Synopsis of Time Will Tell
Written by TK
Sydney goes to Oxford with Dixon to get the Rambaldi artifact. Anna Espinosa is there too, posing as a journalist, but Sydney trips her up and gets to the artifact first.
Jack asks Sloane why he had Agent Eloise Kurtz killed. Sloane says she was inexperienced and wonders why Jack used her to throw the reporter, Will, off the story. Jack says that McCullough said she was capable. Sloane wonders how Will was tipped off to the Kate Jones alias in the first place. Jack says he's trying to find out. Sloane says they might have to dispose of Will, too. Jack says he'd like to spare Sydney losing someone else. Jack assures Sloane he'll get Will off the story or kill him himself.
Sydney's professor tells her she's not paying any attention to school and insists she re-write a paper. He tells her she might want to reconsider being in the graduate program in the first place.
In a parking garage, Sydney realizes she's being followed. She jumps the guy and demands to know who he is.
Sydney yells at Sloane for having her followed. Sloane says it's a routine checkup by security section.
Sloane, with Marshall, briefs Sydney on her next mission. The Rambaldi artifact she stole from Oxford turns out to be a clock designed by a master clock maker named Giovanni Donato who died in 1503. Donato was the and only man Milo Rambaldi ever collaborated with. Rambaldi commissioned the clock himself, and, knowing Rambaldi, it's probably more than just a clock. Not only is it incredibly accurate, but there seem to be some gears in it that serve no purpose. There's a number on the back that looks like a date, and remarkable, it's like the one date in history when absolutely nothing remarkable took place. The clock currently doesn't work, and without instructions SD-6 is worried they might damage it trying to get it to work. SD-6 has tracked down a direct descendent of Donato's in Positano. Sloane tells Sydney to bring Donato the clock and get him to fix it.
Sydney pulls her father aside to speak privately. He uses a signal jammer in a private room so they have 60 seconds to talk freely. Sydney tells her dad about Sloane having her followed. Jack mentions that Marshall found a computer virus, and he feels like he's been getting freezed out on stuff by Sloane. Jack says an agent named Carl Dreyer is coming to the L.A. office, and it's possible that the agents in Sloane's department will be told to take a special lie detector test that measures blood flow in the brain. Jack tells Sydney to get Vaughn to train her on how to get through it. Sydney can tell her father is nervous.
Will's editor comes to him asking him why he hasn't gotten a quote from Danny Hecht's fiance for his story yet. He says again that he doesn't want to do the story. She reminds him that if he doesn't do it, she'll get someone else to.
Will goes to see Sydney. Sydney tells him how some petty cash is missing at work and all the employees are going to have to take a lie detector test. Will wonders why she stays at her job. Sydney shows Will some books that her father gave her mother, and Will read a romantic inscription from the front of one. They talk about how Sydney still wears Danny's engagement ring. Someone calls for Joey's Pizza and Sydney tells the caller he has the wrong number. Will doesn't have the guts to talk to Sydney about his story.
Sydney and Vaughn practice the lie detector test that she'll likely have to take. She's having trouble fooling it, but finds it's not impossible. One of the test questions is, "Are your romantically interested in anyone?" and Sydney says no but the machine says she's lying. Sydney worries that her focus is too split between SD-6, the CIA, school, and her friends. Sydney's scared.
In Positano, Sydney convince a reluctant elderly Donato to help her by explaining she has a clock the old Donato built for Rambaldi.
Jack asks an agent to help him to a back trace on a passenger manifest.
June yells at Will when it seems like all the facts that backed up his story have disappeared, including the name Kate Jones on the passenger manifest of Danny's flight. June thinks Will made up most of the story.
Sydney sits down with Donato as he works on the clock. Donato says his forefather was a miracle clock maker, and turned down kings and queens who asked him to make clocks. He only worked with Rambaldi. Rambaldi promised Donato he would live an impossibly long life, and even told him when he was going to die. Rambaldi's prediction, of course, was correct. Sydney asks about a symbol on the clock.
< O >
Donato says it symbolized the magnific order of Rambaldi and the people who safeguarded his creations. Of course, now criminals use it to infiltrate the order.
Anna Espinosa shows up outside with other agents. One takes position to shoot Sydney.
