5.12 There's Only One Sydney Bristow

There's Only One Sydney Bristow

Season

Episode

5

12

Production code

512

Airdate

April 26 2006

Written by

Drew Goddard

Story by

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Teleplay by

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Directed by

Robert M. Williams, Jr.

There's Only One Sydney Bristow is the twelfth episode of Season 5 of Alias, and the 100th episode overall. One month after the baby is born, Sydney is taking time off from work. Will is what pulls her back in the field while she's on maternity leave. The enemies realize that the best way to hurt Sydney is through her friends. Anna Espinosa also returns.

Plot Overview

Sloane meets with the Prophet Five leaders in Minsk. In return for Nadia's full recovery; they force him to make Sydney go on a mission. He agrees on the condition that Sydney will not be hurt.

Peyton , who survived Jack's assault in Vancouver, springs Anna Espinosa in return for Anna's help. Later, Anna poses as a witness protection agent to gain entry into Will Tippin's home and tasers him.

At APO, Sloane and Jack show Sydney a video surveillance clip of Will's abduction, and mention that Anna had internal assistance from Prophet Five. Although Sloane "urges" her to stay on leave, she's determined to save Will.

In a hidden location, Peyton's accomplice Burris injects a bomb into Will's neck. Meanwhile, Sloane tells Sydney that Echelon has intercepted a call between Yerik Semanko and Anna regarding an exchange at a Moscow club run by the Russian mafia. Sydney leaves her baby with babysitting agents.

In Moscow, Dixon, Rachel and Tom enter the club with Marshall's help. Sydney accesses the club through the roof. Once in the club, the team dons eyeglasses that broadcast x-ray images to Marshall, enabling him to spot guns and money. Later, Rachel flirts with Semanko while Sydney skilfully plants a bug on his collar. As he goes into the VIP room and meets Anna, the APO team overhears that Will is in Room 147.

Sydney heads toward Will and confronts Anna. Peyton watches the fight through video surveillance. Anna knifes Sydney's arm - and the camera scans Sydney, capturing data. Will helps Sydney chase off Anna.

In the APO office, Sydney tells Jack that she hated telling Will that Vaughn was dead. Jack reminds her that Vaughn's safety depends on hiding him. When Will visits Syd, an alarm notifies the babysitters. Later, they discover the bomb in Will's head.

Suddenly, Sydney gets a call from Anna. Anna asks Sydney to hand her Page 47 of the Rambaldi manuscript in exchange for the bomb's deactivation. When Sydney notes that handing over the page will not guarantee Will's safety, Marshall suggests that he can build a device that can track the bomb frequency and reverse engineer the activation. The only catch is Will has to be close to the detonator.

On a train In Lisbon, Will asks Sydney to be the best man at his wedding. They then tap into the train's security system and find Anna. To bring Will close to the detonator, Sydney meets with Anna for the trade. Sydney gives her Page 47, but Anna begins the countdown and Will's head beeps. Sydney steals the detonator and stops the countdown. Anna escapes and locks Sydney in the car. Suddenly, Sydney is showered with red liquid. Anna calls Peyton and confirms that Sydney's DNA is being collected.

Will knocks out Anna and frees Sydney. Anna recovers, activates another detonator and throws it off the train and into a lake. Sydney and Will dive into the lake. Sydney finds the detonator in time to deactivate it and once again save Will's life.

Sloane meets with Peyton and she assures him that Sydney wasn't hurt in any of their experiments. In exchange, she hands Sloane a chemical compound that could save Nadia. Meanwhile, Will and Sydney walk through a park where Sydney apologizes for the chaos she's brought him. Will assures her that it is not her fault that evil people that exist, and that he sleeps better knowing that there is only one Sydney who can keep the world safe.

In Moscow, Anna enters a tank filled with red liquid. She emerges with Sydney's face.

Cast

Main Cast

• Jennifer Garner as Sydney Bristow
• Ron Rifkin as Arvin Sloane
• Carl Lumbly as Marcus Dixon
• Kevin Weisman as Marshall Flinkman
• Rachel Nichols as Rachel Gibson
• Amy Acker as Kelly Peyton
• Balthazar Getty as Thomas Grace
• Victor Garber as Jack Bristow

Guest Stars

• Bradley Cooper as Will Tippin
• Gina Torres as Anna Espinosa
• Angus Macfadyen as Joseph Ehrmann
• Shaun Duke as First Man
• Robert Symonds as Second Man
• Leland Crooke as Third Man
• Michael Massee as Dr. Burris
• Sterling K. Brown as Agent Rance
• Christian J. Meoli as Semanko
• Anderson Goncalves as Train Attendant
• Matthew Robert Gottlieb as Military Warden
• Roman Varshavsky as Well Tailored Russian
• Troy Brenna as Russian security (uncredited)
• Cassie Jaye as Waitress (uncredited)

