Alias season 2, episode 8
Original air date: December 08, 2002

(NB: Missed the first 25 minutes of this episode, because in the hubbub around the Sopranos finale, I forgot to set a tape for it. Basically, Derevko, Jack, and Sydney made it to the weapons facility in Kashmir and Vaughn's been sent to hold off Indian airstrikes planned in that area, at least long enough that the operatives can get out.)

Derevko directs Sydney to turn up the heat in the lab to 98.6 degrees so that their body heat won't activate the thermonuclear sensors to their presence. She assigns Jack to erase Cuvee's voice print in the computer system and re-record it with his own, so the computer will recognize Jack's voice and let them into the lab. She says she'll go to Cuvee's office to deactivate the surveillance systems (Cuvee is the head of the People's Liberation Front, or at least their weapons facility). Jack objects strongly, though, saying that he's not letting Derevko out of his sight, lest she doublecross them. She reveals that the reason she knows the facility so well is that it was a KGB prison, and she was held there and interrogated as a suspected double agent. In any case, they're running out of time, and he decides to trust her so the mission can move forward.

Jack and Sydney arrive in the lab, but there's no sign of Derevko. They go to deactivate the first warhead, and the plutonium core is missing. They're puzzled, but have no time to discuss it when Derevko and Cuvee come in, kissing, with a bunch of guards right behind them.

Sloane goes to the Alliance to seek their help with the Emily problem. He tells them that the blackmailer is demanding $100 million in bearer bonds in exchange for Emily. Sloane urges the Alliance to make the deal, but to put a tracking device in with the money, so that they can find out the blackmailer's location and identity. Sloane argues that it's necessary, because only the Alliance members knew about Emily's death, so clearly there must be a leak. The other Alliance members are affronted that he could suggest such a thing, but they agree to make the exchange, warning Sloane that if Emily is returned alive, he'll still have to kill her.

Sloane makes the exchange and is instructed by cell phone by the blackmailer to go to a set of newspaper vending machines and take the third copy off the top of the stack. He does so and inside finds an envelope with Polaroids of Emily with what appears to be a gunshot to the head. Marshall, who's tracking the suitcase with the money, is doing a little happy dance about his untraceable liquid tracking device when the signal's lost and the blackmailer gets away.

Will, unable to just leave the Project Christmas stuff alone, asks Vaughn to meet with him, before Vaughn heads to India to stop the airstrikes. He tells Vaughn that he's narrowed the 5 million children administered the test down to 40 who got perfect scores. He got their names and ethnicities from a Carnegie Mellon study in the 80s. Vaughn's impressed, since the FBI seems to have gotten nowhere with their research. Will reveals that that's probably due to the fact that all records pertaining to the 1982 test have been stolen from the archives. This is news to Vaughn, and he seems quite troubled by it. He presses Will for more information, but Will has none.

Derevko and Cuvee confront Jack in his cell, torturing and threatening him to get him to tell them who Sark's new partner is, saying that they know he's about to doublecross them. Cuvee leaves to talk to Sark, and Derevko leans in to Jack and tells him that she was discovered in Cuvee's office and had to play along. She explains how he and Sydney can escape, then slips him the keys to his cell and handcuffs. She leaves to join Cuvee, who's gotten instructions from Sark: the warheads aren't being armed. They've taken the plutonium cores out to power a Rambaldi device that's supposed to reveal "evidence of eternal life."

Sydney and Jack escape, make contact with the CIA, and head to the lab to get Derevko back before they leave. They watch as Cuvee activates the device to reveal a flower inside an egg, just as the Indian jets begin their airstrikes. The guards all flee in panic, Jack overpowers Cuvee, Sydney takes the flower, and the three of them leave the facility to find Vaughn in a helicopter waiting for them. They board and Vaughn calls off the airstrikes.

Derevko's returned to her cell, but it's now furnished with a mattress, pillow and blanket, which she'd asked for before going on the mission. Sydney visits her, and Derevko explains why she shot Sydney in Taipei: Cuvee was watching in the next room, and Derevko thought the only way to save both herself and Sydney was to shoot Sydney and give her a chance to escape.