Sydney asks about the date on the clock. Donato says that his forefather never told him what it meant. When Sydney looks surprised that Donato's forefather could have told him anything, he corrects himself and tells her that his mother never told him what it meant. Donato says he can get the clock to tell time, but he's missing a piece of Sydney wants it to do anything else.
The agent poised to shoot Sydney says the clock is done. Anna tells him to take his shot when he has it.
Sydney asks Donato what Rambaldi was working on. Donato says that the clock is finished, and now it's over. He stands up just as the shooter shoots, and ends up blocking the shot meant for Sydney. Sydney takes the clock and runs, just barely getting away from Anna and her agents.
Sydney gets home and collapses, exhausted. Francie tells her she got her paper to her professor, but apologizes for spilling lemonade on her mom's book. Sydney tells her it's okay.
Later, Sydney is in bed drinking a glass of wine and reading the book that Francie damaged. She notices that some of the pages are showing writing in the margins. She uses a candle to make the writing show up more clearly.
Sydney works with Vaughn again on passing the lie detector test. She's much better at fooling it. Sydney tells Vaughn about the books, and how they used to be shipped from Prague once a month. She found cyrillic codes in them, and thinks again that her father was a double agent for the KGB.
Will gets a call from his friend Mike at a garage and Mike says that Eloise Kurtz left her car there. Will goes to check it out. He gets a call from his editor, June, who says it was very kiss-ass of him to give her flowers with a card that said, "I didn't make up a single fact." She says he should be working on the soil erosion story and not on the Kate Jones story anymore. He assures her he is, even though he's at that moment checking out stuff in Eloise's car.
In the briefing room at SD-6, Marshall shows off his latest discovery. If he puts the golden sun polymer thingy that Sydney got from the church in Malaga into the clock, and then sets it to a certain time and date, the clock moves to accentuate a certain part of the yellow disc and shows a star chart, a snapshot taken of the sky from one specific place on earth at one specific time. It's like an ancient GPS system if you can figure out what time it was taken. Jack shows up to the meeting, late. Sloane tells everyone that if they use the mystery date on the back of the clock, then the star chart leads them to a mountain on the Chile/Argentina border, Mt. Aconcagua. Sloane wants Sydney and Dixon to go to Mt. Aconcagua and see if Rambaldi left something there. He also tells Sydney to go down to Psych and see Carl Dreyer before she leaves.
Sydney is in Psych and Dreyer is giving her the test.
Sydney meets with Vaughn. Vaughn gives her a camera to get pictures of whatever is in Mt. Aconcagua. She thinks she passed the lie detector, but she's not sure. Vaughn tells her that they could get her out if she thinks she failed. She says she doesn't want to live in hiding.
Sydney and Dixon go to Argentina. They pull up a truck at the base of the mountain and prepare for a six mile hike. Dixon gives Sydney a random compliment. He says she makes her job look easy, and he admires her courage and the way she came back after what happened to Danny.
Will brings a trinket, a rose pin, back from Eloise's car to Bergman, a tech expert. Bergman says it's a high-level encrypted government issue bug. Bergman says it's gotta be from Intelligence.
Sydney and Dixon are hiking up the mountain. They feel like they're on a wild goose chase. They reach their destination and start digging. They find a large box with
< O >
on it. They pull off the lid and it turns out to be the entrance to a tunnel. Syd explores the tunnel while Dixon hikes out to get communications and call for support.
Sydney slowly climbs down the wall of the tunnel, which quickly widens into a huge space. She gets to the bottom of the ancient bamboo ladder and starts exploring. In the rocky cavern she finds another small panel with
< O >
on it. She opens it and pulls from within a book with the same symbol on it. She opens the book and realizes she's found Rambaldi's journal. She tells Dixon what she found over the walkie-talkie she's carrying and then starts taking pictures of the pages. Dixon's voice comes back over the walkie-talkie. He whispers that Anna and K-Directorate have found them. He yells to Sydney to get out and she hears shots.
Dreyer reports to Sloane. Sloane asks if he's finished with Sydney's results. Dreyer says he thinks they found their mole.
Sydney runs back to the cavern's entrance and encounters Anna. They fight, Anna shoots Sydney and grabs the journal. Anna takes the journal and climbs the ladder, leaving Sydney for dead. Sydney rolls over, revealing her bulletproof vest. Sydney gets up and starts climbing after Anna. Anna's bag gets caught on something and Sydney catches up to her. They fight on the ladder. Anna smacks Sydney good and Sydney falls.
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