Trivia

• This was the 100th episode of Alias.
• Number 47: The room Will is taken from is room 147.
• The entire 'train' set, as well as the exterior CGI shots of the train were recycled from the fourth season opener, "Authorised Personnel Only (Part 1)".
• This episode was nominated for the 2006 Emmy Award for "Outstanding Hairstyling for a Series".
• Bradley Cooper's final appearance on the show. Although credited in 46 episodes (44 as a main character and 2 as a Special Guest Star), he appeared in a total of 43 episodes.
• It reveled that Jack and Sydney Bristow knew that Michael Vaughn was alive and was in hiding, The charcter was written back into the series in this way as by production began, the series was already cancelled and the writers needed to wrap up as many threads as possible in only 7 episodes.
• The Last time we saw Anna Espinosa was 4.9 A Man Of His Word just like we saw David Anders in the episode Bob. 
• Sydney's nursery in her apartment is actually the bathroom. The Room was re- designed for the birth of Isabelle.
• Starting the episode , the show tried to pay homage to all the charcters of the series  which is why Gina Torres returned to the show. the moment where Anna leaves a kiss on the window was part of this salute . Unfortunatley the show was cancelled before it could cover everyone.
• This episode got it's named for 2 readons : It is inWill's dialogue at the end and also because Anna Espinosa goes though the Helix Programme to double Sydney.
• After jumping out of the train, Will and Sydney  are swimming about in murky water. to give it's murky look, milk was added to the pool.
• The special effects  for the train car is actually additional foootage produced for the episodeAuthorized Personnel Only.
• The Photo of Thomas Grace which was used in this  actaually a promotional shot of actor Balthazar Getty for his addition to the Alias Cast.
• The scene where Sydney finds Wii tied to a chair was a homage to the season 1 finale  where he learned of Syd's secret life.
• Wiill's first apartment on the series was actually he hyperion Bunglow outside the Disney Store on the Disney lot. This episode had his real first house.
• Last episode of the series with a audio commentary.
• The Tub of red goo was a production nightmare for the cast and crew with the lighting under the table failing and ooze leaking out of the tub.

Aliases Used

Party Girl

Music

• "Rapture Riders" by The Doors & Blondie
• "Faster Kill Pussycat" by Paul Oakenfold
• "Salty Moron" by Soul of Man

Filming Locations

• Greystone Park & Mansion - 905 Loma Vista Drive, Beverly Hills, California, USA

Allusions and References

• The lipstick on the glass is an allusion to Anna's first appearance in "Parity," where she did the same thing.
• During his captivity Will had a small explosive device implanted in his head that can be triggered to detonate at any time. This was also done twice in the movie "Mission Impossible III", directed by Alias series creator J.J. Abrams.

Quotes

• Man: May I buy you a drink?
• Sydney: Absolutely.
• Man: What can I get you?
• Sydney: Club soda. The doctor says I’m not supposed to have any alcohol while I'm still breast feeding.
• Man: Sorry. Excuse-me.

• Sydney: Did you just say "fiancée"?
• Will: Did I? Oh. I guess I did.

• Marshall: I know. I know. But there's good news. It looks like the charge is small enough that the blast will be localized.
• Will: Wait, wait. So it might not kill me.
• Marshall: Oh, no. It'll definitely kill you. There just won't be any collateral damage.

• Will: Sydney! Sydney, my head's beeping!

• Will: If you apologize one more time, I'm gonna slap you. Hey, it's not your fault.
• Sydney: It is, actually. The people I love sooner or later, something terrible happens to them. It happens over and over and over. They're kidnapped; they're tortured... or killed... because they know me. I feel like I'm this plague, and everyone I love is infected. I just... I just want you to know how sorry I am for all of it.
• Will: Yes, I've been tortured, and I've been kidnapped several times, actually, and most likely, none of that would have happened if I hadn't helped a clumsy girl pick up her books freshman year in bio class. But it's not your fault. You can't blame yourself for the evils of the world. Look, since I've known you, I've seen a lot of horrible things. There are people out there that are capable of more cruelty and more hatred that I even thought possible. But I still sleep well at night. You know why? Because I know that you're out there fighting against them. Sydney, you save the world every day, and you never ask for anything in return. I think I speak for everybody who loves you... when I say thank you for watching over us.
• Sydney: But if you'd never met me, you'd have a regular life.
• Will: Who wants it? I wouldn't trade you for anything. I know a lot of regular people who live regular lives. There's only one Sydney Bristow.

< Season 4		Alias Season 5
#01	Prophet 5	#06	Solo	#11	Maternal Instinct	#16	Reprisal
#02	...1...	#07	Fait Accompli	#12	There's Only One Sydney Bristow	#17	All The Time In The World
#03	The Shed	#08	Bob	#13	30 Seconds
#04	Mockingbird	#09	The Horizon	#14	I See Dead People
#05	Out Of The Box	#10	S.O.S.	#15	No Hard Feelings