Synopsis of Mea Culpa
Written by TK
Sydney awakens on the cavern floor and starts the long climb up. When she reaches the surface, no one is around. She tries to reach Dixon on the walkie-talkie but gets nothing. She finds Dixon's walkie-talkie lying nearby and follows a trail of blood to his prone body. She realizes he wasn't wearing his bulletproof vest, but he's still alive.
Flashback: Vaughn gives Sydney a satellite phone in case of an emergency. She thinks it's too big and that SD-6 could bust her with hit, but he insists.
Sydney pulls out the phone and calls the CIA asking for a medivac. A semi-conscious Dixon overhears the call. A desperate Sydney waits for rescue while applying pressure to Dixon's wounds.
Later: Vaughn asks Sydney if she's okay. She says she is. He asks what happened when the helicopter came. She explains (and we get to see some of it) how they were air-lifted to a hospital in Buenos Aires, and she just kept thinking about what Sloane would do when he found out. She called Sloane and told him that she dragged Dixon back to their vehicle and drove him to the hospital herself. They were flown to an SD-6 hospital in Los Angeles called Angel of Mercy. She had to lie to Diane Dixon, Dixon's wife, about how she and Dixon were attacked for some bank codes. Sydney tells Vaughn that Dixon overheard her sat-phone call in semi-consciousness.
Sloane is meeting with Carl Dreyer. Dreyer insists that Sydney's the mole even though her lie detector results came out perfectly. Dreyer says they were too perfect, and thinks Sloane is being over-protective of Sydney. Dreyer points out that Sydney's made a lot of mistakes lately. Dreyer says he'll go over Sloane's head if he has to. Sloane says he'll take care of it.
Sydney tells the same like to Will and Francie that she told to Diane Dixon. Will thinks it's strange.
Sloane shows Sydney security tape of a bank robbery. He explains that the robbery was perpetrated by Anini Hassan. He wasn't actually trying to rob the bank, he just wanted to get into the computers and move some of his own funds out since they had been frozen by the U.S. government. Sloane and Jack explain that SD-6 has put up with Hassan for years because he gave good intel, but now he's on the move and has already been missing for two weeks. They don't trust him as a free agent and are afraid he'll use his recovered funds to buy his way into harbor in the Middle East, and then help the Middle East get some scary firepower. They want to steal back the money. Sydney is going to infiltrate a party at the Tuscany villa of Logan Gerace, Hassan's accountant, and get Hassan's account numbers from Gerace's computer. She will not have a partner on this mission, since Dixon's still in the hospital, and she's going to have to find her own way into the party because she doesn't have an invitation. Once she has the info, she's to drop it in nearby Dinatti Park.
Will has taken the rose pin he found in Eloise Kurtz's car to his friend Neville who works at an audio/video store. As Neville takes it apart, Will tells him all the weird stuff he's discovered since Danny's murder. Neville examines the dissected rose pin and says that the technology is almost futuristic. And the bug is still in working order.
Francie sympathizes with Sydney about being sent on another business trip so soon as Sydney is packing. Francie and Sydney make plans to go wedding dress shopping for Francie next Saturday. A call comes in for Joey's Pizza and Sydney tells the person they have the wrong number.
Vaughn and Sydney are meeting. Vaughn explains that SD-6 actually wants to punish Hassan for something that is sort of Sydney's fault. When Sydney stole the core from Hassan's nuclear bomb, he thought that she must have been send by SD-6, since he thought only SD-6 knew he had it and where he was keeping it. To get back at SD-6, Hassan offered to sell them some anti-aircraft missiles, and then took their money and ran without delivering. SD-6 wants to make an example of Hassan so that they don't get screwed in the future. Vaughn explains that Sydney doesn't have to thwart her own mission, because the CIA wouldn't mind if Hassan lost his money, plus, then they can track the money in SD-6's possession and learn more about how SD-6 does their banking. Vaughn gives Sydney a device that will make a copy of whatever info she gets off Gerace's computer so that she can give it to the CIA.
