Alias/Masquerade

Masquerade
Season 1, Episode 18
Airdate	April 7, 2002
Production Number	E647
Written by	Roberto Orci & Alex Kurtzman
Directed by	Carl Zisk
← 1x17 Q & A	1x19 → Snowman
Alias — Season One

Masquerade is the eighteenth episode of the first season of Alias. Sydney runs into an old lover while on a mission of personal importance.

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), Angus Scrimm (Agent McCullough)

and Patricia Wettig (Dr. Judy Barnett)

Plot Overview

Sydney, having escaped from FBI custody, ventures to Mount Subasio and calls in, thereby invalidating herself as the subject of The Prophecy.

Based on his conversation with Sydney, Jack breaks into the CIA's own file on his wife's death. Finding both that the CIA has a belief that she did not die in the car crash but also that Sloane, during his time at the CIA, was on the committee which investigated the death. Confronting him on this, Sloane tells him that the nature of the investigation and Jack's own state at the time was too unstable to share with him. Jack Bristow was taken into federal custody and held in a prison for 6 months after his wife's death because of the belief he was working with his wife for the KGB. He took up drinking and took unnecessary risks.

Despite Jack's urging that she won't find what she's looking for in her mother, Sydney presses Sloane to help find her mother. The current operation is to recover information on Khasinau's activities, including the liquidation of $250 million of assets for an unknown purchase, from undercover SD-6 agent Kyle Wexler in Vienna. Sydney is initially against going on an unrelated mission as she's focused on finding information on her mother but Sloane says Khasinau was Laura Bristow's superior in the KGB and he is the only clue they have as to her mother's whereabouts.

Sydney and Dixon go undercover at a costume ball at the Embassy and Sydney meets who a person she thinks is the agent. He identifies himself as Wexler's partner and that Wexler is dead. After unmasking himself, Sydney sees that it is an old lover of hers from Berkley named Noah Hicks. While catching up with each other, they seek to find the information microchip on the frozen body of Wexler and messily recover it from his throat. The guards are alerted to their presence already and Dixon commandeers a horse and carriage for them to make their escape in.

After passing an extensive security check, Hicks begins working with Sydney on the microchip and the two reminisce and get closer. The information contained on the chip revolves around the liquidation of several of Khasinau's assets, the proceeds of which are being used to purchase a supercomputer. Determining the goal of the powerful supercomputer is to simulate the engineering of a Rambaldi device to determine the function and fabrication of the missing pieces, SD-6 wants to get hold of the information core of the supercomputer. Containing not only Rambaldi information, the information core is assumed to have the bulk of "The Man"'s databases on current agents and projects.

Sydney and Hicks go on the mission, posing as lost American tourists in Russia. Captured in the woods by Khasinau's guards, they offer their camera to the guards to confiscate the film but when open the guards are stunned by a bright flash. Knocked unconscious, Sydney and Hicks go into the underground lab and Sydney enters the cryogenic chamber housing the computer core. Putting it in a specialized case to keep it under -150°C, Sydney is knocked down by a moving robotic arm and cracks her cold suit's faceplate. Slowly starting to freeze, she is unable to get up and Hicks shoots through the glass to get her out. After reviving her, the two make it out with the case without further incident.

At a safe house later, they share personal feelings about their previous relationship and the mysterious circumstances under which he disappeared. Confessing how hard it was to leave her, they end with a passionate kiss in each others arms.

Notes

• Sydney and Dixon knock out two guards while Dixon later shoots one. Hicks knocks out a scientist.

• Marhsall gives Sydney earrings that strobe an infrared signal visible with specialized contacts. Sydney later uses a camera that issues an incapacitating flash when opened.

• Sydney and Dixon go undercover as costume ball guests at an Embassy party in Vienna. Sydney and Hicks go undercover as American tourists in Arkhangelsk, Russia.

Music

• Anonymous 4 - "Plus Bele Que Flor..."

• Gigolo Aunts - "Lay Your Weary Body Down"

• Doves - "Break Me Gently"

• Depeche Mode - "Dream On"

• Great Lake Swimmers - "Bodies and Minds"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Jack, dealing with the information about his wife, has taken to drinking again.

• Will and Francie speculate that an inexplicable ticket to Italy and mysterious bruises on her arms are signs she might be in a strange abusive relationship with someone.

Trivia

The Show

• This episode goes from the recap and straight into the title sequence.