.
Not one character tells anyone the full truth in this episode, though some lies are eventually exposed. What’s disturbing is the overall direction that the plot is taking. Assuming that everything eventually comes back to Rambaldi (everything on “Alias” does, after all), Nightingale is an interesting experiment. Rambaldi was obsessed with immortality, and some of his serums have been used in the past to restore health or extend life. Any machine that can alter human DNA to the point of complete denaturing is capable, when perfected, of a more profound change (at least in the science fiction world).
Nightingale is supposed to alter molecular structure and human DNA, both of which could be part of a Rambaldi-style device to alter a human into something immortal. It seems as if the project was a hallmark of Elena Derevko, which is suggestive, to say the least. The Derevko sisters were supposedly working for Irina, and her goal was to gain control of the Rambaldi legacy. If that’s the case, then the natural assumption is that Nightingale is part of a plan executed by the Derevko sisters.
What’s not so clear is whether or not Elena is working for Irina now, or if she’s working with Katya under the mistaken belief that Irina is dead and they must carry on their sister’s apparent wishes. Here’s where the previous theories about the secret mission of Jack and Sloane comes into play. What if Irina came to disagree with the sisters’ design to bring about the Rambaldi endgame, and she decided to work with Jack and Sloane to save Sydney and Nadia from their proscribed fate?
If this is the case, then Irina could be “Sentinel” (the meaning of that word suggests someone standing in watch, after all).
If the point is keeping Sydney and Nadia out of direct involvement in anything related to Rambaldi, and thus working to undermine the Derevko sisters and their theoretical work with the Magnific Order of Rambaldi, then it makes sense for Jack and Sloane to want to stop Michael from dragging Sydney into the search for Bill Vaughn. Vaughn’s father was part of the Order, and would have had a vested interest in delivering vital technology.
In a sense, this could explain why, after all these years, Bill is contacting his son: it’s the easiest way to get to Sydney. Before this season, Sydney was already accessible. Nadia was safely tucked away. Getting the two of them in position for fulfillment of prophecy was not going to be an issue. But now, Sydney and Nadia are out of play, and Jack and Sloane are actively working to dismantle the organization that presents a threat. Bill would use his son to undermine that effort.
This is not something that Sydney or Nadia can be told, of course, since safeguarding the two women requires their complete ignorance with regard to those efforts. Sydney is not one to take such a paternalistic attitude in stride, even if she is used to the idea of her father making choices for her out of a sense of protectiveness. Nadia’s not exactly a wallflower in that regard, either.
But if it were inevitable that Sydney and Vaughn would pursue Bill’s location, it’s consistent with Jack’s personality to use Sydney (under relatively safe circumstances) to draw out his enemies. It’s interesting that Sloane wouldn’t make the same trade-off. Then again, Sloane has an agenda of his own, and it’s certainly not clear that his attitude towards the topic is genuine. But Jack in particular seems to be acting out of a clear desire to keep Sydney safe, even at the cost of his own body and soul. Working with Sloane and rushing into a nuclear reactor are not so unalike in that regard.
Where Sloane seems to have his eye on his ultimate goal, keeping Sydney and Nadia safe from the Rambaldi endgame (possibly with the advocacy of Kendell’s organization), Jack seems to view that alliance as a tool to be used, not an end to itself. As long as he survives long enough to eliminate the threat, Jack will do whatever it takes. From a plot standpoint, if there’s some Rambaldi healing treatment to be had, as suggested, then it will likely play into Jack’s eventual survival.
Sydney lies to her father for a while, and then goes behind Vaughn’s back to get her father’s assistance. Throughout the episode, she’s then helping Vaughn deceive everyone else at APO so he can advance his own agenda. Sydney gets to dress up in a costume that Vaughn might just be buying for personal recreation back in LA, but her main contribution is best defined by the decision her plight forces in Jack. If anything, Sydney is at the mercy of everyone else’s choices, though she may not see it quite that way.
