“After Six”

Alias season 3, episode 13
Original air date: February 15, 2004

Sydney and Vaughn go on a mission to Chamonix to rig up surveillance on a heavily-guarded chalet there, owned by a contact of Lisenker, the former Covenant operative who is trying to defect. Lisenker placed a microchip on a bottle of wine in the chalet's wine cellar before his defection, and the chip contains a file known as the Doleac agenda, a list of the Covenant's operatives and contacts. The CIA wants to recover the chip, but to do so, they've got to figure out how to get past the lethal security systems. To do that, they'll need to get in touch with Toni Cummings, the security hacker turned security installation expert who designed the system.

Jack visits Sloane in Zurich, where he apologizes for trying to kill Sloane last time. Sloane dismisses the incident, but reveals to Jack that he feels completely alone now that Emily's gone. Jack recommends that Sloane see a CIA psychiatrist, but Sloane refuses. Until, that is, he ends up injecting some green substance heated in a spoon (heroin?) and realizes he's quickly approaching rock bottom.

Sydney, on the other hand, visits the CIA psychiatrist, Dr. Barnett, willingly and admits to her that she and Vaughn kissed during their North Korean imprisonment. Dr. Barnett asks her how she would feel if Vaughn left his wife for her, and Sydney says she knows Vaughn would never do that. At the same time, though, Vaughn is asking Weiss if it's possible to be in love with two women at the same time. He denies that his marriage is loveless, but can't reconcile that with his feelings for Sydney.

Meanwhile, Sark approaches Lauren in the dressing room of a store, where she's picking out a dress to wear for Vaughn. Sark applauds Lauren's acting skills, telling her that he didn't even realize that she and he were both working for the Covenant when he gave her the information several months before about Sydney killing Lazarey. After explaining that he's tired of being treated like a foot soldier for the Covenant when his inheritance is bankrolling their operations, Sark has a proposal for Lauren: the two of them should kill the six cell leaders of the Covenant and steal the watches they wear, which contain the access keys for their headquarters. Once they've gained all six watches, they'll present them to the Covenant top leadership and demand to advance within the organization.

Lauren agrees, and they set about killing the Covenant cell leaders. While they're obtaining the six watches, Dixon sends Sydney and Vaughn to meet with Toni Cummings, posing as diamond exporters from South Africa. Well, Dixon plans to send Sydney and Vaughn, but she requests that Weiss go instead of Vaughn. Ostensibly, she makes the request because it's Weiss' contacts that have led them to Cummings' current whereabouts, but everyone involved knows that she's simply uncomfortable to be working too closely with Vaughn.

Weiss and Sydney meet with Cummings and draw her out with the promise of $2 million worth of diamonds to secure their facility. They get her talking about Chamonix and coerce her to give them information about how to get past the security systems: in exchange for helping them, they'll make sure that her time in prison is cushy, rather than miserable.

Sloane finally meets with Dr. Barnett, but he's reluctant to open up to her about his troubles. After their first visit, he sends her away when she says that she can't discuss Jack and Sydney's visits to her. Before she leaves Zurich, though, she visits him again, telling him that she's very familiar with his files and his life in an attempt to reach him. He eventually sits down to talk with her and reveals that he is carrying a secret that affects both Jack and Sydney, and the burden of it is beginning to be too much for him.

Sydney and Vaughn work to get past the security system in Chamonix to get into the wine cellar. The first lethal device is a series of machine guns lining the hallway. To set those off, they toss kevlar balls that bounce around the hallway, deflecting the bullets until all the guns are spent. They pass through there to a chamber that's electrified, but the neoprene suits they're wearing ought to be able to absorbe the electric shock as long as it's below a certain voltage. Their reading shows that the voltage is twice as high as they should be able to withstand, but they decide to go for it anyway and simply try not to touch the walls. Vaughn makes it down alright, but as Sydney's lowering herself down, the pipe that the rope is attached to gives a little, and she hits the wall. She appears to be alright, though, and they proceed to the third chamber, which contains an acid bath. They shoot sticky foam over each of the shower heads that releases acid, attempting to seal it in. They make it to the wine cellar and recover the bottle of wine, but they can't make it out before the alarm system is tripped.

In the midst of all this, Carrie goes into labor and tells Marshall she doesn't want to deliver the baby until they're married. Marshall abandons Sydney and Vaughn for a moment to get Weiss licensed as a minister through the Internet, so that he can perform a quick ceremony. That being done, Marshall and Carrie rush off to the hospital, and Jack assists Vaughn and Sydney with getting out of Chamonix alive. They realize, though, that most of the information on the Doleac agenda is irrelevant now, because the six cell leaders are all dead.

Having obtained all six watches, Sark heads to St. Petersburg to meet with McKenas Cole. Lauren has presumably stayed behind, keeping three of the watches as insurance against Sark doublecrossing her. Except that while Sark is meeting with Cole, Cole reveals that he already knew what Sark was doing and allowed him to proceed with it, since it eliminated the danger of the Doleac agenda being found. Turns out that Lauren has already flown to St. Petersburg and met with Cole, so he has the other three watches anyway. Cole explains that he's only the man in front of the man at the top of the Covenant, but they have a new agenda for Sark and Lauren: to become the leaders of the new North American cell of the Covenant. Sark agrees, and Cole gives Lauren a piece of advice — rein in her husband's extracurricular activities with Sydney. Somehow, he's obtained a photo of the two of them kissing in North Korea, which causes Lauren to approach Sydney at the next available opportunity and warn her to stay away from Vaughn for good.