Synopsis of The Box, Part 2


Written by TK

Sydney suspends herself just under the fan as footsteps approach through the duct. She is surprised to see her father. Her father hisses at her to stay there, and then surrenders himself to Cole and the crew so that they won't find Sydney.

In the room where the SD-6 agents are being held, Dixon asks a bleeding Marshall if he's okay. Marshall says he's fine except for the head wound. Cole's men bring Jack in. Cole asks the one woman on his team how long it will take her to get the vault open. She says she won't know until she starts. They kiss goodbye and she goes to the vault. Cole announces that he's going back to the conversation room.

Sydney pops out of the duct back in the computer room. She gets a note from her dad with map showing where the explosives in SD-6 are, and telling her that she has to deactivate the three locations before the vault is opened.

Cole's girlfriends starts trying to break the vault code with a computer.

Dixon whispers to Jack that he thinks he can use a nearby PDA to call Langley for help. Jack says he shouldn't, that the CIA can't acknowledge its connection to SD-6 no matter what. Dixon says the CIA can't let Cole get his hands on whatever he's looking for in the vault either. Jack tells Dixon that Sydney's in the ducts and that she's trying to keep the place from exploding when the vault's opened, but she can only do that if there are no surprises. Dixon says that's all the more reason to contact Langley. Dixon says that Jack can pull rank under normal circumstances, but these aren't normal circumstances.

Sydney gets to the first of three locations which looks like it's in the basement. Sydney uses a nearby fire extinguisher to attack a panel on the wall.

Cole's girlfriend reports that she's got two out of twelve numbers of the vault code.

Cole continues to torture Sloane. He says Sloane ain't seen nothin' yet. Sloane says Cole shouldn't blame him, that Cole is the one that got his men killed in Chechnya. The chopper waited, but Cole wasn't there. Cole says he was saving Whitney's life. Sloane argues that it was at the expense of all the other men. Cole pulls out another Needle of Fire and starts to insert it into Sloane's shoulder.

Sydney is having trouble getting the panel open.

Dixon goes after the PDA sitting on a nearby desk. The guards don't notice. Dixon turns it on under his jacket. He sends a message to Langley from SD-6.

Sydney is still having trouble with the panel, and realizes that the cameras in the area might spot her. She clips the camera lines and one of the bad guys notices and sends someone down to check it out.

Agent Weiss brings Vaughn the message from Dixon that was routed through Langley to him. Vaughn runs with it to Director Devlin's office. Haladki busts in as well, taking over since Vaughn has been removed as Sydney's handler. Haladki things it's a ruse by Sloane and convince Devlin not to do anything. Vaughn is horrified.

Sydney is starting to get into the panel.

Weiss tries to talk Vaughn out of going to SD-6 himself. Vaughn says he sent a cop friend to the bank and the guard there told him the bank closed early. He knows something's wrong.

Sydney finally gets the panel open.

Cole's girlfriend reports she's got five numbers.

Cole tells Sloane it's almost over.

Sydney examines the C-4 explosives she finds in a room behind the panel. She hears the bad guy approaching when his radio squeals. She ambushes him and takes him out after he puts up a good fight.

Vaughn approaches the garage of Credit Dauphine and uses a key card to get in on foot. He walks through the garage, wary. He sees Sydney's car. The driver still sitting in the van spots him and cocks his gun. Vaughn feels the engine of Sydney's car to see if it's warm. Vaughn walks on and sees the driver of the van. They fight and struggle with the gun. Vaughn ends up shooting the driver.

A secretary walks into Haladki's office asking if he knows where Weiss is because Vaughn is calling for him. Haladki says he'll take the call. On the phone, Vaughn says he has proof something wrong is at SD-6. Haladki is more concerned with the fact that Vaughn broke protocol. Vaughn says Haladki needs to send a team to SD-6.

As Sydney is working on deactivating the C-4, the radio from the bad guy that she took out squawks. Someone is asking Chen (the guy that came looking for Sydney) how things are going. Sydney takes the radio to a tied-up Chen and tries to get him to say everything's okay, but Chen refuses.