Vaughn continues to slide deeper and deeper into the dark territory that Jack inhabits. It started with Lauren’s betrayal, but it has since continued in a major way with the discovery that his father might still be alive. It’s now to the point that he has become incredibly reckless, allowing someone to essentially place him in complete vulnerability. This is not simply a case of him injecting himself with some unknown liquid; it’s allowing someone he doesn’t know to see his desperation. Vaughn should be wondering if Roberts is working for his father, using his emotions to gain some agenda.
While the season has been spotty with its overt development of the season arc, it’s hard not to get the feeling that all of this has been building ever since the end of the third season. It’s to the writers’ credit that episodes like this almost manage to wipe out the misjudgments of the stand-alone episodes in one fell swoop; the more overtly Jack and Sloane shield Sydney and Nadia, the more their disparate misadventures fit a discernable and logical pattern.
With so much of the season left (8 episodes), there’s still plenty of time for the writers to lose the ground that they’ve gained of late. The reality is that the writers didn’t know that the network would give them an early renewal, so they probably made an effort in the final third of the season to gain as much momentum as possible. At least, that would be the hope of every fan in the audience. If the writers manage to make everyone forget the miscues earlier in the season with a rousing finish, this could go down as a successful retooling after all.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode continues the strong run of episodes of late, establishing a definite sense that the season has been building towards something big after all. More clues are dropped regarding Jack and Sloane’s agenda, while Vaughn continues to move into the darker territory suggested by the end of the third season. Against all odds, the fourth season is beginning to show more promise than the early episodes would have suggested.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 8/10
Season Average (as of 4.14): 7.4
Directed by Lawrence Trilling
In which Vaughn’s search for answers about his father spark a series of lies and deceptions, all of which force Vaughn to make a difficult decision and Jack to make a desperate choice…
Status Report
After more than half a season of slowly but sure setting up plot and character elements across episodes of varying quality, the writing staff begins pulling it all together in this installment. The effect is an episode of remarkable strength, reminiscent of the best elements of the past couple seasons and finally where many fans wanted this season to begin. The strategy of letting new viewers get hooked in a more episodic fashion before turning to the serialized storytelling seems to have worked to some small extent: the series has already been renewed for a fifth season, which is a very good thing.
This episode begins to close out the “complication” phase of the season arc, dragging things closer to resolution. The process is going to be painful indeed. There’s more shifting of alliances in this episode than one would expect, and secrets upon secrets are revealed and concealed along the way. It’s something of a cliché to say that information is the most important asset to those in the intelligence community, but in this episode, that is certainly the prevailing wisdom.
On the fact of it, the plot is very simple. Vaughn has information about his father’s activities after his supposed death, and Sydney is trying to help him follow the lead. The information, however, intersects in some fashion with the secret operation being conducted by Jack and Sloane. As such, the two goals conflict, and thus the intrigue begins.
Not one character tells anyone the full truth in this episode, though some lies are eventually exposed. What’s disturbing is the overall direction that the plot is taking. Assuming that everything eventually comes back to Rambaldi (everything on “Alias” does, after all), Nightingale is an interesting experiment. Rambaldi was obsessed with immortality, and some of his serums have been used in the past to restore health or extend life. Any machine that can alter human DNA to the point of complete denaturing is capable, when perfected, of a more profound change (at least in the science fiction world).
Nightingale is supposed to alter molecular structure and human DNA, both of which could be part of a Rambaldi-style device to alter a human into something immortal. It seems as if the project was a hallmark of Elena Derevko, which is suggestive, to say the least. The Derevko sisters were supposedly working for Irina, and her goal was to gain control of the Rambaldi legacy. If that’s the case, then the natural assumption is that Nightingale is part of a plan executed by the Derevko sisters.
What’s not so clear is whether or not Elena is working for Irina now, or if she’s working with Katya under the mistaken belief that Irina is dead and they must carry on their sister’s apparent wishes. Here’s where the previous theories about the secret mission of Jack and Sloane comes into play. What if Irina came to disagree with the sisters’ design to bring about the Rambaldi endgame, and she decided to work with Jack and Sloane to save Sydney and Nadia from their proscribed fate?
If this is the case, then Irina could be “Sentinel” (the meaning of that word suggests someone standing in watch, after all).