Sydney gets briefed by Marshall, and he gives her a device for mass copying of data off a computer hard drive. Sloane stops by and asks her to stop by his office when she's done.
Sloane tells her that her lie detector results were normal. She asks about Dixon, but he's still unconscious. Sloane tries to tell Sydney that he doesn't blame her for being colder to him since Danny's death. He tells her how he's known her since she was born, since he's an old family friend, and was actually at her parents' wedding. He says that he's always thought of her as a daughter. He tells her, "I just wanted to let you know before you went away."
Sydney tells Vaughn that she felt like Sloane was saying goodbye. Vaughn tells her to be careful and contact him the minute she gets back in town, whether or not she has the info for the CIA.
Sloane sends a communiqué to Spinelli at SD-4 in Rome, ordering the assassination of Agent Sydney Bristow in Dinatti Park tomorrow at 10pm. He sends the communiqué through Server 5.
In Tuscany, Sydney lands a parachute, changes into party attire, and gets onto the villa patio, joining the party in progress.
Flashback: Marshall gives Sydney a device that looks like a cell phone, but is actually a biometric sensor that will take a fingerprint off a surface and create a latex replica.
Sydney finds Gerace, and snags a glass that he recently put down. She scans it with the biometric sensor.
Sydney makes her way to Gerace's office. On the way, she sees a picture on the hallway wall of a woman in a wedding dress. She swears under her breath as it reminds her Francie.
Flash to Francie, sitting alone in a wedding dress watching the other brides around her with their friends.
Will is sitting in a bathroom stall talking to the bug, hoping someone is still listening. He says he's really like to talk to whomever is running the bug, and gives the bug his cell phone number. His cell phone rings. It turns out to be Francie, wondering if he knows where Sydney is.
Sydney uses the latex fingerprint to get into Gerace's office and then copies the material off his hard drive, both onto the SD-6 device and the CIA device.
Agent Weiss tells Vaughn that Sydney has been made, that they interrupted a communiqué from SD-6 to SD-4 putting a hit out on her. Vaughn orders an extraction team to Dinatti Park in Tuscany and tells Weiss to get Jack Bristow on the phone.
Sydney is seen in the hallway right after she gets out of Gerace's office, but she plays dumb and drunk and gets away.
Jack calls Vaughn and demands that he don't do anything until he hears from him again. Vaughn protests, but Jack hangs up on him.
Jack goes to Marshall and tells him that he sent a communiqué to SD-4 and it never got there, so he wants to see the logs. Marshall shows him the logs, and says that this is everything except Server 5 which has been out of commission since security section's drill. Jack says he wants to see Server 5 too. Marshall insists the communiqué wouldn't have gone that route, but shows it to Jack anyway. Jack see the log of a communiqué from Sloane to Spinelli.
Vaughn is being briefed on the extraction plan to get Sydney out of Dinatti Park when Jack busts in and insists he call it off. He says that Sloane purposely sent the communiqué through a server he knew the CIA was listening to, and didn't actually send it to SD-4. It's all a test. There is no real hit out on Sydney, but if she's extracted then Sloane has proved that she's a double agent. Vaughn insists they should get her out anyway, just in case, but Jack insists that he knows that Sloane is bluffing, and if they leave Sydney be it will prove her loyalty to SD-6.
Sydney makes the drop in Dinatti Park being closely watched by both SD-6 and the CIA. The CIA has some tense moments when they think that they've found the assassin, but Jack stands strong and tells them not to do anything. The drop goes without a hitch.
Will and Francie are hanging out drinking some beers and watching the movie "His Girl Friday" on tape. Will pulls out the bug and shows it to Francie, saying glibly that he's a mess and is entangled in some kind of puzzle. His cell phone rings. A disguised voice tells him to stop talking about the bug and tell his companion that it's a wrong number. He's hung up on. He tells Francie it was a wrong number and puts the bug away.