Francie is sitting at home working on her wedding seating arrangement when Will comes to the door. Will comes in and says he hates being a reporter. Will's had a little to drink. Will messes up the seating arrangement, and marvels at how normal Francie's life is. Will starts babbling about the McNeil case and how his daughter begged him to help. He shows Francie the key. She asks where he got it, but he won't tell her. She laughs when he says it's dangerous. Francie says if he can help somebody, he should.

Cole finds his girlfriend at the vault and asks about Chen who seems to be missing. Cole freaks out so his girlfriend says that while the code-breaking software is running, she'll go look for Chen.

Sydney hears someone sneaking up on her and attacks. It turns out it's Vaughn. He explains about Dixon's message to Langley, she confirms that SD-6 is under attack. He suspects K-Directorate, but she says she doesn't think so. However, most important is the C-4.

She shows Vaughn the explosives and he marvels that there must be 200 pounds. They work together to deactivate, but they're both a little baffled. They think they see a crystal that's a radio receiver that's how the vault signal the C-4 to explode. They decide to pull out the crystal, but think it's too easy and there might be a tamper alarm or a secondary trigger. They spray water near it and see a grid of lasers. Working together, Vaughn sprays the lasers while Sydney carefully reaches in with pliers and pulls out the crystal. They're getting ready to move on when they hear a gun cock behind them. They turn around to face Cole's girlfriend.

a good time for a commercial

Cole's girlfriend leads them out of the C-4 room, but Sydney and Vaughn turn on her and get the gun away from her. As Sydney starts tying her up, she claims that she's British S.I.S., and she's trying to infiltrate Cole's intelligence network. Sydney explains to Vaughn who Cole is. The girlfriend says British S.I.S. has been trying to figure out who "The Man" is for awhile now, and if she can successfully help Cole on this mission, he'll trust her enough to tell her. Sydney keeps tying her up, not sure what to believe. Vaughn asks what "The Man" wants from the vault, and the woman says she's doesn't know, but it has something to do with Rambaldi. Right before they gag her, the woman promises to tell Cole that there's only one of them.

It's night time, and Will is on Pier 19, looking for #305, which is how the key he has is labeled. He finds locker #305, and nervously opens it. Inside is a large white envelope. It's labeled Pathology Report. It's the autopsy report on Karen McNeil, David's wife. Will leafs through it.

Sydney and Vaughn decide to divide and conquer, and Sydney gives him half the map. She tells him how she got through the first panel. He says they'll meet back at the first room he found her. She says maybe they'll get to go to that hockey game.

Weiss comes in to Haladki's office and asks about the phone call from Vaughn. Haladki just says it was a bad connection and Vaughn was ranting as usual.

Vaughn works away at his panel.

Cole screams into his radio looking for Toni (who assume is his girlfriend) and Chen. Cole finally sends another of his crew, Endo, too look for them.

Sydney works away at her panel.

Vaughn works at his panel.

Endo finds Toni tied up. He asks her how many people captured her. She says just one.

Vaughn has gotten to his C-4 and nervously removes the crystal from within the network of lasers.

Sydney hears a noise. Endo is using a heartbeat monitor to locate her. Endo tracks the heartbeat to a cabinet and shoots the cabinet. He opens it and is horrified to see that he shot his compatriot, Chen. He reports Chen's death to Cole seconds before Sydney ambushes him and takes him out. Cole is more frustrated than ever.

Cole makes an announcement over the P.A. system to the rogue who is taking out his men. He says he's in Sloane's office, and if whoever is out there doesn't meet him there in 20 seconds, he's going to start executing SD-6 employees, starting with the man he assumes is the rogue's partner, Jack Bristow. Sydney and Vaughn listen in horror.

Vaughn finds himself in the computer room and sees the secret camera monitors. He scans through the rooms.

Sydney surrenders herself to Cole. He can't believe it's a cute girl. Vaughn sees it on the cameras and runs. One of Cole's men searches Sydney, dumps out all her stuff, and then ties her up. Cole leaves, saying if she moves to shoot her.

Weiss is getting ready to go to SD-6. Vaughn calls and tells him about the C-4 wired to the vault. He says they deactivated two, but he doesn't know if Sydney got the third and he doesn't know where it is. He says the bad guys have everyone, including Sydney. Haladki asks what's going on, and Weiss says Haladki's ass is his if he finds out he screwed Vaughn.