If the point is keeping Sydney and Nadia out of direct involvement in anything related to Rambaldi, and thus working to undermine the Derevko sisters and their theoretical work with the Magnific Order of Rambaldi, then it makes sense for Jack and Sloane to want to stop Michael from dragging Sydney into the search for Bill Vaughn. Vaughn’s father was part of the Order, and would have had a vested interest in delivering vital technology.
In a sense, this could explain why, after all these years, Bill is contacting his son: it’s the easiest way to get to Sydney. Before this season, Sydney was already accessible. Nadia was safely tucked away. Getting the two of them in position for fulfillment of prophecy was not going to be an issue. But now, Sydney and Nadia are out of play, and Jack and Sloane are actively working to dismantle the organization that presents a threat. Bill would use his son to undermine that effort.
This is not something that Sydney or Nadia can be told, of course, since safeguarding the two women requires their complete ignorance with regard to those efforts. Sydney is not one to take such a paternalistic attitude in stride, even if she is used to the idea of her father making choices for her out of a sense of protectiveness. Nadia’s not exactly a wallflower in that regard, either.
But if it were inevitable that Sydney and Vaughn would pursue Bill’s location, it’s consistent with Jack’s personality to use Sydney (under relatively safe circumstances) to draw out his enemies. It’s interesting that Sloane wouldn’t make the same trade-off. Then again, Sloane has an agenda of his own, and it’s certainly not clear that his attitude towards the topic is genuine. But Jack in particular seems to be acting out of a clear desire to keep Sydney safe, even at the cost of his own body and soul. Working with Sloane and rushing into a nuclear reactor are not so unalike in that regard.
Where Sloane seems to have his eye on his ultimate goal, keeping Sydney and Nadia safe from the Rambaldi endgame (possibly with the advocacy of Kendell’s organization), Jack seems to view that alliance as a tool to be used, not an end to itself. As long as he survives long enough to eliminate the threat, Jack will do whatever it takes. From a plot standpoint, if there’s some Rambaldi healing treatment to be had, as suggested, then it will likely play into Jack’s eventual survival.
Sydney lies to her father for a while, and then goes behind Vaughn’s back to get her father’s assistance. Throughout the episode, she’s then helping Vaughn deceive everyone else at APO so he can advance his own agenda. Sydney gets to dress up in a costume that Vaughn might just be buying for personal recreation back in LA, but her main contribution is best defined by the decision her plight forces in Jack. If anything, Sydney is at the mercy of everyone else’s choices, though she may not see it quite that way.
Vaughn continues to slide deeper and deeper into the dark territory that Jack inhabits. It started with Lauren’s betrayal, but it has since continued in a major way with the discovery that his father might still be alive. It’s now to the point that he has become incredibly reckless, allowing someone to essentially place him in complete vulnerability. This is not simply a case of him injecting himself with some unknown liquid; it’s allowing someone he doesn’t know to see his desperation. Vaughn should be wondering if Roberts is working for his father, using his emotions to gain some agenda.
While the season has been spotty with its overt development of the season arc, it’s hard not to get the feeling that all of this has been building ever since the end of the third season. It’s to the writers’ credit that episodes like this almost manage to wipe out the misjudgments of the stand-alone episodes in one fell swoop; the more overtly Jack and Sloane shield Sydney and Nadia, the more their disparate misadventures fit a discernable and logical pattern.
With so much of the season left (8 episodes), there’s still plenty of time for the writers to lose the ground that they’ve gained of late. The reality is that the writers didn’t know that the network would give them an early renewal, so they probably made an effort in the final third of the season to gain as much momentum as possible. At least, that would be the hope of every fan in the audience. If the writers manage to make everyone forget the miscues earlier in the season with a rousing finish, this could go down as a successful retooling after all.
Final Analysis
Overall, this episode continues the strong run of episodes of late, establishing a definite sense that the season has been building towards something big after all. More clues are dropped regarding Jack and Sloane’s agenda, while Vaughn continues to move into the darker territory suggested by the end of the third season. Against all odds, the fourth season is beginning to show more promise than the early episodes would have suggested.
Writing: 2/2
Acting: 2/2
Direction: 2/2
Style: 2/4
Final Rating: 8/10
Season Average (as of 4.14): 7.4
posted by John Keegan | 17:27
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