“The Frame”

Alias season 3, episode 17
Original air date: March 28, 2004

Vaughn finds out that to open the box that the Covenant got from Project Blackhole, they'll have to have a key. Vaughn and Sydney meet with a contact in Mexico City who has knowledge about a map that will take them to the key. He also tells them that the box contains a bioweapon that is like a plague, and which the Covenant calls "The Passenger." The contact knows all of this because he had a contact that was with Bomani when he found the map in the desert, where it had lain in secret for years, since the last people went searching for it. Unfortunately, the contact was killed when Bomani discovered that he was under surveillance. Sydney and Vaughn notice on the photos of Bomani killing the contact that the trucks Bomani is using in the desert have the Omnifam logo on them.

Sloane explains to Sydney that the CIA forced him to partner with Bomani, so that he could learn more about the Covenant from him. Sloane says that lending trucks to Bomani was necessary to gain his trust. Sloane agrees to give Sydney codes to track the GPS in the Omnifam trucks if Sydney will arrange some creature comforts for him.

Lauren and Vaughn go out for a nice dinner, at which she gives him his father's watch, now fixed. Vaughn realizes that Lauren doesn't understand him, and he tells her that things aren't working. He asks her for a separation, and Lauren blames it on Sydney. Lauren communicates to Sark that Vaughn wants to end their marriage, and Sark warns her that she needs to reaffirm the marriage in order to stay close to Vaughn, because he's central to the CIA's operations regarding the Passenger. He suggests that one way to regain Vaughn's sympathy would be if Lauren were to lose her father. By her own hand. She refuses.

Jack searches Lauren's computer for evidence that she could be the mole. He presents the evidence to her father, Senator Reed, but Reed refuses to listen. Jack informs Reed that coming to him first was just a courtesy, and the results of the investigation are preliminary. He says that if the results become conclusive, he will move on Lauren with or without Reed's blessing.

Vaughn and Sydney obtain the crystal with the map etched on it from a consulate in Gaborone, where Sark and Bomani have been hiding it. On the way back, Vaughn relates to Sydney that he and Lauren are separating, and they agree to get coffee together when they get back to L.A. Marshall analyzes the crystal, but the map on it doesn't correspond to anywhere on Earth, as far as he can tell. Sydney and Dixon go to Sloane to pressure him for more information on the crystal and the map, and Sloane informs them that the map leads to four keys that slot into the box. Sloane also encourages them to look not just at land formations, and thus Marshall discovers that the map points them to a part of the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Okinawa.

Lauren learns that Jack accessed her computer, and Sark reiterates the idea that she kill her father. Lauren remains reluctant, but Sark also suggests that they can pin CIA leaks on Reed, then, saying that Lauren was giving him information that he requested, thinking that it was all above-board, but that he was then leaking it to the Covenant. Lauren goes to see her father, just after he's called Jack to say that he's reviewed all the evidence. He confronts her about it, and she tells him that she believes the cause she's working for is just. She goes to shoot him, but she can't go through with it. In the middle of her indecision, her mother comes in. And finishes the job. She says that Sark called and warned her that Lauren might not be able to go through with it.

Meanwhile, Sydney and Vaughn are retrieving the keys. Unfortunately, though, Bomani also shows up, and he shoots their air tanks to prevent them from leaving the cave again. They have to hand over the keys, and they escape by using one of the remaining full air tanks as a propulsion device to get back to the surface. Upon their return, though, Vaughn learns of Senator Reed's death, and he goes to Lauren's side. Vaughn does feel bad enough to call Sydney and apologize to her about not getting that cup of coffee together, but she's heartbroken nonetheless.

Lauren offers Dixon her resignation, but he refuses it. Her cover-up, with Reed as the scapegoat, has succeeded, at least in part due to her mother's assistance. Dixon has also found, investigating Reed's death further, that Sloane was consulting with Reed and giving him Rambaldi artifacts, which is in violation of his pardon agreement. Which means that Sloane is to be executed in two weeks.