“Blowback”

Alias season 3, episode 14
Original air date: March 07, 2004

On the anniversary of his father's death, Vaughn can't sleep, and so gets up to ponder his father's broken watch. In the process, he wakes Lauren, who asks if he's alright. Vaughn tells her that he's going to go for a run, because he can't sleep. What he doesn't know — and what viewers learn halfway through the episode, as it's run again through Lauren's eyes — is that Lauren gets a phone call from Sark after he leaves,

At the office, Dixon informs everyone that the Shining Sword, a terrorist group, has acquired a plasma charge and is getting ready to ship it to the Covenant's European cell. He sends Vaughn and Sydney undercover to gain access to a data storage facility in Vancouver, so that from the inside, they can help Marshall access a Shining Sword operative's account to see if he has information on the transfer of the plasma charge. Dixon also informs everyone that Jack is heading an investigation into how the Covenant learned of their operations in North Korea and their pursuit of the Doleac agenda. Jack asks Marshall and Lauren to meet with him first, but Lauren dodges by saying she has to be in Washington for an NSC briefing that night.

When Sydney and Vaughn access the files in Vancouver, Marshall detects that someone else is on the network installing a virus to try and wipe out the information. He's not even sure if he's gotten the information they need before he tells Syd and Vaughn to get off the network, lest the CIA computers become infected. As they leave the data room, they're confronted by the guard who yells "Please don't do this" while pointing a gun at Vaughn and Syd and firing, before he's in turn killed by someone off to the side that Sydney and Vaughn can't see. It is, of course, Lauren and Sark who have beaten the CIA to the data facility and infected the computers, but as Vaughn and Sydney pursue them, they escape before the CIA can find out who they are.

It turns out that Marshall was able to download the file, but it's going to take him time to decrypt it. Sydney's worried that the transfer of the plasma charge will happen before he can do so, but there's nothing he can do to make it go faster. While Vaughn and Sydney are discussing the anniversary of his father's death (which she remembered, even though Lauren didn't), Lauren calls him to check in. She's lying in bed with Sark, having just celebrated their victory in Vancouver, but Vaughn suspects nothing.

Sloane, meanwhile, has invited Dr. Barnett to dinner to apologize for his treatment of her when she first came to see him. She admits that she's been fascinated with how he's made a complete change in his life and mentions the Rambaldi device that was instrumental in his transformation. She challenges him, though, because she knows that there were 8 yards of paper that came out of the device before the message of peace, and she asks him what was on the paper. He claims that it was blank and he destroyed it, but she's incredulous at such an idea. She pushes him further and asks him to reveal the secret that he was about to tell her in their previous encounter. He bristles at the pushing, though, and drives her away. He stops her as she's asking for her coat and apologizes. He explains that he unintentionally regressed into his prior nastiness for just a moment and invites her back to the table. To gain her trust, he confides that he had an affair with Irina Derevko around the time that Syndey was conceived, but he's never tried to prove his paternity.

Sydney and Vaugh learn from Marshall that the plasma charge is on a container ship in Lisbon. He gives them a detector that will work within 100 feet of the charge, and they're on their way. They're attacked again on the ship, though, by Lauren and Sark, although they still don't know who's attacking them. Vaughn's hit in the chest by several bullets, but he's wearing Kevlar, so he and Sydney head for the bomb. Sydney has to work to get it out of its casing, and as she does so, Lauren (masked) creeps up on her. Vaughn trains his gun on Lauren, though, and demands that she take off her mask. As she begins to do so, though, Sark puts a gun on Sydney and tells Vaughn to drop his weapon. He exhorts Vaughn with "If you love her, you'll drop your gun." To Lauren's horror, Vaughn does drop his weapon, and Lauren punches Vaughn in the face as she and Sark take off, Sark carrying the bomb. Vaughn chases Sark down and demands that he hand over the bomb, which he does, but only after activating it. Vaughn has to deactivate it with help from Marshall, while Sark and Lauren escape.

Back home, Lauren and Vaughn rendezvous at a bar, and she gets a call from Sark. He taunts her about how hard it must have been for her to watch Vaughn tacitly admit that he loves Sydney. She hangs up on him and kisses Vaughn passionately. Jack asks Sydney out to dinner, and she happily accepts, although the first place he mentions — calling it her favorite — is a place she hasn't been since she was eight.