Cole brings a bottle of champagne to Sydney. He says he gets his luck from the champagne, and opens it and swigs. He forces Sydney to take a swig. He says he remembers Sydney, and how he asked her out once and she said she'd break his kneecaps. Sydney just insults him again. He says that she's working for a scumbag, and someday she'll learn to hate Sloane as much as he does.

Will goes to see Kelly (David McNeil's daughter) and gives her the autopsy to give to her father. He says she has to leave town afterwards.

Cole goes back to talk to Sloane, and talks more about how men on his team in Russia were tortured to death. He sticks another needle in Sloane's neck and tells the older man that he wants to hear him scream. Sloane realizes that the Russian broke Cole and made him beg for mercy, and taunts Cole with this information. Cole yells at Sloane, and Sloane continues to mock him. Meanwhile, Toni says there's only one number left on the vault and tries to get Cole to come with her. Sloane works Cole up into such a rage that Cole turns his gun on Toni, who is annoying him, and shoots her. He cradles her as she falls, not believing what he's done. Cole straightens his tie and goes to the vault.

Marshall looks at Sydney's dumped out stuff on the floor and notices the small piece of metal that she accidentally picked up with the magnet in his office when she was trying to get the scrambler. He signifies to her that it's important, but she doesn't know why.

Cole tells Chopper, who's guarding the SD-6 agents, to kill them all. Chopper starts lining everyone up against the wall. Marshall gestures desperately towards the little metal thing. Sydney grabs it just before she's shoved towards the wall. She drops it and it explodes. Sydney starts fighting off the bad guys with guns. She's almost shot, but Dixon kills the guy that's about to shoot her. As they start to untie themselves, Sydney asks Jack if he can shut off the failsafe. He says only Sloane can do that. Sydney says she's going to the vault. Dixon says he's going too, even though Sydney protests that he just had surgery. Dixon runs off, saying he'll meet her there.

Jack finds Sloane in the conversation room and tells him they took everyone out but one, and Sydney is going to prevent him from getting into the vault. They need to shut off the failsafe. Sloane says the only way is a keypad in his office, and it takes the fingerprint of his right index finger. Sloane is firmly bound by metal bands into the torture chair, and it would take hours for Jack to get him out, so Sloane tells Jack to take his right index finger. Jack does it.

At the vault, Cole is watching the computer figure out the last number. The vault begins to unlock, and Dixon attacks Cole. Cole takes an already injured Dixon out pretty quickly. Sydney arrives and goes after Cole. Cole mocks her kick boxing moves and knocks her out. The vault opens. Jack gets to Sloane's office with the finger and deactivates the failsafe just before Cole opens the vault. Cole walks inside, and opens a panel in the side of the vault. Cole picks up a small box with Rambaldi's mark on it and runs back to the van in the garage. Sydney starts to wake up. As Cole starts to drive away, Sydney runs into the garage. A team of CIA, including Weiss, stop Cole and shoot up his van. Cole runs away on foot, but Sydney catches him and kicks the crap out of him.

Vaughn shows up and says he'll get the CIA out of here and SD-6 will never know they were here. Weiss brings over the box that Cole had. Vaughn opens it and Sydney thinks it looks like perfume. Vaughn stresses that the CIA has this now because of Sydney. Sydney says it's not because of her. Vaughn says it is, and hockey can wait, but what she's doing here can't. Weiss tells Vaughn they have to go. The CIA clear out.

Sydney walks back into the main room of SD-6 and sees everyone putting stuff back together and tending to wounds. Sydney hugs one of her colleagues. Sloane looks on, holding a rag to his hand. Sydney and Dixon hug. Others hug. Sydney walks over to Sloane and asks him if he's okay. Sloane says no one is okay. Sloane says that this is unacceptable, and they're going to find the people that did this and take back what they took. This has changed everything. Marshall comes over with the finger and says the medics are on the way. Sloane is escorted away. Jack comes over to Dixon and asks if he's okay. Dixon says he sent the email to Langley, but he guesses it didn't go through. Jack tells Dixon he did a good job. Sydney walks over to her dad. He covertly asks her if she's still going to quit SD-6, and she covertly tells him she's not going to anymore. Sydney thanks her father. Jack touches her shoulder tenderly and walks away.


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