Alias/Mea Culpa

Mea Culpa
Season 1, Episode 9
Airdate	December 9, 2001
Production Number	E638
Written by	Debra J. Fisher & Erica Messer
Directed by	Ken Olin
← 1x08 Time Will Tell	1x10 → Spirit
Alias — Season One

Mea Culpa is the ninth episode of the first season of Alias. Sloane's mistrust of Sydney drives him to take desperate measures as he calls out an order to have her killed.

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: Miguel Sandoval (SD-6 Agent Anthony Russek), Tobin Bell (SD-6 Agent Dreyer), Timothy Landfield (Kretchmer), Christopher Thornton (Nevil)

Co-Starring: David St. James (Mr. Franco), Jon Curry (Phillips), Yvonne Farrow (Diane Dixon), Timothy Halligan (Dr. Mallaska), Richard F. Whiten (Officer Pollard)

Featuring: Kaline Carr (Franco's Assistant), David Franco (Guard), Maurice Irvin (Man in the Couple), Cosimo Fusco (Logan Gerace)

Uncredited: Greg Grunberg (Eric Weiss)

Plot Overview

Balanced precariously from a crude ladder in a hole in Argentina, Sydney climbs back to the surface to find Dixon. First finding his walkie-talkie and a trail of blood, she finds him wounded and barely conscious. Fearing his death, she uses a CIA satellite phone to call for assistance and has him airlifted out. As cover, she later tells Sloane that she drove him to a Buenos Aires hospital herself. She also lies to Dixon's wife by telling her that gunmen attacked them seeking valuable bank codes. When he later regains consciousness, Sydney is concerned that she overheard her CIA codename "Freelancer" but he gives no indication that he remembered.

On return, Sydney is quickly thrown into a another operation involving former SD-6 contact Ineni Hassan. Recently double crossing SD-6 out of a considerable sum of money, his assets were later frozen by the CIA. A bank robbery is a cover for computer hackers to transfer his money out of its frozen status. SD-6 intends to transfer the money to their own account and the method for doing so is through his accountant, Logan Gerace. Sydney goes to a party uninvited and copies Logan's fingerprint. Gaining access to his private computer, she copies his hard drive while also duplicating the copy for the CIA.

Sloane, at the recommendation of Dreyer, believes that Sydney is the double agent. He orders her assassination from SD-4 to be planned during the drop of the hard drive data. This communique is intercepted by the CIA and Vaughn immediately takes steps to pull Sydney out before she gets to the drop site. Jack Bristow follows the trail of information and finds that the communique was sent from a server that is quarantined from outside access. Suggesting that the hit was not actually called in but was done to flush out whomever had compromised their computer network, Jack tells the CIA not to interfere. After butting heads, the CIA stands down and Sydney completes the drop normally while Sloane watches remotely.

The hard drive identifies Gerace's safe deposit box in Geneva and Sydney gets access to the box, which contains the bank account numbers. Reading them aloud, with the CIA listening in, she gives the codes to SD-6 who transfer the money out. This secondary transmission to the CIA is found by Marshall and passed along to Sloane. He has Sydney captured in her parking garage.

Will takes the trinket he found in Eloise Kurtz's car to an electrician who confirms it is a very advanced bug but more importantly that it is still transmitting. Will talks to the bug thinking that it may lead to more answers as well as telling Francie what it is. He gets a disguised phone call telling him to stop talking into the bug. After being asked "how far are you willing to go," Will is given an envelope containing a tape recording of Eloise's death.

Notes

• Sydney is hit by a car.

• Sydney goes undercover to a party, uninvited, by parachuting into the backyard. She also goes undercover in a bank as Christiana Stevens from Dreyberg Diamonds.

• Marshall gives Sydney a cell phone that includes a biometric reader and a printer capable of making a liquid latex copy of a fingerprint. Marshall also gives her a compact hard drive copier. The CIA gives her their version of the hard drive copier, a small microphone, and a very conspicuous satellite phone. She also has small breath-spray knockout gas and a lock burner capable of burning open a safe deposit box.

Music

• Duncan Sheik - "Out Of Order"

• Smashmouth - "Diggin' Your Scene"

• Munkafust - "Sacred Way"

Arc Advancement

Characters

• Sloane tells Sydney that he knew her father and mother since before she was born and had come to think of her like a daughter. His attempt to bluff her out as the mole suggests he wanted to give her an 'out' alive if she were.

Referbacks

• Ineni Hassan has turned against SD-6 due to Sydney's double-agent actions in "So It Begins" and "Parity".

Trivia

Goofs

• Sydney fell a long way down before catching her leg on the ladder rung. This should have caused some degree of injury that should have manifested in how she walks, yet she seems to be completely unaffected.