Sloane meets with Dreyer and tells him that he proved Sydney is not the mole. Dreyer points out that if she had been the mole, she would have been saved by her people, and Sloane would have let her go. Dreyer asks Sloane what he's protecting. Sloane tells Dreyer to keep looking for the mole and to stop questioning his decisions.
Sydney is at home in the bath. Francie, who just got home, pops her head in and Sydney apologizes for missing their wedding dress shopping date. Francie says it's okay, and it was probably insensitive of her to ask Sydney to do wedding stuff what with Danny's death and all. Sydney insists her missing their date had nothing to do with Danny, and was only because of work. She promises they'll go next week. Francie asks about Dixon and Sydney reports that he still hasn't woken up.
At work, Will's cell phone rings. It's the same disguised voice and it instructs him to go to 7th and Spring.
Sloane is briefing Sydney and Agent Russek. He says that Hassan is so paranoid that the his bank info was on Gerace's hard drive, but not the account numbers. The account numbers are in a safety deposit box in a bank in Geneva, Switzerland. Sydney is going there with Russek and her cover is that she's representing a diamond company and looking for banks that she can recommend for diamond storage. Sloane compliments Sydney's work in Tuscany.
Sydney meets with Vaughn and he explains the trap that was set for her. Sydney immediately recognizes that Sloane gave her an out, a way to be safe, it she was revealed as the mole. Vaughn reminds her that Sloane sees her as a daughter. Sydney asks how Vaughn knew it was a trick and he says her dad tipped them off. Vaughn gives Sydney a new transmitter to take to Switzerland. All she has to do is read the account numbers aloud when she gets them and the CIA will immediately have them.
Will is waiting by a pay phone and it rings. He answers it. The same disguised voice asks him if he was followed. He says he wasn't. The voice asks if wants to know more about Kate Jones. Will says he does. The voice asks if Will is really ready. Will hesitates, wonders about his safety, and then says yeah, he's ready. The voice hangs up.
In Geneva, Sydney enters the bank. The manager, Mr. Franco, gives her a tour of the facility. In the vault, Sydney knocks him out with a spray. Sydney opens one of the safety deposit boxes with a small device.
A security guard goes to find Mr. Franco because he has a phone call.
Sydney begins reading account numbers to Russek who is in a van outside. The CIA is also picking up the info. Russek transfers the money while the CIA immediately puts a trace on it. Sydney tries to get the safety deposit box back in place, but it gets stuck. The security guard approaches. The security guard rounds a corner and finds Sydney bent over Mr. Franco. Sydney tells the guard that Franco fainted and runs to call an ambulance.
Will is walking to his car at night and sees the words "glove box" written in the dirt on his window. He gets into his car, opens the glove box, and pulls out an envelope with a cassette tape in it. He plays the tape. He hears a garbled conversation between "Kate Jones" and a man. The mas asks what she told the reporter, and she says she only told him what she was told to say. Then all Will hears from the tape are gun shots.
Marshall reports to Dreyer that there was a second transmission out of Geneva when Sydney was there, and it didn't belong to SD-6. Marshall says he hopes he didn't get anyone in trouble, but Dreyer asked him to report anything strange. A triumphant Dreyer brings the intel to Sloane.
Diane Dixon calls Sydney to tell her that Dixon woke up. Sydney shows up at the hospital just in time to see Sloane leaving Dixon's room. Sloane and Sydney pass each other in the hall, but don't acknowledge each other in front of Diane. Sydney goes into Dixon's room and Diane leaves to get coffee. Sydney asks Dixon what he remembers, and he says he doesn't remember anything after he tried to get through to the satellite. Sydney is relieved.
In the parking lot, Sydney is attacked by a bunch of men. She tries to run, but they hit her with a car, inject her with something, and then throw her into one of the cars and drive away.
Sloane gets a phone call: "We got her."
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